This UNLV alumna speaks for Department of Health and Human Services

The woman responsible for communicating public health guidelines to the rest of the nation is a UNLV alumna and a first-generation American who grew up in Las Vegas.

Ilse Zuniga, 34, is the national press secretary for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services under President Joe Biden’s administration.

Her days consist of writing about the flu, respiratory syncytial virus and polio, along with working with experts, policy makers and the administration to communicate the best practices to keep the American public safe, she said.

Zuniga was born in Oaxaca, Mexico, and her parents crossed the Mexican-American border with her when she was just 11 months old, seeking political asylum. Her mother likes to tell her that when they were crossing the border, a Border Patrol agent stood nearby, and she was worried that Zuniga would start crying and cause them to be sent back. But luckily she was a deep sleeper and slept through the night.

Shortly after arriving in the U.S., she and her family started the immigration process, and she became a U.S. citizen when she was a junior in college.

Every day Zuniga thinks about the Latino and immigrant community back home in Las Vegas and how she can best help them.

“As an immigrant, as a Spanish-speaking communicator, as somebody who feels very fortunate to be in this position, I think about making sure that while I’m here, I’m making use of these skills and I’m thinking about my community back home,” she said, “you know, how these are complex issues, how can I best message them so they’re easier to comprehend, and it’s easier for people to stay safe?”

Health info in Spanish

On the Health and Human Services Department website, there is information in Spanish about COVID-19 vaccines with guides and common questions. Zuniga has translated some of her public health messaging into Spanish, but she is most proud of her work to help communicate efforts to reach underserved or at-risk communities. She pitches new COVID vaccine efforts to Hispanic media and speaks with Spanish-speaking reporters in detail about the public health department’s new efforts to reach Latinos.

“In all her work, Ilse brings her perspective as an immigrant and Latina, which goes a long way to reach our nation’s underserved communities,” said Sarah Lovenheim, assistant secretary for U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Public Affairs, in a statement.

As the daughter of parents in the casino industry — her mom works as an esthetician at the Golden Nugget Spa, and her dad is a server at Gordon Ramsay’s steakhouse on the Strip — Zuniga was interested in the business and majored in hospitality management at UNLV. Her plan was to stay in Las Vegas and organize expos and conventions.

But she also found an interest in law and politics, and she participated in student government at Coronado and Liberty High School, where she graduated in 2006.

“I’ve always loved being kind of in a position of being able to help others by the decisions that are made,” Zuniga said.

After living in Washington state for a couple of years with her partner, where she worked in a law firm with the expectations of going to law school, they moved to Washington D.C. in 2016 for a job offer he had.

Working for Rosen

She found a job with a law firm that had many Nevada connections and worked with the offices of Nevada’s congressional delegation, and in 2018, then-Rep. Jacky Rosen was looking for a Spanish-speaking press secretary.

Zuniga had grown up speaking Spanish and missed using her Spanish skills. She would visit family in Mexico and would stumble over her Spanish, she recalled. And as someone who grew up in Nevada’s 3rd Congressional District in Henderson, Zuniga had the “perfect marriage of skills” for the job. She began working for Rosen’s House office in 2018 and helped with her U.S. Senate race. She stayed with Rosen after she was elected to the Senate for two years before starting her position as press secretary for the public health department in February.

“I’m so proud of Ilse and all that she has accomplished,” said Rosen in an email. “As a UNLV graduate and Nevadan, Ilse makes our state proud through her public service in various roles within the federal government. I was glad to have her be part of my staff and to see firsthand her deep and enduring passion for public service, along with her deep love for Nevada.”

While working on Capitol Hill, Zuniga would record sound bites of work in D.C. that impacted the Latino community and send them to Las Vegas Univision and Telemundo so they could report on the news for the Las Vegas Latino community.

She was a part of the NALEO Educational Fund’s Staff Up Congress Communications Academy, a program that has helped dozens of young Latinos get to higher levels in the federal government. In the program, Zuniga worked with other congressional staffers every Friday for an hour or two in a meeting room on Capitol Room, improving her writing skills and listening to speakers from different backgrounds talk about their experiences moving up the ranks on Capitol Hill.

Zuniga encourages other young Latina people from Nevada to come and rise the ranks with her in D.C.

“It can be scary to think about leaving home. It can be scary to think about coming somewhere like D.C. that just feels so foreign. But you’re not going to be alone,” she said.

Contact Jessica Hill at jehill@reviewjournal.com. Follow @jess_hillyeah on Twitter.