Chief Policy and Quality Executive for the California Correctional Health Care Services/ California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation
Wehtahnah Tucker has served as the Chief Policy and Quality Executive for the California Correctional Health Care Services/ California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation for twelve years. During her career in the California prison system, Wehtahnah has been committed to upending systemic injustice, ending mass incarceration, and expanding advocacy, education, and community-building opportunities through legal reform strategies.
Specifically, she led projects to decrease the number of incarcerated women and increase degree-granting education opportunities for incarcerated individuals among other justice reinvestment initiatives.
Wehtahnah is the first person on both sides of her family to graduate from college. Fortunately, she is not the last. Wehtahnah values education as a human right and supports numerous educational endeavors, including building schools and libraries in Kenya and Mexico.
Wehtahnah is an active feminist, and environmentalist, and is involved in peace and justice initiatives. As an avid storyteller, through words and photographs, she seeks to elevate social justice narratives to the forefront of policy and community discussion.
A natural relationship builder with contagious enthusiasm, Wehtahnah enjoys diverse, intriguing challenges, and approaches new experiences through an eager and curious lens. Dedicated to both the vision and the details, she is adept at turning problems into solutions, with open-minded empathy and creative pragmatism.
Before moving to San Diego County, Wehtahnah was the CEO of a successful legal consulting firm in Washington, D.C. She holds a J.D. from the American University Washington College of Law and studied at the University of Chile Diego Portales Law School with an emphasis on international business, trade, and human rights law. She received her Bachelor of Science in History, with minors in Women’s Studies and Environmental Geology from Southern Methodist University in Dallas, Texas.