José Miramontes graduated from UC Merced in 2015 with a BA in Sociology, minor in Public Health. Through his education at UC Merced, he participated in community engaged research, which stoked his interest in learning more about research-informed policy making related to public health, as well as health education. Since graduating, he has gained experience in the realm of community organizing with the Building Health Communities initiative, as well as health pipeline programming through Health Career Connection