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State Leadership History
Honoring Our Legacy, Inspiring Our Future
DC HOSA's strength comes from the dedicated leaders who have shaped our organization over the years. This page celebrates the state advisors and state officers who have guided DC HOSA, built our community, and paved the way for future generations of healthcare leaders.
Our Commitment to Institutional Memory
Leadership transitions are natural, but organizational knowledge shouldn't be lost. This archive exists to:
- Recognize the contributions of past leaders
- Preserve our organizational story for future members
- Provide continuity and context for current leadership
- Inspire future leaders by showcasing what's possible
State Advisors 2010-Current
State Advisors provide continuity, strategic direction, and support for DC HOSA chapters and members.
Shreyas Patel, 2023-Present
Organizational infrastructure development, website redesign, comprehensive documentation systems, expansion to 750 affiliated members across 16 chapters, emphasis on middle school division growth
Candice Mott, 2021-2023
Supported DC HOSA's revived charter and state-level operations while leading multiple CTSOs within the District.
Julius Jackson, 2021
State Advisor
Craig English, 2020
State Advisor (July 2020 listing, Eastern Senior High School)
Dianne Harris, 2017-2019
State Advisor (February and September, 2017 listing, Friendship Public Charter Schools)
Ed Roebuck, 2017
State Coordinator (OSSE; Part of the three-person leadership structure in February 2017)
Tony D. Johnson, 2013-2017
State Advisor (January 2013 listing, OSSE CTE State Director) and later State Superintendent in 2017 tri-part structure.
Aqueelha Jones (James), 2012-2013
State Advisor (October 2012 listing, McKinley Technology High School)
Louis Mann, 2011-2012
State Advisor (October 2011 listing, Eastern Senior High School)
State Advisors 1980-2010
Tracee Rhodes, 2003-2006
State Advisor (2003 and September 2006 listings, Office of CTE, DC Public Schools)
Maria Melchor, 1995-1997
1995-1996: The earliest named DC HOSA advisor on record is Ms. Melchor, listed on the HOSA national state-affiliates page as "Supervisor / Advisor / HHOSA Inc. Designee" for DC, based at M.M. Washington Career High School, 27 O Street, NW, Washington, DC, 20001.
1997: A 1997 archived national HOSA page again lists M. Melchor and confirms DC HOSA as a recognized chartered association in good standing.
1980
National membership and chapter reports confirm that DC had active HOSA chapters and members, but no specific State Advisor names have been identified from researched records.
We're working to complete our historical records. If you served as a DC HOSA State Advisor or know someone who did, please [contact us](link to contact page) to help us preserve this history.
PAST STATE OFFICER TEAMS
2025-2026 STATE OFFICER TEAM
2025-2026 STATE OFFICER TEAM
2025-2026 STATE OFFICER TEAM
President: Jaysi Ramirez
President-Elect: Edwin Fuentes Amaya
Vice President: Amazin Peoples
Secretary: Alexandra Zarwell
Historian: Christina Wilson
2024-2025 state officer team
2025-2026 STATE OFFICER TEAM
2025-2026 STATE OFFICER TEAM
President: Jaysi Ramirez
Vice President: Avyonna Turner
Treasurer/Secretary: Molly Kirsch
Historian: Henry Gonzalez
2023-2024 State Officer Team
2025-2026 STATE OFFICER TEAM
2023-2024 State Officer Team
President: Melanie Delfosse
Vice President: Serenity Shamburger
OUR Legacy of Leadership
Every student who served as a state officer gained invaluable skills that prepared them for success in healthcare and beyond. Many of our alumni have gone on to become:
- Physicians, nurses, and allied health professionals
- Healthcare administrators and policy makers
- Medical researchers and public health leaders
- Educators and mentors to the next generation
Their leadership in DC HOSA was just the beginning. We're proud of where they've gone and grateful for the foundation they built for today's members.
Help Us Complete Our History
DC HOSA's story is still being written, but we need your help to preserve our past. If you:
- Served as a DC HOSA State Officer
- Were a DC HOSA State Advisor
- Have photos, documents, or stories from past DC HOSA events
- Remember key milestones or achievements
Please share your memories with us. Contact us at HOSADistrictofColumbia@gmail.com
The early years: DC joins a new national movement. The Found
DC HOSA’s story is a story of persistence. We were chartered as a HOSA–Future Health Professionals state association in 1980, joining the organization early in its national expansion and committing to prepare young people in the nation’s capital for careers in health and medicine. Since then, we have moved through seasons of growth, dormancy, restructuring, and revival—always sustained by educators and state leaders who believed DC students deserved a place on the national HOSA stage.
Today, we are rebuilding as a grassroots, student‑centered association that honors that legacy. Our modern program stands on the work of the advisors and state leaders named below, and on many others whose names were never formally recorded but whose impact lives on in the students they served.
According to HOSA’s national history, the District of Columbia became a chartered HOSA association in 1980 at the 3rd National Leadership Conference in Asheville, North Carolina. Archival membership tables and chapter rosters from the early and mid‑1980s list “DC” and “District of Columbia” among active HOSA affiliates, with small but real chapter and member counts alongside much larger states.
These documents confirm that DC students were affiliating chapters, paying dues, and participating in national HOSA programming in the organization’s first decade. What they do not yet reveal are the names of the early state advisors and coordinators who made that possible. For now, we honor them collectively as our “unknown founders”—vocational and health occupations educators who quietly built a path into HOSA for DC students long before digital archives routinely captured their work.
Rooted in Equity: Maria Melchor & M.M. Washington Career Hig
The earliest DC HOSA state leader we can name is Maria Melchor. On a mid‑1990s HOSA national “state affiliates” page, she is listed as Supervisor / Advisor / HOSA Inc. Designee for the District of Columbia. Her office was at M.M. Washington Career High School, 27 “O” Street NW, a historically Black vocational school serving students in the Shaw neighborhood.
This connection shapes how we understand our roots. Our earliest documented institutional home is a school dedicated to career preparation for predominantly Black students, at a time when health careers were—and still are—deeply shaped by inequity. Under Maria Melchor’s leadership, DC HOSA was anchored in a community that has long experienced both health disparities and extraordinary resilience. When we say DC HOSA is committed to equity, we are not inventing a new value; we are returning to where our recorded history begins.
Navigating Change: Tracee Rhodes and the DCPS CTE Era
Around the turn of the millennium, national records briefly list DC as having “no active chartered association,” suggesting a period when our formal state‑level structure weakened or paused. By 2003, however, DC HOSA is back on the national map: an archived state page lists Tracee Rhodes as State Advisor, based at the Office of Career and Technical Education, DC Public Schools, 825 North Capitol Street NE.
The same information appears again in a September 2006 snapshot, confirming that Tracee served as our State Advisor for at least three years during a complex time in DC education governance. Working from a central DCPS CTE office—not just a single school—she kept our charter alive, maintained our connection to National HOSA, and ensured that DC students still had access to a health‑careers CTSO even as systems and oversight were shifting. Her tenure is a bridge between our early DCPS‑based model and the OSSE‑anchored structure that would follow.
Multiple Homes, One Mission: Eastern SHS, McKinley Tech & OS
The same information appears again in a September 2006 snapshot, confirming that Tracee served as our State Advisor for at least three years during a complex time in DC education governance. Working from a central DCPS CTE office—not just a single school—she kept our charter alive, maintained our connection to National HOSA, and ensured that DC students still had access to a health‑careers CTSO even as systems and oversight were shifting. Her tenure is a bridge between our early DCPS‑based model and the OSSE‑anchored structure that would follow.
By October 2012, the State Advisor role shifts to Aqueelha Jones (James) at McKinley Technology High School (151 T Street NE), expanding our footprint to more than one STEM‑focused campus. In January 2013, Dr. Tony D. Johnson, Career and Technical Education State Director at the Office of the State Superintendent of Education (OSSE), is listed as State Advisor, signaling that DC HOSA is now formally tied into OSSE’s emerging statewide CTE system.
Taken together, these leaders show how DC HOSA survived by moving between and among institutions—Eastern SHS, McKinley Tech, DCPS CTE, and OSSE—while keeping a consistent mission: giving DC students a professional home in health and medical careers.
Formal State Leadership: The 2017 Team
By February 2017, our association appears in the national directory with a clearly defined state‑level leadership structure. The listing shows a three‑person team:
- State Advisor – Dianne Harris, Friendship Public Charter Schools
- State Superintendent – Dr. Tony D. Johnson, OSSE Career and Technical Education State Director
- State Coordinator – Ed Roebuck, OSSE
This configuration reflects a maturing organization. Instead of relying on a single advisor, DC HOSA is supported by a charter‑network educator and two OSSE leaders, collectively responsible for aligning HOSA with federal CTE priorities, supporting local advisors, and maintaining our state charter. A later September 2017 snapshot lists Dianne Harris as the sole State Advisor, indicating that she carried day‑to‑day responsibility while OSSE continued to serve as our sponsoring agency.
For us, this era is proof that HOSA had advocates not just in individual schools, but inside the state CTE infrastructure itself.
Revival: Craig English, Candice Mott & Julius Jackson
The years 2020 through 2023 marked a major turning point for DC HOSA. In July 2020, the national directory listed Craig English, Program Director of the Health and Medical Sciences Program at Eastern Senior High School, as State Advisor, with Stacey Douglas again recognized as State President. Eastern’s long-standing connection to HOSA became an important base for the revival of DC’s chartered association.
During this same period, Candice Mott of the Office of the State Superintendent of Education (OSSE) played a critical leadership role in helping DC HOSA re-establish an active charter, reconnect with National HOSA, and stabilize state-level operations. What began as behind-the-scenes CTSO support grew into formal leadership, and Candice ultimately served as State Advisor for the 2021–2022 and 2022–2023 affiliation years before the transition to the next chapter of leadership.
By January 2021, national records also named Chief Julius D. Jackson, NREMT, EMS Program Director and Biomedical CTE Teacher, as State Advisor/Director for the District of Columbia. Together, Craig English, Julius Jackson, and Candice Mott helped guide DC HOSA through re-chartering, institutional rebuilding, and renewed participation, laying the groundwork for the organization’s continued growth in the years that followed.
Today’s Era: Student‑Centered Growth in the 2020s
Since the summer of 2023, DC HOSA has entered a new chapter of intentional growth under the leadership of State Advisor/Director Shreyas Patel, following two affiliation years of State Advisor service by Candice Mott in 2021–2022 and 2022–2023. Building on the re-chartering work of the years immediately before, this era has focused on strengthening DC HOSA not simply as an active association, but as a durable, student-centered organization with a clear identity and long-term vision.
In this current period, DC HOSA has emphasized grassroots chapter development, stronger advisor support, more intentional student leadership structures, and a clearer statewide story about who DC HOSA is and what it stands for. That work has included defining and elevating DC HOSA’s four pillars—BUILD, EMPOWER, ADVANCE, and CONNECT— as the organization’s strategic identity, while also integrating the AAMC RISE leadership framework to help members grow not only as competitors, but as thoughtful, relationship-centered, self-aware future health professionals.
This era has also been shaped by a commitment to honoring the past while building for the future. As DC HOSA has expanded opportunities for members, strengthened its presence across the city, and documented its own history more intentionally, it has also worked to ensure that the names, schools, and leaders who carried the association through earlier decades are not forgotten. In that sense, today’s DC HOSA is both a continuation and a renewal: a modern, mission-driven association in the nation’s capital that remains committed to giving DC students meaningful opportunities to learn, lead, serve, and innovate in health care.
