Gina Ord

Gina joined the WSU Yakima County Extension team in July 2014 as the County Director, and Health and Nutrition Faculty. She oversees the SNAP-Ed and EFNEP nutrition education programs for low-income individuals and families and is performing a needs assessment of emerging community-based health and nutrition challenges and opportunities in Yakima County.

Gina was born and raised in Denver, Colorado and always had an interest in health and wellness, working at a local YMCA as a lifeguard and fitness instructor through her teens. She attended Gonzaga University with a major in Exercise Science and a minor in Spanish and then returned to Colorado to earn a master’s degree in Occupational Therapy from Colorado State University.

Gina worked as an occupational therapist at various clinical settings in Washington, Colorado, and California for three years and took a position at Yakima Valley Memorial Hospital in 2008, serving diverse cultural populations and age groups. She also co-managed Yakima Yoga from 2009-2011. In 2011, Gina and her husband made a life-changing decision to accept a 27-month assignment in rural Zambia with the U.S. Peace Corps, where she focused on community-based maternal and child health and nutrition, malaria prevention, and HIV prevention and care. She is excited to use her wide variety of life and work experiences to provide leadership to the Yakima County Extension Office and its programs.