Our Board | Youth Council | Dr. Ana Jimenez-Hami

Dr. Ana Jimenez-Hami is the Founder and Executive Director of the Orange County Children’s Therapeutic Arts Center, a community-based organization in Santa Ana dedicated to empowering at-risk youth and children with disabilities through arts, literacy and therapeutic programs. Also, she is a part-time faculty member at Chapman University in the School of Education. At Florida State University, she completed her Undergraduate and Master Degrees in Psychology and Music Therapy, respectively. In 1993, she received a Doctoral Degree in Educational Psychology and Special Education from the University of Southern California. Dr. Jimenez is the recipient of various awards – the recent recognitions include National Hispanic Business Women Association award for organizational entrepreneurship (May, 2007); a national award by the Heartspring Foundation for creativity in Special Education (July, 2007); and faculty award from Chapman University (June, 2007). Previous awards include: a (2006) community building award from the City of Santa Ana for her contribution to the Santa Ana community; a Human Relations award from the Orange County Human Relations Commission (2004) for promoting equality, human rights and justice, and a community building award in the fields of Arts & Culture by the National Organization of MANA (2003). Her passion is to use the creative arts as a therapeutic intervention to heal children and youth with disabilities, empower at-risk youth though literacy and leadership development, and research educational methods that will empower the Latino community and underprivileged families to succeed in the academic world and reach for higher educational goals. Dr. Jimenez has been with the Workforce Investment Board over a year and is actively involved in the Youth Council.