Meet Melinda

Melinda Orbach is a first generation Chinese American who was born and raised in Oakland, California.  She graduated from the College of Natural Resources at UC Berkeley with a degree in Molecular Environmental Biology in 2008. She has a Master’s degree in Nursing from Samuel Merritt University and has been practicing as a Family Nurse Practitioner for over 10 years.

Women’s Leadership Panel for Salud y Carino with Keisha Browder of United Way and Dionne Ybarra of The Wahine Project

Capitola beach cleanup with Save Our Shores

Melinda has always gravitated towards serving the greater good. While in college, she spent time volunteering as a Labor Coach for Chinese immigrant women who faced cultural and linguistic barriers to care during their labor and delivery.  She did this through Asian Health Services, a community health center in Oakland, providing health care and advocacy to over 50,000 patients across 15 different Asian languages. She also worked with adolescents at their school based clinic at Oakland High School (her alma mater) promoting health and providing access to reproductive services. The summer before she finished graduate school, she embarked on a medical mission to Ghana to provide medical care in under-resourced communities who would otherwise have limited to no access to health care.  After several years working to unionize the Advanced Practice Clinicians at Palo Alto Medical Foundation, she became a captain and steward of the union to continue the fight for fair pay and benefits.  Today, she continues to work as a holistic health care provider in this community and continues to find purpose in helping those around her. She believes that positive social change happens when well intended and passionate people step into leadership roles, and that we can make a difference in our communities if we care enough about it. 

Celebrating the spirit of what PRIDE represents: love, compassion, joy, authenticity, equity, and inclusion!

United with Purpose Event celebrating Theresa Carino receiving the Women in Philantrophy Award (2024)

Melinda believes in equitable access to health care for all and wants to approach policy through a health equity lens because the health of individuals directly translates to the health of the community. As a member of the Capitola City Council, she believes that she can promote policies that make our community a safer and healthier place to live. As someone currently living in the sandwich generation, with young children to raise and aging parents to care for, she understands the importance of having affordable care options for children and for seniors. As a working mother with three young children, she wants to represent the interests of families, mothers, women, youth, and seniors. She believes that women deserve to have a seat at the table where important decisions are made. She is passionate about building strong communities, planning for a sustainable future, and doing purposeful work to promote positive social change.