About UMA Center of Tulsa
Rooted in community.
Built on purpose.
Empowering traditionally underserved communities through education, economic development, and advocacy — since 2020.
Who We Are
Our Story
From East Tulsa, For East Tulsa
UMA Center of Tulsa was founded in 2020 in response to a clear and urgent need: East Tulsa’s Hispanic community lacked access to culturally responsive health services, economic opportunity, and civic representation. What began as a conversation between neighbors became a trauma-informed community health hub — one built on the belief that the community itself holds the knowledge and strength to heal and grow.
We work from a community-as-workforce model. The people we serve are also the people we train, employ, and elevate. Our Community Health Workers — our Navegadores — come from the same streets, schools, and families as our participants. This is not charity. This is infrastructure.
In just a few years, UMA has grown into an award-winning organization serving over 2,774 community members across seven integrated programs — from mobile health clinics and nutrition interventions to behavioral health training and economic development pathways.
East Tulsa Context
East Tulsa is home to one of Oklahoma’s largest Hispanic populations — a community historically underserved by health systems, workforce pipelines, and civic institutions. UMA was created not for this community, but with it and by it.
A Name That Reaches the Summit
UMA is the Quechua word for summit — the highest point, the place where perspective is clearest and the horizon widest. We chose this name deliberately: because we believe every person in our community has the capacity to reach their own summit.
Quechua is one of the most widely spoken indigenous languages in the Americas, carried through the Andes and across generations of Latin American diaspora. In naming our organization UMA, we honor that heritage — and we aspire to carry it forward in everything we do in Tulsa.
What Drives Us
Mission & Vision
Our mission is built on three interconnected pillars — each one essential, each one reinforcing the others. This is not a list of programs. This is a theory of change.
Education
We build knowledge and capacity through health literacy, CHW certification, language interpretation training, and academic pathways that open previously closed doors.
Economic Development
We create real economic mobility — training community members as credentialed health workers and generating earned-income contracts that sustain our programs.
Advocacy
We amplify community voices at every level — from neighborhood health decisions to state policy. Our community’s needs belong in every room where decisions are made.
“A Tulsa where every community — regardless of language, income, or origin — has equal access to health, opportunity, and civic life.”
Results that speak for themselves.
In our Fantástico cardiovascular health program, every participant improved their health knowledge — and a third saw measurable reductions in cardiovascular risk. This is what community-centered care looks like.
Founder
Dr. Martha Zapata
MD — Founder, UMA Center of Tulsa
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We did not come to Tulsa to serve the community. We came from it. That is the only reason any of this works. — Dr. Martha Zapata, Founder
Executive Director
Dr. Carolina Hernandez
MD — Executive Director, UMA Center of Tulsa
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Governed by people invested in the outcome.
Our Board brings together health professionals, community leaders, and advocates — all committed to ensuring UMA stays accountable to the community it serves.