Ashley Contreras de la Vega runs for Imperial Valley Healthcare District 3

EL CENTRO, Calif. (KYMA) - When she was 26-years-old, Ashley Contreras De la Vega was in an accident that left her paralyzed from the waist down.

Now, she has her sights set on a seat on the Imperial Valley Healthcare District.

Contreras is currently the CEO of Access to Thrive, a nonprofit focused on providing resources to people with disabilities.

She said she wants to bring more transparency and more results to the healthcare district.

"I do think that there should be a lot more transparency. I'm actually really happy that the two hospitals are merging," she told News 11 in an interview.

El Centro Regional Medical Center and Pioneers Memorial Hospital in Brawley are uniting into one regional system in an effort to stop resident s from leaving the county for care.

"I think that's a great thing that's happening. And it's really close to being done, so that's some change that is really exciting," she said.

Contreras said it gets frustrating dealing with limited healthcare resources in the county.

"It doesn't make sense that we have to pay, you know, a hundred dollars to take a trip to San Diego to be there for five minutes and then, you know, come back," she explained.

Contreras brings with her a lived experience as someone with a disability who has been navigating the health care system.

"There's a huge lack of resources for individuals with disabilities here in the valley, especially for people with physical disability and mobility impairments. I was shocked when I found out because I realized that we do have resources for intellectual and developmental disabilities," Contreras divulged.

Contreras said she also wants to focus on training local healthcare students for a variety of positions and to help bring more specialists to Imperial County.

"We need to focus on is training our local students, creating programs for our students to be able to have more options here locally because they don't have to go out to other schools outside of the valley," Contreras said.

"There are so many medical positions other than just nursing that are also good paying jobs," she added.

In addition, Contreras said home modifications for disabled individuals can help them live more independently.

"There are no home modification assistance. That's something that I really have been pushing for and will continue to push for, that we have some sort of fund to help people with home renovations and modifications," she said.

Contreras will face Jacob Nicholas Rodriguez and Gregory Gelman for the district seat on November 3.

For a list of other candidates, click here.