It was a gutsy move to test Sun Valley Idaho’s legendary ski slopes ahead of the FIS Alpine Ski World Cup finals held in late March. But for Tracy Hernandez — founding CEO of the Los Angeles County Business Federation (BizFed), CEO of the New California Coalition, and former publisher of the Los Angeles Daily News — that formidable mountain in Idaho proved too much.
“I love skiing,” Hernandez said. “I ski all over the place.”
Despite her experience and long-held understanding that you don’t push yourself when you’re tired, Hernandez and her friend made one too many runs on the Sun Valley slopes.
“We didn’t follow my own advice,” she said, and she headed to the top one more time after a long day.
“It’s a quirk and a fluke,” Hernandez said. “I was skiing great. I was having a great day. Conditions were great. The sun was out, and I just got too loose I guess, just too cocky, and just the way I hit a bump, it just tossed me — skis crossed.”
Hernandez landed directly on her left hip, breaking her pelvis in several places.
“I felt it crunch the minute I hit,” Hernandez said, and she knew it was bad.
The ski patrol brought her down the mountain and took her immediately to emergency care, after which she was taken by helicopter to a hospital in Boise, Idaho, due to concern that she might have internal damage beyond her broken pelvis.
“It was scary for awhile,” she said. “There was a lot of potential for big-time problems.”
While it sidelined her for awhile, she is on the mend — a best-case outcome after suffering a pelvic break.
“Now I’m just on the slow recovery path,” she said, with a cautionary tale to share about not taking the trails too hard at the end of the day.
Hernandez, who grew up in Idaho, began her professional journey in the newspaper business, serving with different groups throughout the country in management and merger roles before becoming publisher of the L.A. Daily News in 2002 — a post she held for five years.
In 2008, she launched BizFed, an alliance of about 240 organizations including business improvement districts, chambers of commerce, economic development organizations, minority business groups, and trade associations who advocate for projects and policies that boost the regional economy.
“We founded the Business Federation (BizFed) to get people to be more civically active,” she said. The organization endorses political candidates at all levels of government, and takes part in a wide range of initiatives including public policy advocacy and civic engagement activities.
She wears a second hat as CEO of the New California Coalition, a non-partisan nonprofit group that focuses on policies to reduce the cost of living, address homelessness, and keep “Californians safe,” according to the coalition.
On Monday April 7 she finally got out of her house for the first time since the accident, to meet with four candidates for California governor at a New California Coalition event, including Lieutenant Governor Eleni Kounalakis, Representative Katie Porter, former L.A. Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, and former State Controller Betty Yee.
They exchanged ideas aimed at implementing solutions to increase the housing supply and remove barriers to growing middle-income jobs like office managers, carpenters, software engineers and machinists.
“My work is all over the state and very much an in-person business. So I’m having to miss some important things,” she said. “I’m homebound, basically for the first month, which is a real drag, because my work is all over the state and very much an in-person business. … So I’m having to miss some important things.”
But Hernandez is cheerful. “It’ll just be a journey … and by three months, I should be much better off,” she said.
Jarret Liotta is a Los Angeles-based freelance writer and photographer.