Fellow Profiles

Dr. Vivek Gupta is a distinguished physician and the Founder and CEO of Mindful Wellness, a pioneering medical wellness clinic dedicated to addressing health issues through a holistic and integrative approach. With a rich background in Internal Medicine and Public Health, Dr. Gupta has held significant roles at Optum, where he was the lead managing the Manhattan Beach primary care office, skilled care nursing facilities, and the Optum physical therapy office in the Torrance area. He also made substantial contributions to Optum's COVID-19 response.

At Mindful Wellness, Dr. Gupta has created a unique model that combines evidence-based medicine with comprehensive coaching, therapy, and mindfulness programs. The clinic specializes in weight loss, pediatric obesity, and stress management. Dr. Gupta's approach is rooted in compassion and a deep understanding of the biological and societal factors contributing to health challenges.

Certified in Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) and mindfulness-based eating programs, Dr. Gupta integrates these practices into his treatment plans. His philosophy is grounded in the recognition that overcoming obesity and related health issues is inherently difficult due to the evolutionary design of human bodies to survive famine and the modern food environment that is rich in highly addictive, energy-dense, and readily available calories.

Dr. Gupta's approach is both biological and compassionate, emphasizing that the struggle with obesity is not a personal failing but a complex interplay of biology and environment. He educates his patients on how their bodies are designed to store energy and how the current food system exacerbates this natural tendency. By combining medical treatments with mindfulness and therapeutic coaching, he helps patients develop sustainable habits and a healthier relationship with food and their bodies.

Dr. Lisa A. Hou is a Clinical Associate Professor at the Herman Ostrow School of Dentistry of the University of Southern California and maintains a private practice dedicated to the care of older adults and high-risk patients. Originally from Taiwan, she immigrated to Los Angeles at the age of 10.

Dr. Hou earned a Bachelor of Science in Gerontology, followed by a Doctor of Dental Surgery (DDS) degree and a Master of Science in Geriatric Dentistry from the Herman Ostrow School of Dentistry of USC. She further advanced her training by completing a General Practice Residency at Rancho Los Amigos Rehabilitation Center, where she specialized in the treatment of elderly and medically complex patients.

Committed to advancing special care and geriatric dentistry, Dr. Hou serves on the boards of the Special Care Dentistry Association and the American Society for Geriatric Dentistry. She is also an active member of the American Dental Association, the California Dental Association, and her local dental societies.

Dr. Mark Macaoay is a board certified pediatric dentist in San Diego. He received his Bachelor of Science degree in Mammalian Physiology and Neuroscience from the University of California at San Diego, then earned his Doctor of Dental Surgery Degree from University of the Pacific’s Dugoni School of Dentistry in San Francisco, California. Dr. Macaoay also received a Navy Health Professions Scholarship and participated in pediatric dental outreach and organized dentistry during his time there. He graduated with honors and went on to complete an Advanced Education in General Dentistry residency at Naval Medical Center San Diego. After completing his Navy commitment, Dr. Macaoay returned to University of the Pacific School of Dentistry as a clinical professor and co-director in the International Dental Studies program. While teaching at the dental university, he practiced in a pediatric dental office where he discovered his passion for the advocacy of children’s dental health. He completed his pediatric dental residency training at St. Barnabas Hospital, a Level I trauma center in New York City. After earning his Master's degrees in Business Administration and Healthcare Leadership, Dr. Macaoay served as the associate dental director for an Advanced Education in Pediatric Dentistry Residency Program, a collaborative partnership between San Ysidro Health, NYU Langone Health, Rady Children's Hospital and UC San Diego Health. He has served as a past treasurer, board member and finance committee member of the San Diego County Dental Society. Dr. Macaoay is a volunteer for UCSD’s Predental Society Student Run Dental Clinic and has participated in international humanitarian dental missions in the United States, Fiji, Jamaica, Jerusalem, and Grenada.

Leana is a pediatric resident physician at Cottage Children’s Medical Center, set to graduate in June 2025. She has a longstanding commitment to serving immigrant and underserved communities, with experience in global health through the United States Peace Corps and pediatric medical missions in Latin America. Her clinical work focuses on providing culturally sensitive care to diverse patient populations in Santa Barbara. Dr. Nápoles plans to partner with the County of Santa Barbara to address food insecurity and improve health outcomes for local children and families. She is passionate about advocacy, public health, and advancing equitable healthcare access.

Dr. Pamela Porteous-Burke grew up in the San Francisco Bay Area. Her father, a dentist and mother, a hygienist established the foundation for the importance of oral health and its role in overall health within their home. Dr. Porteous-Burke graduated from UCSB where she participated in research projects from the Channel Islands to Moorea to South Africa; soon recognizing the links between environmental health and general health.

Dr. Porteous-Burke graduated from UCSF School of Dentistry where she was awarded The Rainer’s research grant for sustainable community based oral health programs in rural Kenya. Dr. Porteous-Burke completed an Advanced Education in General Dentistry Residency at The San Antonio VA Hospital.

Dr. Porteous-Burke currently practices with her husband Dr. Matthew Burke at their private practice in the San Francisco Bay Area. She greatly enjoys the clinical aspect of dentistry and the academic aspect, volunteering as a guest lecturer at Stanford School of Medicine for the dental block rotation. When she is not working, she loves watching her three children grow and pursue their interests. If there are a few extra moments of the day, you can find her out for a run or hike in the regional parks near her home.

Her hope through this program is to be involved in projects that create positive change for the future within our communities with regards to overall health and wellbeing.

Dr. Suki Reddy is a Board Certified Psychiatrist, Therapist, and Group Leader. She seeks to understand and connect with her patients, ultimately empowering them to make the changes they desire. Using a holistic, individualized approach, she believes that one's physical, mental, emotional, social, and spiritual health are interconnected; and that the health of an individual is connected to the health of society and the systems in which they operate (family, school, work, etc.). Just as she helps individuals make positive internal shifts, Dr. Reddy recognizes the role that external systems play in the health of the individual and collective. She strives to spread awareness and work towards meaningful changes on a systemic level.

Dr. Reddy completed her Undergraduate Degree at UCLA, her Medical Degree at Saint Louis University, and her Psychiatry Residency at Stanford. She has been caring for patients for over 15 years in various clinical settings and has her own private practice in San Mateo, California. She meets with patients virtually or in person to provide therapy and medication management when appropriate. Her extensive therapeutic training allows her to draw from different therapeutic models including Psychodynamic, Gestalt, Interpersonal, Internal Family Systems, Cognitive Behavioral Therapy and Mindfulness.

She is also a graduate of the Group Therapy Training Program from The Psychotherapeutic Institute in Berkeley and currently leads virtual writing groups in which members learn to use writing as a powerful tool to unburden and reconnect with their authentic selves. She is passionate about creating accessible spaces for individuals and communities to express themselves without judgement.

Dr. Abhi Thakkar, coming from a culturally rich background of India is a distinguished dental professional who embodies a deep-seated passion for helping others, propelling him towards a fulfilling career in healthcare. Embarking on his healthcare journey in 2011, he gravitated towards dentistry, earning his Bachelor's degree in Dentistry in 2016. Fueled by a fascination for esthetics, Dr. Thakkar pursued specialization in Esthetics and Restorative Dentistry at UCLA in 2017, refining his expertise in smile designing, veneer artistry, and minimal adhesive dentistry.

A dedicated advocate for community well-being, Dr. Thakkar embraced a pivotal role at Community Health Centers of Camarena Health in Madera, CA. Currently serving as both a General Dentist and the Clinical Dental Director, he ardently practices evidence-based dentistry, ensuring optimal oral health within his community. In addition to his clinical commitments, Dr. Thakkar imparts his knowledge to aspiring dental students at Western University of Health Sciences in Pomona, CA, using teaching as a conduit to shape the future of dentistry by instilling both skill and compassion in our future generation.

Beyond the realm of dentistry, Dr. Thakkar's diverse interests encompass exploring new horizons through travel and indulging in tennis and cricket. His ultimate goal is to provide unparalleled service to his patients and simultaneously, he aspires to engage in organized dentistry across various levels, contributing to the advancement of healthcare on a global scale and fostering collaboration within the dental community for the betterment of our dental landscape.

Dr. Leila Yoonessi is a pediatric pulmonologist practicing in Long Beach, CA. She practices pediatric pulmonology and general pediatrics. Dr. Yoonessi holds a BA in psychobiology with a minor in religious studies from Occidental College. She graduated cum laude and was awarded a psychobiology departmental award for her academic achievements. She then studied at the University of Southern California, where she earned a Master’s in Public Health with a concentration in health care promotion. She went on to complete her medical degree at New York Medical College. She relocated to California to rejoin her family where she completed her pediatric residency at Los Angeles County University Southern California. She is currently a board-certified pediatrician who has several research interests. Publications include Progression and Prognostic Indicators of Bronchial and Alveolar Disease in Children with Sickle Cell Disease, and Environmental factors contributing to lung function and growth velocity decline in Sickle Cell Disease. Above all, she remains committed to patient advocacy, research, integrative work, medicine, preventive medicine, holistic health, and non-profit work. Dr Yoonessi enjoys horseback riding, hiking with her 2 Shiba Inus, and camping for fun. Dr Yoonessi Jr. is overjoyed to be working alongside her mother, who has always been dedicated to evidence-based medicine, charity work, and community outreach projects!

Dr. Arratoonian is currently the Dental Director of an FQHC with four Dental clinics within local underserved communities. She is also an Adjunct Assistant Professor of Clinical Dentistry, at USC Herman Ostrow School of Dentistry: department of community oral, public health, and pediatrics. She earned her Doctor of Dental Surgery Degree from USC Ostrow School of Dentistry in 2000. In 2012, she joined WATTS health care organization, where she worked for ten years and became their lead dental provider incorporating the Ryan White oral health contract within their dental department. She eventually became part of the Medical Advisory Committee for The Aids Drug Assistance Program (ADAP). She has implemented, worked, and volunteered with various outreach programs, including mobile and school-based dental clinics. She firmly believes that Childhood oral health and disease prevention should be addressed simultaneously with other chronic illnesses. In her free time, she likes to travel, spend time with her two children, hike, and play with her dog.

Dr. Clarisse Casilang is a board-certified general pediatrician and fellow of the American Academy of Pediatrics (FAAP). She completed training as a Children's Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP) Pincus Global Health Fellow in the Dominican Republic from 2017-2019. She also received specialized training in medical journalism (through the nationally syndicated ABC News Medical Unit in New York City) and in public health advocacy (through AAP-California). She is passionate about using her skills in medical communication, mHealth & advocacy to improve access to care, to promote health and wellness, to inform public health policy, and to be a voice for our most vulnerable communities. She is currently an attending physician at Children’s Health of Orange County (CHOC) serving as Community Pediatrics Lead Physician, directing CHOC's Wellness on Wheels outreach program. She was recently named the American Academy of Pediatrics – OC Chapter Young Physician of the Year 2023. 

Following his graduation from The University of Iowa College of Dentistry and Dental Clinics, Dr. Maxmillian Chambers has worked to hone his skills as a doctor of dental surgery to provide a higher quality of oral healthcare, so that the patients he treats and the community he serves changes for the better. Dr. Chambers is currently provides care to the patients Innercare, the largest 501(c)3 non-profit FQHC that serves communities across all of Imperial and  parts of Riverside Counties. Within Imperial County, Chambers has performed as a dental examiner for IRB approved investigations in partnership with San Diego State University. Since 2018 Dr. Chambers has served as an active member and the consulting dentist for the Imperial County Oral Taskforce. He has operated as externship site Director for Health Occupation Students of America (HOSA) enrolled at Imperial Valley College. Dr. Chambers is determined to promote and guide Imperial County through PSE focused on childhood obesity prevention and increasing awareness of early oral healthcare be encouraging the RYD initiative, in order to create develop and maintain health equity within the community today, for a healthier and brighter smile tomorrow.

Dr. Wai-Yin Chan is a pediatric dentist at a Federally Qualified Health Center practicing in San Diego County. She maintains privileges at Rady Children's Hospital and serves as clinical faculty for NYU-Langone Advanced Education in Pediatric Dentistry. Dr. Chan is a diplomate of the American Board of Pediatric Dentistry. Dr. Chan's interests include the integration of medicine and dentistry, promoting HPV immunization awareness, providing and advocating for the care of patients with special health needs and supporting resident education in the specialty of pediatric dentistry. Dr. Chan obtained both a BS in Biochemistry and Cell Biology and a MS thesis degree in Biology from the University of California, San Diego, a DMD from Harvard School of Dental Medicine, a specialty certificate in pediatric dentistry from The University of Washington and a MPH with a concentration in Health Policy and Management from The University of California, Berkeley. Dr. Chan serves on a variety of coalitions including the San Diego County Oral Health Coalition, San Diego Medical Dental Integration Workgroup, The San Diego Immunization Coalition and the San Diego PATH (Protecting Against HPV) Steering Committee.

Dr. Trang Hoa currently works as a Medical Consultant for The Children California Services at Riverside County. She was born in Vietnam and immigrated to Canada when she was 5 years of age. After completing her Medical School at St. George’s University, she completed her General Pediatric Residency at SUNY Downstate in Brooklyn, New York. During her training, she had a great fondness for pulmonary medicine, particularly asthmatics. She completed her Pediatric Pulmonary Fellowship at The University of California, Irvine/Long Beach Memorial.   Prior to joining Riverside Public Health Department, she practiced as a General Pediatrics for a Federally Qualified Health Care Center in Garden Grove for a predominately Vietnamese community.  

Dr. Khan completed her Pediatric Residency at the University of South Alabama in Mobile, AL and then started working at a Federally Qualified Health Center in the Imperial Valley in the Southeastern Corner of California in 2006. She spent a total of 15 years in the Imperial County working with underserved, mostly Latino patients, before relocating to Los Angeles County in 2022, where she has been working at the Northeast Valley Health Corporation, also an FQHC, at their Santa Clarita Valley sites since June 2022. She has a Master's Degree in Healthcare Quality and Safety Management at the Thomas Jefferson University of Population Health in 2020 to further her passion for all things quality, safety and lifelong learning. In Imperial County, she was part of various pilot projects including Telehealth projects with UC Davis for weight management and behavioral health, attended a UCSF sponsored Quality Care Collaborative, several childhood asthma improvement projects including a PCORI sponsored project targeted on Latino pediatric asthma patients and co-piloted a curriculum by the American Association of Asthma Educators to train Community Healthcare Workers in how to conduct a six stage home asthma visit program. Furthermore, she enjoys teaching and mentoring RN, NP, PA and medical students. She happily lives with her spouse and three children.

Dr. Lesley Lara comes from a background of many generations of transnational Mexican-American farmworkers. Her journey into a life of service as a family physician is rooted in her deep desire for working on issues of social justice, specifically those pertaining to educational and health care inequities. Shortly after permanently moving to the U.S., Lesley attended Contra Costa College and was part of the Center for Science Excellence where she gained a strong academic foundation to pursue a career in medicine and fostered a commitment to serve and advocate for marginalized communities. She transferred to UC Berkeley, where she earned a degree in Molecular and Environmental Biology and graduated with honors and distinction. She then retuned to CCC to work under the guidance and supervision of her mentors as a Biology Technician, a Minority Outreach Specialist. She later had the honor to be accepted to the Program in Medical Education for the Latino Community (PRIME-LC) at UC Irvine, where she earned a dual degree in Medicine and Public Health. She recently completed a full spectrum Family Medicine Residency at Scripps Chula Vista in San Diego and currently joined a Federally Qualified Health Center working on border health issues. 

Dr. Lanelle Nakamura was born and raised in Honolulu, Hawaii. She completed her medical school at the University of Hawai’i John A. Burns School of Medicine and pediatric residency program at University of Hawai’i based at Kapi’olani Medical Center for Women and Children. She pursued her passion in oncology by completing a pediatric hematology/oncology fellowship with Baylor College of Medicine at Texas Children’s Hospital in Houston, Texas. Upon completing her fellowship, she joined the faculty Loma Linda University Children’s Hospital as Pediatric Hematology/Oncology Attending, subsequently transitioning to Pediatric Pulmonary Hospitalist. She continues to serve as the Continuing Medical Education Director for Pediatrics. Her clinical experience inspired her to expand her patient advocacy in her current position at Riverside County Public Health with California Children’s Services (CCS). 

Dr. Roblen Nieblas is currently a general dentist and the dental director for Aria Community Health Center, an FQHC located in Kings, Tulare and Fresno counties. She completed her DDS at UCLA School of Dentistry, and initially planned to work in private practice. After moving to Central California and witnessing the challenges faced by underserved communities in the region, she decided to devote her career to public health. One of her current goals is to help increase the access to dental care for both children and adults in the Central Valley. Dr. Nieblas is also serving as UCLA clinical adjunct faculty by supervising and mentoring 4^th year dental students on their clinical rotations at Aria CHC. One goal of these rotations is to allow the clinic to see more patients and reduce wait times for their next appointments. She also hopes that these rotations will raise awareness of the need for dentists in rural California and encourage the students to consider pursuing similar work in the future. In her free time, Dr. Nieblas enjoys relaxing at home with her husband and four cats. She enjoys gardening and growing her own vegetables to make healthy meals. 

Dr. David Thai received his Doctor of Dental Surgery (DDS) at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF). He is a bay area native and received his Bachelor of Science in Microbial Biology from the University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley). Dr. Thai makes it his goal to educate, motivate, and restore each patient’s smile and health. As West County Health Centers’ Dental Director, Dr. Thai is passionate about improving access to quality dental care for his surrounding communities, as well as enhancing overall community health and wellness through multidisciplinary healthcare collaboration.

Dr. To was born in Hong Kong and raised in Vancouver, BC, Canada and graduated from the University of Toronto Dental School with honors. She obtained her advanced pediatric dentistry training from the University of Southern California, where she served as president of the USC Pediatric Dental Alumni and is currently an adjunct professor at the USC Herman Ostrow School of Dentistry. She continues her education on the latest in pediatric sleep apnea and materials through coursework and collaboration with colleagues at the university, and with other doctors and professionals. In addition to continuing her education, Dr. To is an active member of the American Academy of Pediatric Dentistry, California Society of Pediatric Dentistry, American Dental Association, California Dental Association, and San Fernando Valley Dental Society. Dr. To also supports many charitable organizations in the greater Los Angeles area that advocate for children’s oral hygiene, including MEND nonprofit, where she provides dental screenings. She personally reaches out to about 50 preschools and kindergartens each year, to teach them the importance of oral hygiene. Dr. To resides in Sherman Oaks with her husband and practice partner, Dr. Roger Lim and her son, Brandon. In her spare time, she enjoys gardening, hiking, learning Spanish, and playing piano.

Dr. Mindy Truong was born in San Diego, California. She graduated from the University of California, Los Angeles where she earned a B.S. in Molecular, Cell, and Developmental Biology with a minor in Public Health. She completed her dental degree at the Harvard School of Dental Medicine and her Advanced Education in General Dentistry residency through NYU Langone at the La Maestra Community Health Centers. She is currently completing her National Health Service Corps (NHSC) scholarship commitment at the Wilmington Community Clinic. Dr. Truong is passionate about community advocacy and education regarding nutrition and oral health. She is interested in connecting patients with state and community resources to improve food insecurity, chronic health conditions, and oral disease. 

Dr. Jing Zhao is Board-Certified in Internal Medicine and has been practicing medicine for more than twenty years. She completed her residency in Internal Medicine at NYU Medical Center in New York City. She has worked as both a Hospitalist and Primary Care/Urgent Care provider. She has spent several years as a Clinical Instructor/Hospitalist at the Weill Cornell Medical College/New York Presbyterian Hospital in New York before moving to the Bay Area and becoming a Primary and Urgent Care physician. Here she worked at the Permanente Medical Group/Kaiser Permanente while concurrently working as a Volunteer Clinical Professor at the UC Berkely-UCSF Joint Medical Program where she taught medical students from their program. After working more than twelve years at Kaiser Permanente, she relocated to Los Angeles working as a Clinical Professor of Medicine at the UCLA David Geffen School of Medicine teaching and proctoring their medical students and as a Primary and Urgent Care physician on their Westwood campus. After two years, she relocated back to the Bay Area focusing on community health becoming the Medical Director at Northeast Medical Services in San Francisco.  Currently, she is the Chief Medical Officer at Harmony Health Medical Clinics and Family Resource Center, a Federally Qualified Health Center, in Marysville and Yuba City, California.

Dr. Lena Al-Sarraf is board certified in general practice medicine. She completed her medical degree at Western University and completed additional post-doctoral training at USC. She currently practices at a federally qualified health center close to downtown Los Angeles where she is committed to addressing the social determinants of health that adversely affect her patient population. In addition to her clinical duties, she volunteers at a local food pantry and is a board member of the Los Angeles Regional Food Bank. In her role as a board member, she has assisted in promoting the adoption of food pantries to be part of a service for community health clinics.

Melissa Campos, MD, is a faculty member for the Scripps Family Medicine Residency Program. She practices full spectrum care and is involved with all aspects of the residency program, including obstetrics, inpatient and nursing home services. Her outpatient clinical work is at San Ysidro Health, an FQHC in San Diego. She is passionate about working with the South Bay community in San Diego and encourages the development of family medicine physicians who choose to work with the underserved.

She has focused her career on empowering youth and advocating for the patients he serves. She has coordinated “Our Health” a pipeline program using Family Medicine residents to facilitate interactive workshops about medicine with local high school students. In addition, she is the coordinator for “HCOP Camp Scripps,” a summer program for high school students from the Sweetwater school district who are interested in a career in the healthcare field.

Dr. Gila Dorostkar is a board-certified pediatric dentist in private practice in Marin County. She currently serves as President-Elect of the California Society of Pediatric Dentistry as well as Parliamentarian for the American Academy of Pediatric Dentistry. In addition, Dr. Dorostkar is a member of the Marin County Oral Health Advisory Committee.

Dr. Kristen Hughes was raised in Menifee, California, a small farming town near Temecula.  She graduated summa cum laude from Westmont College with a B.S. in biology, where she was also an All-American and National Champion soccer player.  She attended Loma Linda University Medical School and did her pediatric residency also at Loma Linda.  Afterwards, she served on faculty for a short time, prior to relocating back to Santa Barbara, where she worked as a pediatric hospitalist at Cottage Children's Medical Center.  She now works for the Santa Barbara Public Health Department, as a general pediatrician in two county health care centers (Franklin HCC and Carpinteria HCC).  Through her work at the Santa Barbara Public Health Department, she has been working collaboratively with Nutrition Services, HEAL, WIC, the Santa Barbara Food Bank, University of California, Santa Barbara pre-medical student group, private pediatric practices, Cen-Cal and local private businesses to organize a community-wide collaborative to address the issues related to pediatric obesity in the community. In her free time, she enjoys playing soccer, hiking, biking and camping with her husband Rob (who is a sports medicine physician at UCSB), her two children and dog.

Dr. Amir Kazim was born in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. He completed his DDS at Howard University in 2014 and an Advanced Education in General Dentistry Program in the subsequent year at Yakima Valley Farm Workers Clinic in Spokane. During his time in Washington State, Dr. Kazim took on roles in many varying capacities such as working in Federally Qualified Health Centers, private practice as well as insurance audits and adjunct professor of restorative dentistry. To this end, Dr. Kazim played an integral role in bringing the merits of teledentistry to Washington by being one of the founding members of their established task force. While keeping busy with dental–related issues, Dr. Kazim enjoys traveling and experiencing new cultures and foods. Having recently moved to California, Dr. Kazim is excited to continue his efforts into this exciting new aspect of dentistry. He is a member of the ADA, the California Dental Association and the Harbor Dental Society.

Dr. Rakhi Singh serves as the Medical Director for the Fair Oaks Health Center Adult Clinic, (part of the San Mateo Medical Center/ County Health System) in Redwood City. Her focus, especially during this last year with the pandemic, has been on team-based telemedicine and quality improvement using LEAN methodology. She also has a passion for tackling food insecurity and has collaborated with several community partners to find solutions and empower families to better understand that food is medicine. She has a daily meditation practice and is passionately committed to serving patients and colleagues with dignity and compassion.

Rakhi received her B.S. at UCLA, MD from Saba University School of Medicine, and completed her Residency and Chief Residency at UMDNJ. She also completed a fellowship in the Department of Family Medicine in Community Health Center Director Development at Georgetown University and was part of the eighth cohort of the UCSF Institute for Physician Leadership She happily lives in Palo Alto, CA with her husband and three children.

Dr. Trinidad Solis completed her family medicine residency at UCLA. After residency, she stayed at UCLA and treated a diverse patient panel. As a UCLA Health Sciences Assistant Clinical Professor, she enjoyed giving community lectures about how to prevent and treat various chronic diseases. She also obtained her master’s in public health degree in health policy and management at Johns Hopkins.

After the COVID-19 pandemic began, Dr. Solis decided to move back to her hometown area in Fresno County and use her medical and public health training to help with COVID-19 mitigation efforts. She is now a public health physician with Fresno County’s Department of Public Health where she is helping coordinate the department’s response to protect farmworkers against COVID-19. Many farmworkers have chronic diseases such as diabetes and obesity, which place them at a higher risk of developing complications from COVID-19. As a Champion Provider Fellow, Dr. Solis hopes to build upon her work and strengthen existing multi-sectoral collaborations in order to develop sustainable interventions that reduce the burden of chronic diseases among vulnerable communities in Fresno County.

Dr. Fadra Whyte practices pediatric dentistry at a federally qualified health center in San Diego, CA. In addition, she is a faculty member for the NYU Langone pediatric dental residency program affiliated with San Ysidro Health and Rady Children’s Hospital. She recently earned her Masters in Public Health degree with a focus on dentistry. Her practicum centered on increasing access to follow up care for pediatric patients seen at Rady Children’s Hospital emergency department for dental related issues. She wants to continue to work in the area of increasing access to dental care for vulnerable pediatric populations while also focusing on prevention of dental disease and childhood obesity through innovative education programs and policy changes. She is excited to continue to foster relationships that lead to collaboration and integration between the dental field and medical and public health entities.

Dr. Tim Wong DDS is a full time dental practitioner, educator, and dental industry consultant in Los Angeles and Orange County. After graduation from USC, he continued to be involved with local community health events with non-profit groups, participating as an active member of the ADA, CDA, Pre-Fellow at Academy of General Dentistry, and CDA Delegate at San Gabriel Valley Dental Society. In 2020, he took on the position as president incumbent for the Chinese American Dental Society of Southern California (CADSSC), serving local dentists by organizing continuing education seminars and webinars, hosting monthly board meetings, assisting over 350 member dentists. He envisions greater involvement between the members of the dental society and the general public via outreach and educational seminars. He is committed to expand his knowledge on current health issues that are significant to vulnerable population groups, while applying those knowledge to guide his patients toward better oral and dental health.

Dr. Vivian Yang is a family medicine physician in Riverside County with Riverside University Health System. She practices full spectrum family medicine, as a family physician in Rubidoux Community Health Center and attending faculty at Moreno Valley Community Health Center and inpatient RUHS. Dr. Yang enjoys working with patients and their families to create safe and healthy family units. She prioritizes health education, community outreach, and evidence-based medicine. She is always willing to show her patients some yoga poses during clinic visits.

Dr. Teda Arunrut is a community pediatrician who currently practices at Northeast Valley Health Corporation (NEVHC), a federally qualified health center in San Fernando Valley that serves a predominately Latinx community, many of whom are low-income. Dr. Arunrut herself grew up in the San Fernando Valley, to parents from Thailand, which allowed her to approach life through a multicultural lens. Dr. Arunrut trained at the University of California, San Francisco Pediatric Residency Program at the Fresno Campus in the Central Valley. While there, she initiated several community-based projects over the course of her three years of residency, including a “Dance with Your Doctor” program aimed at increasing physical activity among elementary school-aged children. With a passion for community health and appreciation of the impact of the social determinants of health she was motivated to join the American Academy of Pediatrics’ (AAP) Council on Community Pediatrics (COCP) and the Immigrant Health Special Interest Group. Dr. Arunrut also has a special interest in working with patients with Down Syndrome and patients with special needs; as a result she joined the AAP’s Council on Children with Disabilities, too.

Dr. Redieat Assefa is a pediatrician who practices at the Rubidoux Family Care Center, a federally qualified health center that is part of the Riverside University Health System. While pursuing her master’s degree in public health she worked with Riverside County Public Health as the coordinator for the Healthy Eating Lifestyle Promotion (H.E.L.P.) program. In this role, she worked with high schools in the Moreno Valley Unified School District and nutritionists from the WIC program to host health fairs and provide nutrition education to students and families. Ethiopian-born and raised in a low-income community in Los Angeles, Dr. Assefa can relate to the struggles of many of her patients and thus is an advocate for better access to resources and health education to improve her patients’ lives.  

Dr. Moazzum Bajwa is an assistant professor of family medicine and program director of the Longitudinal Ambulatory Care Experience at UC Riverside School of Medicine. He is core faculty and director of Community Health & Social Medicine at Riverside University Health System (RUHS/UCR) Family Medicine Residency program. He practices at a federally qualified health center and partners with community-based organizations to lead both the “Food is Medicine” and “Healthy Eating & Lifestyle Promotion (H.E.L.P.)” programs at RUHS.

Dr. Laurie Bostick Cammon is a pediatrician who has been practice for the past 19 years, serving underserved communities. Prior to her practice at the Pediatric Healthy Lifestyles Clinic (PHLC) and Santa Clara Valley Medical Center (SCVMC), Dr. Bostick Cammon served as Medical Director of the Alameda County Juvenile Hall and Kerry's Kids Mobile Health Clinic. Over the past couple of years, she has worked with a number of community-based organizations such as Second Harvest, Cal-Fresh and Veggielution (a local, non-profit community farm), to help develop collaborations to address food security. Additionally, she has worked extensively with Santa Clara County Public Health Department, Parks and Recreation Department, and Open Space Authority to implement the Park and Play Initiative and a Park Prescription (ParkRx) program. Thourgh this collaboration, they have been able to connect patients from the PHLC, with community parks with the intent of increasing their comfort in utilizing parks on an ongoing basis and overall physical activity.

Dr. Marie Buell is a private dentist, who in the past couple years has opened up her practice to accept Denti-Cal patients due to the overwhelming need she saw for services through her volunteer work with the California Dentist Association’s (CDA) Cares program. Dr. Buell has always prioritized working in the community. Upon finishing dental school in the Philippines, she was a volunteer dentist at a charity hospital and participated in Operation Smile International in Manila. She has also served as a volunteer dentist for Remote Access Medical and provided oral health services in free clinics and schools. After she moved to the US in 1994, she completed University of Washington’s Dental Education in Care of Persons with Disabilities (DECOD) Postdoctoral Fellowship. She is also trained to safely and effectively treat high-fear patients through her experience with Dental Organization for Conscious Sedation (DOCS). In addition to her work locally with the CDA she also serves on the Ventura County Health Advisory Committee to develop Ventura County’s health initiative.

Dr. Barry Chang is a general practice dentist, who after initially starting in private practice, now serves as the dental director for CommuniCare Health Center, a federally qualified health center in Yolo County. He has served in this role for the past 10 years. At CommuniCare, they have an outreach team, Smile Savers, that goes out to community sites (schools, health fairs, Head Start programs, WIC classes, migrate camps, and special needs programs) to do oral health education, provide nutrition/diet recommendations, screening, fluoride application and sealants placement.  In addition to his clinical work, he is also a member of the California Primary Care Association (CPCA) Dental Director Network group, chair of the Redwood Community Health Coalition Dental Director Network group, and  a member of the Yolo County Oral Health Coalition which allows him to work closely with the county staff and leadership.

Dr. Shelley Fung-Yeung is a board certified internist who currently practices at Kaiser Permanente. A family history of diabetes has informed Dr. Fung-Yeung’s commitment to preventing chronic disease.  She has been in practice for 16 years and speaks Cantonese. She has experience working with aging groups and Chinese communities in faith-based environments in both New York and San Francisco. She wants to continue diabetes prevention work, particularly in the Chinese community.  

Dr. Omar Guzman is an emergency medicine doctor at Kaweah Delta Medical Center in Visalia, CA. Born and raised in Tulare County, he saw firsthand the impact of social determinants of health on chronic disease, which influenced his decision to become a physician in his own community. He has a master's degree in public policy and was recently appointed Director of Undergraduate Medical Education for Kaweah Delta, where he is establishing a curriculum focused on developing physician advocates to affect health policy change. Though Kaweah Delta’s Community Outreach Department he participates in several collaboratives led by the local health department. These collaboratives include the Diabetes and Health Access Implementation Groups, Walk with a Doc, and Food Link for Tulare County.

Dr. Toshi Hart is a private practice dentist in Stanislaus County. Since immigrating to San Francisco at the age of 4 and being a beneficiary of public health services herself, she has held public health and service close to her heart. Two years after graduating from the University of the Pacific School of Dentistry (with honors) she became the founding director of the Alliance Dental Clinic in Healdsburg, CA – a position she held for seven years. The Alliance Dental Clinic served a primarily migrant farmworker population and their families. One year following the opening of the dental clinic, she was awarded Department of Health & Human Services Regional Dentist of the Year. For many years Dr. Hart has been active with the Stanislaus Dental Society and the California Dental Association’s Cares program. Annually she provides oral health education and screenings in the Modesto City and Stanislaus County schools. She enjoys classical music and golf and is inspired when she hears children say they want to be dentists when they grow up.

Dr. J. Kevin Jetton is a retired dentist who spent the majority of his active career serving prisoners with mental health illnesses and volunteering at and founding free dental health clinics. In addition to clinical care, he has also been active in many non-profit and professional societies. He served as the Vice-President of the California Association of Free and Charitable Clinics, Executive Board Member of the Union of American Physicians and Dentists, and has volunteered with the California Dental Association. He also spent time as a Faculty Clinician with Loma Linda University, providing hands-on training for dental students externing at a local free dental clinic. Having already founded two free dental clinics, Dr. Jetton has been in the process of founding another clinic in Yucaipa, CA.

Dr. Vibha Jhawar is a pediatric dentist who loves working with kids. She went to Bombay Dental School in India and speaks Hindi. She currently practices at a federally qualified health center (FQHC), where most of her patients are low income. She has been practicing for 30 years and is still very passionate about making a difference in her community. She is committed to treating her patients as she wishes to be treated.

Dr. Julie Johnson is a family medicine physicain who works as a Physician II with Public Health Services' (PHS) Family Health Clinics, specifically  at the 17th Street Clinic in Santa Ana. Dr. Johnson provides care to low-income patients in the Child Health and Family Planning Clinic. At the Child Health Clinic they currelty offer a six step weight program for overweight children and teens. Dr. Johnson began her role with the PHS clinic in 2014 following nine years at Riverside County Public Health where she provided care to underserved populations.

Dr. Soe Maw is a pediatrician practicing at both a community hospital and Medi-Cal clinic. She completed her residency in pediatrics at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) Fresno, serving as chief resident and staying on as a community medicine fellow. Recently, she completed her master’s in public health (MPH) in epidemiology at UC Berkeley. While pursuing her MPH she interned with the Fresno County Department of Public Health where she worked on a project to inform a study on the county’s food deserts. Understanding the impact of the social determinants of health on her patients’ health outcomes, she is eager to focus her efforts to have an impact in the greater community.

Dr. Pedro Moreno is a family medicine physician at the Alisal Health Center, a clinic of the Monterey County Health Department located in East Salinas. For over twenty years, he has served a predominately Latinx patient population, many of whom are farm workers from rural communities in Mexico and who speak only native dialects. He has developed relationships with many community organizations and initiated countless partnerships over the past two decades. Through his collaboration with the local health department, he has been able to integrate nutrition education curriculum into his nutrition and wellness group visits as well as implement a Food Prescription (FoodRx), so patients can get fresh fruits and vegetables from the local farmers’ markets. Dr. Moreno is interested in better understanding how poverty affects childhood obesity in Mexican farm working families in Salinas Valley in order to better educate leaders on policies that positively impact his patient community.

Dr. Kim Newell Green is pediatrician and the Immediate Past President of the San Francisco Marin Medical Society, and well as an Assistant Clinical Professor at the University of California, San Francisco. While in practice at Kaiser for over 10 years, she served as Chief of Healthcare Innovation, Chief of Physician Health and Wellness, and Co-Medical Director for the Passport to Health obesity program, working on developing and evaluating obesity treatment and prevention efforts and programs. Currently, she is working to transform healthcare through advocacy, education, and by leading and supporting innovations in service delivery and digital technology while keeping humanity at the center of health and healing.

Dr. Dai Park is a board certified allergist/immunologist. She currently practices in the northern part of the Central/San Joaquin Valley - a medically underserved area where 70% of her patient population is insured by Medi-cal. Dr. Park has chaired the Stanislaus County Asthma Coalition for 5 years, where they collaborate with other community organizations, including the local health service agency to ensure an asthma-friendly Stanislaus County. The coalition manages the Asthma-Friendly Flag Program, a multi-colored flag system that serves as a daily indicator of outdoor air quality in the community. Over 170 public and private schools participate in this free program.

Focus Area: Dr. Park is collaborating with the local health departments on ParkRx pilot in the City of Patterson.

Dr. Madhu Raghavan is a pediatrician with a private practice in Watsonville, CA. Trained in India, she has always been inspired to work beyond the clinic walls to have a greater impact on the health of her communities. She is inspired by the hard work of her community and by participating in the wellbeing of resilient children who achieve their dreams against all odds. She finds fulfillment in building lasting relationships with the families she treats and collaborates with partners in an effort to simplify the complex systemic barriers that affect basic needs. Outside of her clinical duties, she has provided leadership and subject matter expertise to various groups including serving as Co-Chair of the Pediatric Vision Group (PVG), a collaborative, sponsored by Health Improvement Partnerships (HIP), that served as a forum to bring together diverse, key stakeholders to address community health needs. Dr. Raghavan is interested in school wellness policy and helped, in collaboration with PVG, to organize a forum with School District Nutrition Directors and Nurses to identify school-based policy solutions to positively impact student health. Recently, she participated in strategic planning for the Parks & Recreation Commission of Santa Cruz County where she plans to propose the promotion of healthy lifestyles through park use.

Dr. Salvador Sandoval is a semi-retired family medicine physician who continues to precept for the local family medicine residency program in Merced. He also continues to provide visits to homebound patients and soon will be assuming the role of medical director for the respite clinic that serves recently discharged patients experiencing homelessness. Dr. Sandoval is a member of the California Physicians Alliance (CaPa) and Physician for a National Health Program. As a board member of CaPa he worked to extend health coverage to undocumented children and adults, improve health care access for all Californians and help create a student chapter of CaPA at UC Merced. Other professional affiliations include serving as a member of  the National Advisory Council on Migrant Health, the UC Davis Farm Worker Health and Safety Committee . Dr. Sandoval also has previous experience working with his local health department. While pursing his master’s he worked with the local health department to write his thesis on the comparison of risk factors for migrant versus settled farm workers for contracting HIV.

Dr. Sandra Sands is a family medicine doctor who currently practices at San Juan Community Health Center, a federally qualified health center (FQHC) located in Citrus Heights. During and after her residency in Family Medicine, she pursued a Ph.D. in Biomedical Sciences, with a focus on animal diabetes models. She has previously participated in an American Diabetes Association fundraiser and in WellSpace's one-stop community workshop focused on cervical cancer and diabetes mellitus screening. Conversant in medial Spanish, Dr. Sands has been practicing for 15 years and has expertise in urgent/immediate care and primary care for all ages.

Dr. Emma Steinberg is a pediatrician and certified chef. She completed her residency in the Pediatric Leadership for the Underserved (PLUS) program at UCSF, a track devoted to development of pediatric leaders advancing health equity. She has diverse experience with food and nutrition, from creating curriculum, conducting school needs assessments, working on District-wide school health initiatives, to policy evaluation. She is currently a pediatric culinary medicine strategies consultant for Alameda County’s Food as Medicine initiative and serves on SFUSD Urban Agriculture Career Technical Education Academy’s Advisory Board. She is interested in continuing her work advancing Food as Medicine initiatives. Dr. Steinberg is motivated to advance health equity while building relationships and fostering community.

Dr. Kristin Sweeney is a pediatrician who practices at the San Mateo Medical Center in the Coastside Clinic in Half Moon Bay. Since graduating residency, Dr. Sweeney has dedicated her practice to serving in federally qualified health centers to predominately low-income, MediCal eligible populations. Prior to and during medical school Dr. Sweeney, participated in a variety of global health efforts in Latin America.. While in medical school, she participated in the rural health track in Appalachia in Kentucky and founded the University of Kentucky branch of the International Federation of Medical Student Associations (IFMSA). In 2018, Dr. Sweeney started the Healthy Lifestyles Clinic, a monthly-led obesity prevention group for children 7 – 12 years of age and their parents to educate them about strategies for healthier living. She hopes to grow this work and expand existing multi-sectoral partnerships, including with the local health department, in order to create sustainable solutions to the obesity epidemic. 

Dr. Melanie Thompson has been practicing at Marin Community Clinics (MCC) since she finished her residency, and is now the Medical Director of the San Rafael Clinic. Her practice is informed by whole person care and social determinants of health, as well as her lived experience with diabetes in her family. She is interested in how depression and trauma may affect obesity, and is looking for solutions to chronic disease outside of the exam room. With an understanding that change requires time and consistency, she is inspired by her patients whom prioritize caring for themselves and their families, amidst many challenges.

Dr. Thanh Ton is board-certified pediatric dentist who in addition to her private practice, is a Pediatric Dental Attending at LAC+USC Medical Center and teaches at the Herman Ostrow School of Dentistry at the University of California Southern California. At LAC+USC Medical Center, Dr. Ton treats Los Angeles County’s foster care children and adolescents with special needs and complex medical conditions. An advocate for improving dental care for underserved children, Dr. Ton works with a local non-profit, Violence Intervention Program (VIP), providing oral health screening to foster children and oral health education to their caregivers.

Dr. Raman Verma has a private practice in Tulare County and is double board certified in Internal Medicine and Obesity Medicine. For many years his passion has been providing weight loss management and supporting overall healthy living for his patients. In addition to his clinical duties, he is a member and past-president of the Tulare County Medical Society. Prior to his private practice, he worked at a federally qualified health center in Tulare County.

Focus Area: Dr. Verma has been working with the local health department to provide nutrition education in the school setting and has an interest in better supporting access to healthy, affordable food for seniors.

Dr. Side Xi is a pediatrician who, since 2004, has worked at the Visalia Health Care Center, a federally qualified health center that serves as one of Tulare County’s safety net providers. Dr. Xi also holds a PhD in Nutrition, and worked in nutrition research for more than 17 years before starting his clinical practice.  He currently tries to incorporate his nutrition research into his clinic practice, while also addressing the significant health and social barreirs that his patients face. Dr. Xi has had previous experience working on projects with the local health department, including one where he provided input on the  development of a school-clinic based intervention that addressed obesity among 5th and 7th graders. Along with representatives from the Tulare County Office of Education, UC Cooperative Extension, Public Health, and the Boys and Girls club, the project intended to serve the student population, who were mostly eligible for free or reduced-price meals with a more holistic health and wellness approach.

Dr. Afflalo was born in Kingston, Jamaica. She completed medical school at George Washington University in Washington, DC, followed by family medicine residency at Kaiser Permanente in Los Angeles. During her career Dr. Afflalo held several leadership positions, including Professional Staff President at Southern California Permanente Medical Group (SCPMG) and Chief of the Family Medicine department at Kaiser Permanente in San Diego. Additionally, she mentored middle school and high school students interested in the medical field through Kaiser Permanente’s Hippocrates Circle and Summer Youth programs. While working at Kaiser Permanente for more than 20 years, Dr. Afflalo would volunteer extensively in the Southeast San Diego community– providing free sports physicals for students, organizing health screenings in barbershops, and lecturing on breast cancer, hypertension, heart disease, and diabetes at churches. Dr. Afflalo retired in 2015 but continues to serve her community. In 2014 she started a lifestyle change program at her church called “A Healthier Me,” developed to decrease the morbidity and mortality of African-Americans with various cardiovascular risks. “A Healthier Me” has since expanded to multiple churches throughout Southeast San Diego; in 2016 Dr. Afflalo helped design an app for the program, so that individuals can track their own health measures. She is currently working with Kaiser Permanente, the American Heart Association, the United African-American Ministerial Action Counsel (UAAMAC), the San Diego Black Nurses Association, and several faith-based organizations to train them on the “A Healthier Me” program and app.

After majoring in Biology at Purdue University, Dr. Ashrafian received a dual MD/MBA degree from Indiana University School of Medicine. Although he did his residency in psychiatry, Dr. Ashrafian realized that his passion lies with healthcare management. In his current role as Chief Medical Officer of Community Health Systems, Inc. (CHSI), he oversees the improvement and streamlining of policies, protocols, and procedures that may interfere directly or indirectly with the quality of care. Dr. Ashrafian works to enhance the quality of medical practice at CHSI, an FQHC serving the Tri-County area (Riverside, San Bernardino, and San Diego Counties). As a Champion Fellow, Dr. Ashrafian’s goal is to collaborate with the local health department and CHSI providers, and apply his management expertise in implementing upstream preventative systems throughout the Tri-County area.

Dr. Ayala grew up in Texas. He majored in Biochemistry at the University of Texas at San Antonio, then received his medical degree through New York Medical College’s Fifth Pathway program and the University of Montemorelos in Montemorelos, Mexico. After medical school, he moved to Fresno to join the UCSF-Fresno Family and Community Medicine Residency program, where he was Chief Resident.  Dr. Ayala is a family physician in Hanford and in Selma (Fresno County), a farming community where most residents are on Medi-Cal and there is a major shortage of doctors. He is Chief Medical Officer of the Adventist Health Central Valley Rural Health System, where he helped launch a Complex Chronic Care clinic in order to streamline hospital discharges, reduce re-admissions, and help establish patients with primary care medical homes throughout Adventist’s network of 27 clinics. Dr. Ayala also organizes an annual symposium for Central Valley doctors specializing in clinical updates for primary care and substance abuse.

Originally from Portland, Maine, Dr. Baird has been a primary care physician in rural Northern California for more than 40 years. For the past five years he has been the Health Officer for Humboldt County. The population that he serves includes many homeless and disabled individuals, with high rates of hepatitis C and associated drug use. Dr. Baird has held a variety of different positions: Medical Director of the Fortuna Rehabilitation and Wellness Center; past Chief of Staff and medical consultant to Redwood Memorial Hospital (Fortuna); and consultant to the California Forensic Medical Group. Additionally, Dr. Baird was a DMH-certified psychiatric quality assurance consultant for more than ten years. Since 1976 he has been a senior physician with the Humboldt Medical Group in Fortuna and Ferndale (now Open Door Community Health Clinics).  Dr. Baird is motivated to reduce the burden of chronic disease because his work with disenfranchised patients, in a geographically and culturally isolated county, has taught him to utilize creative strategies to achieve optimal health outcomes.

Dr. Baum is the Medical Director of Community Health Development for Loma Linda University Health (LLU). She currently practices at the Social Action Community Health System (SACHS), an FQHC within LLU. Dr. Baum has more than 35 years of experience serving San Bernardino County's impoverished and uninsured children. With the Healthy Neighborhoods Project (part of LLU School of Medicine), she mentors pregnant teens and at-risk adolescent boys in the local schools. Through LLU's Drayson Center, Dr. Baum has developed and directed Operation Fit for the past nine years. Operation Fit is a free healthy lifestyles summer camp for underprivileged children with limited access to health information; children are taught how to read nutrition labels and choose healthy portions. Dr. Baum has been the Physician of the Year for Abused Children in San Bernardino County. She has also been the Board President of Court Appointed Special Advocates of San Bernardino (CASASB), a nonprofit that advocates for the interests of county youth living in foster care.

Dr. Beck completed her residency with UCSF’s Pediatric Leadership for the Underserved (PLUS) program, and was also a chief resident at San Francisco General Hospital (SFGH). She subsequently completed a General Academic Pediatrics research fellowship at UCSF and joined the UCSF General Pediatrics faculty in 2014. In her capacity as a clinical researcher, Dr. Beck focuses on primary care-based interventions to prevent obesity in low-income children and also studies novel interventions for obesity treatment in underserved pediatric populations. In 2016 she received an NIH K23 career development award, which will allow her to expand her obesity prevention research program and obtain additional training in research methodology. Dr. Beck co-directs SFGH’s Healthy Lifestyles Clinic, which provides treatment for overweight and obese children. She is interested in partnering with health departments to develop systems-level interventions, address disparities in nutritional intake, and ensure access to evidence-based treatments for obesity.

Dr. Bixby is a board-certified pediatrician and neonatologist, as well as a lactation consultant. She completed her residency and fellowship at Harbor-UCLA Medical Center, where she became interested in promoting breastfeeding in underserved communities. In her practice at Children’s Hospital of Orange County (CHOC), Dr. Bixby has spoken extensively with CHOC’s network of NICUs on the benefits of breast milk and how to establish a milk supply in the NICU mother. She has conducted outreach to social workers, birth hospital nurses, and the local health department’s Perinatal Committee, lecturing on such topics as breastfeeding and diabetes, breast milk use in low birth weight infants, and cultural issues impacting the decision to breastfeed. As a Champion Fellow, Dr. Bixby will continue her close work with the local health department to effect change in her community.

Dr. Borovina grew up in San Mateo County. While obtaining her undergraduate degree from UC Davis, she worked with California Project LEAN (Leaders Encouraging Activity and Nutrition), a Sacramento-based program of the Public Health Institute which aims to advance nutrition policy in schools and early childcare settings. Thereafter, Dr. Borovina completed medical school and pediatric residency training at UCSF. Inspired by the multi-disciplinary approach of San Francisco General Hospital's Healthy Lifestyles Clinic (HLC), she started an HLC for San Mateo Medical Center in 2005. HLC-SM works with low-income patients and their families to encourage healthy lifestyles; families are also connected to resources such as CalFresh and Second Harvest Food Bank. Dr. Borovina hopes to utilize the Champion Provider Fellowship to create consistent environments in the community that promote healthy lifestyles, insure safe spaces for physical activity, and promote good dietary habits with young children, empowering them to make healthy choices as they continue to grow.

Dr. Castillo grew up in the Lincoln Heights and La Puente neighborhoods of Los Angeles and is Mexican-American. She did her pediatric residency training at Children's Hospital Los Angeles (CHLA), where she continues to work as a clinician and academic researcher. Utilizing diverse methods (including interdisciplinary, group and individual appointments), Dr. Castillo sees patients in three different obesity prevention programs at CHLA. Her research is devoted to overweight/obese children and families because growing up, she witnessed the health disparities that contribute to obesity, including the persistence of food deserts and lack of access to preventative healthcare. For eight years Dr. Castillo has worked with her research partner, Proyecto Pastoral, a grassroots community-building organization in Boyle Heights. Through Proyecto Pastoral, she successfully implemented a free obesity prevention curriculum at an early education center. Building off of the community partnerships that she has fostered in Boyle Heights, Dr. Castillo hopes to become a regional and national advocate for the improvement of child health.

Dr. Chio grew up in San Francisco. After graduating from Temple University School of Dentistry (Philadelphia) in 2008, he completed his residency in the Bronx. Dr. Chio further trained in hospital dentistry and worked in private practice until 2014, when he left New York and switched to public health dentistry at West County Health Centers. West County serves low-income communities in Guerneville, Occidental, and Sebastopol, and Dr. Chio has witnessed the costly downstream impact that obesity and poor diet can have on his patients’ dental health. He was an advisor to the Sonoma County Oral Health Strategic Plan, and has participated in the Dental Transformation Initiative Steering Committee to improve the dental health of Medi-Cal eligible children in the county. He has also provided free visits for Sonoma County families who have not seen a dentist in the past year. Dr. Chio is thrilled to join the trend of medical-dental integration among FQHCs.

Dr. Clarke's passion for medicine and service began during her freshman year of college, when she traveled to Kenya on a mission trip. After working in an orphanage for AIDS victims and a safe house for Maasai girls, Dr. Clarke decided to dedicate her career to health care promotion in underserved communities both locally and abroad.  She attended medical school at Loma Linda University (LLU) in San Bernardino, followed by residency in Cambridge, Massachusetts, where she was a Clinical Fellow in Medicine at Harvard Medical School.  In keeping with her passion for medicine and service, Dr. Clarke was recently a general internist in Guam, where her work focused on the treatment of non-communicable diseases and program coordination around healthy behavior promotion. She also organized health outreach programs in the nearby island countries of Micronesia (Pohnepei) and Palau. Dr. Clarke has since returned to her alma mater, where she is currently an Assistant Professor and practices at LLU’s affiliate FQHC, the Social Action Community Health System (SACHS). SACHS serves residents of San Bernardino County, which has one of the nation's highest rates of poverty and a prevalence of diabetes and heart disease that exceed California averages. Dr. Clarke is passionate about the effective use of lifestyle medicine and healthy behavioral change to address health disparities. Additionally, she mentors local underrepresented minority students about opportunities within the health professions.

Dr. Daniel grew up in rural Riverside County, where access to healthcare facilities can be challenging. Having experienced this challenge herself, she made it a professional goal to work with communities to improve their access to healthcare and to provide dental treatment to vulnerable populations while emphasizing preventative education. Dr. Daniel currently works for LA County, where she provides emergency dental care at MidValley Comprehensive Health Center, a safety net clinic serving residents of the San Fernando and Santa Clarita Valleys. Most of Dr. Daniel’s patients have been diagnosed with comorbidities like type 2 diabetes.  Dr. Daniel would like to expand her role as a county dentist and, by collaborating with other healthcare providers, utilize an integrative model to improve her patients’ health and help them avoid the long-term effects and out-of-pocket expenses that accompany chronic disease.

Born and raised in Petaluma, Dr. Dhanda will be entering her third year of family medicine residency at Natividad Medical Center (NMC), the Central Coast's only teaching hospital. NMC services primarily Latino patients - including many patients of indigenous backgrounds. Dr. Dhanda chose family medicine because of its emphasis on prevention. At NMC she provides culturally sensitive care to families from Salinas and throughout Monterey County. Monterey County has higher rates of childhood obesity compared to other California counties; for her community project on obesity prevention, Dr. Dhanda educates and engages with potential community collaborators like public health nurses, promotores, farmworkers, the YMCA, and high school students. Through this process, Dr. Dhanda has developed a nuanced understanding of community needs and how they can be met.

As a primary care pediatrician, Dr. DiPierro is devoted to community health and addressing the upstream causes of childhood obesity, prediabetes, and dyslipidemia. Since 2013 she has worked at Ravenswood Family Health Center (RFHC), an FQHC that serves mostly Latino and Tongan immigrants in East Palo Alto. Dr. DiPierro is eager to connect with the community in the same way she had during medical school at Brown University, and subsequent residency training at UC Davis. Time and again, the parents of Dr. DiPierro’s patients at RFHC have told her that school lunches are unhealthy, and that it’s not safe for children to play outside. Dr. DiPierro believes that community partnerships are crucial to implementing systemic change, including changing school lunch policies and making the built environment amenable to physical exercise. In addition to her clinical responsibilities, Dr. DiPierro teaches pediatric residents as an Adjunct Clinical Instructor at Stanford University.

Dr. Hessel has been a pediatrician at Marin Community Clinics for the past 13 years. Although she finds direct patient care rewarding, she understands the importance of addressing the larger issues that impact a patient's health. In her current role as lead pediatrician, Dr. Hessel collaborates with different local organizations to strengthen the safety net in Marin County which, despite its overall affluence, has many working-poor residents and one of the greatest disparities in life expectancy nationally. Dr. Hessel regularly incorporates into patient care the services of First 5 of Marin, Head Start, WIC, Novato Youth Center and Huckleberry Youth Center, Novato Spirit, Canal Alliance, the Marin Food Bank, and the public school districts. She has also been involved in countywide initiatives such as the Marin Breastfeeding Coalition, the Marin Pesticides Reduction Coalition, and the Marin Parks Prescription working group. Dr. Hessel is a member of the Marin Head Start Health Services Advisory Committee and HeadsUp San Rafael City Schools Foundation.

Dr. Hsiao was born in Taiwan and spent part of his childhood in Monrovia, Liberia, before moving to Southern California. After majoring in Political Science at UC Berkeley, he earned an MPH with an emphasis on dental health, a Juris Doctorate with a healthcare focus, and then attended dental school at UCSF, followed by general practice residency at Community Medical Centers and the VA in Fresno. Dr. Hsiao will soon be faculty at UCSF, where he has already received two research fellowships. His research topics have included dentin remineralization and oral health needs assessments of individuals with developmental disabilities. As part of the American Dental Association’s Institute of Diversity in Leadership program, Dr. Hsiao developed a project called “Good Oral Hygiene: even a 5-8 year old can do it!”, which can be viewed on YouTube. He is currently President-Elect of the Fresno Madera Dental Society, and was recently appointed to the Judicial Council of the California Dental Association. Three times a week Dr. Hsiao visits elementary schools within a 100-mile radius around Fresno, treating Medi-Cal eligible children. During the summer he sees pediatric patients from preschools, as well as adults in housing managed by the Fresno Housing Authority. He has also been involved with dental humanitarian trips to Mexico.

Dr. Johnson has lived most of her life in the northeast San Fernando Valley. After receiving her medical degree from UCLA, she did residency at Children's Hospital in Oakland, where she learned about the importance of addressing health beyond treating the acute illness. Determined to return home and give back to her community, Dr. Johnson became a pediatrician at Northeast Valley Health Corporation, the same FQHC that she visited for immunizations as a child. From 2001-2005 she was an asthma champion, collaborating with the health department to improve asthma care for pediatric patients. Dr. Johnson wants to apply her asthma champion skills to obesity prevention. Having spent her entire medical career serving low-income families, she understands that obesity is a multifaceted issue, from food scarcity to cultural beliefs about tap water. In her spare time, Dr. Johnson is active with her church. She has led youth ministry trips to Haiti, the Dominican Republic, Mexico, China, Egypt, and South Africa.

Dr. Kinman has a medical degree from Case Western Reserve University, and a PhD in Physiology and Biophysics from the University of Southern California. She is also completing her Master's in Education from Fresno State University, where she is exploring interprofessional approaches to improving adolescent health in Fresno County. Dr. Kinman is a pediatric endocrinologist at UCSF-Fresno, as well as Associate Program Director for the UCSF-Fresno Pediatrics Residency program. Due to the shortage of adult endocrinologists in Fresno County who see Medi-Cal patients, Dr. Kinman also runs the Transitional Endocrinology Clinic for patients aged 21-29. Fresno is in the heart of the Central Valley, also known as the "Appalachia of the West"; obesity and its comorbidities are extremely prevalent, and Dr. Kinman deals with its effects on a daily basis, including diabetes (types 1 and 2) and a variety of other endocrine disorders. She wants to further develop the Pediatrics Residency program's advocacy and community pediatrics curricula while continuing to build partnerships with Fresno public schools and other community agencies, creating youth change agents that will allow youth and their families to make informed decisions about behaviors that could adversely affect their health. The Pediatrics Residency program has already received a grant from the American Academy of Pediatrics, which they will utilize to expand innovative media approaches to advocacy. Through her involvement with the Fresno Unified School District and the Hospital Council Health Career Pathways Initiative Task Force, Dr. Kinman's goal is to create a Fresno County Youth Health Corps, with each Fresno County high school serving as a community-centric health hub.

Dr. Lopez has worked at La Clínica FreSalud for seven years. With four Central Coast locations, La Clínica FreSalud is one of the nation’s first privately-funded clinics for farmworkers and their dependents, providing a culturally competent approach to prevention, intervention, and maintenance healthcare. Dr. Lopez, who is of Mexican descent, knows how to relate to his patients, many of whom have diabetes and hypertension. He believes that cultural humility is the key to improving patient health literacy. Prior to attending medical school at the Autonomous University of Guadalajara (Mexico), Dr. Lopez was a chiropractor in Ventura County from 1988-2000. He has seen the obesity crisis worsen in both the United States and Mexico. He applied to be a Champion Fellow in order to obtain cutting-edge knowledge to curtail the epidemic in both countries. 

For Dr. Lott, medicine has always been intertwined with serving those in need. Prior to attending medical school at the University of Massachusetts (UMass), she was a clinic coordinator at Bread for the City, a nonprofit which provides medical care and legal services to the most disenfranchised residents of Washington, DC. At UMass, Dr. Lott was a member of the Pathway on Serving Underserved & Multicultural Populations, and she specifically sought out opportunities to serve incarcerated individuals and low-income Spanish-speaking families. After completing residency at White Memorial Medical Center in Boyle Heights, Los Angeles, Dr. Lott worked with maximum-security inmates at the Salinas Valley State Prison in Soledad (Monterey County). Currently, she is a family physician and site medical director at Santa Cruz Community Health Centers (specifically, East Cliff Family Health Center). Dr. Lott continues to look for opportunities to partner with the Santa Cruz community and revolutionize how primary care is delivered.

A pediatric dentist with a public health background, Dr. McCreedy is enthusiastic about nutrition and preventing dental caries. She has an MPH from UCLA, where she also went to dental school. Her MPH project was titled: "Creating a Service-Learning Curriculum and Partnership Between the UCLA School of Dentistry and the San Fernando Community Health Center," with the goal being to impact community dental health on a broad scale through outreach. As an Assistant Clinical Professor at UCLA, Dr. McCreedy mentored future dental educators and enhanced preclinical dental education, in order to prepare all UCLA graduates for high-quality, compassionate care for low-income pediatric patients. She relocated to the Bay Area in 2015 and currently practices at Los Gatos Pediatric Dentistry. Dr. McCreedy is interested in transferring her community health academic and mentorship skills toward promoting PSE changes centered on child obesity prevention.

Dr. Meyer attended medical school and residency at Nova Southeastern University and Broward Health Medical Center, respectively, in South Florida, where she worked with many underserved patients from the Caribbean. The time that she spent in South Florida catalyzed her interest in pediatrics and advocacy. Dr. Meyer currently works in Merced, which has disproportionately high rates of poverty and food insecurity. She has a wealth of experience working at youth diabetes camps and providing nutrition and sex ed lessons at schools. With so many adult diseases stemming from childhood (including poor diet and lack of exercise), Dr. Meyer is committed to working with families, schools, and policymakers, to prevent chronic disease and advocate for her patients.

Dr. Nazeri was born in Iran and raised in Orange County after her family received refugee status and immigrated to Santa Ana, where they opened a business. Her interest in the dental field began during high school, when she worked as a dental assistant. Dr. Nazeri graduated from the University of Southern California, School of Dentistry, and returned to Santa Ana to start her own practice. A vegetarian, and then vegan, for most of her adult life, Dr. Nazeri follows a plant-based diet and is an advocate of proper nutrition. Community members come to physicians and dentists for guidance, and Dr. Nazeri believes it is her duty to partner with patients and educate them about the benefits of healthy eating, as well as options and alternatives to cultural norms. Dr. Nazeri frequently volunteers at local health fairs and is active with the Chava’s Angels at Heart Foundation, teaching elementary schoolchildren about proper oral hygiene. She is a member of the California Dental Association, the American Dental Association, the Orange County Dental Society, and the Orange County Women’s Dental Society.

Dr. Newens is a 1995 graduate of the University of Pacific School of Dentistry. In addition to working in private practice in Carmichael, he served in the US Army for eight years and has worked at different FQHCs in Yolo County. Dr. Newens is currently a clinical instructor at the Carrington College School of Dental Hygiene. A subject matter expert/examiner for the Dental Board of California, as well as a member of the California Dental Association, Dr. Newens is very active with CDA health fairs. He also takes part in pediatric dental screenings throughout the San Juan Unified School District, which serves cities such as Carmichael and Fair Oaks. Dr. Newens maintains a professional website at www.drnewens.com.

The Asian-American daughter of immigrants from Hong Kong, Dr. Ng is a pediatrician practicing at the Chinese Hospital Community Clinics. She cares for families of Chinese, Filipino, Caucasian, African-American and Arab descent in San Francisco and Daly City. Recently Dr. Ng became a child health advocate with CavityFree SF, a project of the San Francisco Health Improvement Partnership (SF HIP). With CavityFree SF, she helps integrate oral health education and fluoride varnish application into the daily care of pediatric patients at the level of the primary care medical home. Dr. Ng trains Chinatown private pediatricians to incorporate teaching parents and grandparents about the importance of caring for baby teeth. The project’s ultimate goal is to prevent the long-term consequences of untreated pediatric dental caries, including pain, poor nutrition, and school absences, as well as predisposition to gum disease. Dr. Ng’s efforts have focused around San Francisco’s Chinatown community because Chinatown has the city’s largest burden of dental caries; nearly 50% of kindergarteners there already have tooth decay. The reasons for this disparity are numerous and still being studied, but may include traditional myths about the temporary nature of baby teeth; families' reluctance toward drinking tap water (which, in San Francisco, contains fluoride); and the challenges of finding a dental home within a specific insurance plan who is a language match. As a Champion Fellow, Dr. Ng hopes to build upon her public health knowledge and become a stronger advocate for CavityFree SF.

Dr. Nicolas grew up in the Philippines, where she went to medical school. In the Philippines she worked with the Dengue Prevention Program, as well as Maternal and Child Health Care, with the City of Las Pinas (near Manila). After medical school, Dr. Nicolas moved to Cleveland, Ohio, to complete her residency at St. Vincent Charity Medical Center. Having trained in charity hospitals and worked with impoverished patients, she is interested in health education and behavioral health issues. At Rubidoux Family Care Clinic, Dr. Nicolas is involved in a behavioral health-complex care initiative to improve patient wellbeing as it intersects with chronic disease and psychosocial health. She aims to use the Champion Provider Fellowship to improve the education she provides to patients, and to bring obesity awareness to public officials, school officials, and health insurance executives.

Since 2003 Dr. Pendurkar has been a dentist at Gardner Health Services, an FQHC in the heart of downtown San Jose. She is committed to improving access to care and the overall health of her patients, and has successfully advocated for the fluoridation of San Jose's drinking water. Dr. Pendurkar is part of the county's Coalition Against Sugar-Sweetened Beverages. She is a member of the Board of Directors at the Santa Clara County Dental Society, and a delegate to both the California Dental Association and the American Dental Association. Dr. Pendurkar supervises residents as an Adjunct Clinical Faculty at NYU's Lutheran Medical Center Advanced Education in General Dentistry (AEGD) program, and has been appointed as a site visitor for AEGD programs by the Commission on Dental Accreditation. Furthermore, as Adjunct Clinical Faculty for AT Still University, she supervises fourth-year dental students during their externship program in San Jose. Prior to completing the Certificate in Dental Education at the University of Pacific and the Academy for Academic Leadership, Dr. Pendurkar earned an MPH (specializing in International Health Epidemiology) from Emory University, after which she worked at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in Atlanta. She is a member of Global Dental Ambassadors and has presented internationally on the importance of public health dentistry. 

Originally from Manchester, England, Dr. Rawlinson was motivated to become a physician and proponent of healthy lifestyles after his father, who had been overweight, suffered a massive heart attack at aged 47. Dr. Rawlinson completed medical school at the University of Leeds (UK), then did residency and fellowship in sports medicine at London Hospital Medical College (now Barts and the London School of Medicine and Dentistry). Prior to joining California Pacific Orthopaedics in 2002, he had been a Team Physician in the following capacities: at UC Berkeley (in their Sports Medicine Department), for the Great Britain Squad at the 2001 World University Games in Beijing, and for Team England at the 2002 Commonwealth Games in the UK.  In addition to practicing medicine, Dr. Rawlinson is the Chief Medical Officer at the Burlingame-based Obeo Health. The Obeo platform combines advanced prescriptive analytics and personal health data to give employees more transparency and control, thus helping them objectively evaluate, manage and understand their healthcare needs.  Dr. Rawlinson was also the medical advisor for Reboot with Joe (the online community for the film Fat Sick and Nearly Dead). He aims to harness his different skill sets and go beyond one-on-one patient education, by advocating for such PSE obesity prevention measures as rewriting insurance policies, rezoning fast food outlets, and restricting unhealthy food advertisements.

A board-certified endocrinologist, Dr. Samoa was drawn to the field because he is in interested in the hormonal pathways that cause metabolic disease.  As an Assistant Clinical Professor at City of Hope Medical Center (a comprehensive cancer center in Duarte), Dr. Samoa's current research projects range from developing personalized pathways to reduce insulin resistance as a means to manage/prevent chronic disease, to investigating connections between diseases such as diabetes, cancer and heart disease. In the future, he would like to evaluate the populations of Samoa, American Samoa, and the western United States, in determining the effects of modifying risk factors for chronic disease by leveraging culture to change decision-determining environmental variables. As a Champion Fellow, Dr. Samoa aims to learn from other providers outside of his field to influence diabetes outreach, public messaging, and health policy. In addition to his work at City of Hope, he frequently collaborates with faith-based organizations to deliver lifestyle modification programs to low-income communities.

Dr. Santibáñez was born and raised in Mexico City, where she received her medical degree at Universidad La Salle. As a physician in both urban and rural Mexico, Dr. Santibáñez noticed that the most common problems afflicting her patients were obesity and diabetes. She decided to further explore the root causes of and upstream solutions to chronic disease, and so earned an MS in Nutrition and an MPH specializing in Epidemiology. Dr. Santibáñez is an epidemiologist with the Office of Binational Border Health and a professor at San Diego State University’s Graduate School of Public Health, where she mentors students in developing outreach projects to farmworkers in Baja California. Dr. Santibáñez aims to be the Champion liaison between the Childhood Obesity Initiative in San Diego, and the Latino and binational communities that she serves. She is committed to issues of food security, food access, community empowerment, and environmental change. With the Office of Binational Border Health, Dr. Santibáñez leads nutrition and physical activity initiatives including the “5-2-1-0 Cross the Border” project, with the goal of developing the same healthy messages in both San Diego and Tijuana. The project was a success and other border Mexican states (like Chihuahua) currently want to replicate it

An East Coast native, Dr. Siegel’s father was a dedicated gastroenterologist at Johns Hopkins University. The early death of his father gave Dr. Siegel empathy for the losses of others, and inspired him to become a family physician serving vulnerable communities. Since 1999 he has worked at Contra Costa Health Services in Richmond and San Pablo, where he has gone beyond the clinic walls to support the social determinants of his patients’ health. Dr. Siegel has led a Medical-Legal Partnership at the clinic and helped start an on-site Farmers’ Market. He created and piloted the curriculum for the county’s Active & Healthy Families (AHF) program, a culturally and linguistically tailored obesity prevention initiative for Latino children ages 5-12. AHF utilizes a successful model of group visits led by a triad of a physician, dietitian, and community health worker. Dr. Siegel currently directs the county’s Art of Health & Healing program, which utilizes different art modalities for healing patients, staff, and community members through expressive arts therapy and healing environments.

After graduating from Tufts Dental School, Dr. Sethi has focused her career on serving patients from a variety of cultural and socioeconomic backgrounds. Currently, she is helping lead the expansion of dental services via mobile vans. She also provides dental care at school-based and community clinics. 

Dr. Shaw was born and raised in Calistoga (Napa County), where the local economy is based largely on agriculture and hospitality. Many of Dr. Shaw’s lifelong friends and neighbors were Latino immigrants. After receiving her medical degree at UC San Diego and doing residency in Ventura County, she returned to the Napa Valley to work at a community health center. Dr. Shaw continues to practice in the North Bay; her career is motivated by social justice and “small town values,” which include staying engaged and accountable to the community in which she lives. Since 2012, Dr. Shaw has helped develop many systems within Marin Community Clinics to provide more effective chronic disease management to patients. These include the creation of patient-centered care teams, as well as enhanced support around transitions of care (from the hospital and ER). Dr. Shaw applied to be a Champion Fellow in order to reduce Marin County’s health disparities (among the widest in California) and promote early interventions for children and their families.

Dr. Stafford has a BA in Anthropology from the University of Southern California, and obtained her medical degree from the University of Minnesota in 1999. She did her general surgery internship at Mount Sinai Medical Center in New York, where she was on trauma call during the events of 9/11. Dr. Stafford is in the process of earning a Master’s in Public Administration from USC. She wants to focus her medical career on public policy because policies have the potential to save lives en masse. As a primary care and addiction medicine physician, Dr. Stafford wants to apply her intersectional knowledge of healthcare, public policy, and the legal system in curbing the rise of chronic disease. As a Champion Fellow based out of Lemoore (an agricultural community where nearly one in five people live in poverty), she will work with Central Valley communities to ensure increased access to primary care, and to campaign for preventative healthcare policies.

A foreign medical graduate from Ciudad Juarez, Mexico, Dr. Tristan did her pediatric residency at Brackenridge Hospital/Children’s Hospital of Austin (Texas). She has lived in Imperial County for 17 years where, through close collaboration with the local health department, she has provided nutrition education to children who attend the Wellness 4 Kids program in Calexico. Wellness 4 Kids offers nutrition and physical activity services to children ages 2-18 with a BMI > 85%. Dr. Tristan is currently the program’s Medical Director. Besides chronic disease, Calexico and neighboring Mexicali – in fact, much of the Imperial Valley – have very high levels of air pollution. Dr. Tristan’s areas of interest, therefore, include pediatric asthma and obesity. In addition to Wellness 4 Kids, she has worked with the Imperial Valley Child Asthma Program at El Centro Regional Medical Center.

Dr. Zweifler is a family physician with more than 30 years of experience in medical leadership and education, as well as clinical practice caring for rural and underserved populations. He is currently Regional Medical Director for Adventist Health Plan for Kings County. Previous positions included Chief Medical Officer for Adventist Health Community Care, which has more than 600,000 annual patient visits in Fresno, Kern, and Tulare Counties; Deputy Medical Executive for the California Department of Corrections; Director of UCSF-Fresno's Family and Community Medicine Residency program; and a member of Fresno State University's MPH Program Advisory Board. In his present position, Dr. Zweifler is working closely with community agencies to better manage Adventist's Medi-Cal population. Kings County has already made advancements in team-based and population health approaches to primary care, and Dr. Zweifler is excited to acquire the Champion skills to further these developments.

Dr. Aguirre works with Fiesta Educativa, which is a parent driven support group for Spanish speaking parents of children with special needs. As a Champion Provider, he will use his experience in pediatrics, taking care of kids with obesity, bringing attention to this dilemma and possible strategies to help improve their overall health.

As past president of the Association of Black Female Physicians, Dr. Alexander has partnered with local churches and other community based non-profits to target underserved populations. Dr. Alexander’s passion is integrative health and wellness with a focus on nutrition to reduce obesity.

Dr. Tomás Aragón is the Health Officer of the City and County of San Francisco, and Director of the Population Health Division (PHD) at the San Francisco Department of Public Health. As Health Officer, he exercises leadership and legal authority to protect and promote health and equity. As PHD director, he directs public health services. He teaches epidemiologic computing at the UC Berkeley School of Public Health, and is interested in health leadership, organizational performance, and health equity. He maintains a not-for-profit public health blog at http://medepi.com.

Dr. Borzutzky has provided continuing medical education to the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health and direct medical services at school based health centers in two Los Angeles Unified School District high schools. She is passionate for adolescent medicine and health care and has expertise in nutrition, obesity, diabetes and sexual health.

Dr. Cantrell is currently on the board of the San Diego Childhood Obesity Initiative and President of the American Academy of Pediatrics in San Diego. She specializes in childhood obesity and has created a childrens fitness and nutrition DVD, Jumpstart Your Health, and co-founded KFIT, LLC, to provide information to parents and children. Dr. Cantrell is the Pediatric Obesity Champion for Kaiser Permanente San Diego.

Dr. Charles directs the Pediatric Healthy Lifestyle Center in Santa Clara County which treats obese and overweight children and teens. She is very active in the community and works with a variety of other community organizations, including the Second Harvest Food Bank, both Santa Clara County and San Jose Parks and Recreation departments, the East Valley YWCA to offer discounted memberships and Turning Wheels for Kids to offer new bikes to patients who don’t have bikes. She is very interested in a more collaborative approach to fighting the obesity epidemic. Two years ago her family was awarded the "La Familia" award for excellence in commitment and service to the community by the Hispanic Foundation of Silicon Valley.

Dr. Chou focuses on preventive medicine. She works with Spanish speaking community health workers advocating for pediatric obesity programs. She also works with the family medicine residency at Contra Costa Regional Medical Center, precepts the residents in family medicine clinic and helps coordinate the residents’ pediatric training.

Prior to medical school, Dr. Chu worked in cancer research and emergency medical services. She is a family practice physician who enjoys pediatric and adolescent medicine. She also has teaching experience and is committed to working with underserved populations.

Dr. Crummer has experience working in a corporate medical practice and community health. He has worked with the Health Improvement Partnership and the Pediatric Vision Group in Santa Cruz. Previously he worked with Indian Health Council, Inc. which served a consortium of nine Indian Tribes in San Diego County. He has undergraduate and graduate degrees in Music Performance and Music Education from Eastman School of Music of the University of Rochester, and also experience researching auditory neurophysiology and the neuroscience of music cognition at the University of Rochester, School of Medicine.

Dr. Davies is a child, adolescent, and adult psychiatrist. She has extensive experience working with the media and has a column in the San Francisco Chronicle. She was also on President Obama's Health Care Policy Team as the co-director of the Critical Response team. She has worked with Doctors for America since 2007 and has been a community advocate since medical school. She has advocated for accessibility of health care and insurance for the underserved for years and is passionate about destigmatizing mental illness.

For the past eight years, Dr. Diamond’s practice has been 60 percent general primary care, mainly adults, and about 40 percent patients with liver disease. Until November 2013 she taught family medicine at the Contra Costa County Residency. She retired in 2013 with the intent of changing careers, and has since starting working with Lifelong Medical Care, an FQHC community clinic network, where she plans to continue both primary care and liver care. She is interested in collaborative community education and in the 1990's did a great deal of education around HIV.

A 2015 graduate of UCSF's Pediatric Leadership for the Underserved residency program (PLUS), Dr. Duvall has spent the last three years working with the San Francisco Department of Public Health, the San Francisco Unified School District and the non-profit Playworks to help better understand the link between physical activity, academic performance, and classroom behavior. The ultimate goal is to influence policy makers at the school district, city, and state level to increase support for funding physical activity and education in schools. She also took a year off from medical school to work with Physicians for Social Responsibility.

Dr. Friedman works with low-income patients in South Los Angeles trying to stem the obesity and diabetes epidemics. He is especially interested in activating community groups to advocate for better health.

Dr. Goh is the Health Officer for the Pasadena Public Health Department. Previously, she ran the diabetes care management program and pediatric obesity interventions for the Pasadena Public Health Department. Throughout her professional and community life she has worked on programs and initiatives that reduce the health burdens caused by obesity.

Dr. Goore is active in her community on behalf of children. She has been Chief of Medical Education for the Sacramento Valley for the past six years, chair of the outpatient pediatric education committee for Northern CA Kaiser Permanente and is on the National Committee on Continuing Medical Education for the American Association of Pediatrics (AAP) as well as President for AAP Chapter 1. She is very involved in Court Appointed Special Advocates (CASA), We Help Youth (WHY), and other foster care collaboratives, as well as helping pediatricians address resource scarcity, especially food scarcity, among their patients.

Dr. Kanani has merged her interest in primary care and HIV care in her two positions at La Clínica de la Raza and UCSF. She is passionate about reducing health inequities and addressing the root causes of diabetes, high blood pressure and obesity, diseases and conditions that over 70 percent of her patients struggle with.

As Medical Director for the Ventura County Health Care Agency, Dr. Lambing’s primary role is to educate and serve as a resource for all of the Agency’s Divisions and all of their community partners, including the local school districts, Ventura County Healthy Eating Active Living collaborative, seniors’, youth and homeless organizations. She is an experienced medical speaker and educator but looks forward to delivering strong health messages to wider audiences, especially the media.

Dr. Lee serves as a Clinic Preceptor at the Don Schroeder Rubidoux Family Care Center. In addition to teaching resident physicians, Dr. Lee serves as a Lead Physician for the Student Health Coach Program, and is part of the Mental Health / Primary Care Integration project at Rubidoux. Dr. Lee is a graduate of the RCRMC Family Medicine Residency Program.

Since she opened her practice in 1999, the majority of Dr. Leed’s patients have been on Medi-Cal and Medicare. She always promotes smoking cessation, exercise and preventative health, even getting some of her patients to grow their own food.

Dr. Leung serves as Chair of the Family Medicine Department.  Dr. Leung is a former residency program director, and his interests include Ambulatory Care, Public Health, Patient Education, and Health Care Policy.  He is passionate about improving care for underserved populations.  Dr. Leung has served on the Committee on Continuing Professional Development for the California Academy of Family Physicians since 2004.

Dr. Macias practices general pediatrics in both San Luis Obispo, and Templeton California. He and his group have a large Medi-Cal practice. He deals with obesity on a daily basis and wants to increase resources to help them. He has also been involved with feeding the homeless and Get On the Bus, a program that helps children visit the local prison to meet with their fathers, sometimes for the first time.

The majority of Dr. Mahajan’s patients are on Medicare and come to her clinic with medical problems due to heart disease, diabetes and obesity. She is looking forward to expanding her volunteer work with community based organizations in Los Angeles county.

Dr. Mbanugo sees many low-income and underserved patients in her work with the Contra Costa Regional Medical Center and out-patient health clinics. For the past twenty plus years she’s worked in women’s health, urgent care and dermatology. She also sees first-hand the effects of the exploding obesity trend.

Dr. Mead is a family practice physician working as a Medical Director for a small community clinic. She is passionate about expanding access to quality, affordable healthcare. She is a founding member of the Pediatric Vision Group and is an active member of the community's Safety Net Coalition who regularly meets with Medical Directors of other Safety Net clinics.

Dr. Mendoza-Levy’s parents were raised as farm workers traveling up and down California. She was the first in her mother's family to attend college and was the first Mexican-American female to complete studies at the University of  Southern California School of Medicine. She works with immigrants and the underserved. As a diabetic herself she wants to help her patients avoid or manage the disease. She is active on several community collaboratives, including being a board member of Youth Alliance, an organization that provides after-school programs in south Santa Clara county and provides services to juveniles on probation and teen parents.

Dr. Keyla Monterrey has served as the Physician-in-Charge at the Riverside County Perris Family Care Center since 2007. Dr. Monterrey is passionate about healthy eating and active living, and she recently implemented a popular year- long “Biggest Loser” weight management program at her clinic. Dr. Monterrey completed her training in Family Medicine at the Riverside County Regional Medical Center and graduated from medical school in Nicaragua. She is still inspired by her year-long social service work in rural Nicaragua where she witnessed the enormous impact that community education can have upon the health of a population. She would like to impact her community in the City of Perris and County of Riverside in the same way.

For the past thirty-two years Dr. Naz has provided medical care to immigrant and low-income patients. He is very active in his community and is currently president-elect for the Madera Community Hospital medical staff, a past member of the Board of Governors Fresno-Madera medical society, a physician provider for the Childhood Obesity Pilot Project in Madera, and commissioner for the First 5 Commission.

Dr. Nelson has been a dentist since 1981 and is a past-president of the Northern California Dental Society. His true passion is teaching people how to take control of their health. For oral health this used to mean brushing and flossing but  today includes diet, nutrition, and sleep apnea as well.

Dr. Nunez is deeply committed to serving diverse communities by providing compassionate, high quality clinical care and through participation in public health partnerships that promote community health. His unique skills involve sensitively addressing issues related to cultural and language diversity, limited resources and barriers to care. In addition to being a board certified pediatrician he is also a public health professional with broad experience in direct patient care, public health program administration, and child health advocacy.  He works closely with many diverse community stakeholders and serves on advisory committees to address local priorities including promotion of breastfeeding, childhood immunizations, and early childhood learning, overall health and development.

Dr. Rau runs a weight management clinic that has helped more than 1000 patients get healthier in the last five years. Many patients’ lives have been so impacted by the program that they have been able to discontinue the use of medications. On weekends, she helps medical students administer Stanford Free Clinics in Menlo Park and San Jose. She is also a Communications Consultant who helps medical center physicians and staff improve communication with diverse populations and develop initiatives that meet their unique needs. She is the Physician Chair of the Wellbeing Committee to help impaired, stressed, or ill physicians get help as well.

Dr. Reyes has dedicated ten years to public health and teaching as a volunteer restorative faculty at UCSF. His expertise includes working with the geriatric population, children, and adults with virtually every kind of financial or lifestyle challenge you can imagine. He was born and raised in Nicaragua and comes from a poor disadvantaged family that struggled to overcome the economic and political challenges of day-to-day Nicaraguan life. Nonetheless, his childhood experiences inform his mission today as he addresses the needs of underserved communities where he lives. As the operations officer of La Clínica de la Raza for eight years he witnessed first-hand the value of healthy eating education, dental hygiene and regular dental visits in the prevention of dental disease.

Dr. Rieux leads a successful private practice in Beverly Hills and is an active member of Cedar Sinai Medical Center. With over twenty years of experience she has developed a passion for preventing, controlling and educating people on cardiovascular diseases. She currently works with elementary schools in the Los Angeles area to prevent childhood obesity.

Dr. Robinson is an Associate Professor of Clinical Family Medicine and the Vice Chair for Clinical Affairs within the Department of Family Medicine at the University of California, Keck School of Medicine. Prior to her appointment at USC, she practiced family medicine at ChapCare Health Care Services and also served as the Medical Director of The Saban Free clinic. She cares deeply about obesity prevention and feels that we can prevent much suffering if we can effectively address this issue. Dr. Robinson has worked with Dr. Goh at the Pasadena Public Health Department on an obesity prevention project working to develop a co-location model at the Hollywood Wiltshire Health Center. Dr. Robinson is also chair of the wellness committee at her children's school where they are working to promote healthier celebrations and a culture that supports healthy eating and physical activity.

Dr. Scott is a teaching family physician at a semi-rural federally qualified health center. She works with low-income patients and teaches other physicians how to do the same. She is very passionate about full-spectrum reproductive health and what she calls "food advocacy." She has developed a novel curriculum/rotation for interns in Family Medicine to explore the impacts of the food environment and food production on human health, the environment and human rights. In her clinical practice, she engages patients about their food history, and asks questions about food insecurity, food and cooking knowledge, as well as social, financial and health-related constraints on eating a healthy diet. She believes that it is important for physicians to know about how food is grown and about the forces that drive what food is available to us and our patients.  She is also an avid bicycle rider and walker, and spends time thinking about the built environment and how it impacts people's ability to exercise in their day to day life.

Dr. Sheikh has extensive experience working with infants and children, and has witnessed the rise of the obesity epidemic first-hand. She provides obesity prevention information to her patients and has worked with the California Medical Association on an obesity prevention tool kit. She has also chaired or worked with obesity prevention work-groups in Fresno and Madera. She is currently working on a pilot project to help overweight and obese kids from the ages of 2 to 12 years-old.

Dr. Shetzline was trained and educated in the south New Jersey-Philadelphia area. She has practiced in a rural underserved California Community for fifteen years. She enjoys preventative care and is inspired to keep the patient population out of the hospital. She believes in vaccination as a tool to attain that goal but often finds cost is a big issue within the predominantly geriatric community that she serves.

Dr. Shidara has been a community dentist for Contra Costa County Health Services for six years and previously served as a dental practitioner in Japan. She provides dental care to developmentally disabled patients in her clinic or in the hospital setting, and meets the needs of disadvantaged patients through county homelessness projects. She is inspired by the selfless work of hospital doctors and the hugs of patients.

Dr. Sikic has spent the last three years working in the Pediatric Healthy Lifestyle Center of Santa Clara County, which provides family-centered, community- based care to low income children and teens with metabolic disorders and obesity. The Center also works closely with community and government organizations to identify physical activity and nutrition resources for patients. Dr. Sikic has worked on the issue of childhood obesity for over a decade. He was drawn to pediatrics because of the power of prevention and the idea that a healthy, happy childhood will allow kids to grow up to fulfill their potential. His goal is to help patients and families develop an understanding of what habits they can form to achieve good physical health, better performance in school and better mental well-being. He is inspired by watching patients become healthier and succeed and reach their goals in life.

Dr. Taylor Lucas is the Assistant Clinical Professor at the University of California, Irvine (UCI). Her position is funded by the Children and Families Commission of Orange County, for which she serves as a consultant on the topic of early childhood obesity prevention practices and policies, assists with existing obesity prevention programs and identifies evidence-based practices for physicians and health care providers. She believes that behavior change is sustained by community based initiatives, partnerships, and policies that promote a culture of health. She also currently works with preschools in the Anaheim City School District to address the health needs of children with obesity and provide parent  education on healthy behaviors. Moreover, she is collaborating with the director of the UCI Health Scholars Program to develop the pediatric "HAPPY" volunteer program (Health and Activity Programs Promoted by Youth), in which undergraduates are taught to promote healthy behaviors including active play for children.

Dr. Walker is currently an Assistant Clinical Professor and faculty member at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA in the Department of Pediatrics and Division of Neonatology. She is a Fellow in the American Academy of Pediatrics and an American Board of Pediatrics certified Neonatologist. Her career interests are focused on optimizing maternal-child health for local and international communities. She is extremely passionate about engaging her local community as well as the global community, previously serving on the board of directors for a nonprofit organization called Village Life Outreach Project, Inc. This organization’s mission is to provide Life, Health and Education to impoverished villages in Tanzania. She also advocated for the creation of a LEED-certified medical clinic building in the remote region in collaboration with local Tanzanian engineers and architects at the University of Cincinnati. She has also volunteered medical services in the countries of Haiti, India, and Guatemala. She is the president for the Association of Black Women Physicians and guides the nonprofit organization's work in traditionally underserved communities to decrease healthcare disparities.

Dr. Ward currently collaborates with her local health department to better identify and treat pediatric overweight and obese patients. One of her career goals involves collaborating with communities to achieve sustained healthy outcomes. She completed a one-year research fellowship through the Kellogg Foundation Community Health Scholars Program, designed to introduce public health researchers to the process of community-based participatory research. As a Community Health Scholar, she completed a formative evaluation of a     school community through the use of focus group discussions and surveys of students, faculty, administration, and food services personnel. As a result of her extensive experience working with Latino and African-American populations,  she has developed culturally relevant and effective treatment intervention materials and has learned to modify programs to enhance their portability to ethnic minority populations.

After obtaining an MPH in 2000, Dr. Willis chose an Internal Medicine Residency at Cambridge Hospital, a community based primary care program. As a clinical instructor he was able to teach medical students and new doctors how diseases treated on the wards often represented failures of public health efforts to prevent disease. He then began a six year career in the U.S. Public Health Service. From 2005-2009, he served in the Indian Health Service on the Navajo reservation. He worked to improve systems of care for the Fort Defiance Service Unit as Director of Ambulatory Care, and served for two years in the CDC’s Epidemic Intelligence Service conducting research on tuberculosis and HIV in the United States, Rwanda, India and Kazakhstan. He also helped develop the disease surveillance system in post-earthquake Haiti. His experiences as a primary care provider and his respect for using data to set public health priorities have both drawn him to address the epidemic of preventable chronic disease. He sees the obesity and diabetes epidemic as the leading health equity issue of our time.

As the Co-Chair of the San Diego Childhood Obesity Initiative (COI), Dr. Wood has both created projects from the ground up (e.g., Power Up for Sports, Health Toolkit and Physician’s Advocacy Menu) and has been involved in learning about other community projects under the COI umbrella. She has been involved with the subject of pediatric obesity through research and publications with San Diego State University and the Research Foundation (MOVE project). She was recently selected to be on the American Academy of Pediatrics Steering Committee for the Institute of Healthy Childhood Weight. At the primary care level, she derives inspiration from working with kids and families who are nutritionally challenged. Her goals include engaging healthcare professionals on how to improve the primary care model and teach physicians how to collaborate with their environment to make the healthy choice the easy and available choice.