Healthy Food and Beverage Standards

Dr. Lyra Ng

Lyra Ng attended a community briefing on oral health even though she’s a pediatrician, not a dentist. That chance meeting changed the focus of her medical practice and gave her a new passion.

“My mind was blown to find out that nearly half of the children 0 to 5 years old living in San Francisco’s Chinatown had dental caries, compared to 15 percent for white children,” says Ng, who works at Chinese Hospital.

Raymond Lopez, Jr., MD

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.

Edward Chio, DMD

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.

Rachel Borovina, MD

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.

Lyra Ng, MD, MPH

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.

Camille Clarke, MD

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.

Charles Newens, DDS

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.

Maryam Nazeri, DDS

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.

Christine Bixby, MD

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.

Kanta Dhanda, DO

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.