Public Health Alumni Association board members attend the October 15, 2019 Scholarship Tea. From left to right: Bo Chung MPH/MCP ’18, Sarah Ismail MPH ’11, Zahwa Amad PhD ’92, MA ’84, Lila Sheira MPH ’15 and 2nd year student representative, Gathenji Njoroge (not pictured, Bob Frangenberg MPH ’78).
Alice Chu PhD, MBA, MPH ’19
Co-president
Alice Chu is Director of Market Access and Medical Marketing, Asia Pacific, for Glaukos Corporation, a U.S. ophthalmic medical technology and pharmaceutical company focused on transforming the standards of care in treating chronic eye diseases with novel therapies in glaucoma, corneal disorders, and retinal diseases. Her roles include improving patient access to the company’s innovations based on clinical and economic evidence demonstrating value for money to governments, payers, and hospital administrators, and advancing clinical evidence in the Asia Pacific region. Before Glaukos, Alice was involved in health policy and market access efforts at Boston Scientific and Johnson & Johnson Medical at the Southeast Asian and regional levels. She has worked in various healthcare-related enterprises in the United States, such as medical communications and professional education. Alice received her Ph.D. in Molecular and Biochemical Nutrition and Master of Public Health from the University of California, Berkeley. She also holds a Master of Business Administration from Singapore Management University. Alice is also Vice-Chair, Market Access, for APACMed, a medtech industry association.
Francesca Lomotan MPH ’17, BA
Co-president
Francesca earned her MPH degree through the Online MPH program. She also has a BA in Public Health Policy and a BA in Psychology & Social Behavior from UC Irvine. She is the Tobacco Prevention Program Director at San Mateo County Health, a local health department. Francesca is the Founder of Bay Area Public Health, a blog and social media project that aims to build bridges within the San Francisco Bay Area public health community. She is also an Advisory Board Member for the Filipino Mental Health Initiative in San Mateo County.
Janet Leader MPH ’83
Vice President
Janet Leader has an MPH in Public Health Nutrition, and is a registered dietitian nutritionist. She is the retired Nutrition Strategy and Education Director for the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA, and Lecturer and Associate Director of Field Studies in the Department of Community Health Sciences at the UCLA Fielding School of Public Health. In that capacity she developed and taught classes to undergraduate and nursing, medical, dental and public health students. In addition, she conducted research in public health nutrition programs and mentored future public health and dietetics practitioners.
While the Director of Services at Second Harvest Food Bank of Silicon Valley, she directed a 2-county nutrition education project to change nutrition behaviors of over 50,000 food bank clients through a USDA SNAP-Ed grant and provided consultation to the national Feeding America organization. She collaborated with the Stanford Prevention Research Program to develop a medical school course to train multi-lingual Health Ambassadors to work at the food bank. As Project Director at the Stanford School of Medicine, she directed a pilot nutrition and physical activity intervention to reduce child obesity. Ms. Leader was the Director of the six-county Bay Area Nutrition and Physical Activity Collaborative working to address health inequities and policies in the Bay Area. In Seattle, she directed the dietetics internship program at the University of Washington. Prior to that, she developed a dietetic internship program at Sea Mar Community Health Center to offer opportunities for Spanish-speaking nutrition students to serve the Latino community. She worked in cancer prevention at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center and the American Cancer Society. In addition, Ms. Leader taught health and nutrition as a Peace Corps volunteer in Cameroon.
On a personal note, she is on the board of Breathe SoCal and is a docent at the Getty Center. She is the proud mother of two and grandmother of two, and lives with her husband, Clarence Braddock, in West Los Angeles.
John Bodtker MPH ’21, PharmD, BS
Secretary
Graduating in 2021 from the Online MPH program, John also has a BS in Chemistry from UC Davis. After working as a small-drug research chemist, John earned his PharmD at the University of The Pacific’s Thomas J. Long School of Pharmacy. John has designed and outfitted two pharmacies, including a start-up, served as department director and chief pharmacist, and negotiated large federal contracts for generic pharmaceuticals with an 8(a) certified disadvantaged Native enterprise.
John has worked in many of California’s remote, rural communities and Native American reservations and is a lifelong rural California resident. Aside from value and cost-based pharmaceutical pricing, John has a particular interest in addressing health inequities experienced among remote rural, Native, and migratory communities. Some of John’s current projects include launching a digital chronic care management platform at an accountable care organization (founded by a Berkeley School of Public Health Alum), cost and value-based pharmaceutical pricing research, and serves on the board of directors for a Florida-based 501(c)(3) non-profit.
John enjoys kayaking and paddle-boarding in the Sierras with his kids (and Yorkie), helping his wife with her real estate business, and playing upright and electric bass in an Americana-inspired band.
Sofia Andrade MPH ’18, BA
Communications chair
Sofia is passionate about reducing health disparities and increasing access to high-quality healthcare for underserved communities. She holds an MPH in Health Policy and Management from the University of California, Berkeley, and BA in International Studies from the University of San Francisco. Sofia completed an Administrative Fellowship at Dignity Health, now CommonSpirit Health, and had the opportunity to work with and learn from executive leadership in Human Resources and Community Health. Sofia serves as a Workforce Development Program Manager at CommonSpirit Health, building pipelines for underrepresented communities to enter into the healthcare workforce. Prior to graduate school, Sofia worked in the California State Legislature as a Legislative Aide. In her spare time, Sofia enjoys traveling, cooking, and spending time with her family and friends.
Riya Suising MPH ’20, MS, BS
Membership Chair
Riya received her MPH degree from the Online MPH program with a concentration in Health Policy & Management. Riya has worked in various software, technology, and business positions in Silicon Valley companies since 1988. Since 2010, Riya shifted her career to focus on health and fitness and has become a strong advocate for LGBTQ communities, confronting social determinants of health, becoming active in political reform, and pursuing social justice through influence and education. Prior to Berkeley, Riya received a BS in Engineering & Applied Science from Caltech and an MS in Management from MIT Sloan. She previously served as president of the MIT Sloan Alumni Club of Northern California during its early years in 1994-1999 to grow the club’s momentum in the area. In addition to Public Health interests, Riya spends her time training for and running marathons, teaching online Zumba classes, and helping her clients stay healthy as a nationally certified massage therapist.
Elizabeth Ly MPH ’19
Past President
Elizabeth Ly earned a Master’s in Public Health in Maternal, Child, and Adolescent Health in 2019 and a Bachelor’s degree in Public Health with a minor in Public Policy in 2014, both from the University of California, Berkeley. She is currently a Senior Policy Consultant at Aurrera Health Group. In this role, Elizabeth works with the California Department of Health Care Services on federal behavioral health grant projects on mental health and substance use disorder policy and initiatives. She supports clients by providing project management, data collection and analysis, and data visualization for their various projects.
Prior to joining Aurrera Health Group, Elizabeth worked in the reproductive health and family planning field and provided project management, research coordination, and research analysis in her previous roles. She also has experience in the social innovation space from her internship at Hopelab where she worked on facilitating the adoption of a goal-coaching app for low-income first-time mothers. In this role she engaged in ensuring stakeholder buy-in, user experience research, and qualitative data analysis.
In her free time, Elizabeth enjoys finding the best bites a neighborhood has to offer, trying new foods, playing tennis, cooking, and playing board games with her friends.
Emer Braddock MPH, BA ’06
Emer Braddock earned her BA in Public Health from UC Berkeley and her Master of Public Health in Healthcare Management from Columbia University. Emer currently works as the Assistant Director of Revenue Cycle Optimization for the Revenue Cycle Strategy Team at UCSF Health, where she focuses on enhancing, automating, and streamlining the $4B revenue cycle, integrating her passions of healthcare operations, finance, and information technology. In addition to her role on the board of directors of the UC Berkeley Public Health Alumni Association, Emer is a member of the special events committee for the Mailman School of Public Health’s Alumni Association, and has volunteered as a committee member planning Dining Out for Life to support the San Francisco AIDS Foundation for 12 years. Since 2015, Emer has acted a planning committee member for the San Francisco Rose of Tralee, supporting and empowering Irish and Irish-American women in the Bay Area and across the world.
Annie Chang MS ’13, MD ’15
Annie is a graduate of the UC Berkeley – UCSF Joint Medical Program and now a family medicine physician. With experiences in HIV/AIDS research, public health, and community medicine, she works to foster community-based participatory research as well as translational research and implementation science to enhance community collaboration and health care delivery. Her career started at Kaiser Permanente National Diversity working to advance the National Standards for Culturally & Linguistically Appropriate Services in Health Care throughout the health system and nationally. Later in the Joint Medical Program, she completed a Master’s of Health and Medical Sciences (MS) in global health research, examining the intersection of HIV and socioeconomic determinants amongst rural Kenyan communities. Integrating both global and local experiences, she has worked with extensive multidisciplinary collaborations, including the following: UCSF multisectoral agricultural intervention Shamba Maisha, San Francisco General Hospital Newcomers Health Program/Survivors International/UCSF Trauma Recovery Center in refugee health, Santa Clara County/Veggielution Community Farm in local food systems, Ventura County Public Health in diabetes prevention, and Ventura Family Medicine Residency in addiction medicine. She is passionate about planetary health, sustainability, and interdependent syndemics that share social determinants contributing to emergence and clustering of disease processes, and how these interactions contribute to increased risk, vulnerability, and adverse health outcomes. Annie cherishes time with her family and friends, all whom strengthen her journey in life. She rejuvenates outdoors by exploring and appreciating the wonders of our marvelous world. She enjoys learning about cultural history, food heritage, culinary arts, and sharing conversation and company by breaking bread together.
BingYune Chen MPH ’10
BingYune Chen is a healthcare thought partner and data scientist. He has decades of experience as a founder, startup investor, Fortune 10 manager, and nonprofit leader. BingYune also has market expertise in digital health, integrated care, machine learning, and data democratization. By day, he leads data concierge services at BingYune & Co, an advanced analytics firm based in San Francisco, California. The firm builds data products at the intersection of strategy, technology, and inclusion to improve the performance of organizations and mitigate the bias in AI systems. By night, he teaches classes on deep learning at a coding bootcamp and serves as a Board Member to several nonprofits solving complex human health problems at scale. BingYune earned his Master of Public Health and Bachelor of Science in Bioengineering from the University of California, Berkeley. He is passionate about partnering with leaders and teams to take collective, positive actions to ensure their organizations become a driving force for social, environmental, and economic benefit. In his free time, BingYune can be found sipping a kale smoothie or meditating on a rowing machine.
Jeffrey Hanson MPH ’89, M.Ed., BS
Jeff is a 1989 graduate of the UC Berkeley School of Public Health majoring in Health Policy & Administration. Jeff focused much of his academic work at Cal on the AIDS pandemic which was impacting the SF Bay area more than almost any other region globally. While studying he headed an international AIDS care training program ( APEX) for physicians at San Francisco General Hospital which showcased San Francisco’s community-wide care model. Since 1989 Jeff has worked across the healthcare spectrum holding executive positions in health insurance, employer health benefits, health information technology/digital health, and consulting. He has a long-held passion for ensuring universal access to high quality, cost-effective care. Throughout his career Jeff represented his companies on the boards and leadership of several value-based care organizations including The Leapfrog Group, E-Health Initiative, Patient-Centered Care Collaborative, Bridges to Excellence, the Maine Rural Health Association, the New England Rural Health Association, the National Rural Health Association, and others. In 2004, Jeff testified before a select congressional committee on Pay for Performance. Jeff hung up his corporate work hat in 2019, finishing that part of his career working as an executive for IBM Watson Health in London, England, where he covered the UK/Europe/Middle East. Since 2019, Jeff has been an independent consultant supporting both commercial and non-profit organizations.
Jeff and his partner of 27 years live overlooking the Parker River National Wildlife Preserve in Newbury, Massachusetts. They enjoy their five grandchildren, global travel adventures, kayaking, birding, and friends and family.
Gene Ho MPH ’20, BA ’19
Gene Ho is a two-time graduate from UC Berkeley’s School of Public Health, receiving his BA in Public Health in 2019, and MPH in 2020 from the 4+1 Epidemiology/Biostatistics program. Gene currently works as a Data Scientist at the Los Angeles County Public Health Department, working on the county’s COVID-19 response. During his time at UC Berkeley, he was heavily involved in a variety of organizations focused on health equity and community empowerment, like the Berkeley Free Clinic, Helix Medical, the Alameda County Public Health Department. As a recent alumnus, he is continuing his involvement with Berkeley Public Health as a former SPH Student Government Co-Chair, researcher, and Online MPH program course facilitator. When not working for LACDPH or Berkeley, Gene enjoys spending his time cooking, hiking, and picnicking at SF parks.
Whitney Kennedy MPH ’15, BA ’11
Whitney Kennedy holds an MPH in Health Policy and Management (2015) and a BA in Sociology and Public Health (2011) from UC Berkeley. She currently serves as Chief of Staff to Kaiser Permanente’s Northern California Regional President, supporting cross-functional collaboration between Hospital and Health Plan Operations, Strategy Development, Quality and Patient Safety, Finance, Human Resources, Compliance, Community Health, The Permanente Medical Group and more for KP’s 21 medical centers spanning from Central Valley to the North Bay and serving over 4.5 million members. In this role, she also leads the Executive Consultant Community of Practice and serves as the co-director for Kaiser Permanente’s Administrative Fellowship program. Prior to joining Kaiser Permanente, Whitney held roles in performance improvement and data analytics at Brown & Toland Medical Group and Blue Shield of CA. In her spare time, Whitney loves exploring new parks and hiking trails with her husband and puppy.
Jung G. Kim PhD ’19, MPH ’15
Jung is a public health board certified (CPH) graduate from the UC Berkeley PhD program in Health Policy (Organizations and Management) and On-campus/Online (OOMPH) Professional Master of Public Health program. He is founding faculty at the Kaiser Permanente Bernard J. Tyson School of Medicine’s Department of Health Systems Science and also a Lecturer for OOMPH and Clinical Teaching Associate at the University of the Washington School of Medicine. Jung’s research focuses on the educational design and outcomes in public health and primary care, health systems, and workforce academic-practice partnerships. In his spare time, he enjoys exploring anything related to foodstuffs across the globe and extending the life of his Mac products.
Stella Ling MD, MPH ‘82
Stella is a graduate of the UC Berkeley School of Public Health in maternal and child health. She is double board-certified in both pediatrics and radiation oncology. She has previously served on the teaching faculty for U Miami, Sylvester Cancer Center, the OSU James Cancer Center Dept. of Radiation Oncology, and UC Berkeley OLLI. She is interested in multi-cultural health care and worked for several years in SF Chinatown at the Min An Clinic and also in the Bahamas. She has volunteered for health care delivery on refugee flights, and in clinics in Mexico, Guatemala and Argentina. She has given lectures in Tanzania, Egypt, China, Aruba, the Bahamas, and Poland. She is a member of Raising Hope, an organization which tries to improve cancer care in developing countries. She is currently retired from active practice, but still mentors and does locum tenens from time to time to stay current.
Praneetha Mullangi BA ’14
Praneetha Mullangi holds dual bachelor’s degrees in Public Health and Economics from UC Berkeley and is an MBA Candidate with the Class of 2023 at UC Berkeley’s Haas School of Business. Her experience spans healthcare product management, solutions consulting, analytics consulting, and compliance management at premier organizations such as UCSF, Delta Dental, and Pharmacyclics (an Abbvie company). She empowers healthcare and life science executives with strategic, data driven, and innovative solutions that optimize their processes and help them function more effectively. At her most recent employment at UCSF, she managed analytics products with data from electronic medical records to support care of 1M+ annual patient visits. During initial COVID-19 response, Praneetha introduced a dashboard that facilitated transition from 2.4% remote patient visits to 50.7% remote visits in 2 months, all while exceeding patient experience goals. She has previously held executive leadership positions with the American Red Cross chapter of UC Berkeley, organizing public health programs for the Berkeley community.
David Newhouse MPH ’79, MD, MBA
David Newhouse, MD retired in 2015 from The Permanente Medical Group in Fremont, California after 37 years of service. He held leadership roles including departmental chief, assistant-physician- in chief and program director for the Fremont Infertility center. His roles as assistant-physician-in chief included diversity, performance improvement, service, marketing, and leadership development. In 2003, he developed a program using analytics to improve physician service scores by race/ethnicity, gender and age. Using analytics, potential unconscious bias in the physician could be identified and corrective actions identified. It incorporated the concepts of intersectionality and systems analysis. The same concepts were applied for hospital service scores and quality metrics. In 2007, the work was recognized by Kaiser Permanente with the RJ Erickson individual diversity award.
He received his medical degree in 1974 from Michigan State University and did his internship and residency at Gorgas Hospital in the Panama Canal Zone. He is board certified in Obstetrics & Gynecology. He received his MPH in maternal child health from University of California Berkeley in 1979 and in May, 2019 earned his MBA from St Mary’s College in Moraga. He currently also serves as a board member for The Dr. Augustus White III Institute for Health Care Equity and the Contra Costa County Crisis Center.
Nihari Patel MPH, BA ’13
Nihari Patel earned her bachelor’s degree in Public Health and Political Science from UC Berkeley and her Master’s in Public Health in Behavioral Science and Health Education from Emory University. She has many years of experience working as a researcher and project manager at Emory University, Center for Disease Control and Prevention, and SFGH. Currently, she is an Operations and Financial Manager at UCSF Cancer Center, where she works on strategic projects focused on improving patient access and experience, reducing cost, and promoting staff and provider engagement. Outside of work, she enjoys traveling, finding good eats, and working out.
Mary Russell MPH ’14
Mary earned her MPH degree as a member of the first cohort of the Online MPH program and is a Director of Medicaid Policy and Programs at Aurrera Health Group. In this role Mary supports the California Department of Health Care Services on programs such as CalAIM, the Coordinated Care Initiative, and ACEs Aware. Previously, Mary was with Health Management Associates (HMA) where she worked with health plans, particularly Medicaid managed care and Medicare Advantage plans that support complex populations. Mary also worked at L.A. Care Health Plan, the largest publicly operated health plan in the nation where she implemented and evaluated programs for dual eligible beneficiaries and led initiatives to integrate product and clinical operations for the Cal MediConnect (Medicare-Medicaid plan) product line. Mary is passionate about delivering high quality, integrated care to the most complex patients. Mary is based in Los Angeles where she enjoys cheering on the Dodgers and hiking in Griffith Park. She also practices yoga and recently completed a 200-hour teacher training program.
Leslie Safier MPH ’10
Leslie received her MPH degree in Infectious Diseases and Vaccinology. She is currently the Director of Operational Improvements at Santa Clara Valley Medical Center. In her role, she is responsible for Value-Based Programs across the enterprise. She previously worked as the Director Performance Improvement at Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital and Trauma Center (ZSFG). In her prior role, she partnered with hospital departments and the medical staff to develop, manage, and monitor performance improvement projects, managed external quality data reporting requirements, and provided strategic planning, coaching and practical assistance for hospital leadership in performance improvement. She is LEAN certified and a graduate of the America’s Essential Hospitals 2018 Essential Woman’s Leadership Academy. Outside of work, her interests include hiking, camping, reading and succulent gardening.
Katherine Sham BA ’19
Katherine graduated with a BA in Public Health and a minor in Public Policy in 2019. She currently works as an Associate Consultant in the Mercer Health & Benefits San Francisco office, where she helps employers with the development and execution of their health care and employee benefit strategy. This role has fostered her interest in health tech innovations that aim to solve different aspects of the healthcare experience for employees, ranging from mental health to fertility support. Outside of work, Katherine volunteers as a patient profile writer for Watsi, a global health nonprofit that helps to directly fund life-changing healthcare for patients around the world. While at Berkeley, Katherine was a TA and associate coordinator for the Health Service Internship program, and supported the Berkeley Online MPH Program as a course assistant. She also served as one of the undergraduate student representatives on the Public Health Undergraduate Management Committee during her senior year. In her free time, Katherine enjoys cooking and baking and making DIY crafts.
Bonnie Tung MBA, MS, BA ’13
Bonnie earned her BA in Public Health at the UC Berkeley School of Public Health. She also holds an MBA and MS in Design Innovation (MSDI) from Northwestern University, Kellogg School of Management. Bonnie started off her career volunteering at Sutter’s ER while at her fulltime role as a management consultant serving life sciences companies (pharma, biotech, and medical devices). There, she focused on brand strategy, market access, and patient engagement strategies. After graduate school, she went to Deloitte for Healthcare Consulting and focused primarily in payer and provider strategy, helping develop the firm’s perspective around virtual health and health equity strategies. In particular, she was involved in helping Chicago Public School plan for the re-opening after COVID-19, as well as the Racial Equity work for which the city convened a committee. Her interests lie in access to care, human-centered design, the patient experience, and care delivery models.
Student Representatives
Juan Carlos Bordes
1st year DrPH student representative
Juan Carlos earned his master’s degree in occupational therapy in 2014. Since then, he has been working as a therapist in various hospitals and clinics around Northern California. Juan Carlos became interested in the field of public health when he noticed the connection between policy and disparities in access to high quality healthcare services. He is currently a first year DrPH student with an interest in healthcare policy, policy interventions, anti-racism policy in health and public policy, and improving health outcomes and quality of life in minority/minoritized populations. Juan Carlos has also served in states and local institutions supporting efforts to promote diversity, equity, and inclusion in healthcare, and is excited to be part of the PHAA.
Uday Dhanda
Undergraduate Public Health Student Representative
Uday is a third year undergraduate student studying Public Health and minoring in Public Policy. Uday strives to impact his local community and is currently a Health Education Officer for Suitcase Clinic, a humanitarian student organization and volunteer community that offers free health and social services to underserved populations. He is also interested in Data Science and its applicability to the world of health and is considering pursuing further education in that field. Uday’s interests in the field of Public Health lie in Statistics as well as Health Policy, aiming to learn the skills and ideas necessary to create tangible change within the fields of healthcare. Uday hopes to represent the undergraduate Public Health population at PHAA as best as he can. Outside of his professional interests, Uday enjoys playing basketball and tries his best to live a healthy lifestyle.