Sara Ayazi (she/her)
Career and Practicum Specialist
Sara Ayazi is passionate about helping students and alumni navigate their careers successfully, and enjoys connecting them with opportunities and resources that will further enhance their professional growth. She has a particular interest in increasing resilience and wellbeing in the workplace, and has presented on this topic to staff and health professionals in the UC system.
Sara has over 10 years of experience in combined roles in higher education and career counseling. Prior to joining Berkeley Public Health, she provided career counseling services to health professional students at UCSF, including students in joint programs with Berkeley Public Health.
Sara’s additional career services experiences include supporting the career and professional development of junior corporate attorneys at Wilson Sonsini and providing career counseling to students in the Colleges of Engineering and Chemistry at the UC Berkeley Career Center. Before her transition into the career services field, Sara served as an attorney for the University of Connecticut.
Sara holds a master’s degree in counseling with a specialization in career counseling from San Francisco State University. In addition, she earned her law degree from University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, and her bachelor’s degree in Sociology from Vassar College.
Gabriel Alejandro Garcia (they/them)
Program Coordinator
As a program coordinator Gabriel is excited to bring their professional and lived experiences to help students achieve their professional and academic goals. Upon graduating from the University of California Berkeley in 2020 with a Bachelor’s degree in Public Health, they immediately began using their degree and bilingual skills to respond to the COVID-19 pandemic as a Case Investigator and Contact Tracer mainly aiding the monolingual Spanish speaking community. Most recently Gabriel served as a School Health Worker Lead and Trainer with the San Francisco Department of Public Health. Prior to graduating they were a part of a number of student organizations including the Student Immigration Relief Clinic and Communidad for Health Equity. Gabriel hopes to one day earn a Masters Degree in Public Health with a focus in Health Policy and the ultimate goal of increasing access to care for the trans and nonbinary community. Gabriel’s interests include public health workforce development, hiking the Berkeley fire trails, frequenting the gym, and reading.
Caitlin Green (she/her)
Director of Career Services
(510) 642-0431
Caitlin Green is driven by the opportunity to develop potential, identify new insights, and facilitate meaningful connections for Berkeley Public Health students. She enjoys dynamically serving students, alumni, and employers/community partners to advance the public health workforce. She came to the School of Public Health from the UC Berkeley Career Center, where she earned a Chancellor’s Outstanding Staff Award with her colleagues for a large-scale technology initiative to strengthen the student experience connecting with employers and applying to opportunities. Caitlin is active in professional associations and has presented at the regional and national levels around pre-health advising and supporting underrepresented students in STEM. A first-generation college student, she earned her master’s in higher education administration from Boston College and her bachelor’s in sociology from UC Berkeley.
Tracy Lam-Hine (he/him)
Lecturer for PH291A (Public Health Leadership) for MPH students
Tracy Lam-Hine is a lecturer at Berkeley Public Health and a postdoctoral research scholar at Stanford Medicine, with a focus on social epidemiologic methods, critical mixed-race studies (CMRS), and racism and health among multiracial people. Prior to his current roles, Tracy previously worked as an epidemiologist at Stanford and the Marin County health department, as a program officer in workforce development philanthropy, and as a healthcare strategy consultant. Tracy holds a BS from UC Berkeley, an MBA from the University of Washington, and a DrPH in epidemiology from UC Berkeley. In his free time, Tracy enjoys travel to warm places, cooking and eating, and taking his dog Mochi to the beach.
Megan Olivera (she/her)
Program Coordinator
Megan Olivera is passionate about helping students thrive through interdisciplinary public health education and community involvement. She aims to prioritize underrepresented groups in higher education, particularly through inclusive, equity-based approaches and programming. Prior to joining the School of Public Health, Megan served students through club/organization advising and retention initiatives at the University of Oregon. She also held prior employment in optometry, working with patients on treatment plans for myopia management, a current public health pandemic.
A first-generation college graduate and alumnus of the Ronald E. McNair Scholar Program, Megan earned her master’s degree in prevention science and bachelor’s degree in psychology from the University of Oregon. There, her master’s research focused on suicidality among college students with a special consideration for intervention outcomes. Through her involvement with the Suicide Prevention Lab, she also supported dissemination and implementation strategies for suicide prevention effort in the community.
Kandis Rodgers (she/her)
Career and Practicum Specialist
Kandis Rodgers is a dedicated career counselor committed to the personal and professional success of students and alumni. An advocate for personal empowerment and social good, Kandis is motivated by seeing students achieve their goals and enhance their communities. Kandis’s approach to working with students is holistic, embracing the whole student during their continuous journey towards career happiness. Prior to joining the School of Public Health, Kandis provided career counseling to graduate students and managed employer relations at Golden Gate University. This provided her the opportunity to develop a unique perspective to career guidance, finding the intersection between student drive and employer need. Kandis’s additional experiences include student leadership development and campus diversity
initiatives at Missouri University of Science and Technology. Kandis holds a master’s degree in education with a focus on higher education counseling in addition to a bachelor’s degree in social work, both from Bloomsburg University in Pennsylvania.
Grace Yao Turkis (she/her)
Director of Leadership Development
As the Director of Leadership Development at RISE and Director of the Kaiser Permanente Scholars Program, Grace brings more than 20 years of experience in leadership development in both university and health care settings. She is passionate about developing others and helping students integrate their unique experiences, interests, and talents to reach their maximum professional potential. Prior to UC Berkeley, Grace served as the Director of Operations at the Institute for Physician Leadership and the Pharmacy Leadership Institute at the UCSF Center for Health Professions, where she focused on the design and implementation of leadership programs for clinical leaders across California. Grace received her Master of Public Administration degree from the University of Colorado Denver and a bachelor’s degree in Human Development and Family Studies from the Pennsylvania State University. She is a Certified Professional Co-Active Coach, leadership consultant, and certified Myers-Briggs Type Indicator practitioner. Grace also serves on the Advisory Board of Home for a Home, a nonprofit organization that partners with socially conscious real estate professionals to sustainably fund the construction of homes for people in need in Guatemala.
Roger Bazan-Flores (he/him)
Student Group Associate
Rogelio (Roger) Bazan-Flores is a 2nd-year Master of Public Health 2023 candidate in Health Policy and Management. Previously, he graduated from the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) class of 2021, getting his B.S. in Environmental Science with a minor in Environmental Systems & Society, where he worked on citizen science mixed methods approaches to lead (Pb) exposure research in East and Southern LA communities. A first-generation Mexican-American student, growing up in the heart of East Los Angeles, Roger’s Chicano roots are strong. Rogers’s public health research interests include: health care access for immigrant communities, food justice, men’s mental health, and environmental health. Roger remains humble and, as his grandma always told him growing up, “el que quiere.. puede”. Taking these words to heart, despite the setbacks of coming from a low-income single-parent household and being a first-generation American and the first in his family to graduate from college, Roger has always strived to be the best he can be, to be a good man, a good brother, and a good son. On his weekends, you can find him going on scenic hikes through nature, going to the gym to exercise his body, or dashing around town on his bike.
Gracielle Li (she/her)
Program Assistant
Gracielle Li is an undergraduate student (Class of 2023) at UC Berkeley. Originally from the Philippines, Gracielle has a strong passion for social justice and equality. Gracielle also serves as the ASUC’s Director of Basic Needs, where she organizes many programs to serve the basic needs of the larger student body. She is currently majoring in Political Science, Psychology, and Legal Studies and hopes to conduct future research on Political Behavior and Attitudes in order to help inform policy. Gracielle’s interests include reading, writing, hiking, knitting, and painting.
Serenidy Morua (she/her)
Program Assistant
Serenidy Morua is an undergraduate student (Class of 2024) at UC Berkeley. Currently majoring in Political Science, she is passionate about helping others and hopes to become a lawyer.
Kavya Nambiar (she/her)
HMPA GSI
Kavya Nambiar is a 2nd year medical student in the UC Berkeley-UCSF Joint Medical Program, where she will graduate with an MS/MD by 2026. Her research interests focus on the intersection of health, human rights, and the social sciences, and her thesis is focused on the perceived responsibility of physicians volunteering at the US/Mexico border using a decolonial lens. She graduated from UC Berkeley, where she completed a BA in Public Health, BA in Molecular and Cell Biology, and a minor in Human Rights. In her gap year, she worked as a Research Assistant for Dean Ashish Jha at Brown and a team at Harvard, where she researched health equity, the social determinants of health, and misinformation all in the context of COVID-19. As an undergraduate, Kavya conducted research at the School of Law’s Human Rights Center and at the School of Social Welfare, served as a Teaching Assistant for the HMAP Field Study Internship, and worked as a Legislative Intern for Senator Dianne Feinstein. Outside of school, Kavya enjoys going to the beach to collect rocks, curating Spotify playlists, and exploring the many coffeeshops the East Bay has to offer.
Rushlenne Pascual (she/her)
Program Associate
Rushlenne Pascual is a 2nd-year Infectious Diseases and Vaccinology MPH student (Class of 2023). She was born and raised in Seattle and earned her BS in Microbiology and BA in Public Health from the University of Washington. Prior to joining Berkeley Public Health, Rushlenne worked as a Research Scientist at the UW Neisseria Reference Laboratory, helping with Centers for Disease Control and Prevention projects to enhance domestic gonorrhea surveillance and stop the spread of resistant infections. While she is fascinated by all things related to infectious diseases, she also enjoys hiking and rock climbing. Her free time is usually spent playing tennis, exploring new dessert places with friends, and being an enthusiastic plant parent.
Shelby Rorabaugh (she/her)
Communications Associate
Shelby Rorabaugh is a 2nd year graduate student in the Health Policy and Management MPH program (Class of 2023). After receiving a BA in Political Science from New York University, she pursued her public health passions in program coordination for the global health nonprofit Orbis International and the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene. While working for the Department of Health at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, she talked to physicians and patients to increase utilization of vital social services, such as housing assistance and unemployment benefits, and to improve vaccination rates among BIPOC communities in the outer boroughs. Shelby has returned to her Bay Area roots for grad school where she hopes to learn more about health equity, program evaluation, and primary care quality improvement initiatives in California’s healthcare landscape. In her free time, Shelby loves to read epic fantasy novels, hunt for hidden gem coffee shops, and bake apple pies.
