UCAAN is led by academics, clinicians, researchers, and staff from two world renowned campuses who have vast expertise in medicine, community health, and higher education.
-
Dr. Shannon Thyne
Co-Principal Investigator
UCLA Chief of Pediatrics
Dr. Shannon Thyne
Co-Principal Investigator UCLA Chief of Pediatrics
Dr. Shannon Thyne is a Co-Principal Investigator at UCAAN. She is a Vice-Chair in the Department of Pediatrics, Chief of Pediatrics at Olive View-UCLA Medical Center, and Director of Pediatrics for the LA County Department of Health Services. She is also a board-certified pediatrician with leadership experience in clinical operations, medical education, and clinical care for children and youth in the safety net.
Her clinical and academic areas of focus include asthma, foster care, childhood adversity/resilience, and behavioral health.
Dr. Thyne earned a B.A. in Psychology from Yale College and an M.D. from Brown University. She completed her residency at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) and served as a Pediatric Chief Resident at San Francisco General Hospital.
-
Dr. Edward Machtinger
Co-Principal Investigator
UCSF Professor of Medicine
Dr. Edward Machtinger
Co-Principal Investigator UCSF Professor of Medicine
Dr. Edward Machtinger is a Co-Principal Investigator at UCAAN; he is also a Principal Investigator and Co-director of the California ACEs Learning and Quality Improvement Collaborative (CALQIC). He is a Professor of Medicine and Director of the Center to Advance Trauma-informed Health Care (CTHC) and the Women’s HIV Program (WHP) at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF).
The current focus of his research and clinical innovation is integrating and evaluating responses to childhood and adult trauma into the traditional health system and developing the field of trauma-informed health care.
Dr. Machtinger earned a B.A. in Classical Texts and Latin American Studies from New York University and an M.D. from Harvard University. He completed his residency at UCSF.
-
Dr. Mikah Owen
Co-Principal Investigator
Senior Director, Clinical and Academic Programs & Health Equity
Dr. Mikah Owen
Co-Principal Investigator Senior Director, Clinical and Academic Programs & Health Equity
Based in the Sacramento area, Dr. Owen was an adviser to the ACEs Aware initiative before joining UCAAN as Senior Director of Clinical & Academic Programs, Health Equity. Prior to joining UCAAN, Dr. Owen was an Assistant Clinical Professor in the Department of Pediatrics at UC Davis Health System.
Dr. Owen earned an MD at UCSF, completed his Pediatric Residency at UC Davis, and completed his fellowship in Community and Societal Pediatrics at the University of Florida College of Medicine – Jacksonville. He recently completed the Pozen-Commonwealth Fund Fellowship in Health Equity Leadership at Yale University.
-
Emily Williams
Chief Executive Officer
Emily Williams
Chief Executive Officer
Emily C. Williams is the CEO of UCAAN. For six years, she served as a senior adviser for the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors, Second District, shaping budget, legislative, equity and human services policy for the largest County in the nation and oversaw child welfare, education, social services and workforce development initiatives for the district’s two million constituents. Prior to joining the County, Emily worked for the City of Los Angeles as deputy chief of staff to former City Councilmember (now U.S. Representative) Tony Cárdenas (CA-29) and as a civilian commander for the Los Angeles Fire Department.
Emily earned a B.A. in Political Science from UCLA and an M.P.P. from the UCLA Luskin School of Public Affairs, where she was recognized as Alumna of the Year and currently serves as a Senior Fellow.
Management & Staff
-
Natalie Anz, MPA-HA
Executive Assistant, Clinical & Academic Programs
Natalie Anz, MPA-HA
Executive Assistant, Clinical & Academic Programs
Natalie Anz, MPA-HA, graduated from California State University of Northridge (CSUN), earning her Bachelor’s degree in Health Administration and a Master’s degree in Public Administration, with a certificate in Health Administration. Natalie has worked at UCLA Health for over four years, with her current role as Executive Assistant at UCAAN. In Natalie’s free time, she enjoys working out, playing the piano, and video games.
-
De’Nisha Beasley, MSW, MA
Principal Curriculum Developer
De’Nisha Beasley, MSW, MA
Principal Curriculum Developer
De’Nisha Beasley is a curriculum developer for UCAAN. She is also a curriculum developer and trainer at the DMH + UCLA Prevention Center of Excellence and works as a facilitator for the DMH + UCLA Early Childhood Fellowship. De’Nisha has 14+ years of experience serving in the health, social work, and education arenas.
She is trained in the niche of restorative practices and has extensive experience providing trauma-informed clinical care to individuals who have experienced domestic violence, human trafficking, and child sexual exploitation.
De’Nisha earned a MSW degree from University of Michigan. She also holds a B.A in Psychology and M.A in Theological Studies.
-
Chris Bradley, PhD
Director, Clinics & Community
Chris Bradley, PhD
Director, Clinics & Community
Chris Bradley is a Licensed Clinical Psychologist specializing in clinical work with families who have experienced trauma, and the implementation and training of trauma-informed care and ACE screening in primary care settings.
Chris was a practice coach for the California ACEs Learning and Quality Improvement Collaborative (CALQIC), where she helped develop an evidence-based framework for ACE screening and response called Trauma Informed inquiry for Adversity, Distress, and Strengths, or TRIADS, led by Dr. Alicia Lieberman. This relational framework helps healthcare team members talk with patients in the context of a trusting healing relationship. She worked with Dr. Lieberman at the Child Trauma Research Program at San Francisco General Hospital/UCSF, and with Dr. Nadine Burke Harris at the Center for Youth Wellness. Chris is a NorCal native and lives in San Francisco with her husband.
-
Armen Carapetian
Chief Financial Officer
Armen Carapetian
Chief Financial Officer
-
Jennifer Estrada
Executive Assistant, Operations
Jennifer Estrada
Executive Assistant, Operations
Jennifer Estrada is the Executive Assistant of Operations for UCAAN. She worked for the County of Los Angeles for six years within the Department of Health Services, My Health LA (MHLA) Eligibility Review Unit, the Board of Supervisors Second District, and the Medical Examiner-Coroner Human Resources. She served on both the County of Los Angeles Hispanic Managers and Chicano Employee Associations.
Jennifer is earning a B.S. in Criminal Justice and Criminology from the University of La Verne, completing her program with honors in Spring 2023.
-
Jeffrey Gassen, PhD
Postdoctoral Scholar
Jeffrey Gassen, PhD
Postdoctoral Scholar
Dr. Jeffrey Gassen is a Postdoctoral Scholar at the UCLA-UCSF ACEs Aware Family Resilience Network (UCAAN) focused on analyzing data related to ACE screening, response, and prevention, as well as risk stratification, segmentation, and tiering.
His research areas of focus include social determinants of health, the developmental origins of health and disease, interactions between immune function and stress physiology, and multivariate statistical methods.
Dr. Gassen earned a B.A. in Psychology from the University of Nebraska-Omaha, and both an M.Sc. and Ph.D. in Experimental Psychology (Quantitative Methods minor) from Texas Christian University. He previously worked as a Postdoctoral Scholar in the Laboratory for Evolutionary Medicine at Baylor University.
-
Rachel Gilgoff, MD
Adviser
Rachel Gilgoff, MD
Adviser
As a board-certified general pediatrician, child abuse pediatrician, and integrative medicine specialist, Dr. Gilgoff brings a multidisciplinary approach to ACEs, toxic stress, healing, and well-being. Over the course of her career, she has been a co-investigator of the Pediatric ACEs Screening and Resilience Study (PEARLS), the Medical Director of the Clinical Innovations and Research Team within Center for Youth Wellness, and co-founder of the National Committee on Asthma and Toxic Stress. She co-developed the Resiliency Clinic, a group clinic intervention model to treat toxic stress, and more recently, co-created VITAL: Relational Health, a free, on-line learning series on the science and practice of relational health.
Dr. Gilgoff is currently an adviser with the California Aces Aware Initiative, an Adjunct Clinical Associate Professor at Stanford University School of Medicine, and a co-PI on “Systems-based, Multidisciplinary Assessment of Adversity and Toxic Stress for Individualized Care (The SYSTEMAATIC Project),” an ACEs and Precision Medicine research project through the California Initiative to Advance Precision Medicine (CIAPM). She is dedicated to addressing health issues resulting from child abuse and toxic stress, creating systems of care that incorporate the science of stress biology and wellness, and collaborating across sectors to develop multidisciplinary, integrative, human-centered, and holistic approaches to healing.
-
Bahareh Gordon, MD
Director, Clinical & Academic Programs
Bahareh Gordon, MD
Director, Clinical & Academic Programs
-
Sarah Ismail, MPH
Committees Program Manager, Evaluation and Evidence
Sarah Ismail, MPH
Committees Program Manager, Evaluation and Evidence
As the Committees Program Manager for the Evaluation and Evidence Advisory Roundtable and the Community Councils at UCAAN, Sarah integrates input from academic and lived expert voices. Sarah has a background as a public health consultant and a scaling-up consultant advising startups, nonprofits, and governments on how to scale up their projects to serve more people on a sustainable basis. Prior to that, she served as an award-winning lecturer at her alma mater, UC Berkeley, where she received her Master of Public Health in Maternal and Child Health.
-
Sara Johnson, MD
Adviser
Sara Johnson, MD
Adviser
Sara Johnson, MD leads efforts to advance trauma-informed care in reproductive health and translate the science of resilience and adversity into clinical practice and policy. Dr. Johnson serves as an advisor to UCAAN on training and strategy for reproductive health.
A practicing obstetrician gynecologist at La Clínica de la Raza in Oakland, she led the organization’s California ACEs Learning and Quality Improvement Collaborative (CALQIC) project, which implemented prenatal ACE screening, and with an ACEs Aware grant developed a supplemental training entitled, ACE Screening and Trauma-Informed Care in Reproductive Health.
She is the lead author of recent recommendations from the California Maternal Quality Care Collaborative, “Addressing Adverse Childhood and Adult Experiences During Prenatal Care,” published in the June 2023 edition of Obstetrics and Gynecology.
-
Laura Jung, MPH
Operations Administrator, Clinical & Academic Programs
Laura Jung, MPH
Operations Administrator, Clinical & Academic Programs
-
Krista Kotz, PhD, MPH
Adviser
Krista Kotz, PhD, MPH
Adviser
Dr. Krista Kotz is an Executive Adviser for Clinical and Academic Programs at UCAAN. For 15 years she served as the Program Director for Kaiser Permanente Northern California’s Family Violence Prevention Program, providing strategic direction, training, and support to physician-led multidisciplinary teams in 45+ medical facilities. She also contributed to strategy development for KPNC’s response to ACEs. Since spring of 2020, Dr. Kotz has consulted for ACEs Aware, including contributing as a major author to Roadmap for Resilience: The California Surgeon General’s Report on Adverse Childhood Experiences, Toxic Stress, and Health, leading the training review and accreditation process, and advising on a range of ACEs Aware educational tools and resources. Dr. Kotz earned a B.S. in Nutrition and Dietetics, a Master of Public Health Nutrition, and a Ph.D. in Nutrition with a minor in Epidemiology at the University of Minnesota. -
Anda Kuo, MD
Adviser
Anda Kuo, MD
Adviser
Dr. Kuo is a Senior Adviser at UCAAN. She was the Co-Director of the California ACEs Learning and Quality Improvement Collaborative (CALQIC). Dr. Kuo is a UCSF Professor of Pediatrics where she practices at Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital and is the Department Director of Health Equity and Community Engagement and co-director of the UCSF Center for Child and Community Health. She is the founding director of the UCSF PLUS program (Pediatric Leaders Advancing Health Equity)
Her current area of focus is developing sustainable infrastructure to support the centering of lived expertise in research and system redesign. She also supports multi-sector collaboration to optimize the delivery of care for children to mitigate inequities.
Dr. Kuo earned a B.A.in English from Dartmouth College and an M.D. from the University of California San Francisco. She completed her residency at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) and served as a Pediatric Chief Resident.
-
Dayna Long, MD
Adviser
Dayna Long, MD
Adviser
Dr. Dayna Long is a Co-Principal Investigator of Pediatric Early Adversity and Related Life Events Screen (PEARLS). She is a Professor of Clinical Medicine in the Department of Pediatrics at UCSF, and co-Director of the UCSF Center for Child and Community Health. She is a board-certified pediatrician with leadership experience in clinical transformation, health equity science, and systems leadership. She dedicates her career to eliminating childhood health inequities that lead to poor health, financial and educational outcomes for families and young children on both individual and population levels.
Dr. Long received her B.S. in Biology and a B.A. in African and African-American History from Stanford University. She attended medical school at George Washington University and completed her residency and an infectious disease fellowship at UCSF Benioff Children’s Hospital Oakland, and was subsequently a Harvard Macy Institute Faculty Scholar.
-
Gabriela Márquez
Project Coordinator, Vendors and Contractors
Gabriela Márquez
Project Coordinator, Vendors and Contractors
Gabriela Márquez is the Project Director at UCAAN. For ten years, she served as a Deputy Chief of Staff for the 29th Congressional District, managing district office operations, implementing strategies for social services in diverse communities for over 700,000 constituents, managing a budget of over $300,000, helping shape legislation, and created collaborative partnerships at the local, state, national and international levels, resulting in an array of services for the district.
Gabriela earned a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration from the University of Guadalajara Mexico and received a certification of equivalency awarded by regionally accredited colleges and universities in the United States from the International Education Research Foundation, Inc.
-
Gahliema Martin
Accounting Clerk
Gahliema Martin
Accounting Clerk
Gahliema Martin is the Accounting Clerk at UCAAN. She worked in the finance department for community-based projects such as The Heart & Stroke Foundation of Southern Africa and Allies for Every Child. She has developed a passion for making a difference and being part of the change the world needs, as we screen, treat, and heal we strive together to make a better world for our children.
-
Tanya Marin-Lopez
Community Navigator and Clinic Implementation Lead, iLab
Tanya Marin-Lopez
Community Navigator and Clinic Implementation Lead, iLab
Tanya earned her B.S. in Public Health at Cal State University Northridge, with a minor in Lactation, and is currently pursuing her MPH at UCLA. Prior to joining UCAAN, Tanya supported ACE screening and response implementation across multiple Los Angeles County DHS clinics for the ACEs Aware-funded ACEs-LA Network of Care, a collaborative effort between LA County stakeholders, DHS, and the state to build community resilience. She was responsible for clinic data reporting and quality improvement, as well as coordinating ACEs-LA’s Lunch and Learn webinars. Tanya also has experience translating ACEs materials into Spanish and is a member of UCAAN’s Spanish Language and Cultural Competence committee.
-
Brigid McCaw, MD, MPH, MS, FACP
Adviser
Brigid McCaw, MD, MPH, MS, FACP
Adviser
Brigid McCaw is a clinical adviser at UCAAN and was an adviser for the UCSF California ACEs Learning and Quality Improvement Collaborative (CALQIC). She was a senior physician and Medical Director of the Family Violence Prevention Program for Kaiser Permanente from 2001-2019 and led the implementation of a systems-model approach for improving screening, identification, and services for intimate partner violence (IPV).
Her teaching, policy, and research interests include intimate partner violence, the health systems response to family violence, adverse childhood experiences (ACE), and trauma and resiliency informed care.
She completed her MD, MS at UC Berkeley-San Francisco Joint Medical Program, MPH at UC Berkeley, and internal medicine residency at UC Davis.
-
Nicole Morales
Project Coordinator, Pilot Projects
Nicole Morales
Project Coordinator, Pilot Projects
Nicole “Nikki” Morales has worked within the LA County Department of Health Services for the last 5
years; starting as an intern in Dr. Adam Schickedanz’s Medical Financial Partnership program. As an
ACEs-LA Community Navigator, Nikki collaborates with DHS clinical staff and CBO partners to strengthen
responses to ACE screening at DHS clinics. She coordinates all activities of the NoC’s CBO Advisory Board
(CAB). She is also UCAAN’s UCLA-based Pilot Projects coordinator, responsible for communication and
reporting. Nikki earned her B.A. in Anthropology from UCLA in the spring of 2020, with a focus in
sociocultural anthropology. -
Kelly Muir
Deputy Chief Financial Officer
Kelly Muir
Deputy Chief Financial Officer
Kelly Muir is the Deputy CFO for UCAAN. As a member of UCAAN’s finance team, Kelly performs various roles for the organization, including budgetary projections and analysis, vendor invoicing oversight, contract drafting and review, and overall organizational support.
Kelly earned a B.S. in Finance & Management from Georgetown University. He also earned his J.D. and LL.M. (in Taxation) from Loyola Law of Los Angeles. Prior to his work with UCAAN, Kelly worked in the fixed income sector for investment management for Western Asset Management, performed tax credit analyses for Deloitte Tax, and represented his clients’ tax interests in private legal practice.
-
Paula Murphy, MS
Director of Communications
Paula Murphy, MS
Director of Communications
Paula Murphy is the Director of Communications for UCAAN. Based in San Francisco, she has more than two decades of higher education and non-profit communications experience. She has led communications efforts at multiple UC campuses, including UCSF, UC Berkeley and the UC Office of the President.
-
Aaron Norr, PhD
Senior CAP Director, Education and Training
Aaron Norr, PhD
Senior CAP Director, Education and Training
Dr. Aaron Norr is the Senior CAP Director of Education and Training at UCAAN. He is also an Investigator with the VA Veterans Integrated Services Networks (VISNs) 20 Mental Illness Research Education and Clinical Center and a licensed clinical psychologist. Prior to joining UCAAN, he served as the Deputy Director of Education at the VA Puget Sound Healthcare System in Seattle, WA.
His clinical and academic areas of focus include post-traumatic stress disorder, anxiety/mood disorders, suicide, and the use of technology in behavioral health training and treatment.
Dr. Norr earned a B.S. in Psychology from the University of Washington, and a Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology from Florida State University. He completed his doctoral internship and mental illness clinical research fellowship at VA Puget Sound.
-
Josh Parsons
Data Management and IT Lead, iLab
Josh Parsons
Data Management and IT Lead, iLab
Josh joined UCAAN after completing a graduate program at UCLA where he studied healthcare policy and management. He has experience combining data analysis with program design and implementation, and he managed Smartsheet project management infrastructure and the Network of Care data dashboard for LA Department of Health Services clinics and community partners for the ACEs Aware-funded ACEs-LA Network of Care, a collaborative effort between LA County stakeholders, DHS, and the state to build community resilience. Josh works closely with ACEs-LA Network of Care referral platform partner, One Degree, to monitor and optimize the closed-loop-referral system and improve user experience. Josh teaches Excel fundamentals at Cal State University Northridge and lectures on Autism Self-Advocacy at UCLA.
-
Julie Ruedaflores
Community Navigator and CBO Engagement Lead, iLab
Julie Ruedaflores
Community Navigator and CBO Engagement Lead, iLab
Julie works with community-based organizations providing support and training as they enter the ACEs Aware-funded ACEs-LA Network of Care, a collaborative effort between LA County stakeholders, DHS, and the state to build community resilience. Julie spent the past few years working at the Pasadena Public Health Department (PPHD) where she was instrumental in providing COVID-19 vaccine outreach to the most vulnerable populations in the Pasadena area. Prior to her work at PPHD she spent more than 18 years working closely with families and children on the Autism spectrum. She provided direct Applied Behavioral Analysis (ABA) training, IEP advocacy and other Autism-related services to students and families. Julie has also worked on Autism-related studies in the San Francisco Bay area, funded by the Environmental Investigations Branch of the California Department of Public Health and the National Institute of Mental Health. Julie earned a Bachelor’s Degree in Psychology at California State University Long Beach.
-
Jamie Ruiz
Community Navigator and Billing Expert, iLab
Jamie Ruiz
Community Navigator and Billing Expert, iLab
Jamie earned her B.S. in Public Health at Cal State University Northridge. She is currently pursuing her MPH at UCLA, focusing on Health Policy and Management. Jamie joined UCAAN to support ACE screening and response implementation across multiple Los Angeles County Department of Human Services (DHS) clinics. Additionally, Jamie provides technical assistance related to billing for ACE screen claims to clinics across California. Jamie is also the author of Thank You for Sharing, a Book about Feelings, a book for children published by the ACEs Aware-funded ACEs-LA Network of Care, a collaborative effort between LA County stakeholders, DHS, and the state to build community resilience.
-
Jeff Sheehy
Special Adviser
Jeff Sheehy
Special Adviser
Special Adviser Jeff Sheehy is based in San Francisco. He brings his public policy and healthcare expertise from serving as then-Mayor Gavin Newsom’s HIV/AIDS adviser, as a Governing Board member of the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine, and also as a member of the SF Board of Supervisors.
-
Amy Shekarchi, MD, MPH
Director, Clinical & Academic Programs (Pilots)
Amy Shekarchi, MD, MPH
Director, Clinical & Academic Programs (Pilots)
Amy Shekarchi, MD, MPH, is a pediatrician at several Los Angeles County Health Services clinics, and is the Interim Director of Pediatrics for the High Desert Health Group. She attended medical school at Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center, pediatric residency at UCLA, and completed a Maternal-Child Health fellowship and MPH program while working for Los Angeles County. She has dedicated her non-clinical work to clinical improvements and projects that address social and behavioral health needs for children and families in Los Angeles. Through this work, she became a clinical leader in the California ACEs Learning and Quality Improvement Collaborative (CALQIC), Co-founder and co-director of the ACEs-LA group tasked with instituting ACE screening and network building across LA County Health Services clinics and helped lead the formation of UCAAN.
-
Leena Singh, DrPH, MPH
Director, Clinics & Community
Leena Singh, DrPH, MPH
Director, Clinics & Community
Leena Singh, DrPH, MPH is a public health leader with expertise in program design and strategy, clinical technical assistance, research, evaluation, and training in the areas of adolescent sexual health and childhood adversity. She currently is a Lead Coach and Adviser for the Training & Implementation Department at UCAAN.
Dr. Singh was previously a Coach & Consultant for the California ACEs Learning and Quality Improvement Collaborative (CALQIC), a statewide learning collaborative led by the UCSF Center to Advance Trauma-Informed Healthcare and the Center for Care Innovations. She received her Master of Public Health (MPH) degree from Columbia University and holds a Doctor of Public Health (DrPH) degree from the University of California, Berkeley.
-
George Slavich, PhD
Director, Evaluation & Evidence
George Slavich, PhD
Director, Evaluation & Evidence
Dr. George Slavich directs the Evaluation and Evidence Department for UCAAN. He is Professor of Psychiatry and Biobehavioral Sciences at UCLA and a Research Scientist at the Semel Institute for Neuroscience and Human Behavior, where he directs the UCLA Laboratory for Stress Assessment and Research. He also directs the California Stress, Trauma, and Resilience Network and Global Belonging Collaborative, and is Associate Director of the NIA Stress Measurement Network. His work focuses on the conceptualization, assessment, and management of stress, and on psychological and biological mechanisms linking stress and health.
Dr. Slavich completed undergraduate and graduate coursework in psychology and communication at Stanford University, received his Ph.D. in clinical psychology from the University of Oregon, and was a clinical psychology intern at McLean Hospital/Harvard Medical School. He subsequently completed three years of post-doctoral training in psychoneuroimmunology at UCSF and UCLA.
-
Christine Thang, MD
Director, Education & Training
Christine Thang, MD
Director, Education & Training
Christine Thang, MD is an Assistant Clinical Professor in the Division of General Pediatrics at UCLA. She completed her undergraduate, medical school, and residency training at UCLA. In addition, she completed a two-year medical education fellowship at UCLA and is a current Educational Scholars Program fellow of the Academic Pediatric Association. She is the Education and Training Director for UCAAN.
-
Nina Thompson
Innovation Lab (iLab) Director, iLab
Nina Thompson
Innovation Lab (iLab) Director, iLab
Nina oversaw the ACEs Aware-funded ACEs-LA Network of Care, a collaborative effort between LA County stakeholders, DHS, and the state to build community resilience. The ACEs-LA Network of Care team was responsible for the implementation of ACE screening and response at DHS, the largest health system in California. Nina is co-leading the UCAAN iLab, which provides technical assistance to clinics across California; development, testing, and deployment of products created by the iLab and Pilot Projects; and examines the impact of ACE implementation at a large health system. As Special Projects Lead, Nina works closely with UCAAN stakeholders on training and claims data collection, analysis, and reporting. Nina graduated from UC Berkeley and has more than twenty years of experience in project management, data analytics, grants management, and community engagement.
-
Cheryl Wold, MPH
Chief of Operations
Cheryl Wold, MPH
Chief of Operations
Cheryl Wold, MPH, is Chief Operating Officer and Deputy Director, bringing program leadership experience to UCAAN’s team. Before joining UCAAN, Cheryl was Senior Director of Training and Strategic Initiatives at Essential Access Health, responsible for partnerships, contracts and grants, and budgets. Previously, Cheryl was Chief of Health Assessment/Chief Epidemiologist at the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health, directing all Los Angeles County Health Surveys, the analysis and dissemination of public health data and reports, population-based indicators, and performance metrics for 8 years.
Cheryl brings to UCAAN operations 12 years as a principal consultant to organizations and private foundations, including managing complex, multi-sector initiatives, evaluations, and data and technology innovations.
Cheryl earned her MPH at Boston University. She is especially motivated to improve conditions for children and families to thrive and advancing health equity.