Our People

Peter Callejo-Black (he/him), Duke [email protected]

Arturo Martinez (he/him), University of Arizona [email protected]

Cindy Saenz-Leiva (she/her), Mt Sinai [email protected]

Simone Vais (she/her), Boston University  [email protected]

Cazandra Zaragoza (she/her/ella), University of Arizona [email protected]

Tamaara Bostwick (she/her), UCLA Drew

Tamaara was born in Guyana and immigrated to the United States with her family. She spent most of her formative years in Long Island, New York. She attended American University in Washington, D.C., and graduated with a degree in public health and psychology. She has always been passionate about working in underserved and under-resourced communities. As an undergrad, she helped initiate the Peer Health Exchange (PHE) chapter at American University, which was an organization that trained college students to educate middle and high school students in Southeast D.C. on various health topics such as healthy relationships, substance use prevention, reproductive, and mental health. After graduating from American University, she worked at a school-based health center as a community health organizer at Montefiore Hospital in The Bronx, N.Y where she increased clinic enrollment and connected schools with community-based organizations. She worked as a community health organizer for two years before attending medical school at Charles R. Drew/UCLA. In medical school, she organized a community health fair, minority health conference, and black women physician’s empowerment event as an active member of the Student National Medical Association (SNMA) CDU/UCLA chapter. She is excited to continue her medical training at UCSF where she knows she will be able to further explore her interests in women’s health, immigrant health, health advocacy, and community engagement. Outside of medicine, she enjoys spending time with her family and friends, traveling, hiking, trying new restaurants, and visiting art museums. [email protected]   

Katherine Chan (she/her), UCSF 

Katherine was born and raised in Burma until the age of 11, before immigrating to the United States with her family. She attended public schools in San Francisco and completed her BA at UC Berkeley in Public Health and minor in Global Poverty and Practice. She is passionate about working to address health disparities and inequities due to her and her family’s experiences overcoming barriers in health and education as immigrants in the U.S. During college, she served as an interpreter for Burmese immigrant women during labor and delivery and a tutor for recent Burmese immigrant/refugee students. After graduation, she attended the UCSF Interprofessional Health Post-Baccalaureate Program, where she found a community of supportive and encouraging peers and mentors. She was thrilled to attend UCSF for medical school and participated in the Program in Medical Education for the Urban Underserved (PRIME-US), where she continued to work toward her passion in mentorship, advocacy, and community engagement to serve and uplift the health and well-being of diverse, under-resourced communities. She mentored students from communities underrepresented in medicine through pipeline/pathway-programs, and led elective courses on Asian American Pacific Islander (AAPI) health disparities and advocacy, and Caring for the Underserved. She is excited and grateful to be with an incredible community at UCSF/SFGH in Family and Community Medicine and hopes to dive deeper into her interests in community medicine, immigrant health, mental health, and mentorship for URM students. In her free time, she enjoys being active—playing volleyball, swimming, jogging, badminton, hiking— , caring for her plants, meditation, and spending time with family and friends. [email protected]​  

Jennifer Chinchilla (she/her/ella), Michigan State

Jennifer (Jenn) is the daughter of Guatemalan immigrants and was born and raised in the San Francisco Bay Area. After graduating as a proud San Francisco State gator, she worked for the SF Dept of Public Health on various projects to reduce health disparities in underserved and minority populations. During this time, she also worked on quality improvement measures at the Health Plan of San Mateo and campaigned for the Yes on Prop V ordinance passed in 2016. Before medical school at Michigan State University, she completed a postbaccalaureate program at UC Davis. At MSU, Jenn served in different capacities for the Latino Medical Student Association (LMSA) including: Co-Director for the Midwest Region, Policy Chair, and her chapter president. She has been involved in research investigating and improving the patient-physician relationship with limited English proficiency (LEP) patient encounters. She is a member of the Gold Humanism Honor Society and was awarded the Excellence in Public Health Award by the United States Public Health Service Physician Professional Advisory Committee. Her interests include social justice, immigration reform, health equity, and underserved medicine. She enjoys writing spoken word poetry, drinking cafesito with her partner, watching the Warriors win, and taking care of her plants and fur baby. [email protected]

Alex Coston (they/them) Tufts University

Alex grew up in Frederick, Maryland and completed their undergraduate studies in Chemistry and English at Amherst College. After graduating, they worked as a research technician studying lipid metabolism at a Tufts University laboratory. They then went on to work as a research assistant in the Cardiology Department at Tufts Medical Center, coordinating a study that focused on body composition in heart failure patients with LVADs. During their time in Boston, they fell in love with the diversity of the communities in the city and decided to stay for their medical education at Tufts University School of Medicine. It was at Tufts that their passion for advocacy and underserved communities blossomed. They worked with people experiencing homelessness through Boston Health Care for the Homeless Program. They grew passionate about working with people who have substance use disorder and advocated for safe consumption sites at the Massachusetts State House. They were part of a grassroots movement that successfully led to Tufts severing ties with the Sackler family, who founded and operated Purdue Pharma and are rooted in the opioid overdose crisis. They also pushed for a more inclusive medical school environment and curriculum, including antiracist foundations and LGBTQIA+ inclusion. They are honored to continue their training at UCSF and to fall in love with the communities that receive their care at the San Francisco General Hospital. Their clinical interests include LGBTQIA+ health and gender affirming medicine, antiracist obstetrics care, addiction medicine, and family centered full spectrum care. Outside of medicine, they enjoy being outside (hiking, biking, walking, running), reading, cross stitch, spending time with their cat Squish, and eating lots of ice cream at Mitchell’s. [email protected]​

Simone DeShields (she/her) Loma Linda

Simone was born in Brooklyn, New York and raised in Southern California. If you hear loud Jamaican music in the Mission District, there is a chance it is a direct result of her proud Caribbean upbringing. She is not only appreciative of her heritage, but also her intersectionality that has allowed her to navigate through academia with a unique perspective. Simone graduated from UCLA with a B.S. in Psychobiology and minor in Society & Genetics. Throughout her undergraduate experience she was committed to and valued her involvement in URM and community centered organizations. At Loma Linda University, where she received her MD/MPH, she was able to integrate her passion for minority health and social justice by developing and implementing a curriculum addressing racism as a public health crisis. She is very passionate about advocacy and looks forward to working towards equitable outcomes for her patients, especially those historically marginalized and mistreated by systemic injustice. Out of scrubs, she lives to spend time with her loved ones (especially her mother, sister, and partner) and enjoys good food, yoga, nail art, Prince (the purple one), and her cat, Nina. [email protected]

Oscar Echeverria (he/him), UCLA Geffen

[email protected]

Dreana Jett (she/her), Temple Univesrisy

Dreana is originally from Providence, Rhode Island. She earned her undergraduate degree from Howard University, in Washington, D.C. She strives to fulfill the Howard University Motto of “Truth and Service.” Following her undergraduate, she attended the Lewis Katz School of Medicine at Temple University in Philadelphia, PA. She is enthusiastic about using public health and policy to dismantle systemic racism and achieve health equity. She was an SNMA Region VIII Political Advocacy Liaison. Additionally, she served two terms as the Pennsylvania Academy of Family Physicians student representative to the Government & Practice Advocacy Committee. Dreana was a 2021 AAFP Foundation, Family Medicine Leads Emerging Leaders Institute Scholar. She collaborated with other health professionals, community organizers, and sex workers to create a workshop for providers to deliver trauma-sensitive comprehensive care for people that do sex work. Dreana also participated in a fellowship at the Temple University Center for Urban Bioethics. As a fellow, she conducted addiction medicine research and coordinated multiple community projects. She is a member of the Alpha Omega Alpha Honor Medical Society. Outside of medicine, Dreana enjoys candle-making, cooking, and attending live music events. She is grateful to be among inspirational and passionate innovators at UCSF and SF General Hospital. [email protected]

Vivian Ling (she/her), Michigan

Vivian was born and raised in San Francisco. She studied History of Science with a focus on the history of medicine at Harvard. After college, she worked in health policy and strategy at the Advisory Board Company in DC, with a focus on population health and primary care. She then attended University of Michigan Medical School, where she also completed an MPH in health policy and management. Vivian is unbelievably ecstatic to not only return home after (too) many years of snow, but also to finally serve the city she loves in the company of amazing family medicine colleagues who are similarly dedicated to making the health care system more just for everyone. In her spare time, she enjoys reading, dancing, playing volleyball, and spending time with family and friends. [email protected]

Alphonse Liu (he/him), Nova Southeastern

Alphonse was born and raised in the city of San Francisco. He earned his bachelors degree from UCLA and his medical degree from Nova/Southeastern University of Health Sciences. Prior to medical school, he worked at the non-profit federally qualified health center NEMS to help care for and coordinate care for the uninsured and underprivileged communities in San Francisco. Alphonse is excited to return to his hometown to help serve those in his community and city. [email protected]

George Matta (he/him), Boston

George is a Californian through and through. He grew up in Oceanside, CA within San Diego County and spent most of his adult life in the Bay Area. He is the son of Lebanese immigrants who sought refuge in the US during the Lebanese Civil War. While in college at UC Berkeley (Go Bears!), he studied Public Health and researched nationwide disparities in jail and prison health services with Community Oriented Correctional Health Services in Oakland. He also spent a year as an AmeriCorps member teaching preschool in Chinatown, Oakland. Prior to medical school, he was a research analyst here at SF General, studying the impacts of health technology and the electronic health record on patient-clinician communication, especially with patients who have limited English proficiency and limited health literacy. During medical school in Boston, he focused on curricula building for medical student community engagement in bridging neighborhood needs with a local community health center. His professional interests include immigrant and refugee health, community medicine, QI and implementation science, patient-clinician communication, geriatrics, queer health, mental health, and teaching! Outside of the hospital, you can catch him biking around the city, reading at a park with a cardamom bun in hand, or in front of the TV catching up on all 13(?) seasons of Dr. Who. [email protected]

Abhinaya Narayanan (she/her), UCLA Geffen

[email protected]

Armando Navarro Jr. (he/him/el), UC Riverside

Armando Navarro Jr. was born and raised in South Gate, CA to an immigrant Mexican family. He spent his summers alongside his father at their family restaurant and began to notice the various health disparities that affect Latinx communities. He attended UC Riverside for where he received his B.S. in Biology. During his undergraduate studies he became a Medical Spanish Translator for the Riverside Free Clinic. He began to notice the disparities that the Latinx community of Riverside was identical to the one's he experienced in South Gate. Upon graduation he joined the Health Corps at an FQHC named AltaMed Health Services where he coordinated various health fairs, mobile unit outreach events and fundraising events for underserved communities of Los Angeles and Orange Counties. He returned to UC Riverside for medical school and focused his time on founding a free clinic for migrant farmworkers in the Eastern Coachella Valley, known as the Coachella Valley Free Clinic (CVFC). Armando is passionate about Latinx health both in and out of clinical settings and enjoys mentoring students. He is excited to join UCSF in his personal mission to combat health disparities that underserved communities face. His clinical interests include community medicine, integrative medicine, and immigrant health. When not providing patient care, you can find him at a baseball game rooting against the SF Giants in his Los Angeles Dodgers gear. He also enjoys bicycling, photography, and exploring all the food SF has to offer. [email protected]

Naiby Rodriguez (she/her/ella), Arizona- Tucson

Naiby grew up in Yuma Arizona. She is the daughter of Mexican immigrants who instilled in her a love for humanity, showed her the value of compassion, and the importance of serving her community through actions. They planted the seed of service, and over time it bloomed into passion and a devotion to medicine. She attended The University of Arizona for college, where she majored in Physiology and subsequently where she received her medical degree. Throughout her undergraduate career Naiby helped lead mentorship and outreach efforts for students and communities underrepresented in STEM especially those tied to her hometown of Yuma. While in medical school, Naiby was involved in the Anti-Racism in Medicine Committee where she advocated for and helped establish standards for recruitment and retention of a diverse cohort of students enhancing outreach efforts to increase the pipeline of diverse students. From personal experience, she deeply understood the importance and value of having diverse medical providers to better reflect the patient populations we serve. As the co-chair for her school's Latino Medical School Association (LMSA) chapter, she helped create opportunities for underrepresented students to introduce them to the medical field by hosting student panels and taught them basic clinical skills. Being raised in a rural community, Naiby understood the virtues and shortcoming of rural medicine, wanting to explore this medicine no longer as a patient but now as a provider, she completed part of her medical training throughout rural Arizona. Here she gained a better understanding of patient's barriers to care. Naiby is thrilled to be joining the UCSF/SFGH family where she looks forward to growing and learning from her peers but most importantly connecting with the community and her patients. She hopes to bring a practice that incorporates her Mexican heritage but most importantly one that reflects the core values of compassion, integrity, and humility taught by her parents. Outside of medicine, she enjoys spending time with friends and loved ones, baking, hiking, writing, reading, and working on jigsaw puzzles. [email protected]

Pierrot Rutagarama (he/him), Rochester

Pierrot was born in the Democratic Republic of the Congo to a Congolese mom and Rwandan father. His first experience with FM was at a refugee camp in Benin West Africa where he was diagnosed with malaria and treated by a primary care physician. This shaped his interest in primary care and global health work. He attended the University of Rochester School of Medicine where he participated in SNMA, the Refugee Student Alliance, and conducted public health research in rural Malawi. On his free time Pierrot is the founder and Creative Director of Ruta, a business that creates medical wear designed to celebrate identity. Pierrot also enjoys to work out, go on hikes, and host social events with friends and loved ones. He is excited to work in San Francisco with the urban underserved populations. [email protected]

Elaine Wang (she/her), George Washington

Elaine's roots are established in Redmond, Washington, a suburb outside of Seattle, where she grew her gratitude for family, community, and nature. Softball (and a need for sunshine) brought her to Claremont McKenna College, a small liberal arts school in Southern California, for her undergraduate studies. While pursuing a major in biology, she happened upon and fell in love with ethnic studies. She traded in her glove and cleats for a stack of Asian American Studies books, thus beginning her journey of critically examining structures and institutions that shape individual experiences, particularly in mental health and in immigrant/refugee communities. Medical school brought her to Washington, DC, where she became more deeply involved immigrant health and justice, developing medical-legal partnerships in community clinics and engaging in legislative advocacy with Doctors for Camp Closure. She is thrilled to be back on the West Coast and living in SF, where dogs outnumber children and Asian foods are abundant. She is humbled and honored to grow alongside a family of residents who inspire her to continue striving for health equity and justice through community work. Outside of the hospital/clinic, you can find Elaine among her houseplants, grabbing noms with friends, napping, meandering through a farmer's market, getting crafty, or petting pups. [email protected]

Reem Al-Atassi (she/her), Emory

Reem grew up in metro Atlanta. She attended Emory University for college, where she majored in Biology and English-Creative Writing. She then headed to Dallas to study Quranic Arabic before returning to Emory for medical school. There, she was heavily involved in the school’s literary magazine, and she led an extracurricular learning series on ACEs and trauma-informed care. Her activities in the broader Atlanta community included developing and directing an award-winning program called You4Prevent with the help of a refugee-turned-cardiologist. The program combines health promotion in a refugee community with mentorship for underrepresented pre-medical students. Separately, she worked on a weekend school for the Rohingya refugee community. She is thrilled to train at UCSF, where she looks forward to exploring her interests in prevention, primary care innovation, and community- and family-oriented care. Outside medicine, she enjoys spending time with loved ones, cooking, yoga, and being in nature. [email protected]

Jacob Arellano-Anderson (he/they), Harvard

Jacob is a born and raised Texan, from birth and childhood in El Paso and the north Texas ‘burbs, to the University of Texas at Austin, where he studied Chemistry and Iberian/Latin American Languages & Cultures. In his college, he helped lead mentorship and outreach efforts for students and communities underrepresented in STEM. He also worked as a tutor, a rideshare driver, and at the UT International Office with Latin American students. Intimate experiences with addiction and witnessing the failures of the healthcare system to meet the needs of people on the margins drove him to medicine and an interest in primary care and public service. At Harvard Medical School, Jacob continued to advocate for underrepresented students in medicine and local minority communities with the Latino Medical Student Association, LGBTQ+ and Allies at HMS, and the Racial Justice Coalition. He is academically interested in the intersection of sex- and- gender informed medicine and substance use disorders, as well as physician advocacy for gender-affirming care, harm reduction and refugee/immigrant health. He finds joy in dancing, queer art (drag name: Santita La Cob), practicing Spanish/Portuguese, making salsa, immersive tabletop/video games and US electoral politics. [email protected]

Nida Bajwa (she/her), Jefferson

Nida grew up in a tiny town in rural Pennsylvania and attended Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois for college. She graduated with a degree in journalism and global health studies. Through various classes and justice organizations, she developed her convictions as an activist, deciding that practicing root-cause medicine was practicing primary care. As a medical student, Nida served as the president of the Jefferson Students for Human Rights and the Outreach Director for the Philadelphia Human Rights Clinic, a student-run organization that provides no-cost physical and psychological evaluations to those seeking asylum. She is also a member of Doctors 4 Camp Closure, with whom she drafts letters to advocate for the release of detained individuals. She sees her future in medicine as intrinsically tied to principles of social and health justice, working to create truly healthy communities by creating healthier systems of care. Outside of medicine and writing, she loves reading, hiking, traveling, and exploring new places on foot. [email protected]

Kelley Butler (she/her), UC Irvine

Hailing from Los Angeles, Kelley has committed herself to various causes dedicated to students and professionals of color, people battling substance use disorder and addiction, people experiencing houselessness, and others. Prior to coming to UCSF, Kelley graduate from the UC Irvine School of Medicine and completed her Masters of Public Health in Health Policy at the Harvard TH Chan School of Public Health. There, she aided in organizing efforts in juvenile justice reform and prison divestment, completed a fellowship in Equity, Diversity and Inclusion, increased civic engagement on campus through voter registration and health policy education and oversaw a conferences and workshops designed to support minoritized trainees. Following her masters studies, she went on to serve rural and frontier communities in Oregon as an Opioid Response Program Associate for Greater Oregon Behavioral Health Inc. Kelley graduated from Howard University in 2015 with BS in Biology and a unique awareness of the social circumstance of the urban underserved.  A Leo sun, Sagittarius moon and Aquarius rising, Kelley isn’t afraid to speak truth to power in the face of injustice. She is excited to continue this work as an advocate inside and outside of the exam room with her partner, Shane, alongside their pup and strong Black queen, Rosa Barks. [email protected]

Li Chen (she/her), Johns Hopkins

Li grew up in Taiwan and southern California amongst family that taught her the importance of relationships. While studying public policy and global health at Duke University, she worked as an HIV testing counselor and with organizations focused on community development, women's empowerment, and migrant health. After college, she worked with health workers and midwives in Haiti, supporting programs that addressed various social determinants of health. She moved to Baltimore for medical school and an MPH, and continued to learn about the structures that impact our collective wellbeing while advocating for affordable medication access, participating in mutual aid, and organizing with Baltimore residents surrounding housing, displacement, and policing. Li is honored to be a part of the SFGH family and to learn from radical organizing and resistance in the Bay Area. She enjoys hiking and biking, yoga and stretching, water (especially the ocean and most types of tea), plant-based foods (especially with spice), and traveling. [email protected]

Shane Hervey (he/him), OHSU

Shane was born in Orange County, California but raised in Portland, Oregon. He has unique ties to community organizations, institutions and causes on the west coast. Shane has dedicated himself to supporting underrepresented minority students pursuing careers in medicine as a fervent advocate within the OHSU Center for Diversity and Inclusion and has a desire to continue this as his career progresses. During medical school at OHSU, he served in numerous capacities for the Student National Medical Association, has contributed to advocacy and action around gun violence, climate change in healthcare and participated in research surrounding adolescent suicide. Within Oregon, Shane served on the Oregon Health Policy Board Health Care Workforce Committee and was an active supporter of community engagement and institutional collaboration for North by North East, a primary care home for Portland’s Black population. His clinical interests include: sports medicine, community medicine, and social determinants of health. Shane is a die-hard Seattle Seahawks (hardest part about moving to SF) and Oregon Duck fan, a hybrid Trailblazers-Lakers fan and a ‘pawther’ to a Rottweiler named Rosa Barks. Outside of the hospital, he enjoys live music, traveling, good eats, yoga, lifting weights, video games, and spending time with his partner and fellow co-resident, Dr. Kelley Butler. [email protected]

Dedriana Lomax (she/her), Howard

Dedriana was born and raised in San Francisco and attended Howard University in Washington, DC for her undergraduate career. Dedriana spent her first year after undergrad working for the Safe Passages program in Oakland, CA through AmeriCorps. There she worked with 7^th graders as both an educator and a mentor. She then moved on to work at the San Francisco Department of Public Health, and while there she gained a love for community health. She went on to attend medical school at Howard University, and she continued to be active in her surrounding community. She is committed to addressing racial and health disparities through education, advocacy, and mentorship. Outside of medicine, some of the things Dedriana enjoys includes spending time with family and friends, brunch, cooking, and listening to music. [email protected]

Sophie Mou (she/her), Cornell

Sophie Mou grew up in Sunnyvale, CA, and attended Cornell University, where she experienced having four seasons for the first time. After college, she returned to the Bay Area to work at the SFDPH's Family Planning Program, where she engaged with the community clinics to assess need for services pertaining to contraception and STI screening. She also worked as a pregnancy options counselor at UCSF's Women's Options Clinic. With these experiences, Sophie entered medical school at Weill Cornell Medical College ready to advocate for more comprehensive training around sexual and reproductive health for medical students. She was also involved in the student-run free clinic as a co-director of the Mental Health Clinic and drafted medical affidavits for people seeking asylum with the Weill Cornell Center for Human Rights. Sophie is so happy and grateful to have landed in a program that will foster her learning in not only medicine, but also in advocacy and health equity. Sophie loves her bike commute, the vibrant arts scene in SF, thrifting, and any activities that can pull her away from the infinite scroll. [email protected]

Yumi Nakamura (she/her), University of Florida

Yumiko grew up in Port Chester, New York and Cape Coral, Florida. She studied psychology with neuroscience at Yale.  After college, she worked as a Community HealthCorps volunteer at a federally qualified health center, where she helped structure an insurance outreach and enrollment program in a predominantly Latinx community. Yumiko returned to the sunshine state for medical school at the University of Florida, where she deepened her understanding of community engagement and advocacy, specifically around issues of immigrant health and homelessness. She is excited to join her UCSF colleagues in promoting health equity as a family medicine physician. In her free time, she enjoys dancing, discovering new music, and swimming. [email protected]

Kimberly Ngo (she/her), UC Davis

Kimberly Ngo was born & raised in San Jose, CA. She studied Public Health & Anthropology at UC Berkeley, where she found her passion for service through volunteering as a labor doula with Asian Health Services & for community organizing through Asian American/Southeast Asian student groups. After college, she worked at LifeLong Medical Care via Community Health Corps (AmeriCorps) & as a medical scribe. At UC Davis, she was involved in a variety of activities, most notably in Asian Pacific American Medical Student Association, Paul Hom Asian Clinic, & Organized Medicine. In her roles, she always thought critically on how to pursue social justice & health equity through advocacy, community engagement, making personal connections & education/mentorship. Kimberly is excited to join this residency, to learn with amazing faculty & co-residents, & to serve the communities of San Francisco. Her interests include: diversity & inclusion, immigrant/refugee health, maternal-child health, & public health. When not working, you can find her exploring SF, browsing bookstores for a good book, trying new restaurants & new recipes, or relaxing with yoga. [email protected]

Jenny Nguyen (she/her), Temple

Jenny grew up in New York City. She earned a B.S. in Molecular Biophysics and Biochemistry from Yale University, where she was a leader in cultural life, social justice advocacy, and the performing arts. Interested in the intersection between structure and agency in urban underserved care, she earned a M.D./M.A. Urban Bioethics degree from Temple University. At Temple, she co-founded a community nutrition program, worked with Philadelphia Housing Authority CARES, and made hearts race while performing with the TachyChordia a capella group or teaching fitness classes. A vocal mentor for first-generation students, she served on Temple's Student Diversity Council and as Director of Medical Programming for 1stGenYale. Dedicated to health justice, she presented at policy competitions, won awards and published on access to care, gun reform, behavioral health, bioethics, and immigrant health. Jenny is a member of the Alpha Omega Alpha Honor Medical Society and Gold Humanism Honor Society. She is ecstatic to channel her endless enthusiasm into championing diversity and inclusion, policy, and advocacy for urban underserved immigrant communities. In her spare time, she loves exploring cities by foot, kickboxing, playing tennis, singing, playing her ukulele, cooking, baking, and going on dessert tour. [email protected]

April Pei (she/her), USC

April was born in China and grew up in Virginia. She double-majored in gender studies and statistics in college, then moved to New York where she worked for four years as a community health worker and volunteered as an HIV tester and counselor. Through this work she came to recognize the significant and often untapped potential of high-quality primary care to help empower individuals, families, and communities. This led her to medical school at USC where she was a proud member of the primary care track, advocated for the needs of asylum seekers, facilitated grief groups at a community organization, and conducted research on critical tattoo removal services for gang-affiliated individuals. She is interested in just about everything in family medicine but particularly minority and immigrant health, environmental health, palliative medicine, and multidisciplinary care. Outside of medicine she likes to read, nap, cook, drink tea, and look at beautiful art and buildings. [email protected]

Noemi Plaza (she/her), UCSF

Noemi is the daughter of Mexican immigrants, and she grew up between Paris, France and Napa, California. She went to Cornell University for her undergraduate education. In her gap years, she completed a Fulbright in the Dominican Republic where she worked with youth from Santo Domingo to establish an anti-machismo workshop series. At UCSF School of Medicine, she further focused on her interest in women’s health with her involvement in the annual Interpersonal Violence Prevention Conference as well as serving as Women’s Health Director of the student run homeless clinic. During her time at UCSF she became more passionate about diversifying the medical field, and finding ways to support URM students to engage with healthcare professions through her involvement with the Summer Urban Health Leadership Academy. Her academic interests include abortion care and OB. In her free time, you can find Noemi balling out on her local basketball court, spending time in California’s beautiful outdoors, and picking up new moves on the dance floor. [email protected]

Sydnie Turner (she/they), Rochester

Sydnie Turner grew up in the San Francisco Bay Area with family roots in Alabama and Mississippi. She attended Xavier University of Louisiana in New Orleans where she received a B.S. in Biology with Honors. Sydnie later moved to Rochester, New York to pursue her M.D. at the University of Rochester School of Medicine and Dentistry. During her tenure, she worked with the URMC Department of Public Health Science and the Healthy Baby Network of Rochester on their father-inclusive parenting programming for families during the perinatal period. She also helped develop a Reproductive Justice course for UR Public Health students. Sydnie’s professional interests include health equity and policy reform through community-based advocacy, reproductive and sexual health, LGBTQ+ health, and mental health. During her time in Rochester, Sydnie trained to be a 200 HR certified yoga instructor through Yoga for a Good Hood, a donation-based organization that offers yoga classes for the Rochester community. She has training in perinatal yoga and restorative yoga styles. Sydnie enjoys making music playlists for loved ones, watching Bay Area sports teams, and tending to indoor plants. [email protected]

Karen Zhang (she/her), University of Texas

Karen was born and raised around Dallas, Texas and grew up immersed in science and arts, eventually leading her down the path of medicine. She attended the University of California, Berkeley, where she spent much of her time volunteering as a health advocate at Highland Hospital and as an In Home Supportive Services (IHSS) worker. She graduated with a degree in Molecular and Cellular Biology with an emphasis in Immunology and went on to work a year as a ophthalmic tech in Oakland before returning to Texas for medical school. There, she discovered her love of primary care and integrative medicine as well as advocating for her patients. She focused on her leadership role in Physicians for Human Rights in creating voter registration booths, workshops on implicit bias, and organizing resources in fighting for justice and equity. She is excited to be back in the Bay Area and continue her education at UCSF, where she hopes to keep working among the community and underserved populations. Outside of medicine, Karen loves eating foods of all kinds, creating and discovering new music/art, and watching cheesy movies. [email protected]

Lily Barnard (she/her), UCSF

Lily grew up outside of Boston and went to undergraduate university at Tufts where she studied Public Health and Biology. After, she worked as a care manager at Lynn Community Health Center. She made her cross-country move to attend medical school at UCSF. Here, she found many ways to engage with social justice, with the majority of her focus on advocacy with people experiencing homelessness. Lily looks forward to deepening her professional passions in residency including improving gender care, sexual and reproductive health, care for underserved populations, as well as community-based and community-led medicine. When not at work, she enjoys hiking by the beach, cooking with friends, and hopefully soon, playing with her new cat. [email protected]

Mauricio Bonilla (he/him), UC Riverside

Mauricio grew up in Pomona, California in a Latinx family of Mexican and Salvadorian heritage. His journey to medicine began when he and his family experienced immense difficulty in trying to navigate the medical system. His experience translating for his family during his grandmother’s stay in the ICU made him strive to become a physician that could speak the same language and provide culturally competent care to help Latinx families navigate the medical system in their moments of need. He attended the University of California - Riverside for undergrad and medical school where he volunteered at various free clinics, health fairs, and street medicine events, while further developing his understanding of the social determinants of health. He chose family medicine because he wants to serve and engage his patients at all ages and stages of life. Mauricio chose UCSF because the residents and physicians care about their patients and wish to make healthcare more accessible. In his free time, Mauricio enjoys cooking, and learning new things outside of medicine. [email protected]

Michael Broder (he/him), Brown

Michael was born and raised in a closely knit Jewish community outside of Boston. He studied community health as an undergraduate at Penn, where he engaged with local grassroots organizations serving the needs of immigrant and other historically marginalized communities in Philadelphia. After college, as a Fulbright Fellow in Guatemala, Michael provided support for a rural hospital’s community-based public health programming, before moving to Kansas City to work as a Medical Case Manager with Central Missouri’s migrant farmworker population. In medical school at Brown University, Michael completed his Master’s degree in Primary Care and Population Medicine, where he continued advocating for the health of migrant and immigrant communities in Rhode Island. Professionally, Michael is interested in the intersection of immigrant and LGBTQIA+ health and strengthening systems to ensure more equitable access to linguistically and culturally concordant care. Outside of medicine, Michael loves listening to lots of different genres of music, picking up new dance moves, hiking, exploring, and spending countless hours immersed in deep conversation with family and friends, old and new. [email protected]

Peter Callejo-Black (he/him), Duke

Peter was born and raised in San Francisco and went to UC Santa Cruz for his undergraduate education. Graduating with a degree in Human Biology, he spent his first year after college working in Santa Cruz with local community clinics to promote safe opioid prescribing practices. In the following year, Peter returned to San Francisco to serve with the Community HealthCorps, working with the San Francisco Homeless Outreach and Shelter Health Teams. After a year performing outreach in encampments and shelters around San Francisco, Peter left for Durham, North Carolina to begin medical school at Duke University. At Duke, Peter became involved with numerous community projects addressing food insecurity, including a clinic-based free fresh produce distribution for patients in need, as well as gardening projects with a local women and children’s homeless shelter. This desire to engage with and support community health improvement efforts led Peter back to his hometown to begin residency, where he looks forward to practicing medicine and creating systems to improve health equity for all San Franciscans and for the greater Bay Area. On his days off, you’ll find Peter trekking through the hills of Marin or the Santa Cruz mountains, watching and playing soccer, gardening, or indulging in theatrical pursuits. [email protected]

Anna Dailey (she/her), Rosalind Franklin

Anna grew up in Seattle, in a family of cyclists. Driving was never an option, so she became a bike commuter on her first day of kindergarten. She developed a love of the outdoors through cycling and then began running, which became her new passion. Anna ran track and cross country at the University of Washington while majoring in Drawing and Painting. During that time as well, Anna connected with unhoused youth through a shared passion for art and expression. After graduating from UW, she studied Spanish in Heredia, Costa Rica. Upon returning, she worked for Country Doctor Community Health Centers doing referrals, medical records, and registering patients. She went away to Chicago for medical school, and is incredibly grateful to now be back on the west coast, surrounded by salt water and mountains. Anna paints, runs, bikes, bakes, and makes friends with every dog she meets during her non work hours. [email protected]

Wyatt Hanft (he/him), UC Davis

Wyatt grew up in the small rural community of Raymond, California in the foothills of the Sierra Nevada mountains. Having been raised in this area without a regular source of healthcare, he came to appreciate medicine for what it should be – a system that gives options to those in need, regardless of who they are and where they come from. As a first-generation college student, he went to UC Davis and majored in Genetics and Chicano/a Studies. After undergrad, Wyatt continued his education at UC Davis School of Medicine in the Rural PRIME track – as part of this track he gained addition experience in rural healthcare through volunteering and working in rural, underserved communities. During his medical school training, Wyatt came to realize his passions in Reproductive Health Justice and LGBTQIA+ healthcare. To further pursue these interests, he took an additional year at UC Berkeley School of Public Health to study Reproductive Health Policy. At UCSF, he now continues to pursue these passions through his training in Family and Community Medicine. When not working, Wyatt enjoys spending time with family and friends, hiking, rock climbing, cooking and gardening. [email protected]

Rebecca Hofer (she/her), Harvard

Rebecca Hofer grew up in Ann Arbor, Michigan and studied evolutionary biology at Harvard. She then taught high school geometry near McAllen, Texas, studied French in Lyon, France, and participated in research on community heath workers, shared decision making, and geriatric "prehab" before surgery. She returned to Harvard for medical school. She plans to work with underserved patient populations with a focus on providing comprehensive women's health care and family planning within primary care. Outside of medicine she enjoys running, ultimate frisbee, painting, and gardening. [email protected]

Nathan Kim (he/him), UCSF

Nathan Kim is a proud Bay Area native, grandson of Korean immigrants, and son of missionaries in Thailand where he spent most of his formative years. He graduated from UC Berkeley with a degree in Public Health where he was a haircutter at the Suitcase Clinic for people experiencing homelessness. An AmeriCorps alum, he spent two years doing HIV quality improvement and outreach in shelters, needle exchanges, and clinics in the Tenderloin community of San Francisco. At UCSF medical school, Nathan and his classmates at White Coats 4 Black Lives partnered with Black elders in the Bayview to teach safe sex practices and substance use harm reduction. He also found his community organizing family through the Do No Harm Coalition and loved creating community with Asian Pacific American Medical Student Association (APAMSA) and Christians on Campus. Nathan is passionate about decolonized healing for people experiencing homelessness, trauma-informed healing in primary care clinics, HIV care, and substance use harm reduction. In his spare time, Nathan likes baking with orange zest with his partner, cooking multi-course meals for community, playing the ukulele and flute, and reading with friends. [email protected]

Arturo Martinez (he/him), University of Arizona

Undergraduate: BA Biology and Romance Languages, Johns Hopkins University
Extracurricular Interests: Live music; Cooking; Traveling; Leisure runs; Learning Geographic Information Systems and exploring maps

[email protected]

Tiffany Phon (she/her), UC Riverside

Tiffany was born and raised in Southern California, spending most of her childhood helping at her family’s small donut shop. She earned her BS in Psychobiology at UCLA, while also working with different organizations to address the unique health needs of local communities and abroad. She went on to receive her medical degree at UC Riverside School of Medicine. During medical school, she continued to feed her passion for global health and community outreach. She was involved with studying health care structure in Poland, participating in local free clinics, peer-mentoring, and reaching out to prospective applicants for UCR SOM. She is honored to be continue her journey in family medicine at UCSF/SFGH and hopes, with the skills and opportunities she gains, she can continue to build a more united and compassionate health system to address the unique needs of the community. In her free time, she enjoys hiking, traveling, and spending time with her very cute dog, Ace. [email protected]

Sarah Rosenwohl-Mack (she/her), UCSF

Sarah was born and raised in San Francisco and still loves her childhood activities of exploring the city by MUNI, swimming in the ocean, and backpacking in the Sierra Nevada wilderness. For college, she moved to Boston to study literature at Harvard, where she also worked at Boston Medical Center to increase low-income patient access to social services. After college she moved to London, where she received a MPH at Imperial College London as a Fulbright Scholar, worked in the UK’s National Health Service (NHS), and was a suicide hotline volunteer. In medical school at UCSF, she organized around issues of racial justice, immigration, and structural violence. Sarah is invested in health policy and universal healthcare as tools to reduce inequity. Her clinical interests include addiction medicine, reproductive health, and gender-affirming and LGBTQ care. Outside of medicine, she enjoys ocean swimming, poetry, cooking with friends, and spending time with her wife, kid, and dog. [email protected]

Cindy Saenz-Leiva (she/her), Mt Sinai

Undergraduate: BA Biology and Anthropology, Columbia University
Extracurricular Interests: salsa dancing; cooking; running

[email protected]

Martin Shapiro (he/him), USC

Martin grew up in Los Angeles, California and attended Yale studying mechanical engineering with a focus on medical device design. Continuing his study of health innovation, he completed his MD/MBA with a graduate certificate in Health, Technology, and Engineering at USC. During medical school, he supported efforts to integrate technology into global health care delivery in Cambodia and Guatemala. He also worked as a Senior Venture Architect for Boston Consulting Group Digital Ventures building healthcare startups and driving thought leadership in clinical artificial intelligence and digital therapeutics. In addition, Martin served as the Primary Care Innovation Fellow at the American Academy of Family Physicians researching the intersection of technology and primary care. Throughout his educational training, he has organized musical performances with colleagues for patients while playing the flute. Outside of residency, Martin enjoys playing volleyball, exploring the outdoors, and traveling. [email protected]

Simone Vais (she/her), Boston University

Simone was born and raised in Brooklyn, NY. After graduating from Barnard College, she spent a year as a high school biology and STEM teacher, director of student activities and volleyball coach at a brand new school in NY. She moved to Boston for medical school and continued to develop her interest in teaching and mentorship as a leader of STEP, a mentorship program for public high school students from underrepresented minorities in medicine. Learning medicine at Boston Medical Center, a safety net hospital, triggered her passion for caring for the urban underserved and for creating systemic changes to reduce barriers to care. Throughout medical school, her research focused on developing novel rideshare programs to address transportation insecurity, first in a refugee women’s clinic, and then throughout multiple high-risk pediatric clinics. Within medicine, she’s excited to continue exploring her passions for social determinants of health, substance-use disorders in pregnancy, inpatient medicine, QI research, and teaching. Outside of medicine she spends as much time as possible competing with her adult gymnastics team, and pursuing her newest hobby- unicycling. [email protected]

Cazandra Zaragoza (she/her/ella), University of Arizona

Cazandra Zaragoza was born in Guanajuato, Mexico and was raised in Fresno, California. She graduate from the University of Arizona with a Physiology degree and completed the coursework for an MPH in Policy & Management. During her time in medical school, Cazandra served as Class president of the COM Tucson Student Government; co-chair of the Student Diversity Advisory Committee; and Western Regional Chair for the Organization of Student Representatives of the AAMC. Cazandra’s research has focused on best practices in medicine and increasing the number of underrepresented in health professions through service-learning and peer mentorship and advocating for equity for migrant/asylum seekers and undocumented patients in a health care setting. Cazandra also completed three Distinction Tracks at the College of Medicine: Community Service, Rural Health, and Leadership & Innovation in Healthcare. At UA COM she also served as a volunteer facilitator for LGBTQ Safe Zone training and serves as a forensic medical evaluator for the Arizona Asylum Network. She is a member of the Gold Humanism Honor Society. She enjoys spending down time with her family and three-legged dog, Uno. [email protected]

Diana Coffa, MD, Residency Program Director

Diana Coffa, MD, has been director of our residency program since 2014. She believes that medical education can become a space where we trainees deepen their understanding of and respect for themselves, their communities and their patients. While the current structures of medical education don’t facilitate the creation of that space, she is committed to supporting her own residency in becoming a healing, generous, challenging, honest, and accountable community that helps every one of its members grow. She believes in the power of community process and takes a collectivist approach to teaching and patient care. In addition to family medicine, Dr. Coffa is board certified in Addiction Medicine. She has co-authored national guidelines on the treatment of opioid use disorder in pregnancy and on the use of medications for opioid use. She believes, both in residency education and in substance use disorder treatment, that people’s autonomy, agency, and strength must be centered in order to allow for growth and maturation. Click here for more information. [email protected]