FELLOWS AND PROJECTS

2013-2014

Priya Bhat, University of San Diego/Ssan Diego State Graduate School of Public Health
Priya is creating workshops that provide health education about chronic diseases targeting Asian-Indian adults.
Community Site: TBD

Lyndsey Bradley and Hannah Kim, Charles Drew University of Medicine and Science/David Geffin School of Medicine at University of California-Los Angeles
Lyndsey is helping students understand the social determinants of health and connecting them to resources that will address these issues.
Community Site: HealthBegins

Ryan Brennan, University of California-Los Angeles School of Dentistry
Ryan is providing oral hygiene information and dental care to the homeless and underserved.
Community Site: MEND (Meet Each Need with Dignity) Dental Clinic & Homeless Not Toothless

Victoria Cho, University of Southern California School of Pharmacy
Victoria is informing older Chinese adutls about polypharmacy and how cultural remedies affect medicines prescribed.
Community Site: Allied Physicians of California (APC) Senior Wellness Center

Nicole Coppage, Keck School of Medicine at University of Southern California
Nicole is informing previously gang-involved and incarcerated women and men about chronic diseases, how to access health care, and available community rescources.
Community Site: Homeboy Industries

Nicholas Iafe and Negeen Shahandeh, David Geffen School of Medicine at University of California-Los Angeles
Nicholas and Negeen are creating curricula focused on identifying and preventing common health problems among people with intellectual disabilities.
Community Site: Pathway at UCLA Extension

Kelly Jones and Meghan Ward, Keck School of Medicine at University of Southern California
Kelly and Meghan are addressing the growing problem of body image and eating disorders among young females.
Community Site: Bella Vita Institute

Jared Kenney and Clark Knowlton, University of California-Los Angeles School of Dentistry
Jared and Clark are instructing and motivating preschool parents on the importance of child oral hygiene and implementing an oral hygiene program in preschools.
Community Site: First 5 LA, Breastfeed LA

Lusineh Keshishian, Western University of Health Sciences College of Pharmacy

Lusineh is implementing an HPV vaccine educational program to increase knowledge and awareness in the community of Pomona.
Community Site: Pomona Community Health Center

Alyson Kil, Keck School of Medicine at University of Southern California
Alyson will improve access and availability of healthcare screenings available on Skid Row.
Community Site: Young Nak Celebration Church of Los Angeles & Los Angeles Christian Health Centers (LACHC)

Ingrid Leu, University of Southern California Division of Occupational Science and Occupational Therapy
Ingrid is designing and implementing a recovery oriented curriculum targeting adults with serious or persistent mental illness, helping them increase their self-sufficiency and improve health and well-being.
Community Site: Kedren Community Mental Health Center

Sonia Morales, Charles Drew University of Medicine and Science/David Geffin School of Medicine at University of California-Los Angeles
Sonia is bringing a Photonovela and a one-on-one education intervention program to families of pediatric cancer survivors in the community setting.
Community Site: PADRES Contra El Cancer

Rebekah Ndinda Ngewa, Loma Linda University School of Public Health
Rebekah Ndinda is creating and implementing a culturally relevant health education program to African American women in the hopes of increasing their knowledge of breast and cervical cancer screening and available resources.
Community Site: Healthy Heritage Cultural and Wellness Center

Michelle Sun, David Geffen School of Medicine at University of California-Los Angeles
Michelle is utilizaing technology and education to give patients confidence to take charge of their health through literacy, prevention, and self management.
Community Site: Pico Aliso & Joshua House Community Clinics from the Los Angeles Christian Health Centers (LACHC)

Nidhi Taneja, University of California-Los Angeles School of Dentistry
Nidhi is improving the oral health of mothers, infants, and children through screenings and education courses and materials.
Community Site: Venice Family Clinic's Simms/Mann Health & Wellness Center

Yun-Ju Yoo, Ostrow School of Dentistry of University of Southern California
Yun-Ju is implementing creative activities aimed at informing Korean elders in nursing homes about the importance of periodontal health and screenings.
Community Site: TBD
 

2012-2013

Mark Andre, University of California, Los Angeles David Geffen School of Medicine
Dharma Sunjaya, Charles Drew University of Medicine and Science/University of California, Los Angeles David Geffen School of Medicine
Andre and Sunjaya developed and implemented a diabetic education program for homeless patients.
Community Site: Student Run Homeless Clinic

Molly Diaz and Kene Ojukwu, University of California, Los Angeles David Geffen School of Medicine
Diaz and Ojukwu implemented a health education program for 5^th-graders called Anatomy Academy.
Community Site: Stella Middle Charter Academy

Evita Limon-Rocha, University of California, Los Angeles David Geffen School of Medicine
Limon-Rocha developed and implemented mental health education modules at a clinic serving uninsured people.
Community Site: Venice Family Clinic

Rebecca Lopez and Janelle Rodriguez, Charles Drew University of Medicine and Science/University of California, Los Angeles David Geffen School of Medicine
Lopez and Rodriguez developed and implemented a health education and parenting curriculum for young, at-risk parents in East Los Angeles.
Community Site: AltaMed Adolescent Family Life Program in East Los Angeles

Saint Magbegor, Charles Drew University of Medicine and Science/University of California, Los Angeles David Geffen School of Medicine
Magbegor provided health education and screenings for diabetes and hypertension at local barbershops.
Community Site: The Black Barbershop Health Outreach Program

Patricia Martinez, University of Southern California School of Medicine
Martinez implemented a “health partner” program that pairs medical students with patients with chronic illness to serve as health advocates.
Community Site: South Central Family Health Center

Alexander Martos and Jeffrey Williams, University of California, Los Angeles School of Public Health
Martos and Williams conducted sexual health education workshops for gay and bisexual men.
Community Site: Los Angeles Gay & Lesbian Center

Christine Thang, University of California, Los Angeles David Geffen School of Medicine
Thang expanded the Venice Family Clinic’s KP KIDS (Kids In Dynamic Shape) program by providing healthy cooking workshops.
Community Site: Venice Family Clinic

Ryann Walker, University of California, Los Angeles School of Dentistry
Walker provided oral health education and care to people emerging from homelessness via her “Ticket to Smiles” program.
Community Site: Salvation Army Westwood Transitional Village

Yue (Joy) Wang, University of Southern California School of Pharmacy
Wang promoted smoking cessation among low-income people, including by distributing nicotine inhalers.
Community Site: USC Pharmacy Smoking Cessation Program

Amanda A. Wong, University of Southern California School of Pharmacy
Wong helped visually impaired people take control of their health via medication reviews and educational workshops.
Community Site: Braille Institute

2011-12

Maria Aleshin and Cherie Blair, UCLA David Geffen School of Medicine
Blair and Aleshin addressed health disparities experienced by incarcerated females in Los Angeles County by creating and implementing health education and empowerment workshops at the Century Regional Detention Facility. Additionally, they developed and implemented a lecture/workshop series held at the David Geffen School of Medicine, aimed at increasing knowledge and reducing the stigma associated with this population.
Community Site: Century Regional Detention Facility

Angelina Cazares, USC School of Social Work
Aresha Martinez, UCLA School of Public Health
Cazares and Martinez empowered female juvenile detainees to adopt safer sexual practices by offering Girl Talk, a comprehensive sexual education course and support group.  
Community Site: TBD



Erica Davenport and Sabah R'id, Charles Drew University of Medicine and Science/UCLA David Geffen School of Medicine
Davenport and R’id  launched Project Beauty, an initiative for at-risk adolescent girls designed to promote empowerment, health, self-esteem, and safe sexual practices.
Community Site: Healthy African American Families

Sadiah Iqbal, UCLA David Geffen School of Medicine
Iqbal  provided health workshops targeting South Asian and Middle Eastern communities. These workshops provided health education, early screening, appropriate referrals, and a community support system for prevalent chronic conditions including hypertension, hypercholesterolemia, and depression. 
Community Site: Mandir, Gurdwara, and Islamic Center

Crystal Ives, USC Keck School of Medicine
Ives addressed the lack of opportunity for controlled detoxification from opiates for low-income individuals in downtown Los Angeles by starting a short-term outpatient buprenorphine detoxification program at an established needle exchange site. Patients were given the opportunity to experience sobriety without going through opiate withdrawal. In addition to medications and clinic visits, Ives’ program  offered patients the opportunity to connect with community resources and link in to long-term support for maintaining a sober lifestyle. 
Community Site: 4th Street Harm Reduction Clinic, Homeless Healthcare Los Angeles

Ashlee Klevens, USC School of Pharmacy
Klevens worked to develop a bi-monthly medication self-management program for Hispanic residents of Lincoln Heights.
Community Site: Arroyo Vista Family Health Center

Charlotte Oduro, UCLA School of Public Health
Oduro worked to improve the health outcomes of prostate cancer survivors preparing to exit the IMPACT program by implementing a program that focused on skill development and participant empowerment. In addition to providing focus groups aimed at assisting participants in managing their care and navigating the health care system, Oduro’s program reached out to members of the participants’ support groups and the clinical team to reinforce participant skills and self-efficacy and provide participants with an opportunity to brainstorm ways to apply strategies and skills gained.
Community Site: California IMPACT Program, Los Angeles County

Jennifer Phung, UCLA David Geffen School of Medicine
Phung educated children and families in a domestic violence shelter on nutrition and healthy eating through a community gardening program. Phung also lead sessions on preventing cardiovascular disease and diabetes through healthy lifestyle and nutrition choices. 
Community Site: Asian Pacific Women’s Center

Kavita Renduchintala, USC Keck School of Medicine
Renduchintala addressed the need for access to health and wellness education among local underserved minority middle-school and high-school students by creating interactive small-group health workshops that focused on various teen health issues. These workshops included information on sexual health, drugs and alcohol, nutrition, exercise, and mental health. Additionally, Renduchintala helped  create a science curriculum to increase performance levels in science classes and encourage teens to pursue health-related professional paths.
Community Site: USC Neighborhood Academic Initiative Program (USC NAI)

Stephen Speicher, UCLA David Geffen School of Medicine
Speicher created and put into function a sanctuary for yoga, meditation, and prayer on the Camp Ronald McDonald for Good Times campus in Idyllwild, Ca. The sanctuary served as a permanent facility promoting mental and physical wellness for children with cancer, as well as their siblings. The project empowered underserved Los Angeles youth by creating a space through which they can cope with difficulties through healthy forms of expression.
Community Site: Camp Ronald McDonald for Good Times

David Tran, UCLA School of Public Affairs
Tran addressed the epidemic of methamphetamine abuse among Latino and LGBT adolescents in East Los Angeles by creating a youth meth task force in conjunction with the Greater East LA Meth Task Force and  by strengthening mental health resources in the community. The youth task force provided youth representation and perspectives in the design, implementation, and evaluation of meth prevention efforts in East LA. In addition, Tran addressed the lack of mental health resources in the East LA community by organizing and distributing resources to community organizations. He organized youth-specific meth prevention activities (such as an interactive webinar on youth perspectives on meth prevention and reliable referral services to mental health resources) in hopes of empowering and engaging the community to take active roles in the health of their youth.
Community site: The Wall-Las Memorias, the Greater East LA Meth Task Force

Victor Yee, UCLA School of Public Health
Yee improved follow-up medical health care for individuals served by APA Health CARE community health fairs who face language, cost, and information barriers to regular health care. Health fair participants were telephoned within two months of a health fair and referred to appropriate low-cost, community-based clinics. 
Community Site: APA Health CARE

2010-2011

Saskya Byerly (USC Med), Kimberly DeQuattro (USC Med), and Kristen Gregory (USC Med) will be doing a comprehensive education and mentoring program targeting high risk young women in the East Los Angeles area.  They plan to reach out to those at high-risk for teen pregnancy, assist and educate those already pregnant and to provide support and parenting skills to young mothers.

Matthew Calzetta (USC Med) is developing a community garden project in the Boyles Heights community, as part of the Romero Clinic.  This garden will provide increase green space in a low-income urban neighborhood, promote fresh produce to community member’s diets, promote exercise and movement, and improve mental health.





Lynne Chang (UCLA Med) is planning to do an outreach-based syringe exchange program for the homeless injection drug users in Los Angeles as well as improve delivery of health services and and education to that population.






Lucy Chow (UCLA Med) will be working to develop the Asian Pacific American Helath Collaboration Access Resource and Education (APA Health CARE) to provide health screenings for obesity, hypertension, diabetes, high cholesterol and hepatitis B at various health fairs throughout the year in the Los Angeles area.






Adam Cohen (UCLA MPH) will be bringing music to local Los Angeles hospitals as well as recruiting others to join him.  He hopes of bringing psychologic and physical healing to those suffering through music.









Jeffrey Delacruz (UCLA Med) and Brian Raffetto (UCLA Med) will be working together on the KP Kids after school childhood obesity project at Venice Family Clinic, helping to encourage exercise and proper nutrition in underserved youth.  They plan to expand the program to include more children and other sites.






Stephania Hayes (USC Occupational and Physical Therapy) will be working with residents of board & care homes to improve their quality of life, especially mental health,  through goal-oriented activities.







Kenneth Kim (UCLA Med) will be assisting low-income and uninsured patients to access needed medications through facilitating their enrollment in the Patient Assistance Program, which offers no cost medications to the uninsured.







Erin Grieb (UCI Med) and Wonita Youm (UCI Med) will be working with Children’s Hospital of Orange County Primary Care clinics and the Medical Initiative Against Homelessness to address pediatric obesity and cardiovascular disease.  They plan weekly one hour patient education classes and physical activities for the children.

Matthew Hakimi (UCLA Med) plans to work with the UCLA Schoolof Dentistry to provide dental care and eye screening via the UCLA Eye Mobile clinic to the patient populations served by the UCLA Student-Run Free clinics.








Cianna Leatherwood (USC Med) will be providing health education to homeless youth in the Hollywood area, including information on sexually transmitted illnesses, drug and alcohol use.







Carolina Rodriguez (USC Social Work and Nursing) will be developing a case management intervention to better deliver medical and mental health care for low-income and uninsured patients.








Ariel Strauss (UCLA Law) will be working with the UCLA Student-Run Homeless clinic to provide Supplemental Security Income application assistance to homeless clients in order to gain them access to subsidized housing and Medi-Cal health coverage.

Cyrus Taghavi (UCLA Med) will serving the UCLA Student-Run Homeless clinic population that suffers from chronic low back pain, utilizing educational workshops to teach exercises to improve strength, proper lifting technique and proper footwear. 

Jasmine Walton (USC Dental) will be exposing high school students to service by role modeling, developing their confidence in science, teaching them practical skills, and working them through problems based learning cases to encourage the development of underserved inner city youth into future health care professionals.

2008-09

 Courtney Burks, UCLA School of Public Health
Courtney is planning to create a free, student-run clinic or screening service for the Latino community in East Los Angeles, involving medical, dental, nursing and public health students.

Joseph Chan and Henry Guan, UCLA School of Medicine
Joseph and Henry will target diabets and obesity in at-risk teens and pre-teens at the Boys and Girls club and YMCA to provide a safe place for adolescents to exercise and to provide them basic health knowledge about obesity and diabetes.


Stacy Chan and Ashley Quan, UCLA School of Medicine
Stacy and Ashley will provide healthcare professionals language tools to communicate health issues to non-English speaking Chinese patients to improve cultural awareness on patients' views of health as well as address hepatitis B, type II diabetes and osteoporosis.


Tyler Gonzalez, UCLA School of Medicine
Tyler is planning to work with a pediatric diabetic clinic to help educate patients about diet, exercise, and lifestyle change in underserved areas of Los Angeles.


Daniel Karlin and Mark Lin, UCLA School of Medicine
Daniel and Mark will establish micro-clinics where health professionals will provide clinic members with basic education about the disease, followed by hands-on workhops to acquaint patients with equipment and medications to allow individuals to ultimately collectively educate each other.


Victoria Lin, UCLA School of Medicine
Victoria will implement a program to teach Easter Medicine including acupressure and deep breathing exercises for stress reduction to the medically indigent, homeless population in West Los Angeles.


Sonya Soni, USC School of Public Health
Sonya will create a USC student run primary care health clinic adjacent to the USC Dental Health Clinic on Skid Row, to provide medical services, mental health counseling, prescriptions, and referral services to Los Angeles' uninsured and underserved population.


Hilda Wiryawan, UCLA School of Public Health
Hilda is planning to help uninsured populations in the community clinics in Los Angeles by connecting them with social workers to assist in Medi-Cal application in order to improve health care access.


Victoria Yung, UCLA School of Medicine
Victoria will be implementing a smoking cessation program at the Student Run Homeless Clinic in Santa Monica, to provide non-prescription and prescription aids to quit smoking as well as a support system.