Public Health GRAD Association @ UCI |
Welcome! The Public Health Association website features everything you need to know about PHA events, meetings, and resources for general members as well as Public Health Grad Association (PHA GRAD) members. PREVENT, PROMOTE, PROTECT. |
For Spring 2013, all general (grad and undergrad) PHA meetings are held at UCI (Room SST 120), on Even Wednesdays 5:30-6:30pm unless otherwise posted!
Below are all PHA meetings, Grad PHA-specific events are typically held every odd week:
Past Winter Quarter schedule:
Public Health Speaker Series (Click on their name for their Full bios)
Week 2: Wednesday, January 16, 2013
Kevin Espiritu | View powerpoint presentation
Founder, Espiritu Microgreens
Week 4: Wednesday, January 30, 2013
Barry Ross
VP, Healthy Communities
St. Jude Medical Center
Week 6: Wednesday, February 13, 2013
Carrers in Public Health Workshop by PHA Undergraduate Board
Week 8: Wednesday, February 27, 2013
PHA Alumni Panel: Ann Nguyen, Simon Contreras, Leya Worcester, Joisabel Goldberg, Sara Wei, Allen Suh
View the panel discussion here!
Week 10: Wednesday, March 13, 2013
Dr. Leslie Israel (Presentation here)
UCI Associate Clinical Professor
Medical Director, Occupational and Environmental Medicine Clinic
Dr. Hans-Ulrich Bernard (Presentation here)
UCI Professor, Molecular Biology and Biochemistry
Listen to their talk here! mp3 - 45mb
Speaker Series Bios
Kevin Espiritu | email: kevin@xponics.com
I started as a web designer in late 2010. While I still do some design today, I have transitioned to online marketing consulting, specifically in SEO, Software as a Service (SaaS) products, and sales funnel optimization. I also have a burning interest in gardening, sustainability, and locally and socially conscious food. I started Espiritu Microgreens, a small urban farm where I sell high-quality gourmet microgreens to San Diego’s finest restaurants. I’m also exploring a new product for teachers and schoolchildren that bring local food, self-sustainability, interactive learning, and adherence to California School Standards for Life Sciences together. I believe in social capitalism, which is basically using capitalism to achieve positive social goals as well as profit.
Barry Ross has a BA degree from NYU, BSN, MPH and MBA degrees from Columbia University. He has 39 years of health care management experience in acute care, long term care, behavioral health care, rehabilitation care and community health. For the past 12 years he has served as Vice President, Healthy Communities at St. Jude Medical Center. In that role, he has provided leadership in the areas of community benefit, health improvement and the creation of healthy communities. He is currently the Chair, Alliance for a Health Orange County, Vice Chair of the La Habra Collaborative, Board Member of the Fullerton Collaborative, member of the CalOPTIMA Medical Provider Advisory Committee and serves on the Advisory Boards of the UCI and CSUF Public Health programs, as well as the UCI Community Action Partnership Group. His work at St. Jude Medical Center can be seen at stjudemedicalcenter.org under Community Outreach.
Ann Nguyen is a public health professional currently working at Palomar Health, California’s largest public health district, where she facilitated the licensing and opening of a 288-bed medical center through innovative techniques in staff education. Ann has extensive leadership experience in various health sectors, including prior work at the UCLA Center for Health Policy Research, the St. Joseph Health System (SJHS), and COPE Health Solutions. She has also completed a fellowship with the Yale Entrepreneurial Institute, where she began building a med tech startup. Ann conducts research in influenza epidemiology at UC Irvine. She holds a master’s degree in Public Health Epidemiology and an undergraduate degree in Biomedical Engineering from the UC Irvine with a minor in Materials Science Engineering.
I recently completed my MPH program at California State University, Fullerton, where I was afforded the opportunity to focus my studies on Health Promotion and Disease Prevention with an emphasis on childhood and adolescent health education. During my last semester I completed an internship with the Network for a Healthy California Coalition with the Orange County Department of Education where I worked alongside program coordinators, faculty, parents, and coalition members alike to develop nutrition education materials, assist with nutrition education workshops, attend health promotion fairs, and facilitate on-site taste testings at network schools. Recently, I began working for the non-profit organization THINK Together, a program dedicated to providing students with after school English and Math mentoring as well as enrichment opportunities in character development, lifelong learning, and healthy lifestyles. At my site, I am responsible for spearheading the nutrition education and physical activity components through our after school cooking club and athletic activities. Our goal is to ultimately provide students with the tools to lead healthy lives and to become positive role models for those around them. I have also began making contributions to the Public Health Association at UCI’s Alum website, as well as develop my own blog Eat Clean 2 Be Lean, which is dedicated to healthy living through innovative lifestyle change. Both venues have provided me opportunities to express my efforts in integrating public health practice in my everyday life, be it professionally or in the home.
Leya Worcester is an associate clinical social worker currently earning hours towards licensure to become a licensed clinical social worker (LCSW). She works as a social worker for Step Up on Second, a mental health organization based in Santa Monica, where she provides intensive case management, psychosocial rehabilitation, advocacy, and psychotherapy services to adults living with severe and persistent mental illness. She received her Masters in Social Work degree from University of Southern California in May 2012 and focused her studies in the area of mental health in the adult population. In 2009, she received her Bachelors in Science degree at the University of California, Irvine, in the field of Public Health Sciences and originally prepared to enter medical school. The rigorous journey of preparing for medical school whilst taking public health courses at UCI paved the route for a future career in social work, in which she currently combines her knowledge of the inner workings of the human body and the practice of public health at the community level. Although she is in the beginning stage of her career, her future plans include obtaining her LCSW, pursuing a doctoral degree, and continuing the practice of clinical social work in the mental health field.
Joisabel Goldberg is a Clinical Systems Analyst and Research Associate at NeuroComp Systems, Inc. in Irvine, CA. The company develops software that are used in clinical trials for neurocognitive diseases such as Schizophrenia and Alzheimer’s. She is a Public Health graduate of UC Irvine and is currently attending a nursing program at Cerritos College. She hopes to advance in her career as a Family Nurse Practitioner/Public Health Nurse.
Sara Wei is a Project Specialist for the UCLA Institute for in Health. Before she joined the team in Fall 2011, Sara was a project manager for a mobile health care start-up and an administrative resident at Johns Hopkins Hospital. A graduate of Johns Hopkins School of Public Health and the University of California, Irvine, Sara is currently a member of the American College of Health Care Executives and a board member for Women in Health Administration.
Allen Suh started at the VA as an Administrative Fellow in after completing a MPH in Health Services Administration at the UCLA Fielding School of Public Health. As a Strategic Planner at VA GLA, Allen is responsible for healthcare system and program planning, construction planning, and data analysis. This includes annually updating the strategic, working with various services on key initiatives such as Patient Centered Care and Primary Care - Mental Health Integration (PC-MHI), and working with services to design for planned construction such as the Bakersfield Community Based Outpatient Clinic, Distant Patient Lodging Service, and PC-MHI at three GLA sites. He is also responsible for using Geographic Information Systems to help with data driven decision making for questions related to service delivery.
Prior to the VA, Allen had interned at several community based organizations such as the Orange County Asian and Pacific Islander Alliance (OCAPICA) and California Healthcare Foundation in Sacramento. For his MPH summer internship he worked at the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid (CMS) regional office in Seattle, WA where he tracking the HITECH Act and completed a Medicaid program review on a long term care benefits denial process. After the summer policy internship, Allen decided to pursue an administrative role in a health system/provider setting. He also interned with the Strategic Planner at VA GLA during graduate school . He is excited to connect with current students and help others explore careers in healthcare.
Research interest in implementation of a national wellness and fitness examination for Orange County Fire Authority Firefighters
Previous meetings and minutes:
Week 4 - Oct 25th: T-Shirt/Goodie Bag social to support the PHA Electric Run Team! (Snacks provided, member drawing for a free goodie bag for participants)
Week 6 - Nov 8th: Guest speaker, Dr. Elizabeth Gonzalez
Week 8: Thanksgiving (No meeting!)
Week 10 - Dec 6th: Guest speaker, Career Center on attaining an Internship for your Practicum!
last updated: 1/6/13
