Vanessa Garcia-Ruiz | UC Riverside
Emmanuel Dinarte | Loma Linda University
Ferdy Simons Barrientos | USC University of Southern California
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Colleen Corrigan, MPH
Fellowship Alumni 2022
Colleene currently works as a Senior Health Policy Associate at Children Now, a state-based research and advocacy organization. She focuses on Medi-Cal and commercial insurance quality and access, environmental justice (e.g., climate resilience infrastructure in schools, childhood lead poisoning prevention, and asthma mitigation), and behavioral health issues. She also leads CACEH, the California Alliance for Children’s Environmental Health, a network of 120 local, regional, and statewide organizations, researchers, health professionals, and youth that advocate for policies for a greener, healthier California for kids. Prior to this role, Colleen also worked in public housing projects in Watts, Los Angeles, on a longitudinal environmental health and the justice research project in public housing projects through the USC Center for Economic and Social Research.
Whitney Francis, MPH, MCP
Policy Advocate, Western Center on Law & Poverty
Whitney Originally from San Diego, CA, is a dedicated public servant with dual Master’s degrees in Public Health and City Planning, whose current work experience is focused on policy advocacy to advance racial justice and health equity as a Policy Advocate at Western Center on Law and Poverty. As a policy advocate, she has worked on a broad set of issues from improvements to Medi-Cal quality and access, food access, and advancing guaranteed income. Some of Whitney’s formative experiences include working in a clinic-based food-as-medicine program within the SF Department of Public Health, contributing to Alameda County’s All IN Eats Circular Food Economy initiative, and conducting research and evaluation on school meal reform in Oakland.
Jin Zhang, MURP
Planner, Strategic Growth Council
Jin is a long-time believer in local and regional community-centered change-making. A local Angeleno with a Master’s degree in Urban & Regional Planning from UCLA, she is currently a Planner at the Community Resilience Centers Program for the Strategic Growth Council, where she works with communities across California to fund and support community resilience infrastructure development and activities. Her former experience includes working for the U.S. Agency for International Development(USAID)’s Green Cities Team, where her primary objective was understanding how cities could harness smarter urban innovations to combat climate change, and for LA Waterkeeper, where she advanced efforts to develop a community-driven LA River plan. This is not her first time tackling wildfire research, as she has worked with Sasaki Walker & Associates to understand fire ecology and post-fire recovery, planning, and development in Sonoma County.
Dr. Zachary Travis, PhD, MPH
Fellowship Alumni 2021 & Team Lead
Dr. Zachary D. Travis holds a Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) with a concentration in Neurobiology from Loma Linda University School of Medicine and a Master of Public Health (MPH) with a focus in Health Policy and Administration from California Baptist University. He serves as a professor of medical science education and public health at Western University of Health Sciences, and as the Humanism Officer for the College of Health Sciences across its Pomona, California and Lebanon, Oregon campuses. Dr. Travis’s work focuses on inclusive and neurodivergent-responsive pedagogy and andragogy, health equity, and culturally aware medical and allied health education. He is deeply committed to systemic transformation in higher education and healthcare, with particular emphasis on learner belonging, institutional climate, and the design of humanistic, equity-driven academic environments. His approach is distinguished by a strong translational orientation (bridging research, teaching, and policy), to generate meaningful, community-centered solutions that advance public health outcomes.
Kevin Alvillar, MPH
Fellowship Alumni 2021
Kevin holds a Bachelor of Arts in Environmental Studies with a Minor in Feminist Studies from the University of California, Santa Barbara (UCSB), and a Master of Public Health (MPH) with a concentration in Health Policy and Administration from California Baptist University (CBU). He currently serves as a Senior Healthcare Administrative Service Analyst at Riverside University Health System (RUHS), where he supports the improvement of healthcare delivery through strategic collaboration and operational efficiency. Mr. Alvillar is dedicated to advancing health equity and community wellness through policy-driven innovation and systems-level thinking. His work reflects a commitment to bridging administrative practice with socially responsive public health solutions that address the needs of underserved populations.
Kriseira Lamas-Krauletz, MPH
Fellowship Alumni 2023 & Team Lead
Kriseira is a first-year medical student at the University of California, Riverside, with a commitment to advocate for underserved communities in medicine and beyond. As a child of Mexican immigrants, Kriseira witnessed how impactful built environment, public health, and education are to wellness in a community. Kriseira aims to use public health and skills as a physician to help bridge these gaps.
Calleshia Gilliam, MPH
Medical student at Bakersfield College
Calleshia is pursuing advanced Public Health Informatics training at Bakersfield College while interning with the Population Health Department at Kern Medical. Calleshia is a Jamaican-American and first-generation college graduate with experience in culturally-specific disparities. She brings a grounded, community-informed perspective to public health practice. She has contributed to initiatives focused on infrastructure improvement, equitable grant access, and local preparedness, including recent collaboration on strategies addressing Southern California wildfires. Through these efforts, she has built a practical foundation in public health, policy development, and cross-sector coordination to address complex community challenges. Calleshia applies systems thinking to design data-informed, community-driven strategies prioritizing climate resilience, environmental justice, and long-term public health outcomes. Her work emphasizes engaging diverse stakeholders, supporting grant and program development, and integrating technology into public health planning. She is a passionate public health advocate committed to ethical leadership and sustainable development. She actively seeks collaboration opportunities on California's public health and resilience initiatives.
Jaimie Le, MPH
Medical student at the University of California, Riverside
Jaimie is also a first-year medical student at the University of California, Riverside. She is passionate about advancing policies that strengthen behavioral health care and expand access for underserved communities in Southern California. Her experiences growing up in a bilingual Vietnamese household shaped her awareness of the cultural and linguistic barriers many families face when seeking specialized care. As a former health coach, she also saw how factors like housing stability deeply influenced patients’ ability to manage their health. She plans to pursue a career in child and adolescent psychiatry.