I am an experienced healthcare professional, enjoying my professional path. I am dedicated to the medical safety net and to creating an environment in which providers and staff can deliver the best medical care to the most vulnerable in our society. I care deeply about equity; I enjoy cultural and linguistic differences.
I believe that everyone has the right to receive excellent health care, provided in a culturally and linguistically appropriate way. My professional mission is to equip staff and providers with tools and operational systems that solve problems, remove obstacles and streamline day-to-day work flows.
I excel at group facilitation, the more diverse the better. I am an enthusiastic problem solver and creator of “upstream” solutions.
I am never happier than when I am developing an operational budget, unless it is when I am putting that budget into action, adhering to the expense side while exceeding expectations on the revenue side.
I enjoy mastering new practice management and electronic health record systems; in particular, report writing to extract actionable data, then teaching staff and providers how to use the data to improve operations, bring in additional revenues or improve quality.
I believe in relentless incremental improvement and in the power of our daily work to transform people’s health and their lives. To balance my high expectations and strong work ethic, I bring a robust sense of humor to my work.
I relax by working in my backyard garden and by doing yoga several times a week. My husband works at Santa Clara University; we have adult twins -- both in college in California -- and a crazy dog.
I started my career at Kaiser Permanente, then shifted to community health centers via a NACHC externship program. I "matched" with La Clínica de la Raza in Oakland, and planned to work there for a year or so as I learned about FQHCs and decided what to do next. I ended up staying for 10 years!
After my kids were born, I left to work part-time for the City of Berkeley's Public Health Clinic; after 2 years there, the City downsized its Public Health Department significantly and I realized I would soon be laid off. In the nick of time, La Clínica called and I returned to the agency for several more years before becoming the COO at Santa Cruz Community Health almost 3 years ago.
I believe strongly in the mission of community health centers and I know that CHCs are part of the future of health care in California!