Foundation Announces 2015 Graduates of The Clinic Leadership Institute

San Francisco, CA (June 22, 2015) – Today, Blue Shield of California Foundation announced a new class of graduates from the Clinic Leadership Institute (CLI) Emerging Leaders program. Over the past 18 months, the program provided these promising healthcare professionals with the skills, networks, and guidance to effectively lead their organizations through an era of health system transformation.
 
“Many underserved and low-income Californians rely on community health centers to get the care and medical services they need,” said Peter Long, president and CEO of Blue Shield of California Foundation. “As this patient population gains healthcare coverage, support for these essential community providers must include investments in leaders – like this year’s CLI graduates – who are committed to transforming the healthcare safety net.”
 
Launched in 2007, CLI’s Emerging Leaders program offers a unique learning opportunity for California’s community health center professionals. Curriculum is focused on strategic thinking, financial management, health policy, innovation, public speaking, and other essential leadership skills and topics. This year’s graduates make up the seventh cohort of CLI’s Emerging Leaders program, with an eighth cohort already underway.
 
Each year, participants are selected for their leadership potential, commitment to serving their community, and willingness to fully engage in expanding the capacity end efficacy of their organizations. Throughout the program each participant develops an innovative, independent project that is then implemented in their community health center upon graduation.
 
Fully funded by Blue Shield of California Foundation, the Emerging Leaders program is administered by the Center for the Health Professions at the University of California, San Francisco.
 
Introducing CLI’s Emerging Leaders Class of 2015: 
 
North Coast
Sam Fernandez - Mendocino Community Health Clinics, Inc.
Koreen Nagle - Open Door Community Health Centers
Fabiola Perez - Anderson Valley Health Center
 
Far North
Tamara Wilham - Shingletown Medical Center
 
Bay Area
Maribel Baez - HealthRight360
Gralyn Jacques, Jr. - Ravenswood Family Health Center
Amy Manta-Ranger - La Clinica de La Raza
Judy Nguyen - Asian Health Services
Sarah Siebold - Women's Community Clinic
 
Central Coast
Nina Soares - Planned Parenthood of Santa Barbara, Ventura and San Luis Obispo Counties, Inc.
 
Central Valley
Alex Abarca - MACT Health Board
Mariela Contreras - MACT Health Board
Christine Howland - Camarena Health
 
Los Angeles
Cynthia Carmona - Community Clinic Association of Los Angeles County
Jackie Provost - UMMA Community Clinic
Susana Ramirez - Eisner Pediatric & Family Medical Center
Gabriela Sundaramoorthy - Cleaver Family Wellness Clinic
 
Southern California
Cynthia Aguilar - Clinica De Salud Del Pueblo, Inc.
Bryan Bol Melgar - Lestonnac Free Clinic
Andrea Chavez - North County Health Services
Julius Lam - Alliance Health Clinic
Eriq Nguyen - Hurtt Family Health Clinic
Jila Nikkhah - ShareOurSelves
Brenda Zapata - La Maestra Community Health Centers
 
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About Blue Shield of California Foundation
Blue Shield of California Foundation is one of the state’s largest and most trusted grantmaking organizations. Our mission is to improve the lives of all Californians, particularly the underserved, by making health care accessible, effective, and affordable, and by ending domestic violence. For more information visit: www.blueshieldcafoundation.org.
 
About the Center for the Health Professions at UCSF
Since 1992, the Center has been dedicated to transforming health care by delivering leadership programs to empower change agents at every level and within all sectors of the health care system; and by producing nationally and internationally recognized, unbiased research to help health care decision makers understand today's workforce issues and design actionable strategies to solve them. For more information about the Center, visit: http://futurehealth.ucsf.edu/
 
 
Press Contact:
Christine Maulhardt
(415)-229-6145

Christine.Maulhardt@blueshieldcafoundation.org