Meet the Hospital Equity Measures Members
Advisory Committee
Amy Adome
Senior Vice President of Clinical Effectiveness, Sharp Healthcare
Representing Private Hospitals and Health Systems
Amy A. Adome, MD, MPH (She/Her) is senior vice president for Sharp HealthCare. Dr. Amy Adome is responsible for leading efforts to maintain and improve the quality of patient care across the Sharp system, which includes four acute care hospitals, three specialty hospitals and two affiliated medical groups. Dr. Adome works with a variety of groups within Sharp including clinical research and physician services, institutional review board, continuing medical education, service lines and performance improvement, to name a few. In addition, she works collaboratively with physicians, nurses and health professionals to develop, define, and deliver quality patient care, using quality assessment and monitoring techniques Dr. Adome joined Sharp Healthcare in April 2013. Prior to joining Sharp, Dr. Adome was based in the east coast where she held a number of leadership roles. Her most recent role before moving to San Diego was as Vice President of Quality and Patient Safety at Mary Washington Healthcare in Fredericksburg, VA – a nonprofit regional system comprised of two hospitals and 28 ambulatory health care facilities and wellness services. While there, she was responsible for building and leading their corporate Quality and Patient Safety program. Before that, she worked in Manhasset, NY where she served as the Director of Quality at North Shore University hospital, an 806 – bed teaching hospital that is one of the cornerstones of North Shore LIJ Health System. Dr. Adome received her medical degree from Makerere University in Uganda, worked as a primary care physician in Kenya before migrating to the United States to pursue a Master in Public Health with a concentration in Health Care Management from Harvard University in Boston.
Ashrith Amarnath
Chief Medical Officer, California Association of Public Hospitals and Health Systems
Representing Public Hospitals and Health Systems
Dr. Amarnath joined the California Health Care Safety Net Institute (SNI) in May 2023 as Chief Health Officer. He is a physician leader with a focus on healthcare delivery reform, quality, and health equity. He is trained in general surgery with a background in acute care surgery and population health. He is well regarded for his skills in quality improvement, health equity, and high reliability in healthcare with a demonstrated history of working in health policy, innovation, as well as within hospital and healthcare systems. He formerly served as Senior Medical Director for Covered California, the health benefits exchange for the State of California. In this role he led the health informatics and clinical team that advised the organization on medical policy and standards issues for health plan contracting as well as utilized health plan data to provide actionable information supporting operations to improve care, lower costs, and enhance consumer health. In addition, he oversaw the medical, behavioral health, and clinical programs on quality and effective care delivery for insurance services. He sits on various technical expert panels for the National Quality Forum, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, and the California Health and Human Services Agency. He held prior roles as the Patient Safety Officer for Sutter Valley Medical Foundation and Medical Consultant for the California Department of Health Care Services. He is a graduate of University of Michigan (BS, Biopsychology & Cognitive Science), University of Louisville (MD), and Arizona State University (MS, Science of Health Care Delivery).
Denny Chan
Directing Attorney, Justice In Aging
Representing Consumers
Denny Chan (He/Him) serves as Justice in Aging’s inaugural Directing Attorney for Equity Advocacy. In this role, he is responsible for developing and leading Justice in Aging’s Strategic Initiative on Advancing Equity, with a primary focus on race equity for older adults of color, and he also coordinates the organization’s equity team. He joined Justice in Aging as an attorney on the health team in 2014 and is based in Los Angeles, CA. The son of working-class Chinese immigrant parents, Denny has worked significantly on non-discrimination, language access, and healthcare delivery reform issues for low-income older adults and brings all of these experiences to his advocacy. He previously served as a rotating law clerk for the US District Court in Los Angeles and participated in the Fulbright English Teaching Program as a fellow in Macau, China. Denny is a graduate of the University of California, Irvine School of Law. He received his BA from the University of Michigan. State Bar Admission: California.
Cary Sanders
Senior Policy Director, California Pan-Ethnic Health Network
Representing Vulnerable Populations
Cary Sanders (She/Her/Hers) earned a Master of Public Policy from the University of California at Berkeley. Prior to joining CPEHN, Cary worked as a policy analyst for the California Immigrant Policy Center (CIPC) promoting pro-immigrant policies that address and respect the needs and contributions of California’s diverse immigrant communities and their families. She has also worked as Assistant Policy Director for SEIU United Health Care Workers-West representing over 150,000 health care workers in California and as Policy Director for Services, Immigrant Rights and Education Network (SIREN) in San Jose. Cary is proficient in Spanish after having lived and worked in Guatemala.
Anthony Iton
Senior Vice President for Healthy Communities, California Endowment
Academic Health Care Quality and Measures Expert
Anthony B. Iton, M.D., J.D., MPH, (He/Him) Senior Vice President of Programs & Partnerships, joined The Endowment in October 2009. The Programs & Partnerships Department is responsible for the development and execution of The California Endowment’s strategic plan, with input and guidance from the Board of Directors and Executive Team, to help achieve racial equity in health in California. They achieve this through team-based learning, visioning, strategic planning, and strategic grant making. Prior to his appointment at The Endowment, Iton served since 2003 as both the director and County Health Officer for the Alameda County Public Health Department. In that role, he oversaw the creation of an innovative public health practice designed to eliminate health disparities by tackling the root causes of poor health that limit quality of life and lifespan in many of California’s low-income communities. Iton also served for three years as director of Health and Human Services and School Medical Advisor for the City of Stamford, Connecticut. Concurrent to that, he also served as a physician in internal medicine for Stamford Hospital’s HIV Clinic. In addition, Iton served for five years as a primary care physician for the San Francisco Department of Public Health. Iton’s varied career also includes past service as a staff attorney and Health Policy analyst for the West Coast regional office of Consumer’s Union, the publisher of Consumer Reports magazine. Iton, who has been published in numerous public health and medical publications, is a regular public health lecturer and keynote speaker at conferences across the nation. He earned his B.S. in Neurophysiology, with honors, from McGill University, in Montreal, Quebec, his J.D. at the University of California, Berkeley’s School of Law, and his medical degree from Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine.
Silvia Yee
Senior Staff Attorney, Disability Rights Education & Defense Fund
Representing People with Disabilities
Silvia Yee (She/Her) is a senior staff attorney at Disability Rights Education and Defense Fund (DREDF) where her work has included projects to increase physical and programmatic accessibility and disability awareness in the delivery of health care services, as well as impact litigation to increase access for people with disabilities in myriad aspects of public and private life. Ms. Yee maintains interests in health care reform and the impact on people with disabilities, international disability rights and the implementation of national disability rights laws, and the strengthening of cross-disability and cross-civil rights communities. Much of her work is premised on viewing health care services as a civil right for people with disabilities since the right to community integration for many people with significant disabilities cannot be practically realized without appropriate home and community-based care, including long-term services and supports. Over the past decade, Ms. Yee has presented and written on how disability health and healthcare disparities, civil rights, public health, and social determinants of health such as race/ethnicity, LQBTQ status, and income level intersect. Recently, she has had the privilege of co-teaching the disability rights law class offered at UC Berkeley School of Law. Prior to joining DREDF, Ms. Yee worked in private commercial practice in Canada, and with the Health Law Institute at the University of Alberta, where she published on the topics of Canadian Health Care Standards and the extent of the nursing profession’s legal authority. Ms. Yee received her B.Mus., M.A., and LL.B. degrees from the University of Alberta. Following graduation from law school, she clerked with Justice William Stevenson at the Alberta Court of Appeal.
Isaias Guzman
Manager of Programs, California LGBTQ Services Network
Representing the LGBTQ Community
Isaias Guzman is the Manager of Programs for the California LGBTQ Health and Human Services Network, which works to advance health equity for LGBTQ communities. He has extensive experience organizing with LGBTQ communities on issues of health equity, racial and gender justice, and LGBTQ policy advocacy and implementation. Isaias continues to advance the health and well-being of queer and trans* communities by promoting LGBTQ health and wellness.
Kristine Toppe
Assistant Vice President, National Committee for Quality Assurance
Public and Community Health Expert
Kristine Toppe, MPH (She/Her) is the Assistant Vice President for State Affairs at the National Committee for Quality Assurance (NCQA), where she leads the engagement and support of states on identifying and implementing policies for quality improvement and meaningful evaluation of the healthcare system. She has over 20 years of experience and direct knowledge of state and federal public health policy and has supported NCQA’s relationships in California since 2001. In 2020-2021, she served as an advisor on the Oregon Health Care Authority’s Social Determinants of Health Measure Workgroup which was charged with recommending a measure for incentivizing the screening of individuals for health-related social needs and is currently serving as a member of the California DMHC Health Equity and Quality Advisory Committee. Ms. Toppe holds a Master of Public Health from UCLA’s Fielding School of Public Health and a Bachelor of Science from the University of Oregon.
Neil Maizlish
Senior Data Advisor, Public Health Alliance of Southern California
Public and Community Health and Healthy Places Index Expert
Neil Maizlish, PhD, MPH (He/Him) is an epidemiologist with over 35 years of experience in quantitative research methods, statistics, and health informatics in local and state government, academia, community clinics, unions, and the private sector. He currently Senior Data Advisor at the Public Health Alliance of Southern California. He previously served as a research scientist at the California Department of Public Health, where his focus was the public health impacts of climate change and the built environment, modeling the health co-benefits of active transport, climate and health adaptation, and the development of healthy community indicators. His previous posts also include research manager for the California Division of Workers’ Compensation, community epidemiologist for the City of Berkeley Public Health Division, Fulbright scholar in Latin America, consultant to the World Health Organization, and adjunct professor at the University of California, Berkeley.
Robyn Strong
Assistant Branch Chief, California Department of Health Care Access and Information
Departmental Representative
Robyn Strong (She/Her) is the Enterprise Data Operations Assistant Branch Chief within the Information Services Division of the Department of Healthcare Access and Information (HCAI). Robyn joined HCAI (formerly the Office of Statewide Health Planning and Development) in 1999 and has served in numerous roles, primarily related to data collection and validation of healthcare data including patient-level administrative, financial, utilization, healthcare payments (APCD), and cost transparency of prescription drugs. Prior to HCAI, Robyn worked for the California Public Health Foundation as a Health Surveyor and for the Employment Development Department. She earned her Bachelor of Science Degree in Business Administration from California State University, Chico and Certificate from the California Health and Human Services Leadership Development Academy at California State University, Sacramento in 2019.
State Partners
Providing technical subject matter expertise
Sarah Lahidji
Division Chief, Quality and Health Equity, California Department of Health Care Services, State Technical Partner
Sarah Lahidji, MHA is the Chief of the Quality and Health Equity Division, housed within California’s Department of Health Care Services (DHCS), which administers the state’s Medicaid program. In this role, Sarah is charged with leading clinical quality and health equity initiatives, program evaluation, quality assurance, and performance improvement activities across programs and delivery systems serving members that receive care through Medi-Cal. Sarah has focused her career on the intersection of quality and health equity through previous roles at the University of California, San Francisco and Kaiser Permanente.
Taylor Priestley
Health Equity Officer, Deputy Director Health Equity & Quality Transformation Covered California, State Technical Partner
Taylor Priestley, MSW, MPH (She/Her/Hers) is the Health Equity Officer, Deputy Director Health Equity & Quality Transformation at Covered California.
Taylor started with Covered California in November 2012 and helped launch Qualified Health Plan selection and certification, plan contracting, and standard health and dental benefit plan designs. She has served as Covered California’s Health Equity Officer since 2018, and in October 2021, became Deputy Director of the newly reorganized Health Equity and Quality Transformation Division. Taylor leads health equity policy development and oversees implementation of Covered California’s health equity and quality transformation initiatives.
Taylor comes to the Exchange after extensive work in health and intervention programs for low-income and vulnerable populations at CommuniCare Health Centers, Sacramento Employment and Training Agency (SETA) Head Start, and the YWCA of Sonoma County. She holds Masters’ degrees in Social Welfare and Public Health from UC Berkeley, where she researched pediatric oral health disparities with a focus on access to care.
Nathan Nau
Deputy Director, California Department of Managed Health Care, State Technical Partner
Nathan Nau is the Deputy Director of the Office of Plan Monitoring, where he is responsible for evaluating and promoting health plan regulatory compliance related to quality improvement, utilization management and member grievances and ensuring health plan networks have the right types of providers necessary to deliver health care services that meet time and geographic access requirements. Prior to joining the DMHC, Nathan worked at the California Department of Health Care Services (DHCS) for nearly 14 years. Nathan started as a Staff Services Analyst and was promoted through the Staff Services Manager series. Most recently, Nathan served as the DHCS Chief of the Managed Care Quality and Monitoring Division. In this capacity, he led the monitoring and oversight of Medi-Cal Managed Care Health Plans and set policy for the Medi-Cal Managed Care Program. Nathan has extensive experience in measuring the performance of health plan operations, network adequacy, quality and quality improvement activities and data quality. He also led major IT projects to replace the submission processes for encounter and provider data and to test delivery system reform through the Whole Person Care and Health Homes programs. Nathan holds a bachelor’s degree in Business Administration from the California State University, Sacramento, and a Master of Business Administration degree from the University of Phoenix.
Julie Nagasako
Deputy Director, California Department of Public Health, State Technical Partner
Julie Nagasako (She/Hers) currently serves as the Deputy Director for the Office of Policy and Planning at the California Department of Public Health (CDPH). Julie joined CDPH in 2013, contributing to a wide range of public health initiatives addressing state health improvement priorities and equity. She is originally from Hilo, Hawaii where she worked for over ten years in leadership of community based organizations; including serving as regional and county director for a non-profit social services agency supporting programs addressing homelessness, immigration services, and youth development.