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.
Joan Allen
Government Relations Advocate, Service Employees International Union – United Healthcare Workers
Joan Allen (She/Her) is a Government Relations Advocate for SEIU United Healthcare Workers (SEIU-UHW), where she has more than 15 years of experience working to improve California’s health care system for the benefit of patients, consumers, and health care workers. She currently covers issues related to health care, health insurance, and elections. SEIU-UHW represents more than 100,000 California health care workers and fights for Healthcare Justice on behalf of both workers and patients. Ms. Allen previously worked for the City and County of San Francisco Department of Adult Probation, focusing on improving reentry services, data systems, and coordination between the department and other aspects of San Francisco’s justice and public health systems. She earned a Master of Public Policy from the University of California, Berkeley and a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science from Rice University.
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).
Dannie Ceseña
MPH, Director, California LGBTQ Services Network
Representing the LGBTQ Community
Dannie Ceseña (He/Him/They/Them), Transgender Health Equity Manager, has over 15 years of experience working with non-profits in program development and advocacy. He has extensive knowledge in creating TGNC healthcare collaborations utilizing upstream interventions and addressing the root cause of lack of access to TGNC affirming health care. His knowledge and leadership have assisted in the creation of two TGNC community health care clinics, and a monthly TGNC legal clinic in Orange County, CA. Dannie has become a trusted leader in LGBTQ health among partners in the California Tobacco Control Program. He is responsible for building We Breathe: Supporting Tobacco-Free LGBTQ Communities from the ground-up, and has established the program as a leader statewide, nationally, and even internationally. He has provided leadership and guidance for LGBTQ organizations who are new to working with the Department of Public Health, helping them navigate the complicated bureaucracy and ensuring LGBTQ project staff always have a place to turn with their questions and concerns. He is in high demand to present on LGBTQ health at trainings, meetings, and conferences throughout the country, and internationally.
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.
Elia Gallardo
JD, Chief Equity Officer, California Department of Health Care Access and Information
Departmental Representative
In 2022, Elia Gallardo was appointed to serve as Deputy Director of Legislative and Governmental Affairs and the first Chief Equity Officer at the Department of Health Care Access and Information. Ms. Gallardo has dedicated her career to advancing social justice, race and health equity.
Prior to joining HCAI, Ms. Gallardo held various leadership positions in the nonprofit and public sector. She was the Director of Government Affairs at the County of Behavioral Health Directors Association of California where she spearheaded legislation to add Peer Support Specialists to the Medi-Cal program. She was the Director of Policy Research at Insure the Uninsured Project and was the Executive Director of Government Relations and Program Oversight at the Alameda Alliance for Health, a Medi-Cal managed care plan. Ms. Gallardo represented community clinics, health centers and their patients as the Director of Government Affairs at California Primary Care Association. Ms. Gallardo earned a juris doctor degree from the University of California, Los Angeles, School of Law and secured her undergraduate degree from the University of California at Berkeley. Ms. Gallardo is a member of the California State Bar Association.
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.
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.
Amy M. Sitapati Clinical Professor, Division of Biomedical Informatics University of California San Diego
Bringing more than 15 years of leadership in biomedical informatics, quality informatics, and healthcare leadership, Dr. Sitapati’s career has centered on the advancement of data powered health. Dr. Sitapati currently serves as the Chief Medical Information Officer of the Population Health for UC San Diego Health (UCSDH), Lawrence S. Friedman Professor of Population Health Endowed Chair, Clinical Professor of Medicine, Interim Chief of the Division of Biomedical Informatics and Interim Chair of the Department of Biomedical Informatics at UC San Diego Health. In these roles, she has groomed substantial depth in advancing solutions that foster innovation through biomedical informatics application in health. As a trained engineer and board certified clinical informaticist, she brings a wealth of knowledge in the domains of quality, safety, and healthcare innovation. More specifically, Dr. Sitapati has lived experience assembling strategies for the advancement of human health through biomedical data, quality informatics, vital records informatics, systems science, implementation science, registries, applied health artificial intelligence, analytics, data base architecture, database management, social determinants of health, analytics, campaigns, health leadership, and public health advocacy. Dr. Sitapati’s clinical and informatics expertise in equity as well as care for the LGBTQI+ community has served to enhance organizational systems which support identity and reduce disparities.
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.
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.
State Partners
Providing technical subject matter expertise
Peg Carpenter
Senior Equity and Quality Specialist, Covered California , State Technical Partner
As a leading Equity and Quality Specialist in Covered California’s Equity Quality and Transformation division (EQT), Peg orchestrates key quality improvement initiatives aimed at reshaping healthcare reform. She spearheads the design, launch, and evaluation of programs that serve over 1.8 million Californians under the Affordable Care Act (ACA), striving to expand access and elevate healthcare quality and equity in collaboration with more than 12 health plan issuers through Stakeholder Engagement and Collaboration with Qualified Health Plan (QHP) Partnerships. Peg assesses reform strategies and outcomes, utilizing Accountability Programs based on CMS Quality Ratings, Healthcare Evidence Initiative (HEI) measures, Quality Improvement Strategies (QIS), and other key metrics to drive enhancements in healthcare quality and equity. With over 13 years of experience across the healthcare spectrum, including payers, providers, and brokers, her expertise in contract management, negotiation, and analytical skills fuel advancements in healthcare equity and quality.
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.
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.