Meet the IMPACT Residents at Children's Hospital Los Angeles!
Class of:
Class of 2012
Alice Abrahamian
Undergraduate School: University of California Los Angeles
Graduate School: Master of Science, Boston University
Medical School: Boston University School of Medicine
Hometown: Los Angeles, CA
Career plans: General Pediatrics
An inspirational person in your life: My father has been a big inspiration throughout my life. He has shown me that the best way to celebrate your own success is to be able to give back to your community. Through hard work and dedication he was able to create a successful business with only minimal formal education and has made it his life’s mission to provide support to young adults interested in continuing their education.
Personal interests: dance, basketball, running, international health
Title of your project: Armenian Health Care Attitudes Survey
Community/CHLA partners: Armenian Directory
A brief description of your project: There is a large population of Armenians that reside in and around Los Angeles. At Children’s Hospital Los Angeles, we interact with Armenian patients and families on a daily basis and have encountered many struggles while attempting to provide care for these patients. The Armenian Health Care Attitudes Survey is aimed at establishing data regarding important health care decisions made by the Armenian-Americans that reside in Los Angeles. The study will outline general trends of health-care attitudes and decisions, including physician trust, effect of ethnicity of PMD and physician and factors that affect the decision making process regarding procedures and medication use.
Christine Bottrell
Undergraduate School: UC Berkeley
Graduate Degree: MPH, Harvard School of Public Health
Medical School: UCSF
Hometown: Glendale, CA
Career plans: Neonatology Fellowship with research focus in neurodevelopmental outcomes
An inspirational person in your life: Bob Dylan
Personal interests: yoga, running, outdoors
Title of your project: LATCH NOW (Lactation, Advocacy and Teaching at Children’s Hospital Los Angeles, Hollywood Presbyterian Medical Center and Network of WICs)
Community/CHLA partners: Lactation Team, PCS Education Council, Hollywood Presbyterian Medical Center, PHFE WIC, Breastfeeding Taskforce of Greater Los Angeles, Los Angeles County Department of Public Health, USC University Center for Excellence in Developmental Disabilities (UCEDD) and AAP California Chapter 2
A brief description of your project: What started as an investigation as to why our neighborhood birthing hospitals have such poor exclusive breastfeeding rates (as low as 5 percent) and that Children’s Hospital Los Angeles has a reputation of having infants enter the hospital breastfeeding and leave bottle feeding, has led to a multi-disciplinary collaboration that has resulted in: obtaining a half-million dollar grant for Hollywood Presbyterian Medical Center to become Baby-Friendly, creating the LATCH NOW Coalition which brings multiple disciplines within Children’s Hospital Los Angeles and in our catchment area together to address barriers to breastfeeding, the Lactation Team has lead to a) hiring a full-time lactation consultant, b) creating a policy for breastfeeding employees, c) increasing physician involvement in lactation team activities, d) partnering with the LA County Department of Public Health SPA 3 and 4 Breastfeeding Collaborating and more. Current activities include 1) working towards implementing a nursing and ancillary staff breastfeeding curriculum created by Dr. Megan Mariner to be required for all hospital employees, 2) working to implement prenatal classes in the community, 3) reaching out to community pediatricians and OB/GYNs to increase their breastfeeding education, and 4) formally studying breastfeeding rates and changes over time. We have been awarded an AAP CATCH Grant, Krieger Award for Pediatric Advocacy and an AAP Chapter 2 Resident Research Award.
Patty Rae Castillo
Undergraduate School: University of San Francisco
Medical School: Loyola University of Chicago, Stritch School of Medicine
Hometown: Los Angeles, CA
Career plans: General Pediatrics
An inspirational person in your life: My grandmother, at almost 80, has lived through it all & still looks great!
Personal interests: Community advocacy, dance, travel, foodie destinations, adrenaline rushes
Title of your project: Una Vida Saludable II
Community/CHLA partners: Proyecto Pastoral and the Dolores Mission Women’s Cooperative in Boyle Heights, CA including Centro de Alegria early education center & IMPACTO after school program and BodyWorks program, sponsored by the U.S Department of Health.
A brief description of your project: Our study is an extension of a previously developed Children’s Hospital Los Angeles advocacy project: Una Vida Saludable. Through this project, residents held monthly workshops in health and fitness education for parents at center in Boyle Heights. We have expanded this education and are enabling community members to participate in the Bodyworks Program designed by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. The program consists of 10 week sessions that provide participants with knowledge, information and tools to make specific behavior changes to prevent obesity and help maintain a healthy weight. The objective of the course is to institute behavioral change and enable the community to fully sustain the program in absence of our project. Furthermore, we are collecting data via surveys and biometric information to better understand how we can overcome obesity in our communities.
Jonathan Goldfinger
Graduate Degree: MPH, Mount Sinai School of Medicine
Undergraduate School: Columbia College
Medical School: Mount Sinai School of Medicine
Hometown: Woodmere, NY
Career plans: I hope to work on large-scale public health projects for underserved populations, either in a public health agency or as a consultant, while practicing in a general pediatrics clinic in my spare time.
An inspirational person in your life: My mother, who always taught me to love and respect all people as God's creatures.
Personal interests: In my spare time I work on multiple public health projects, hike throughout Los Angeles and watch football (I LOVE THE JETS!). My favorite color is green and I can often be found watering a sizable garden on my patio. I also enjoy spending time with interesting groups of people.
Title of your project: LATCH NOW (Lactation, Advocacy and Teaching at Children’s Hospital Los Angeles, Hollywood Presbyterian Medical Center and Network of WICs)
Community/CHLA partners: Children’s Hospital Los Angeles partners include the Lactation Team, nursing educators throughout the hospital and the PCS Education Council. Other community partners include The Breastfeeding Taskforce of Greater Los Angeles, various OB clinics and soon the California Perinatal Services Program.
A brief description of your project: Exclusive breastfeeding is undeniably the healthiest form of infant nutrition. Unfortunately, Los Angeles County and the communities served by Children’s Hospital Los Angeles have some of the lowest exclusive breastfeeding rates in the country. This led four Children’s Hospital Los Angeles residents to start LATCH NOW. In the last two years LATCH NOW has successfully: 1) built an ever-expanding, multidisciplinary, multi-institutional breastfeeding coalition, 2) helped to transform the culture at HPMC toward Baby-Friendly practice, 3) increased awareness at Children’s Hospital Los Angeles about the importance of improving breastfeeding support for patients, 4) helped to increase lactation staffing, 5) collaborated on education for hospital nurses, residents and faculty, 6) received an American Academy of Pediatrics CATCH Grant for coalition building and establishing reimbursable prenatal classes for expecting parents in the community, 7) received an American Academy of Pediatrics Resident-Research award, 8) received Children’s Hospital Los Angeles Gary F. Krieger, M.D. Pediatric Advocacy Award. Currently, institutional interest and buy-in are as high as they’ve been at both HPMC and Children’s Hospital Los Angeles, including outpatient clinics. The entire third-year Pediatric Residency class is now engaged in a lactation support quality improvement initiative. LATCH NOW is also working with stakeholders and collaborators including the LA County Department of Public Health and numerous Los Angeles hospitals to improve breastfeeding support among community providers. LATCH NOW plans to spearhead a provider outreach campaign and an educational conference that will empower providers throughout L.A. County to support breastfeeding in their clinics and communities.
Megan Mariner
Undergraduate School: University of Washington
Medical School: University of Washington School of Medicine
Hometown: Bothell, WA
Career plans: NICU Fellowship
An inspirational person in your life: I am consistently inspired by my co-residents with their dedication to advocacy and improving patient care in our community.
Personal interests: baking, photography, travel
Title of your project: LATCH NOW
Community/CHLA partners: Christine Bottrell, Jonathan Goldfinger, Jessica Tenney, Children’s Hospital Los Angeles Lactation, WIC
A brief description of your project: LATCH NOW is a resident created group who works to improve the rates of breastfeeding in both the community and within the hospital setting. The project includes health care worker education, community education, coalition building and political advocacy.
Maureen Villasenor
Undergraduate School: UCLA
Medical School: Drew/UCLA School of Medicine
Hometown: Santa Ana, CA
Career plans: Chief resident 2012-2013, then academic general pediatrics or hospital medicine
An inspirational person in your life: My project mentors Dr. Joyce Javier and Larry Yin and my New Century Scholars Mentor Dr. Matilde Irigoyen
Personal interests: community advocacy, dance, travel, fashion
Title of your project: Una Vida Saludable II
Community/CHLA partners: Proyecto Pastoral and the Dolores Mission Women’s Cooperative in Boyle Heights, CA including Centro de Alegria early education center & IMPACTO after school program and the BodyWorks program, sponsored by the U.S Department of Health.
A brief description of your project: Our study is an extension of a previously developed Children’s Hospital Los Angeles advocacy project: Una Vida Saludable. Through this project, residents held monthly workshops in health and fitness education for parents at a center in Boyle Heights. We expanded education and are enabling community members to participate in the Bodyworks Program designed by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. The program consists of 10 weeks of sessions providing participants with knowledge, information and tools to make specific behavior changes to prevent obesity and help maintain a healthy weight. We are collecting data via surveys and biometric information to help better understand how we can overcome obesity in our communities. The objective of this course is to institute lasting change and enable the community to fully sustain the program in absence of our project.
Class of 2013
Lukas Austin-Page
Undergraduate School: Emory University
Medical School: Albert Einstein College of Medicine
Hometown: New York, NY
Career plans: Undecided as to specialty, but plan to incorporate work with high-risk youth and global health into my career.
An inspirational person in your life: Paul Farmer
Title of your project: Health Care Utilization Among Homeless GLBT Youth in Hollywood
Community/CHLA partners: Department of Adolescent Medicine, Hollywood Homeless Youth Partnership
A brief description of your project: Through the use of focus groups and targeted surveys conducted with homeless GLBT youth in Hollywood, my project aims to identify barriers in health care access faced by this severely underserved and high-risk population. Once these obstacles have been identified and their impact quantified, a targeted educational curriculum for Children’s Hospital Los Angeles residents will be created and piloted in an attempt to rectify any provider related barriers in health care access and improve the overall ability of GLBT youth to utilize the medical services available to them.
Jackie Quach
Undergraduate School: University of California, San Diego
Medical School: The Ohio State University College of Medicine
Hometown: San Diego
Career plans: General Pediatrics
An inspirational person in your life: My high school English teacher
Personal interests: cooking, hiking, camping, buying gifts
Title of your project: Mental Health Problems in Foster Children
Community/CHLA partners: Foster HUB
A brief description of your project: The goal of my project is to create educational resources for pediatricians and parents on common mental health problems in foster children.
Class of 2014
Liza Green-Golan
Undergraduate School: Emory University
Medical School: Temple University
Hometown: Boston, MA
Career plans: Still undecided since I am only 3 months into residency. I love general pediatrics right now, but still very open minded about fellowships and ways to incorporate advocacy into my every day practice (perhaps in some policy or administrative realm).
An inspirational person in your life: There are so many
Personal interests: spin, hike, beach, listen to country music with the windows wide open
Dania Molla Hosseini
Undergraduate School: University of Arizona
Medical School: University of Arizona School of Medicine
Hometown: Scottsdale, AZ
Career plans: Possibly pursuing a GI fellowship. Whatever I choose to pursue, I hope to continue incorporating advocacy into my chosen practice/specialty.
An inspirational person in your life: My mother: Chaza Abdul Hai, PhD - she persevered through the hardship of being a foreigner in the United States to succeed as a professional member of society. She constantly demonstrates inspiring work ethics and dedication while being a mother and raising three children.
Personal interests: I enjoy trotting the globe! I love visiting new places, learning about new cultures, and of course, I always enjoy visiting my family in the Middle East, France and Canada. Outside of work, I love hiking, going to the beach, dancing, arts and crafts. When it comes to advocacy, I really enjoy working towards developing innovative ways of improving health care whether it is in regards to prevention or patient education. In medical school, I was involved with the T-Health Institute, a telemedicine program at the University of Arizona, where I developed strategies to improve our medical curriculum by using modern technology.
Joanna Jean Parga
Undergraduate School: Harvard
Medical School: The Mount Sinai School of Medicine
Hometown: Syosset, NY
Career plans: Neonatology
An inspirational person in your life: My boyfriend, Danny
Personal interests: writing, media in medicine, reading, yoga
Title of your project: Obstetrician perceptions regarding the safety of birth at various gestational ages
Community/CHLA partners: The March of Dimes
A brief description of your project: Looking at attitudes towards the idea of birth planning and why there is an increase in preterm birth in the United States.
Charitha D. Reddy
Undergraduate School: Rice University
Medical School: UC Irvine School of Medicine
Hometown: Fremont, CA
Career plans: Still deciding!
An inspirational person in your life: My aunt, a pediatrician in India
Personal interests: painting, reading
Alicia Sheen
Undergraduate School: Stanford University
Medical School: University of California, Irvine School of Medicine
Hometown: Knoxville, Tennessee
Career plans: I love working with kids that have a diverse range of medical and social issues; therefore, I'm interested in pursuing a career in general pediatrics or rheumatology. I have not fully decided, but I am looking forward to the journey!
An inspirational person in your life: My mother, who was a family medicine physician that touched the lives of many and pursued the greater good of the community.
Personal interests: I am interested in giving back to the community through many different ways. In the past, I worked with homeless children and families at the Village of Hope at the Orange County Rescue Mission. I hope to continue similar work in the future in working with kids with special needs. I would like to partner closely with the community to provide help, resources and mentorship for children in need.
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