​Sergio Aguilar-Gaxiola, MD, PhD, is Professor of Clinical Internal Medicine, the Founding Director of the University of California (UC), Davis Center for Reducing Health Disparities, Director of the Community Engagement Program of the UC Davis Clinical Translational Science Center, and Co-Director of the National Institute of Aging-funded Latino Aging Research and Resource Center. He has nearly 30 years of experience working in the mental health field as a researcher, clinician, professor, and advocate. He has created a substantive applied research program that focuses on cross-cultural comparative epidemiologic research on patterns and correlates of mental disorders, substance abuse, and health conditions; identification of unmet health and mental needs and associated risk and protective factors in underserved populations; community­ engaged approaches to reducing health disparities in underserved populations; and quality of care improvement through culturally and linguistically appropriate services. His recent work is focused on translating and bridging research with services delivery and policy development. He has been appointed to numerous policy and research advisory boards including a four-year appointment to the National Advisory Mental Health Council of the National Institute of Mental Health and the World Health Organization. In 2005, he was awarded the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Office of Minority Health's National Minority Health Community Leader Award.

​Dalila Butler, MPH, Senior Associate at PolicyLink, works with the PolicyLink Center for Health Equity and Place to promote social, economic, and health equity through environmental and policy change, particularly in low-income communities and communities of color. As a co-lead of the statewide Alliance for Boys and Men of Color Health Policy Workgroup, she works with members of the network to advance policy to promote health, education, employment, and juvenile justice for California’s boys and men of color. Dalila also serves as a member of the Adverse Childhood Experiences Policy Workgroup and the YouthALIVE! START 2 Heal Advisory Group, focusing on health and healing for the communities that are most impacted by trauma.

​Alison Chopel is the Director of the California Adolescent Health Collaborative, a program of the Public Health Institute, where she exercises her practical knowledge and experience in Community Based Participatory Research, social epidemiology theories, adolescent health, youth leadership development, and adolescent relationship abuse prevention. She also has lived family experience with the systems of incarceration and mental health as well as rural and low-income conditions.

​Donnell Ewert holds the position of Director of Shasta County Health and Human Services, where he and his colleagues are demonstrating leadership to build health equity in a rural county that is disadvantaged economically. His areas of expertise include epidemiology, program evaluation, survey research, public health, mental health, and social services.

​Aaron Fox, MPM, is Health Policy Manager at the Los Angeles Gay and Lesbian Center. Fox focuses his work with Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, and Queer (LGBTQ) and underserved communities; advocates for effective policies that continue to support access to quality culturally competent health care; and provides education to the community on changing health policies and funding streams. He continues to underscore that LGBTQ and Human Immunodeficiency Virus/Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome (HIV/AIDS) communities who need continued support and increased access to care that reduces disparities and enhances community wellness. Fox serves as the Co-Chair for the California HIV Alliance, is a Steering Committee member for the California LGBTQ Health and Human Services Network, and is a Commissioner on the Los Angeles County Commission on HIV. Additionally, he has served on the Policy Committee for the National Coalition for LGBTQ Health.

​Alvaro Garza, MD, MPH, is Health Officer at San Joaquin County Public Health Services, overseeing public health practice and services in the largely agricultural, rural, majority Latino population. In professional life, initially a pediatrician, he has local, state, national, and international public health practice and research experience. He is active with the California Conference of Local Health Officers, the American Public Health Association (APHA), its Latino Caucus, and other Latino health ­professional organizations. Garza is bilingual, bicultural, and binational, and has worked with Mexican migrant and immigrant populations throughout the state and along the border and internationally with Mexican counterparts on public health issues of importance to both the sending and receiving communities. He chairs the Advisory Group to the California Office of Binational Border Health and served several years on the Equal Health Opportunity Committee of the APHA. He brings perspectives from the public health and Latino communities and is an occasional bilingual poet.

​Carrie Johnson, PhD., (Dakota Sioux) is a licensed clinical psychologist and the Director of the Seven Generations Child and Family Counseling Center at United American Indian Involvement in Los Angeles, California. Dr. Johnson has been involved in local county-wide and state-wide advisory boards to increase the access and cultural competence of services provided to American Indians. Dr. Johnson has also been involved in various state and federal grants and other initiatives as an advocate and educator about tribal issues in county, state, and national policy for urban Indian communities. She is an experienced trainer and consultant on the impact of intergenerational trauma on Indian children, families, and communities; and provides consultation, training, and workshops. Dr. Johnson received her Ph.D. in clinical Psychology, with an emphasis in Multicultural and Community Psychology, from the California School of Professional Psychology, Los Angeles.

​Manel Kappagoda, JD, MPH, is a senior staff attorney and program director at ChangeLab Solutions, a national non-profit that helps communities craft law and policy solutions that address America’s most common and preventable diseases like cancer, heart disease, diabetes, obesity, and asthma.  Before joining ChangeLab Solutions, she worked for many years at the East Bay Community Law Center in Berkeley as an attorney in the HIV/AIDS law practice. Her areas of expertise include using law and policy tools to improve health access and outcomes in under-resourced communities; obesity prevention and nutrition policy; and public health law.

​Sylvia Kim is the Orange County Regional Director at Asian Americans Advancing justice, currently the nation's largest legal services and civil rights organization serving the needs of Asian Americans, Native Hawaiians and Pacific Islanders. Her areas of expertise are in advocating for cultural competency in a health and mental health context, civil rights/human rights, social justice and international law.

​Patricia Lee has a Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology from the University of Rhode Island and is currently the Research Scientist for the Office of Medical Director (OMD) in the Department of Health Care Services (DHCS). Dr. Lee determines potential key areas of research in health disparities and inequities, to be undertaken by OMD, and disseminate findings of scientific research in written reports. Prior to joining the OMD, Dr. Lee worked for the Office of Women’s Health (OWH) in DHCS. Before working for the state, she was an assistant professor in the department of Health Behavior at the University of Alabama, Birmingham (UAB) School of Public Health, and she was an associate scientist position in the UAB Minority Health Research Center. 

​Dexter Louie, MD, JD, MPA, is a founding member and Chair of the Board of the National Council of Asian Pacific Islander Physicians. This organization advocates as the voice of Asian-Pacific Islanders (API) physicians for improved and optimal health for Asian American, Native Hawaiian, Pacific Islander (AANHPI) and all communities and populations, with particular attention to the underserved and vulnerable. He is past Chair of the California Medical Association Foundation, serves on the Steering Committee of the Foundation's Network of Ethnic Physicians Organizations, and is past Chair of the Asian and Pacific Islander American Health Forum. These organizations focus on issues of health and healthcare disparities, healthcare access, cultural competence and language access, and meaningful and effective patient engagement. Dr. Louie has worked both with policy-makers and legislators in government, and with patients, communities, and physician colleagues, at the grassroots level. He continues to practice in Chinatown, San Francisco, now for 35 years.

​Yvette McShan is the Chief Operating Officer of Victorious Black Women, an organization she co-founded with a simple but powerful idea back in 2009 that the path towards healing lies in the ability of black women sharing their stories with one another. Her expertise lies in promoting life skills, mentoring, and substance abuse counseling, and she in strong advocate for individuals and communities facing incarceration and re-entry, addiction, and mental illness.

​Hermia Parks, MA, RN, PHN, is Director of Public Health Nursing/Maternal, Child and Adolescent Health for the County of Riverside. Parks has enhanced the quality of care to the community by developing population and evidence-based services to the community. As a member of the Council of Multicultural Health, Parks was part of the workgroup that updated the California Medical Association Foundation's Child and Adolescent Obesity Provider toolkit. As 2011/12 President of Directors of Public Health Nursing (DPHN), she initiated a partnership that contributed to updating the National Standards for Culturally and Linguistically Appropriate Services in Health Care. She also engaged DPHN in strategic planning that resulted in a Health Equity/Social Determinants of Health workgroup and co-authored a white paper titled The Role of Public Health Nurses in Achieving Heath Equity. Parks also serves on the Association of State and Territorial Health Officials Health Equity committee.

​Michael Witte has been a physician since 1970 and currently serves as the Chief Medical Officer for the California Primary Care Association, where he works with a dynamic group of health policy experts who support the most vulnerable populations in California. Family medicine and Federally Qualified Health Centers are his primary areas of expertise.