The Bay Area Global Health Alliance is pleased to announce the launch of its inaugural 2025 Student Advisory Council (SAC), an initiative designed to enhance engagement with students and faculty across its academic membership.
“Our academic members have been innovators in global health research and education for many years, and it’s exciting for the Alliance to engage with talented young people who are looking to follow in those footsteps,” shared Colin Boyle, lecturer at the Haas School of Business, University of California, Berkeley and Alliance board chair.
Spearheaded by Berkeley Board Fellows Ïma Essien and Sarah Gao, the SAC’s primary goal is to ensure that the Alliance’s programming remains impactful for students and junior faculty by identifying key programming areas, facilitating connections, and advocating for their interests within the broader Alliance community.
“The student perspective brings a different lens to help strengthen the Alliance membership and programming,” said Sara Anderson, Alliance executive director. “We hope it will also be helpful in developing the next generation of global health leaders and creating opportunities for students to collaborate with our multi-sector membership.”
The SAC reflects this vision, serving as a source of optimism for the future by harnessing student leadership, passion, and creativity to drive meaningful change.
“Amidst ongoing setbacks, the SAC shines as a beacon of hope, embodying the belief that the future of global health is bright, powered by student passion and ingenuity. I’m proud to be part of BAGHA’s legacy of intergenerational collaboration, ensuring we navigate challenges and forge a healthier, more just world,” said Ïma Essien.
Sarah Gao echoed this enthusiasm, stating, “I am impressed by the passion and talent of the students on the Alliance’s inaugural Student Advisory Council and am excited to see how they can impact the Alliance.”
The 2025 Student Advisory Council members include: Tim Jing and Eliza Ennis, Stanford; Jorge Morales Alfaro and Katherine Kiang, UC Berkeley; Jalika Joyner and Zeenat Kumar, UC Davis; Mehrdad Yadegari and Sima Naderi, UCSF.
Bios
Berkeley Board Fellows
Ïma Essien, UC Berkeley
Ïma Essien is a global health strategist and investor dedicated to expanding healthcare and financial access for women and underrepresented communities. With experience across technology, finance, and policy on multiple continents, she has led initiatives that bridge knowledge gaps, unlock capital, and drive equity-focused solutions. Currently an MBA candidate at UC Berkeley Haas, she is deepening her expertise in leveraging finance to scale healthcare innovations. Her long-term vision is to revolutionize women’s health in emerging markets by facilitating South-to-South technology transfers, ensuring high-impact solutions scale rapidly where they are needed most.
Sarah Gao, UC Berkeley
Sarah Gao is a second year MPH student at UC Berkeley in the Health Policy and Management concentration. Prior to attending UC Berkeley, Sarah worked in healthcare IT at Epic for three years, partnering with hospitals and health systems to solve issues in claims and billing and optimize their use of the software. Her experience at Epic sparked her interest in using innovative technology to solve healthcare problems. Last summer, Sarah interned at Contra Costa Regional Medical Center in ambulatory care administration. She is passionate about healthcare administration and aspires to contribute to operational and strategic initiatives that enhance patient care outcomes and access. Sarah is excited to work with the Alliance as a board fellow to advance strategic board initiatives and contribute to the Alliance’s mission.
Student Advisory Council
Tim Jing, Stanford University
Tim is a junior at Stanford University studying Biomedical Computation. He’s passionate about the intersection of computer science and biotechnology, particularly in the field of AI drug discovery for neglected tropical diseases. At Stanford, Tim serves as the Vice President of Stanford Students in Biodesign and volunteers at the Cardinal Free Clinics. In his free time, Tim enjoys playing volleyball, nature photography, and collecting board games.
Eliza Ennis, Stanford University
Eliza Ennis is a PhD candidate in Health Policy and Decision Sciences at Stanford School of Medicine. Her research focuses on health care integration and improving access to care for underserved populations around the world. She leads projects focusing on the intersection of infectious disease (HIV, HCV) and substance use, supports hospital operations improvements for newborn and maternal patients, and studies the impact of price controls on reproductive health. At Stanford, she is on the leadership team of the Graduate Global Health Network and the Stanford Refugee Rights Network. She is a Knight-Hennessy Fellow and an NSF Graduate Research Fellow. In 2024, she was awarded a Lee B. Lusted Award by the Society for Medical Decision Making for her work on harm reduction. Previously, she worked at Dalberg Global Development Advisors and graduated Cum Laude from Harvard University with a bachelor’s degree in Social Studies and Global Health and Health Policy.
Jorge Morales Alfaro, UC Berkeley
Jorge Morales Alfaro (he/him) is a PhD candidate in the Health Policy, Population, and Data Science Track, focusing on measuring the quality and health effects of services in pharmacy-adjacent clinics in Mexico and broadly on the health outcomes of the mixed use of public and private services. To do so, Jorge is building a unique dataset using AI and Google Maps. He is also interested in applying causal inference methods to disentangle the effects of social policy on health outcomes in LMIC and the US. Currently, he is working to identify the impact of Uber on traffic fatalities in Mexico. He has worked at the Social Security Institute of Mexico (IMSS) doing applied quantitative research and in the non-profit and international organizations sector doing quantitative analysis on international development, poverty, inequality, and governance. Jorge studied Economics and Political Science at ITAM and has an MPP from Duke, where he specialized in Health Policy and International Development and worked in the Population Health Sciences Department.
Katherine Kiang, UC Berkeley
Katherine is a second year MBA/MPH candidate at UC Berkeley’s Haas School of Business and School of Public Health. Prior to attending Berkeley, Katherine worked for 5 years supporting manufacturing at Eli Lilly – including through COVID – Katherine saw firsthand the work that goes into making safe and reliable products. Katherine’s long term goal is to use experience in industry to build bridges between corporations and governmental/academic/nonprofit organizations to impact global health – particularly for underserved populations and rare diseases. BAGHA’s mission is well aligned with these goals. Katherine is excited to work with BAGHA to both bring the MBA/MPH perspective as to what graduate students would like to see from the Alliance, as well as support the overarching mission of the Alliance.
Jalika Joyner, UC Davis
Dr. Jalika J Joyner is a student in the Epidemiology Graduate Group PhD program at UC Davis who has a passion for One Health-centered research. She started her research journey as a veterinary student at North Carolina State College of Veterinary Medicine where she conducted a One Health based study in Uganda. After graduating from veterinary school and engaging in clinical practice, Dr. Joyner continued her path to becoming a public health researcher as a Fogarty GloCal Health Fellow through UC Davis’ EpiCenter for Disease Dynamics. She is now continuing her research on ecological effects on vector-borne disease transmission dynamics in Uganda and Tanzania as a PhD student. Her career goals include addressing disease outbreak prevention and mitigation through identification of high-risk areas with a focus on emerging infectious zoonotic diseases at the wildlife-livestock-human interface.
Zeenat Kumar, UC Davis
Zeenat (Zee) Kumar is an MPH student at UC Davis, where he also earned his Bachelor of Science in Human Biology with a minor in Public Health. Growing up in Punjab, India, and immigrating to the United States at the age of twelve, he experienced firsthand the challenges of navigating different healthcare systems. These experiences shaped his passion for juvenile healthcare policies and my commitment to ensuring equitable access to care for underserved children and adolescents. He founded two student-run clinics: Juvenile Caduceus Clinic (JCC) at UC Davis and Junior Care Clinic (JCC) at UC Berkeley. Both clinics provide medical and mental health services to children and adolescents in marginalized communities while emphasizing preventive care, health literacy, and community outreach. He strongly believes that early intervention plays a crucial role in shaping lifelong well-being. In addition to his public health initiatives, he has been a Medical Assistant for nearly four years. He currently works at Shriners Children’s Hospital, providing clinical support to pediatric patients with orthopedic and complex medical needs.
Mehrdad Yadegari, UCSF
Mehrdad Yadegari is an M.S. student in Global Health Sciences at UCSF, dedicated to transforming healthcare systems through research, policy, and innovation. His work spans health equity, digital health, and global health policy, with collaborations at WHO and UCSF IGHS to enhance healthcare quality and access. His research focuses on cardiovascular health disparities in Middle Eastern and North African populations while also supporting HIV care improvement initiatives in Southeast Asia. Previously, he contributed to COVID-19 readiness assessments and developed monitoring and evaluation frameworks for improving access to quality healthcare and collaborated on telemedicine programs for maternal and neonatal health. Passionate about bridging research with real-world impact, Mehrdad works to create sustainable healthcare solutions for at-risk populations globally.
Sima Naderi, UCSF
Sima Naderi (she/her/hers), MPH, MSc, a Ph.D. student at UCSF, is a Global Health researcher from Afghanistan. She completed her undergraduate and master’s in public health at Kabul University of Medical Science, Kabul, Afghanistan, and she earned her MSc in Global Health from UCSF, in 2023. Previously, she was an Assistant Professor at the Kabul University of Medical Science, Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, Kabul, Afghanistan. She worked at the vice president`s office as the senior data scientist in Afghanistan. Her work with UCSF started in early 2021 when she joined the International Traineeships in AIDS Prevention Studies program (ITAPS). Her research area includes quantitative and qualitative research, spans on maternal and reproductive health, mental health and substance use, and studies of barriers to accessing health and non-health services (socio and structural determinants of health) among Afghan refugees in the US. She has been the co-investigator and data scientist for studies jointly conducted between Kabul Medical University, the University of British Columbia, and Can-Health International. Currently, she is coordinating a project on the health and life vulnerabilities of Afghan refugees in the United States.