Luisa Buada has 30 years experience in health care administration, management and organizational development. She was the founding Executive Director of both Clinicas de Salud in the Salinas Valley and of Berkeley Primary Care Access Clinic. She co-founded Life Long Medical Care in Berkeley as part of a merger with over 60 Health Centers in 1996. She participated as a consultant in the development of Ravenswood Family Health Center (RFHC) in East Palo Alto, After serving 12 months as Interim CEO in November of 2003 became the Permanent CEO for RFHC. From 1986-1991 and again from 1997 to 2002, as a consultant, Luisa worked with community health centers on strategic and financial planning, organizational development, architectural planning and bilingual board training. Luisa received her Bachelor of Science degree in nursing from the University of California San Francisco School of Nursing in 1977 and her Masters degree in Public Health Policy and Administration from the University of California, Berkeley in 1990. In March 2010 she was inducted into the San Mateo County Women’s Hall of Fame.
Mercury News Profile of Luisa Buada

Wayne Yost has extensive experience in financial management of community hospitals, regulatory compliance, internal and external audit program development, compliance management, financial analysis, and investigation. He is a CPA and Certified Fraud Examiner. He is a member of the California Society of Certified Public Accountants, the Northern California Chapter of Healthcare Financial Management, the American College of Forensic Examiners and Association of Certified Fraud Examiners. He received a B.A. in Healthcare Administration from St. Mary’s College, Moraga, CA.

Dr. Chavarria has been in family practice for over seventeen years. He was Chief Resident in Family Practice at USC/California Medical Center and received his medical degree at the University of California, San Diego, Medical School.  From 1994 to 2002, he worked with the San Jose Medical Center and prior to that he worked in a four family-physician medical group in Los Angeles that served a multi-cultural population. He served as a faculty member and preceptor for the University of Southern California School of Medicine, Family Practice Program at California Medical Center and also was part-time faculty at the Whittier Family Practice Program.

Dr. Thadani received her B.A. in Child Psychology and Spanish from Tufts University.  She then completed her Master’s in Public Health in Population and Family Health from Columbia University.  She received her medical degree from Drexel University College of Medicine and completed her pediatric residency at Children’s Hospital and Research Center Oakland in 2006. . Prior to joining RFHC in 2008, Dr. Thadani worked for two years at Bancroft Pediatric Medical Group in San Leandro.  She is on the general pediatrics faculty at the Stanford University School of Medicine and is interested in reducing rates of asthma and obesity in underserved populations.

Originally from the Bay Area, Dr. Justin Wu received his medical degree at New York Medical College and completed his residency training in family medicine at the University of California, San Francisco and San Francisco General Hospital in 2007.  He joined a community clinic in Denver and served on the faculty at the University of Colorado Family Medicine Residency Program before joining the RFHC medical team at our Belle Haven Clinic.  He has done international medical outreach and missions in Mexico and Nicaragua.

Dr. Thakur trained as a dentist in India at the VYWS Dental College and Hospital (1991-96). She received her MS at the College of Dentistry, University of Iowa and then completed a fellowship at UCSF School of Dentistry’s Centers to Address Disparities in Oral Health. She has been the recipient of a number of awards, including the AAPHD Leverett Award and an NIH funded COHORT Training Grant. Her key interests include children’s oral health, access to care, oral health disparities, children with special needs, and early childhood caries. She trained in pediatric dentistry at the University of California, San Francisco and was the chief resident from 2009-10. She was also a Clinical Scholar at UCSF’s School of Global Health from 2008-2010.

Laurie has over 15 years of experience in health care consulting, planning and policy. Prior to working at RFHC, she consulted for hospitals and multi-system clinics throughout the western United States.  Prior to RFHC, she developed and managed the Ravenswood City School District health services department and developed health policies.  She has a Masters in Health Policy and Planning from the University of California, Los Angeles, 1984 and Bachelor of Science in Nursing, University of Colorado, 1980. Laurie was recently selected to be a fellow of the 2-year CHCF Health Care Leadership Program sponsored by the California HealthCare Foundation and administered by the Center for the Health Professions at the University of California, San Francisco.

Belinda served as Project Manager and Community Programs Coordinator with Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital’s Pediatric Weight Control Program and with the Healthy Choices/Smart Decisions program. She has been a consultant in curriculum development, implementation, evaluation, marketing, and outreach for nonprofit health and human service programs.  She received her Master’s in Social Welfare Management and Planning from U.C. Berkeley, followed by a Certificate of Distinction in Project Management.  In June 2009 Belinda graduated from the first class of the Clinic Leadership Institute, a 2-year program created by Blue Shield Foundation of California to train emerging leaders of California’s community clinics and health centers.

Gralyn served as the CFO for the Haight Asbury Free Clinics, Inc. for four years, serving as a Senior Manager of the organization, managing a $12M budget, overseeing contracts and grants management, compliance,  audits, and was responsible for all internal and external reporting.  Prior to this, he was an internal auditor for Old Republic Title Company where he performed tests of the company’s internal controls and also conducted special investigations relating to fraud and defalcations.  Gralyn is also a licensed real estate broker and has represented both buyers and sellers since 2002. He received a B.S. in Business Administration and Accounting from San Francisco State University.

Aaron joined RFHC in September 2008. His background and experience is primarily in development, strategic partnerships, and grant contract compliance. Prior to joining RFHC, he was the Development Manager at Tri-City Health Center where he developed and managed foundation and government grants. He has worked in health systems development in both Latin America and Afghanistan. Aaron received his Master of Public Health from Columbia University in 2003. He is one in the first class of 145 select governmental and nonprofit grants professionals to earn the credential of Certified Grants Management Specialist through the National Grants Management Association.

Erika is a native of East Palo Alto and a graduate of Howard University where she majored in Anthropology and Spanish. She worked first with Community Breast Health Project, now called Breast Cancer Connections, in Palo Alto, as Programs and Outreach Coordinator.  In 2003 she joined RFHC as a Volunteer Coordinator, where she established our Volunteer Program. She then served as Interim Clinic Manager at our Bay Road site. In 2006 she helped set up our Belle Haven site and became its Clinic Manager. In 2007 Erika was the first awardee of the Geiger Gibson Emerging Leader award, presented by the School of Public Health and Health Services at George Washington University, giving national recognition for her accomplishments as an emerging leader in community health. Currently, she is pursuing a Master’s in Public Health at Touro University in Vallejo.

Over 17 years in fund development. She served as the development director of Ravenswood Family Health Center, Free at Last in East Palo Alto, and Outreach in San Jose. Prior to nonprofit development, she coordinated marketing & communications and technical documentation for Silicon Valley startups.  She served as content editor/writer for educational language arts textbook publishers, and on as an editorial researcher/writer for a national news magazine.  Received B.A. in psychology from Boston College.