Advisory Board

SDSU School of Public Health Advisory Board

The School of Public Health (SPH) Advisory Board consists of leaders from government, healthcare, community health, business and academia. The role of the advisory board is to provide advice and assistance to SPH through strategic advice and listening sessions, as well as in building relationships with alumni, the broader region, and various external sectors.

Amy Adome, MD

Senior Vice President of Clinical Effectiveness
Sharp HealthCare

In her role as senior vice president of clinical effectiveness for Sharp HealthCare, Amy Adome, MD, 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. 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.

Dimitrios Alexiou, FACHE

President and CEO
Hospital Association of San Diego & Imperial Counties

Dimitrios Alexiou, FACHE, is the President and CEO of Hospital Association of San Diego and Imperial Counties(Hospital Association), a non-profit trade association representing hospitals and health systems. Mr. Alexiou joined the Hospital Association in December 2014.

As President/CEO of HASD&IC, Mr. Alexiou provides leadership, representation, advocacy, and acts as an advisory on behalf of over 38 hospitals and health systems in the 2-county region. He also participates in the California Hospital Association’s Executive Management Group, representing nearly 450 hospitals and health systems statewide; and on CHA special committees to address issues of quality and patient safety, managed care, finance, and issues specific to non-profit hospitals, integrated systems, and academic medical centers. Nationally, he is engaged in hospital issues through the American Hospital Association Region Nine Policy Board and the Conference of Metropolitan & Regional Hospital Associations.

Regionally, Dimitriosis active on a number of health-related boards and committees, including the County of San Diego’s Health Services Advisory Board and Healthy San Diego; San Diegans for Healthcare Coverage Board; San Diego Regional Chamber of Commerce Health Committee; County of San Diego Regional Task Force on the Homeless Governance Board; 2-1-1 San Diego Community Information Exchange (CIE) Advisory Board; San Diego Health Connect Board and the Children’s Initiative Board. He is also a member of the San Diego County Taxpayers Association Board and Issues Subcommittee on Quality of Life.

Mr. Alexiou was previously the Regional Vice President for the Hospital Association of Southern California (HASC), where he worked with hospital executives, county administrators, and elected officials in Riverside and San Bernardino counties on administrative, public policy and regulatory issues affecting patients, hospitals and health care. He was also adjunct faculty at California State University, San Bernardino and California State University, Northridge, teaching in the master’sin health administration program.

Prior to joining HASC, Dimitrios served as Chief Operating Officer for Totally Kids Specialty Healthcare in Loma Linda, and previously worked for HASC as an administrative fellow in advocacy and government relations. Before that, he was Associate Director for the Providence Center for Community Health Improvement.

Dimitrios has a Master’s degree in Health Administration from California State University, Northridge and a Bachelor’s degree in Biology from the University of Arizona. In addition, he is a fellow with the American College of Healthcare Executives, a board member for the Health Care Executives of Southern California and a board member for the CSU Northridge health administration alumni.

Irma Cota, MPH

President and CEO
North County Health Services

Irma Cota, MPH, is the president and chief executive officer of North County Health Services (NCHS). For more than 20 years, Irma has had experience working in executive management, strategic program planning, finance, and operational management. Under her leadership, NCHS serves more than 62,000 individuals annually at eleven clinic locations, providing comprehensive medical, dental, mental and other related health services. Irma oversees more than a $60 million budget, more than 700 employees, and a variety of programs to provide health services and outreach to the community.

Irma is an active member of the San Diego Community. She serves as the Chair for the Board of Managers for Integrated Health Partners of the San Diego Council of Clinics and Secretary for the Board of Health Center Partners (HCP) of Southern California. In addition, Irma is a member of the Board of Directors for the Elizabeth Hospice; City National Bank Advisory Board; California State University, San Marcos University Council; Palomar College President’s Circle; California Department of Public Health, Office of Binational Boarder Health; and Latino Health Coalition.

Jennifer Covin, MPH

Director of Programs and Research
Health Quality Partners

Jennifer Covin is the Director of Programs and Research at Health Quality Partners of Southern California (HQP). HQP’s mission is to advance health equity and wellness in communities served by our members. This is accomplished through collaborative research and implementation of a broad array of clinical and non-clinical programs.  HQP isa subsidiary of Health Center Partners (HCP), a regional primary care association of 17 member organizations including Federally Qualified Health Centers (FQHCs), Indian Health Services Organizations, and Planned Parenthood of the Pacific Southwest. Its members have over 200 practice sites across San Diego, Riverside, and Imperial counties, and are the fifth largest provider group in the region. In collaboration with a team of Program Managers, Jennifer oversees grant sponsored programs and services aimed at meeting the needs of patients in HCP member organizations.  Prior to joining HQP, she worked in the academic arena at both SDSU and UCSD for 30+ years managing federal and state funded public health research studies and programs aimed at preventing the leading causes of disease and managing chronic health issues in the primary care setting with adolescents and adults.  Jennifer is a graduate of San Diego State University.  She has a Bachelor of Science degree in Health Sciences and a Master of Public Health with an emphasis in Health Promotion.

Kenneth C. Earhart, MD

Scientific Director
Naval Health Research Center

Dr. Kenneth C. (Ken) Earhart serves as the Principal Director of Research at the Naval Health Research Center (NHRC).  NHRC, located on Naval Base Point Loma in San Diego is part of the U.S. Navy’s medical research enterprise and is the Department of Defense’s Center for Deployment Health Research executing a diverse research portfolio focused on the health and readiness of our armed forces and their families.    As the Chief Science Executive and senior civilian, Dr. Earhart advises the command leadership, provides guidance to the science directorates, their programs and staff, and oversees the command’s research portfolio and operational support.

Amy Harbert, MBA

Director
San Diego County Department of Environmental Health

Amy Harbert is an executive manager with local government experience in government affairs/public policy, operations management, organizational culture development, and communication/media relations with more than seventeen years with the County of San Diego.  Amy Harbert currently serves as the Director for the County’s Department of Environmental Health and Quality implementing enforcement of local, state, and federal laws in more than 40 public health and safety program areas, such as restaurant and hazardous materials inspections, vector control, and beach water quality monitoring.  Amy Harbert provides executive leadership of a $67.5 million annual operating budget supporting 346 staff.  She has a passion for and a successful track record of using data analytics to guide outcome based operations management and implementing technology to streamline operations, gain efficiencies and improve program performance.

She also served as a legislative policy manager for County Chief Administrative Office of Strategy and Intergovernmental Affairs implementing advocating efforts for the County at the state and federal level for public safety, community services, health and human, land use and environment and general government.  Amy Harbert also functioned in various leadership roles the County’s Department of Parks and Recreation, including marketing manager, chief of operations, and deputy director which included managing 100 full time employees, 140 part time employees, 3,000 volunteers who all operate more than 100 parks and facilities and thousands of programs.

In addition to her local government experience, Amy Harbert has private sector public relations experience, working with industries including healthcare, nonprofits, hospitality, and business.  Amy Harbert holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in Communication as well as a Master’s degree in Business Administration.  When not at work, Amy Harbert enjoys spending time with her husband, son, daughter, friends, and neighbors.  Evenings and weekends, she can frequently be found attending her family’s various sporting events in the Carlsbad community.  She enjoys running and yoga as well as volunteering for various local nonprofits that focus on youth.

Elizabeth Hernandez, Ph.D

As Director of Public Health Services (PHS) at the County of San Diego Health and Human Services Agency, Elizabeth Hernandez, Ph.D. oversees Public Health operations and administrative functions, which includes Tuberculosis Control and Refugee Health, Preparedness and Response, Maternal, Child and Family Health Services, California Children’s Services, HIV/AIDS, STD and Hepatitis, as well as the Epidemiology and Immunization Services. She provides leadership, direction, and support to PHS branches in the areas of budget development, fiscal processes, and accountability; contracting; quality management/quality improvement; Board Letter coordination; and human resources. The County’s PHS department consists of over 775 employees and a budget of $230M, serving a county of 3.3 million residents.

Prior to joining the County, Dr. Hernandez worked in the capacity of Vice President with the Neighborhood House Association (NHA), one of San Diego’s largest nonprofit organizations. During her eight-year tenure, she provided program oversight and management, ensuring that goals and objectives of the organization were met. She was responsible for the management of a combined $10M budget and directed the performance of over 70 staff and 40 community partners.

Prior to joining NHA, Dr. Hernandez consulted to organizations on program design and evaluation, curriculum and training design, and organizational assessment. Some of the clients that she has partnered with include the University of El Paso, Texas, Toyota Financial Services, school districts, health care consortiums, and utility and energy companies. She also worked in the non-profit sector as a psychological assistant, providing child, family, and one on one therapy. Dr. Hernandez holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in Psychology from Azusa Pacific University and a Masters and Doctorate in Dual Clinical/Industrial-Organizational Psychology from Alliant International University in San Diego, California. She lives in Chula Vista with her husband and three daughters.

Ankita Kadakia, M.D.

Ankita Kadakia, M.D., serves as the Interim Public Health Officer for the County of San Diego. Dr. Kadakia joined the County in 2020 as Chief and Medical Director for the County’s Tuberculosis Control and Refugee Health Branch before promoting to Deputy Public Health Officer. She is co-chair for the County Public Health Service’s Tuberculosis Elimination Initiative Advisory Task Force and immediate past president for the California Tuberculosis Controllers’ Association. During the COVID-19 pandemic, she served as Tri-Chair of the County COVID-19 Vaccine Clinical Advisory Group.

Dr. Kadakia is a board-certified Internal Medicine and Infectious Disease specialist and faculty at the University of California, San Diego (UCSD). Prior to joining the County she was an Assistant Professor of Medicine with a focus on HIV/AIDS and LGBTQ healthcare while practicing HIV medicine at UCSD Owen Clinic. While at UCSD, Dr. Kadakia created the first Transgender HealthCare Symposium and became a co- principal investigator for the San Diego Pacific AIDS Education and Training Center.

Dr. Kadakia’s passion, for serving underserved patients and preventing and treating Tuberculosis, STDs and HIV/AIDS, transcends borders. She has spent time in Uganda medically serving rural areas, partnering with Ugandans, and helped to build and support a school for AIDS orphans and impoverished children, Amazing Love School. When she is not working, she immensely enjoys spending time with her two young children and practicing and teaching Kelee meditation.

Sarah Lyman, MBA

Executive Director
Alliance Healthcare Foundation

Sarah has served as Alliance Healthcare Foundation’s Executive Director since July 2019. Alliance Healthcare Foundation works to advance health and wellness for marginalized and under resourced populations in San Diego and Imperial Counties through grantmaking, strategic partnerships, and impact investing.  Key focus areas for the foundation include advancing economic security and mobility, supporting the safety net, and advancing sustainable innovation – all with an explicit health equity lens. 

Prior to joining Alliance, Sarah served as the Executive Vice President for Empire Health Foundation (EHF) in eastern Washington State. With over 15 years of experience catalyzing results in health philanthropy, Sarah brings unique leadership to the intersection of population health, systems change and collaboration in order to advance health equity. While at EHF, Sarah was instrumental in designing and building the organization from its inception into a thriving agent for community change, leveraging and managing resources over 18x its annual endowed grant making. She also played a key leadership role in launching the first performance-based-contracting network administrator for Child Welfare in Washington State, as well as the state’s first Program Administrator for the $100 million Andy Hill Cancer Research Endowment. 

Sarah is currently an active board member for Catalyst of San Diego and Imperial Counties and a member of San Diego State University’s Public Health Advisory Board as well as the San Diego Community Information Exchange (CIE) Advisory Board. Recently she served as a Mayoral appointee for the City of San Diego’s Middle Income Housing task force. 

Nick Macchione, MS, MPH, FACHE

Chief Health Officer
UC San Diego Health

Nick Macchione is chief health officer, overseeing strategic partnerships that expand UC San Diego Health's geographical footprint to ensure the broader community has access to our world-class care and leading-edge therapies.

Mr. Macchione facilitates public and private resources to fund the redevelopment of our Hillcrest medical campus, bolsters relationships with health care systems, federally qualified health centers, supportive service providers and payors. He leads public and community health initiatives focused on managed care, behavioral health and cross-border health needs. As a UC San Diego Health executive team member, he closely collaborates with the UC San Diego Chancellor's Office, providing leadership and support for university initiatives, regional funding, grant opportunities, and partnerships.

He has over 35 years of clinical and executive experience leading complex health and human service delivery systems in the New York City metropolitan area and the County of San Diego. Before joining UC San Diego Health, Mr. Macchione served as the director (2008-2023) and deputy director (1998-2008) of the County of San Diego's Health and Human Services Agency (HHSA). At HHSA, Mr. Macchione led the nation's largest integrated county health and human services network supporting 1.3 million San Diegans. He successfully implemented HHSA's most expansive growth for behavioral health services. In the community, Mr. Macchione developed San Diego County’s comprehensive population health strategy, Live Well San Diego (LWSD). LWSD has received many national, state and local awards for its broad-scale impact on improving health equity and social well-being. In 2020, Mr. Macchione played a key role in establishing widespread public testing and vaccination efforts throughout the San Diego region. He developed San Diego County's T3 strategy (Test, Trace and Treat), which was vital in establishing widespread public testing, disease investigation and vaccination efforts throughout the region. In partnership with UC San Diego Health, this led to the creation of the first vaccination superstation in the county and the state.

In recognition of his professional accomplishments, Mr. Macchione has received significant honors. He was named the 2016 Public Official of the Year by Governing Magazine and was awarded the Baldrige Foundation's 2018 Harry Hertz Leadership Award. In addition, Mr. Macchione led HHSA’s Malcom Baldrige journey for quality and operational excellence, resulting in the 2017 Silver level California Awards for Performance Excellence and the County's Edgemoor Hospital 2017 Gold level for Excellence in Quality award.

He holds master's degrees from Columbia University and New York University, specializing in health care leadership, strategic management and health policy, and a professional health care executive training certification from Harvard University. Mr. Macchione is board certified in health care management and is a fellow with the American College of Healthcare Executives. He is also a fellow with the American Hospital Association and a Public Health Scholar with the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

For the past 26 years, Mr. Macchione has been an instructor and faculty member at San Diego State University's School of Public Health. He holds the endowed position of John Hanlon Executive Scholar, where he teaches and mentors graduate students specializing in health services management and policy.

Eva Matthews, MPH

Executive Director
Laura Rodriguez Research Institute at Family Health Centers of San Diego

Director of Grants
Family Health Centers of San Diego

Eva Matthews serves in a dual role at Family Health Centers of San Diego (FHCSD): as Executive Director of FHCSD’s Laura Rodriguez Research Institute (LRRI) and Director of Grants Management for FHCSD. FHCSD’s mission is to provide caring, affordable, high-quality health care and supportive services to everyone, with a special commitment to uninsured, low-income and medically underserved persons. LRRI seeks to conduct responsible, culturally responsive, community-engaged clinical and population-based health research in the uniquely real-world setting found in community health centers with a special commitment to uninsured, low income, and medically underserved persons. Our overarching vision is to ensure that health innovation engages and benefits the underserved.

Eva is an experienced and mission-driven leader who seeks to foster meaningful research, partnerships and programs to benefit the health and well-being of underserved communities. Eva holds a Master of Public Health degree from the University of Arizona and has 25 years of experience crosscutting clinical and public health research, as well as grants development and administration in both academic and community-based settings.

Dana Richardson 

Vice President of Community Health & Engagement at Community Health Improvement Partners (CHIP)

He has worked in community-based public health in San Diego County for 22 years, and has vast experience in community mobilization, hospital community benefit, prevention programming, public health systems change, policy advocacy for substance abuse and obesity prevention, and behavioral health.

In his role at CHIP, Dana oversees the efforts of the San Diego County Suicide Prevention Council, the
Lemon Grove Healthy Eating Active Living Zone, and Resident Leadership Academy programs.

Jennifer Radin, MPH, PhD

Dr. Jennifer Radin is an epidemiologist and clinical researcher with the Digital Medicine Division at Scripps Research Translational Institute. She conducts research to improve disease prediction and prevention by incorporating digital devices, sensors, and platforms. Dr. Radin is the P.I. for DETECT, an app-based research study that seeks to understand if data from wearable devices can provide early indications of viral infections, such as influenza and COVID-19. She has over 10 years of epidemiological and digital health experience with prior work on respiratory disease surveillance, vaccines, and diagnostics at both the Centers for Disease Control and Naval Health Research Center. Jennifer received her doctoral degree in Epidemiology from the University of California, San Diego and San Diego State University. She also holds a Master of Public Health degree, specializing in Epidemiology of Microbial Diseases, from Yale University and a bachelor’s degree in Biology from the College of William and Mary. 

Barb Robinette, MPH

Senior Vice President & Chief Product and Marketing Officer 

Barb graduated with an MPH from the SPH in 1989, with an emphasis in Health Services Administration – now better known as HMP.  She is the Senior Vice President/Chief Product and Marketing Officer for Emperion a clinical services company.   Barb is a strategic healthcare marketing leader with 25+ years of experience leading high-growth initiatives in B2B health care and insurance markets through the development of first-ever integrated marketing strategies.  She has responsibility for building and leading teams in overall marketing practices, marketing organization/leadership, business development, market positioning, multi-channel advertising, social engagement, customer database, digital and traditional marketing initiatives, and e-commerce.  She has expertise in B2B Marketing, Product Development, Marketing Strategy and Operations in Healthcare, Insurance, Workers’ Compensation and Managed Care.

Patrick Tellez, MD, MPH, MSHA

Dr. Tellez currently serves as Co-Chair of the Healthy San Diego Joint Consumer Professional Advisory Committee.

Dr. Tellez’s professional experience encompasses medical executive leadership of multi-specialty group medical practices in both the capitated and FFS settings as well as  medical management and executive leadership experience of multi-center Federally Qualified Health Center community based practices.  He has also served in Medical Director roles within both the payer and provider owned commercial and Medicaid/Medicare health plans including, most recently, having served as Chief Medical Officer of Community Health Group, the largest non-profit managed MediCal & Medicare health plan serving residents of San Diego.

Dr. Tellez is a graduate of the University of Minnesota School of Medicine; is Board certified, American Board of Pediatrics and the American Board of Immunology & Allergy.  He holds a Masters in Public Health from UCLA and Master of Science in Health Administration from University of Colorado Graduate School of Business.

He is a member, American Medical Association, California Medical Association and an active member of the Board of Directors, San Diego County Medical Society and serves as Co-Chair of the Joint Consumer Professional Advisory Committee of Healthy San Diego.