The Health System Fix

I am very excited to share the 12th episode of the Health System Fix Podcast. Please share, subscribe, and comment.

Deena Berry, MLS, CPHRM, is the Assistant Director of Risk Management at UC San Diego Health, where she oversees clinical risk operations, professional liability assessments, and

policy development.

She is also a co-author of the ASHRM Medical Office Risk Management Playbook, published in 2025.

Most recently, Deena launched her own consulting firm, EMMURJ, dedicated to helping healthcare organizations strengthen patient safety, reduce legal risk, and build sustainable compliance programs. With over 25 years of experience across hospitals, rehabilitation centers, and federally qualified health centers, she brings a wealth of knowledge in legal risk, patient safety, and regulatory compliance.

Website:  https://www.emmurj.com/

Amanda Berry, is a public health social worker with a master's in SW and Public health.  She has a background in health policy, politics, research, and health services. 

She is the Director of Managed Care Advocacy at Health Center Partners of Southern California, a regional consortium of community health centers in San Diego, Riverside, and Imperial Counties. Very recently, Amanda helped health centers strengthen their civic engagement and played a key role in the successful passage of Proposition 35, which secured critical Medi-Cal funding. She has also served as the Senior Policy Advisor to San Diego County Supervisor Terra Lawson-Remer and contributed to statewide behavioral health policy reform through her work at UC Davis. Amanda serves on the County of San Diego’s Behavioral Health Advisory Board and is Co-President of the San Diego Leadership Alliance.

I am very excited to share the 9th episode of The Health System Fix podcast with Vernita Todd [ a bit out of order due to editing delays]. It was a pleasure to speak with Vernita on topics of healthcare strategy and a meaningful career.

Vernita Largin Todd, MBA, FACHE, is the Vice President of Senior Health Services at San Ysidro Health & San Diego PACE, where she oversees the organization’s comprehensive program for seniors. San Ysidro Health – a large Federally Qualified Health Center in San Diego, California, serving more than 160,000 SoCal residents per year. 

Before moving to California, Vernita had served as the CEO of Heart City Health Center in Elkhart, Indiana, for ten years. Vernita is a lifetime member of the National Association of Community Health Centers and was honored with the Elizabeth K. Cooke Advocacy MVP Award in 2014. She was inducted into NACHC’s Grassroots Hall of Fame in 2017 for her advocacy work. Vernita is a board member for The California Endowment; a State Appointed Trustee for the Health Workforce Education & Training Council (a division of HCAI); and a board member of CalPACE – the state association for the Program of All-Inclusive Care for the Elderly (PACE). Vernita is the President/Founder of the Human Capital Group, which works with nonprofit organizations in strategic planning and change management. 

Dr. Nisha Mehta is a Radiologist with subspecialty training in Musculoskeletal and Breast Imaging. She is the founder of the Physician Side Gigs and Physician Community with more than 200,000 verified physician members. The online communities aim to empower physicians with the tools they didn't get during medical school. Dr. Mehta is a writer, professional keynote speaker, and physician advocate. She is a LinkedIn Top Health Voice and has been published with Forbes, CNN, the Washington Post, Bloomberg, PBS NewsHour, KevinMD.com, the Radiology Business Journal, Medscape, MedPage Today, and Doximity, amongst others.

We met at the #HLTH25 conference in Las Vegas where I was an attendee.

https://www.physiciansidegigs.com/

https://www.nishamehtamd.com/

Dr. Bhargav Patel is a multidisciplinary physician-leader, entrepreneur, and innovator who is currently a research track fellow in Child and Adolescent Psychiatry at Brown University. His research is on developmental trauma and its implications on early biomarkers of aging and is publishing a book, Trauma Transformed: Your Guide to Understanding Trauma, Resilience, and Post-Traumatic Growth in early 2026. He is also an entrepreneur and co-founder and CEO of myPEAK, an award-winning vegan health company that creates science-backed nutritional formulations. He is also a leader in the AI revolution and was most recently Chief Medical Officer and chair of the clinical advisory board at Sully.ai.  Outside of work, he is an avid reader, meditator, yogi, and hiker who is currently trying to visit all 63 US national parks.

Dr. Pouya Afshar is a physician and an entrepreneur. He is board-certified in internal medicine, hospice/palliative medicine, and venous and lymphatic medicine. 

Early in his career, Dr. Afshar began following some of his medically complex, elderly patients into skilled nursing facilities, where he managed their care post-hospitalization while they received short-term rehabilitation. Inspired by this experience, he co-founded Presidium Health in 2015 to provide a comprehensive model of home-based care—“concierge care without the fare.” 

Outside of medicine, Pouya is a devoted husband and father of 4 children, an avid soccer player, and has completed 14 marathons.

Website: https://presidiumhealth.com/

I am very excited to share the sixth episode of The Health System Fix Podcast.

Thank you to Dr. Ramesh Jain for being my guest.

Ramesh Jain is the Emeritus Donald Bren Professor and founding Director of the Institute for Future Health at UC Irvine. A distinguished researcher in computer vision, AI, and multimedia computing, his current work focuses on transforming healthcare through cybernetic principles and multimodal AI—creating systems for continuous, personalized health optimization.

https://rameshjain584729.substack.com/

https://ngs.ics.uci.edu/

https://futurehealth.uci.edu/

https://rameshjain584729.substack.com/p/following-where-growth-leads

https://substack.com/home/post/p-170945604

With over 20 years leading healthcare tech teams, Rumpa Giri has helped build pioneering EHRs and machine learning risk engines — and today she’s focused on improving first-pass claim rates with AI-powered automation. She has served as the CTO at Foresee Medical and MDLand.

Rosalba Serrano Rivera is a Licensed Clinical Social Worker andthe Behavioral Health Director at Camarena Health in Madera, CA. She is an alumna of the California Health Care Foundation’s Health Care Leadership Program. She has over 15 years of clinical experience working with children, adolescents, and adults. She has a deep commitment to advancing behavioralhealth equity and expanding access to care for historically underserved populations. Rosalba provides strategic leadership in designing and implementing trauma-informed, culturally responsive, and patient-centered care models.

We talked about her leadership and life journey, heressential work developing a sustainable pipeline of bilingual and bicultural clinicians, and expanding access to maternal mental health.

Dr. Tyler B Evans is the CEO, Chief Medical Officer & Co-Founder of Wellness and Equity Alliance. He is an infectious diseases and public health expert. He was the first Chief Medical Officer for New York City, leading the Office of Emergency Management’s (OEM) COVID-19 medical response. He is an Adjunct Associate Professor at the University of Southern California (USC) Keck School of Medicine, Department of Population and Public Health Sciences.  Most recently, he has authored the book Pandemics, Poverty, and Politics: Decoding the Social and Political Drivers of Pandemics from Plague to COVID-19 (Johns Hopkins Press, August, 2025). 

Links:

- https://www.amazon.com/Pandemics-Poverty-Politics-Decoding-Political-ebook/dp/B0D9C6GTN6

- https://www.wellnessequityalliance.com/

Conflict of interest: I previously worked at Wellness Equity Alliance and hold a small number of shares in the company.