Preferred Pronouns: he/they/siya

Patrick Munar Ancheta is a current MS2 at Michigan State University College of Human Medicine (MSUCHM) and was a previous post-baccalaureate student at PHAP, receiving his Post-Bacc Certificate in Summer 2018. He is passionate about community-based healthcare and advocacy for underserved communities having volunteered with Mabuhay Health Clinic and the Transgender Research Project under Dr. Curr. Currently, he co-leads the MSUCHM APAMSA and Medical Student Pride Alliance (MSPA) amongst other student groups and is working with an independent group, Diagnosis: Queer (Dx:Q), to highlight the deficiencies in healthcare as it pertains to queer folx. He hopes to transition more into national roles with the same and similar organizations.

Preferred Pronouns: he/him/his

Alex Baskoro is a post-baccalaureate pre-medical student who is committed to defending health access for marginalized communities and transforming the landscape of health and wellness to prioritize cultural humility and diverse resources, trauma-informed care, and holistic healing.

Preferred Pronouns: she/her/hers

Connie Calderón-Jensen is an education professional with over 25 years' experience on issues affecting students of color, English language learners, and immigrants. Her work experience includes supporting college access for first and second-generation students through the University of California Puente Project, with graduate students at the California Institute of Technology, the Middlebury Institute of International Studies at Monterey (MIIS), and with Los Medanos College.

She most recently worked as a program coordinator for the Office of Post Baccalaureate and Outreach Programs at the UCSF School of Medicine, where she focused on assisting historically under-represented students gain acceptance to medical school.

Connie also developed and shaped multiple programs focused on educational issues and trends affecting college access for low-income and underserved students, including working as the Bay Area Director for the Parent Institute for Quality Education (PIQE), and as a consultant for the California State Parent Teacher Association where she was part of the team that developed the award-winning School Smarts Parent Engagement Program serving low-income families across the state with its multilingual curriculum.

She speaks fluent Spanish and Italian, and holds a Master of Arts degree in International Policy Studies and Spanish from the MIIS.

Preferred Pronouns: he/him/his

Angelo Calinga recently completed his first year and is a rising 2nd year osteopathic medical student at A.T. Still University School of Osteopathic Medicine Arizona (ATSU-SOMA). He attended University of California, Irvine and received a bachelor’s degree in biological sciences. During his time at UCI, he was president of Delta Sigma Phi, was fundraising chair for UNICEF, researched in an atmospheric science lab, and worked as an usher at the Bren Events Center. Post-college, Angelo worked as a brewer in San Jose for two years before applying to medical school. During his first year in medical school, he hosted the Journal Club for the Internal Medicine Interest Group and organized shadowing opportunities for his peers at the medical examiner’s office. You can find Angelo volunteering at the Respite Center in Phoenix, discovering local breweries and coffee shops, and taking pictures of landscapes and streets.

Preferred Pronouns: she/her/hers

Dr. Maria Cho is a Professor and Assistant Director of the nursing program at California State University, East Bay. She earned a bachelor's in nursing in South Korea, a master's degree from the University of California San Francisco (UCSF) with an oncology clinical nurse specialist, and a Ph.D. from UCSF. She also earned a post master's family nurse practitioner degree from San Francisco State University. Her areas of research interest include symptom management, palliative care nursing, and nursing education. She has been an oncology nurse for more than 15 years. She has published and presented her research regionally, nationally, and internationally. She is an active member of various professional nursing organizations. She taught at UCSF School of Nursing, Samuel Merritt University, and San Francisco State University.

Preferred Pronouns: she/her/hers

Cassidy Kays is the UC Postbaccalaureate Consortium Coordinator and serves the 4 UC programs: Davis, Irvine, Los Angeles, and San Francisco. She has previous experience at Sacramento City College working in student affairs assisting with student enrollment, managing advising appointments, and providing guidance to students on various pathway programs and support services. She is a proud community college graduate and transfer student. Cassidy has a passion for working with students from disadvantaged backgrounds and values the role of mentorship in educational outcomes. With an associate's and bachelor's degree in Sociology from Sacramento City College and UC Davis, she has the goal of promoting equity and creating opportunities for student success.

Preferred Pronouns: she/her/hers

Dr. Lopez is currently an Assistant Professor of Biochemistry at Chapman University. Prior to Chapman, she was an Assistant Professor of Biochemistry at Cal State LA, her alma mater. After graduating with a BS in Biochemistry, she completed a PhD in Biochemistry & Molecular Biology at UCLA. She then completed a Postdoctoral Research Fellowship where, under the direction of Dr. Andrea Armani at the Viterbi School of Engineering, University of Southern California (USC), she took part in the development of a non-invasive detector for early-stage cancer cells. Having lost her mother to breast cancer, she was excited to contribute to the development of a device capable of detecting epigenetic markers prominent in cancer. Her current research at Chapman is centered on early disease detection by focusing on two protein modifications: arginine methylation and serine phosphorylation. She is convinced that focusing on these types of modifications are critical to understanding fundamental processes and can lead the way to greater therapeutics and individual analysis of patients. She is studying these interactions in proteins implicated in diabetes, multiple sclerosis, and cardiomyopathy. She is committed to sharing her knowledge, skills and love of science with enthusiastic students. One of her goals is to make her research interdisciplinary so that students from a variety of backgrounds ranging from biology, biochemistry, physics, bioengineering, and chemistry can benefit. In addition, as an under-represented minority of LatinX descent she has benefited greatly from programs that have explicitly embraced diversity. She does not believe she would currently be an Assistant Professor without the positive experiences she received as an undergraduate student and without programs such as LSAMP or MARC which offer support to minority populations.

Preferred Pronouns: she/her/hers

Alanya is a pre-medical student who recently completed the CSU East Bay PHAP post-baccalaureate program. She has a passion for applying a cross-cultural lens to health care and understanding the role of socioeconomic factors in health disparities.

Preferred Pronouns: they/them

Emerson Short is the Northern California Pre-Health Grad Outreach Specialist at The Princeton Review. They attended Mills College, a historically women's college in the Bay Area, and received a bachelor's in legal studies. Emerson was the RA for UC Berkeley students housed at Mills, a Human Genetics TA, and the Academic Affairs Chair for the Associated Students of Mills College Executive Board, in charge of overseeing the management of the Mills Academic Research Journal. Post-college, Emerson went on to work as a Human Services Specialist for the County of Sacramento, with project focuses on health and access disparities in government programs such as MediCal. They joined The Princeton Review to bring their community-support skills back into the higher education arena, as well as to provide resources and insight to post-grad health professionals in the making. You can find Emerson making vegan samosas in the kitchen or hanging out at the American River in sunny Sacramento, California.

Preferred Pronouns: he/him/his

Dr. Chun Yan So graduated from the University of Hong Kong and obtained the degrees of Bachelor of Medicine/Bachelor of Surgery in 2014 and Master of Medical Sciences in 2019. He is a Royal College of Radiologists (UK) Fellow and is now practising as a Clinical Oncologist in Hong Kong. His main research interest focuses on cancer biology and immunotherapy.