About me and my work!

At Berkeley, I am a trainee at the Center for Health Management and Policy Research (CHAMP) and also a graduate student affiliate at the Berkeley Center for Social Medicine. I am also a Policy Fellow at the DISCERN Collaborative.

I have won a series of grants to support my research, including the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation’s Health Policy Research Scholars (HPRS), a Research Grant from the National Institute for Health Care Management (NIHCM) Foundation, and a Graduate Student Research Award from the Berkeley-RWJF Hub for Family Policy to Reduce Racial Inequities in Health. I was previously supported by a T32 fellowship under the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ).

Prior to coming to Berkeley, I was a Senior Consultant for Precision Advisors working on strategic projects for life sciences firms in New York City. I earned my BA and MPH from Brown University, where I was a David A. Winston Health Policy Scholar. In my graduate year, I won the Graduate School’s Outstanding Academic Accomplishment by a Master’s Student, awarded to a graduating master’s student demonstrating the strongest achievement in thesis, projects or research. At Brown, I also co-founded the Philippine Health Initiative for Research, Service, and Training (PHIRST) alongside faculty, staff, and fellow students.

My pre-doctoral work focused on a broad range of topics in public health and has appeared in top journals including Health Affairs, the American Journal of Public Health, the Journal of the International AIDS Society, and JAMA Health Forum. My work has been featured and cited in major media outlets like the New York Times, CNN, and NBC, as well as in the 2022 CMS Proposed Rule on Nondiscrimination in Health Programs and Activities.

Outside of academia, I am also the former President for the Filipinx/a/o Community Health Association (Fil-CHA). I enjoy running, creative non-fiction, and drinking and making espresso. I consistently manage my heart rate while watching my favorite sports teams (the New York Yankees and Knicks, Vancouver Canucks, and Tottenham Hotspur). Finally, I enjoy spreading the good word about the superior quality of NorCal produce, particularly to my friends and family based on the East Coast. My favorite fruits are peaches, figs, and cherries.