Staff & Partners

Our Staff

Jyothi Nagraj Marbin, MD FAAP

Principal Investigator, CEASE California

Jyothi Nagraj Marbin is a pediatrician at the Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital and UCSF Benioff Children’s Hospital Oakland, where she works in the Primary Care and Asthma Clinics. She is the Director of the Pediatrics Leadership for the Underserved Residency Program at UCSF, and an Associate Residency Program Director for Pediatrics. She is also the Principal Investigator on the CEASE (Clinical Effort Against Secondhand Smoke Exposure) California project, funded by First 5 California, through which she helps to teach pediatricians across the state of CA how to help parents quit smoking. Her research interests focus on the impact of tobacco on vulnerable populations, asthma, and using technology to help improve health of urban teens. She did her undergraduate work at Brown University, where she received a BA in Health & Society. She then spent five years working with City Year, an international youth service organization, eventually serving as the Executive Director of City Year Rhode Island. Following her work at City Year, Jyothi returned to Brown University where she received her MD.  During medical school, she founded and directed the Rhode Island Family Advocacy Program, now known as the RI Medical Legal Partnership, which brings lawyers and doctors together to help address policy issues impacting the health of urban children. Jyothi completed her residency in pediatrics at the University of California, San Francisco in the PLUS program.

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Cindy Nelson Purdy, PNP MPH

Clinical Director, CEASE California

Cindy Nelson Purdy is a pediatric nurse practitioner at UCSF Benioff Children’s Hospital Oakland where she works in the Primary Care Resource Group.  She specializes in the care of asthmatic children, providing clinical care in the Asthma Clinic, participating in asthma research, and providing, and coordinating, asthma education for asthmatic children and their families. She graduated from the University of Minnesota for both her undergraduate, BSN and graduate, MPH degrees, as well as her practitioner training, with a focus on chronic illness in children. For the first 20 years of her career as a nurse practitioner, she worked in Pulmonary Medicine at Children’s, pioneering case management and home care for medically complex children, as well as providing clinical care. She has always been interested in providing care that includes the whole family, utilizing a holistic approach. Her current project disseminating CEASE California  dovetails with her passion of promoting a healthy environment for all children to grow and thrive.

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Founding Advisors

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Advisory Committee Members

 

Seth Ammerman MD
Clinical Professor
Stanford School of Medicine

Christopher Anderson
Program Director
California Smokers’ Helpline

Desiree Backman DrPH, RD
Chief Prevention Officer
California Department of Health Care Services

Karen Barretto MD
Staff Physician
Kaiser Permanente

Geoffrey A. Booth MD
Medical Director
Clinica Monsenor Oscar A. Romero

Janis Burger
Chief Executive Officer
First 5 Alameda County

Joanna Mimi Choi MD
Maternal Child Health Fellow
UCLA Center for Healthier Children, Families, and Communities

Letitia Clark George MPP
Executive Director
American Academy of Pediatrics, California chapter 4

Muntu Davis MD MPH
Department Director & County Health officer
Alameda County Public Health Department

Jeremy Drehmer
Senior Clinical Research Coordinator
Center for Child and Adolescent Health Research and Policy
Massachusetts General Hospital

Mark Friedman
Chief Executive Officer
Thomas J. Long Foundation

Tonya Gorham Gallow MSW
Program Director
Tobacco Control and Prevention Program
Los Angeles County Department of Public Health

Mark Ghaly MD MPH
Deputy Director for Community Health
Los Angeles County Department of Health Services

Liz Gregor MPH
Contracts Manager
First 5 Alameda County

Phyllis Hartigan MPH
Community Health Programs Consultant
Center for Healthier Communities
Rady Children’s Hospital San Diego

Tipu Khan MD
CME Leaders Institute Faculty Member
Member of the Committee on Continuing Professional Development
CAFP Liaison to the California Maternal Quality Care Collaborative

Quynh Kieu MD
Pediatrician, Fountain Valley Pediatrics
President, Project Vietnam Foundation

Neal Kohatsu MD MPH
Medical Director
California Department of Health Care Services

Gena Lewis MD
Staff Physician
UCSF Benioff Children’s Hospital Oakland

Carol McGruder
Co-Chair
African American Tobacco Control Leadership Council

Bergen Nelson MD
Assistant Clinical Professor
Department of Pediatrics
David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA

Steve Schroeder MD
Director
Smoking Cessation Leadership Center
UC San Francisco

Lyne Scott MD
Assistant Professor of Pediatrics, USC Keck School of Medicine,
Allergy and Immunology Division Chief,
Allergy and Immunology Fellowship Training Program Director
Co-Director of the Breathmobile Program at LAC+USC Medical Center

Meg Siegel
Independent Creative Collaborator

Kathleen Tebb PhD
Assistant Professor
Department of Pediatrics
UCSF Benioff Children’s Hospital San Francisco

Elisa Tong MD MA
Associate Professor of Medicine
University of California Davis

Brian Williams MD
Hospitalist Fellow
Rady Children’s Hospital San Diego