Dozens of Touro University California alumni have advanced their careers in recent months with new jobs, workplace anniversaries, roles at various conferences, and new or renewed certifications.
Here's a look at our TUC alums and their most-recent accomplishments.
College of Osteopathic Medicine
Drs. Tami Hendriksz (DO Class of 2006) and May Lin (DO Class of 2010) played key roles in mid-April during the American Association of Colleges of Osteopathic Medicine’s Educating Leaders ’24 conference in Kansas City.
Hendriksz helped to lead a plenary session April 17 to honor the accomplishments of Dr. Meta Christy, the first Black osteopathic physician in the U.S. The title of the plenary session was “How to Maintain the Inclusive Nature of Osteopathic Medical Education and Support All Students in Times of Politicized Identities.”
Christy was born in 1895 and became an osteopathic physician in 1921 after graduating from the Philadelphia College of Infirmary and Osteopathy, which is now the Philadelphia College of Osteopathic Medicine.
Hendriksz was also one of four speakers leading a session April 18 on the topic of Transition to Residency and Core Clerkships. The session was titled “The AACOM UME-GME Task Force and Its Approach on the Transition to Residency.”
Lin was one of six people to present April 18 on the topic of DO Degree Bias. The presentation was titled “Overcoming Degree Bias in the Residency Match for U.S. DO Students” and was part of AACOM’s Senior Leadership Development Program during the conference.
Hendriksz serves as Interim Chief Academic Officer at Touro University California as well as Dean and CAO of the University’s College of Osteopathic Medicine. Lin serves as Assistant Dean of Graduate Medical Education and Program Development within the College of Osteopathic Medicine.
Dr. Kelly Fairbairn (DO Class of 2015) has joined the Division of Cardiothoracic Surgery at UCI Health Physicians.
Fairbairn after earning her medical degree at Touro University California completed a Residency in General Surgery at Community Memorial Hospital in Ventura. Next came a Fellowship in Cardiothoracic Surgery at the University of Arizona College of Medicine in Tucson. She then completed a Fellowship in Advanced Thoracic Surgical Oncology at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York.
She serves as an Assistant Professor in the Division of Cardiothoracic Surgery in the Department of Surgery at the University of California, Irvine, School of Medicine.
Fairbairn’s practice is at the UCI Health Chao Family Comprehensive Cancer Center in Orange.
Dr. Imran Masood (DO Class of 2017) was a speaker at the inaugural Pediatric Acute Heart Failure Symposium in May in Universal City.
The symposium was hosted by Children’s Hospital Los Angeles. Masood’s clinical care presentation was titled, “Multiple Bridges on the Path to Transplantation.”
Masood is a Pediatric Heart Failure, Cardiomyopathy, Transplant, and Exercise Physiology Fellow at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, a position he has held since June 2023. Prior to that he was a Pediatric Cardiology Fellow for three years at Children’s Hospital Los Angeles after serving as a Pediatric Resident there for three years.
Dr. Emma Bagheri (DO Class of 2022) was named Family Medicine Chief Resident for 2024-2025 at Loma Linda University Medical Center-Murrieta.
Bagheri, after earning a bachelor’s degree in biology, worked for two years in the metabolic research lab at Touro University California before becoming a medical student here. Her clinical interests include women’s health, Osteopathic Manipulative Medicine, sports medicine, and full-spectrum medicine for patients of all ages.
She did her PY1 and PY2 Residencies at Loma Linda University Medical Center-Murrieta. Her tenure as Chief Resident begins July 1.
Bagheri and her husband, Dr. Sina Bagheri, couples matched into their respective residency programs in Southern California. He’s at Universal Health Services in Temecula, where the Doctor of Osteopathic Medicine is completing his PY2 Residency in Internal Medicine.
Dr. Stanley Cheng (DO Class of 2018) is working as an Allergy and Pediatric Allergy and Immunology Physician with Capital Allergy & Respiratory Disease Center in the greater Sacramento area.
Cheng started his role there in November.
He served previously as a Co-chief Fellow and Fellow Physician at the University of Buffalo in New York during his Allergy-Immunology Fellowship program, and as an Internal Medicine Resident Physician for three years with Christiana Care Health System in Newark, Delaware, which is affiliated with Thomas Jefferson University’s Sidney Kimmel Medical College.
Dr. Marlon Tingzon (DO Class of 2014) started a new position in September as Director Regional Health North America at Henkel after nearly a decade serving in the U.S. Navy.
Tingzon ended his time in the Navy serving for more than three years as Medical Director Occupational Health, Public Health Officer at U.S. Naval Hospital Sigonella, Sicily, Italy.
Prior to that he served for more than two years as Occupational and Environmental Medicine Physician at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center in Bethesda, Maryland; for more than two years as Medical Director, Senior Regional Flight Surgeon at Naval Aviation Warfighting Development Center in Fallon, Nevada; as a Naval Flight Surgeon Student for about a year in Pensacola, Florida; and as a General Surgery Intern for more than a year in San Diego.
His military honors include the Navy Marine Corps Commendation Medal in 2018 and 2021, and the Joint Service Achievement Medal in 2020.
Tingzon after completing his Doctorate at Touro University California obtained a Master’s degree in general business administration and management in 2019 from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and a Master of Public Health degree in 2020 from Uniformed Services University.
College of Pharmacy
College of Pharmacy alumna Dr. Danielle Thanh Buranintu (PharmD Class of 2018) joined Stanford Children’s Hospital-Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital Stanford in February as an Advanced Clinical Pharmacist.
Buranintu previously served for nine months as an Ambulatory Care Pharmacist in Adult and Family Medicine at Kaiser Permanente. Prior to that, she served as a Clinical Pharmacist II and Clinical Pharmacist III for a combined four years at Stanford Health Care; and as an Ambulatory Care Intern Pharmacist, Intern Pharmacist and PGY1 General Pharmacy Resident for more than four and a half years at Kaiser Permanente.
Her new role sees Buranintu maintaining board certifications to provide medication management for neurology patients, trauma patients, post-surgery cardiac care patients, and post-transplant patients, as well as patients with cystic fibrosis, inflammatory bowel disease, and those being treated in the Rheumatology Clinic, among others.
Dr. Thuy M. Vo (PharmD Class of 2015) received the 2023 Rising Star Award in March from Dynavax Technologies.
Vo serves as a Key Account Executive at Dynavax and is part of a team that’s working to eliminate Hepatitis B. She’s worked there for about 18 months and was promoted from Vaccine Account Manager to her current role in October.
She worked previously for more than a decade through December 2022 in pharmacy roles at Safeway. She served concurrently for more than five and a half years as a Clinical Assistant Professor/APPE Preceptor at California Northstate College of Pharmacy, and for more than three and a half years as a Residency Preceptor for Albertsons Companies.
Both of the latter roles also ended in December 2022 as Vo shifted to Dynavax in January 2023.
Dr. Golnaz Hosseinian (PharmD Class of 2023, MSMHS Class of 2018) started a new position in March as a Registered Pharmacist at Walgreens in the San Diego metropolitan area.
She previously served for three and a half years as a Pharmacy Intern and then for just shy of a year as a Graduate Pharmacist at Walgreens locations in both Northern and Southern California.
Hosseinian received her bachelor’s degree in chemistry from Islamic Azad University. She served for two and a half years as a lab technician at Diablo Valley College in San Ramon before starting the MSMHS program at Touro. She completed a number of Pharmacy internships while completing her PharmD at Touro.
Dr. Benjamin Malcolm (Dual PharmD-MPH Class of 2014) was a recent guest on both the Neural Pharm and the Anti-Hero’s Journey podcasts.
Malcolm is the founder of Spirit Pharmacist, a psychopharmacology consulting practice which aims to help people understand the interaction potential and optimal clinical approaches to psychedelic therapies when they are taking traditional psychiatric medications. He also works to expand education to health care providers and pharmacists about the use of psychedelic agents, and their current place in therapy.
He served a PGY1 Pharmacy Practice Residency with Scripps Mercy Hospital in San Diego after completing his degrees at Touro University California. He then served as a PGY2 Psychiatric Pharmacy Resident at the University of California, San Diego before serving as an Assistant Professor of Pharmacy Practice and Administration for nearly four and a half years through December 2020 at Western University of Health Sciences in Pomona.
Malcolm founded Spirit Pharmacist in 2019 while teaching at Western University and devoted himself full-time to his company at the height of the pandemic. He is based in Costa Rica.
Dr. Suhryoung “Christine” Chun (PharmD Class of 2022) started as a Pharmaco*kineticist in March at the federal Food & Drug Administration in the Office of Generic Drugs in Silver Spring, Maryland.
Chun is responsible for reviewing bioequivalence studies submitted in Abbreviated New Drug Applications to make scientific- and regulatory-based decisions for approval of new generic drug products.
She had worked as a Pharmacist at Walgreens since graduating from Touro University California. She interviewed for the FDA position in May 2023.
Chun had her first experience with the FDA during a P4 rotation with the agency while completing her PharmD degree.
Dr. KC Sicheneder (PharmD Class of 2023) matched in March for a PGY-2 Residency at the VA Sierra Nevada Health Care System in Reno.
She is set to complete her PGY-1 Residency at the VA Sierra Nevada Health Care System in Reno.
Sicheneder worked as a Pharmacy Intern for three and a half years.
She was president of the student chapter of the American College of Clinical Pharmacy for 2020-2021 while at Touro University California, where she served concurrently as the Diabetes Project Coordinator on campus and as the Immunization Operation Chair of the Student National Pharmaceutical Association.
Dr. Tony Lotte (PharmD Class of 2020) received certification in December as a Board-Certified Pharmacotherapy Specialist from the Board of Pharmacy Specialties.
The certification is for pharmacists who ensure the safe, appropriate, and economical use of medications as part of interprofessional treatment teams in a variety of settings, including in hospitals and within health systems.
Lotte has served as an Ambulatory Care Clinical Pharmacist since May 2023 with Summit Health in East Meadow, New York. He worked previously as a Drug Information Pharmacist with the Centene Corporation, and as an Ambulatory Care Pharmacist with Kaiser Permanente after completing his Pharmacy Residency with Kaiser in Sacramento.
Dr. Ramy Bella (PharmD Class of 2022) celebrated two years in April with Mirati Therapeutics Inc. in Southern California.
Bella served for six months as a Regulatory Affairs Intern before being hired as a contract Regulatory Affairs Associate in San Diego.
Mirati Therapeutics is part of Bristol Myers Squibb.
Dr. Mitchell L. Lienemann (Dual PharmD-MPH Class of 2018) in April celebrated his second anniversary working with the U.S. Army’s California Medical Detachment.
Lienemann initially served as a Staff Pharmacist for 14 months before being promoted to Chief of Pharmacy in May 2023. He worked prior to that as a Pharmacy Supervisor for more than three years with Asante in the Medford, Oregon area.
The California Medical Detachment, also known as CAL MED, is located on the U.S. Army Garrison Presidio of Monterey, in the city of Monterey.
Dr. Mauricio Ortega (PharmD Class of 2021) was hired in April to serve as an Infusion Clinical Pharmacist under contract with Sutter Health in Santa Rosa.
Ortega continues to serve as an Acute Care Clinical Pharmacist 1 at Providence St. Joseph Health, also in Santa Rosa. He’s held that position since July 2022.
That came after a PGY-1 Pharmacy Residency with the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs in the greater Los Angeles area, and nearly four years of combined pharmacy internships with St. Joseph Health in Santa Rosa, Walgreens in San Rafael, Marin Medical Pharmacy in San Rafael, and Safeway in San Rafael.
Dr. Ellena Mar (PharmD Class of 2009) this year obtained double certification once again as a Board Certified Oncology Pharmacist and as a Board Certified Ambulatory Care Pharmacist.
Mar has worked since December 2022 for Stanford Health Care, first as a Clinical Pharmacist, then as a Pharmacist-in-Charge at Stanford Neuroscience Health Center, a position she has held since June 2023.
She previously served for 16 and a half years with Kaiser Permanente, the final nine years as an Ambulatory Care Pharmacist in the greater Southern Alameda County area. Her previous roles with Kaiser Permanente included time serving as a Transitional Care Pharmacist, an initial posting as an Ambulatory Care Pharmacist, service as a PGY1 Pharmacy Resident, and time as a Pharmacy Intern.
Mar was also a Pharmacy Intern at Longs Drugs while attending Touro University California.
Dr. Quan Tran (PharmD Class of 2010) started a new position in April as Pharmacy Director at One Community Health Sacramento.
Tran previously served for nearly two years as Regional Pharmacy Leader for Rite Aid in the greater Sacramento area. Prior to that, he served for more than six years as Regional Pharmacy Supervisor for Raleys in Sacramento; worked for more than a year as Pharmacy Manager at Walmart; and served for more than four years with Safeway, first as a Pharmacy Manager and then as a Regional Pharmacy Manager.
He obtained a Master of Business Administration degree in 2021 from Sacramento State.
Dr. Shervin Abtahi (PharmD Class of 2021) completed two years in April as a Staff Pharmacist at CVS Health in Petaluma.
Abtahi served previously for more than two years with Rite Aid, ending his tenure there as Pharmacist in Charge.
He began with Rite Aid as an Intern Pharmacist while completing his Doctorate at Touro University California.
Dr. Veronica Madrigal (PharmD Class of 2020) celebrated serving for two years in April with Kaiser Permanente in the greater Bay Area region.
Madrigal completed her PGY1 Pharmacy Residency with a focus on Acute Care at Stanford Health Care.
Prior to attending Touro University California, she served for four years as Lead Compounding Pharmacy Technician with The Medicine Shoppe Pharmacy in Santa Barbara, and for three years as a Pharmacy Technician with CVS Pharmacy in Goleta.
Joint Master of Science in Physician Assistant Studies/Master of Public Health Program
Joint Master of Science in Physician Studies/Master of Public Health alum Charles Kim (MSPAS/MPH Class of 2023) is in the midst of a 12-month Inpatient Neurosciences Fellowship as part of the Advanced Practice Provider Fellowship program at Stanford Medicine Health Care.
Kim was one of the program’s two inaugural APP Fellows for Inpatient Neurosciences when he started with the program in October. He focuses on inpatient neurosurgery, functional neurosurgery in movement disorders, neurocritical care, stroke neurology, and epilepsy.
Kim worked at Stranford as a research assistant and as a Blood Center technician prior to attending Touro University California. He says it was a desire of his to return to Stanford once he became a Physician Assistant.
Kim served in Nepal for his field study with the Master’s in Public Health program here at Touro.
Kristen Mueller (MSPAS/MPH Class of 2023) started a new position in March as a Physician Assistant in the Cardiac Intensive Care Unit at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia.
Mueller worked for nearly a year as a Population Health Project Coordinator with Hennepin Healthcare in the greater Minneapolis-St. Paul, Minnesota area before starting the MSPAS/MPH program at Touro University California.
She was a Quality Safety Analyst at Children’s Respiratory & Critical Care Specialists in the Minneapolis-St. Paul region for more than two years prior to her work with Hennepin Healthcare.
Mueller served through numerous clinical rotations while at Touro, to include Hospital Medicine, Pediatric Oncology and Bone Marrow Transplant, Emergency Medicine, Trauma Orthopedic Surgery, General Pediatrics and Adolescent Psychiatry, Internal Medicine, Rural Family Medicine and Pediatrics, and Pulmonary and Critical Care.
Jack Nhan (MSPAS/MPH Class of 2023) joined Accelerated Urgent Care part-time in January as an Urgent Care Physician Assistant in Bakersfield.
Nhan has worked full-time since September at Kern Medical Center in Bakersfield as a Vascular Surgery Physician Assistant and as a Trauma/Acute Care Surgery Physician Assistant.
His Public Health emphasis while at Touro University California was Health Equity and Criminal Justice.
Nahn was a credentialed Emergency Medical Technician in the greater Los Angeles area prior to attending Touro. He was also previously certified as a phlebotomy technician.
Ashley-Anne Makaula (MSPAS/MPH Class of 2021) transitioned to a new role in January as a Dermatology Physician Assistant with Kaiser Permanente in the greater San Francisco Bay Area.
Makaula previously served for two years as a Radiation Oncology Physician Assistant with Kaiser Permanente.
She was a teacher for more than four years in Hawaii before entering the medical field as a medical assistant at The Queen’s Medical Center in Honolulu, where she served for just shy of two years prior to joining the MSPAS/MPH program at Touro University California.
Anam Banani (MSPAS/MPH Class of 2021) joined Emory University Hospital in September as a Physician Assistant for Inpatient Orthopedic Surgery in Atlanta, Georgia.
Banani previously served as a Surgical Physician Assistant for nearly two years at NorthShore University HealthSystem based in Evanston, Illinois, along with a brief concurrent role as a part-time Assistant Professor at Touro University Illinois in Skokie, Illinois.
She was an Emergency Medical Technician for more than a year and a Medical Assistant for more than two years prior to coming to Touro University California for the Joint MSPAS/MPH program.
Independent Master of Public Health Program
Independent Master of Public Health alumna Dr. Yimdriuska (Gigi) Magan (MPH Class of 2016) co-founded the Digital Health Equity Ambassador Program in December in Los Angeles. She also serves as Curricular Chair.
The seasonal program features a five-week curriculum at UCLA-Harbor Medical Center teaching URM premedical students about digital health equity. The program’s curriculum aligns with AAMC’s Telehealth Competencies and HLTH Foundation Techquity principles by combining theoretical knowledge with practical telemedicine clinic experiences to ensure participating students are well-prepared to advance health equity through technology.
Megan raised money to sponsor eight premed students – six of whom are first-generation students and from diverse backgrounds – to attend the ViVE Conference, a curated event for digital health decision-makers that focuses on the business of health care.
Magan obtained her Doctor of Medicine degree in 2020 from the University of California, Davis School of Medicine. She serves as a Family Medicine Physician with Kaiser Permanente in Santa Rosa, a position she has held for two years.
Marcus Clark (MPH Class of 2021) started a new role in February as Program Coordinator at Club Stride Inc. in Vallejo.
Clark previous served as Member Support Specialist-Quality Improvement for One Medical in Oakland, as a contract Researcher for Alameda County Public Health, as a Research Assistant-Health Educator at Touro University California, and as a Public Health Equity Intern at Alameda County Public Health. He previously worked as a personal trainer, and in physical therapy.
Club Stride is a nonprofit that provides the community’s youth with experiential civic education to increase the scale, impact, and equity of civic engagement; knowledge to close civic participation gaps and to contribute to building healthy communities; and strategies to highlight connections between media literacy and civic education to ensure a youth-centered, participatory approach to civic renewal.
Samuel Puebla (MPH Class of 2022) was a secondary author on a trio of abstracts presented during the APHA Annual Meeting and Expo on Nov. 12-15 in Atlanta.
The abstracts which include Puebla as an author are “Youth in Action: A Pathway to Student Leadership,” “Youth in Action for Health Equity: Mental Health Well-being Among High School Students, Females vs. Males,” and “Youth in Action for Health Equity: Empowerment and Resiliency Programs Address Disparities in Low-Income Schools.”
Two others who were working this year to complete their MPH degrees were also listed as secondary authors on the abstracts: Hordofa Burka (MPH Class of 2024) on all three and Latara Harris (MPH Class of 2024) on “A Pathway to Student Leadership” and “Empowerment and Resiliency Programs Address Disparities in Low-Income Schools.”
Puebla and Burka work with the Youth in Action for Health Equity Project at Touro University California.
Desiree Miranda (MPH Class of 2020) started a new position in April serving as a Human Services Program Planner within the Quality Management and Administrative Services Bureau of Sacramento County’s Department of Child, Family, and Adult Services.
Miranda previously served for more than two years with Solano County, first for six months as a Health Education Specialist, then for a year and nine months as a Senior Health Education Specialist.
She previously served for more than two years with Fighting Back Partnership in Vallejo, first as a Lead Intern for just shy of a year and then for nearly a year and a half as Community Health and Social Impact Director. She served concurrently for nine months as a Teaching Assistant at Touro University California.
School of Nursing
School of Nursing alumna Jennifer Tudor (MSN Class of 2015) took part in a panel discussion in March that was sponsored by the California Association of Healthcare Leaders.
The topic of discussion was “Exploring the Magnet Recognition Program.” Tudor is the Magnet Program director at NorthBay Health.
The event took place at Kaiser Permanente San Leandro Medical Center and was designed to explore the core principles and practices of nursing excellence within Magnet-designated institutions.
Magnet designation is granted by the American Nurse Credentialing Center and acknowledges health care organizations for their commitment to nursing excellence, quality patient care, and innovation.
Tudor has worked at NorthBay Health for nearly 15 ½ years, first as a Critical Care Registered Nurse and then as a Clinical Nurse Leader before taking on the role of Magnet Program Director in January 2019. She has served as an Adjunct Faculty member at Touro University California’s School of Nursing since June 2016.
Nora Fey (MSN Class of 2023) obtained her Clinical Nurse Leader certification in May from the Commission on Nurse Certification.
The commission recognizes those who demonstrate professional standards and knowledge through CNL certification. A certified CNL is defined as a master’s educated nurse who is prepared for practice across the continuum of care within any health care setting in today’s health care environment, the commission reports.
Fey celebrated two years in March working full-time at NorthBay Medical Center in Fairfield.
She serves as a Clinical Nurse III in the Labor and Delivery unit. She previously served as a Clinical Nurse I in Labor and Delivery at Good Samaritan Hospital in San Jose, and for a brief time after becoming a nurse as an ExMT RN Coordinator with InSync Consulting Services LLC, which is based in Roseville.
Fey was introduced to nursing while she was a student at St. Patrick-St. Vincent Catholic High School in Vallejo and attended NorthBay Health’s three-day Nurse Camp. She came full circle when she helped to lead the camp in 2023.
ATTENTION ALUMS!
If you have reached a personal or professional milestone (including marriages, anniversaries, professional travel, awards, achievements, grants, publications, graduations and more – PLEASE let us know! Email gfaison@touro.edu.
