Administrative Fellowship: Current Fellows & Alumni

Alex De Luna joins UC San Diego Health as one of the 2023-2024 Administrative Fellows. He earned his Bachelor of Science in Health and Kinesiology and his Master of Healthcare Administration from the University of Utah.

Prior to joining UC San Diego Health, Alex spent several years working in the financial services industry, where he gained experience in operations and process improvement. During that time, Alex also earned his Lean Six Sigma Green Belt and later his Lean Six Sigma Black Belt. Additionally, he worked as an Administrative Intern at Intermountain Health, where he participated in several projects, including those aimed at improving employee engagement, improving patient experience, and planning the expansion and building of new outpatient clinics.

As a graduate student, Alex became passionate about promoting the field of healthcare administration to traditionally underrepresented students. He founded the MHA Circle, which focuses on mentoring and recruiting first-generation college students and students from underrepresented backgrounds to healthcare administration. The lessons learned from this experience have challenged Alex to look for ways to improve access to care and to find ways healthcare can be more equitable.

Alex is excited about serving the San Diego community and exploring the intersection of community health and innovation to foster a more accessible and personalized care experience. He has interests in operations, quality, and healthcare technology.

Elizabeth Case joins UC San Diego Health as one of the 2023-2024 Administrative Fellows. She earned her Bachelor of Science in Public Affairs, majoring in Law & Public Policy from Indiana University. Recently, she earned her Master of Healthcare Administration from the University of Minnesota School of Public Health.

Last summer, Elizabeth was an administrative intern in the Ambulatory Department at UCI Health Medical Center. She had the privilege to report to the Executive Director of Ambulatory Care, alongside several other Senior Directors, Directors, and Assistant Directors. Elizabeth’s main project consisted of developing current and future intake process maps for the Comprehensive Spine Center, eliminating bottlenecks in the current process and standardizing new approaches through utilizing process improvement mechanisms (PSDA cycle). This project allowed her to collaborate with an interdisciplinary team of physicians, nurses, administrators and IT, gaining their perspective and insight in order to enhance operational efficiency. Additionally, she had the opportunity to evaluate best practice regarding surgery scheduling among six ambulatory clinics, participate in environmental care rounding prior and during The Joint Commission visit, assist in the creation of new decision trees within EPIC regarding patient messaging for various ambulatory clinics, and create informational handouts/coordinate test kit and vaccination delivery among ambulatory clinics for the Monkeypox outbreak.

During her time at the University of Minnesota, Elizabeth was a graduate assistant, a member of the Institute for Healthcare Improvement (IHI) Student Chapter at the University of Minnesota, a student researcher for M Health Fairview Masonic Children’s Hospital in the Pediatric Echo Laboratory, a student volunteer facilitating several roles (e.g., operations associate, telehealth support, clerk) at Phillips Neighborhood Clinic, and a graduate administrative intern for Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota.

Elizabeth has strong interests in operations, strategy, quality improvement, population health/health equity and the patient/provider experience. As a future healthcare leader, her purpose is to listen and amplify the voices and concerns of patients, ensuring their needs come first. Returning to the UC system, Elizabeth is looking forward to addressing the needs of UC San Diego Health community, learning from excellent leaders, and being part of the solution to address the ongoing complexities that face the healthcare industry.

Eileen Dai joined UC San Diego Health as one of the 2022-2023 Administrative Fellows. She earned her Bachelor of Arts in Public Health Policy and Bachelor of Arts in Psychology & Social Behavior from UC Irvine and her Master of Health Administration from Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health.

As an undergraduate, Eileen interned at UCI Health as a Wellness Program Intern where she assisted with the development of projects, programs, and policies to promote a holistic sense of wellness among 5,000 diverse healthcare employees. Most notably, she created a proposal for addressing physician burnout and served as a project lead for UCI Health’s Diabetes Prevention Program. As a graduate student, Eileen continued to gain experience and lead projects within different healthcare environments including working as a Health and Wellness Intern at a senior living company and Marketing and Content Development Intern at a healthcare management consulting firm. Eileen completed her summer practicum at UCLA Health where she worked with the Quality Management Services department on quality improvement projects, including leading an interdisciplinary team of physicians, administrators, and IT staff to improve pediatric developmental screening rates at two clinics and developing a strategy for improving nursing communication and associated HCAHPS scores in pediatric units.

During her Administrative Fellowship, Eileen had the opportunity to work with teams and leaders across the health system on projects. Some of Eileen’s favorite fellowship projects include project managing the development of a Tableau dashboard designed to display metrics on readmissions and access to post-discharge follow-up care, documenting and developing standard work for the patient feedback process, improving ED flow and throughout, conducting an environmental analysis on the IVF market, improving EPIC documentation to reduce lost patient belongings in the Hillcrest ED, and supporting two HIV measures and the health equity measure under the Quality Incentive Program.

Eileen is now a Senior Project Manager on the Practice Development and Project Management team under the Transformation department where she supports strategic projects and alignment related to readmissions, patient access, operational efficiency, and more. Eileen looks forward to continuing to serve the San Diego community and ensuring high-quality patient care at UC San Diego Health.

Victoria Luong joined UC San Diego Health as one of the 2022-2023 Administrative Fellows. She earned her Bachelor of Science in Biology from UC San Diego (Revelle College ‘18) and her Master of Health Administration from Columbia University, Mailman School of Public Health.

As a graduate student, Victoria was both a Graduate Teaching Assistant and the VP of Operations and Treasury for Columbia’s Graduate Student Association. Victoria completed her practicum at Kaiser Permanente as a Finance Data Analytics intern helping transform the health system’s membership-billing system.

Victoria has full-time work experience in clinical operations during her time in a clinical and administrative capacity at a private orthodontic practice. Additionally, Victoria has served as a Forensic Economics Researcher for an expert economist, where she performed actuarial work that included researching economic data and analyzing spreadsheets to assist in financial modeling for medical litigation cases.

Victoria has interests in operations and strategy and her most memorable project during the Fellowship included her work with Moores Cancer Center in their effort to analyze Physician Productivity within various disease teams to identify areas of opportunities to improve access to specialty (oncology) care.

Victoria’s experience in a variety of sectors within healthcare has challenged her to become an effective, well-rounded healthcare leader to promote change and improve how healthcare is delivered and experienced for all.

Matt Jirsa joined UC San Diego Health as the 2021-2022 Administrative Fellow. He earned his Bachelor of Arts in Biology and Society at Cornell University and his Master of Health Services Administration from the University of Michigan.

As an undergraduate, Matt was heavily involved in healthcare quality and process improvement efforts at his campus health center, Cornell Health. He founded and led a Mental Health Task Force to implement structural and policy changes to increase access to care and provider capacity. Additionally, Matt interned with Stanford Healthcare in the Employee and Labor Relations Department where he worked on auditing HR policies, analyzing severance and labor contracts, and resolving employee disputes.

At the University of Michigan for graduate school, Matt was the Professional Development Chair of the Health Policy Student Association and an International Healthcare Volunteer for the William Davidson Institute. Matt completed his summer internship at Massachusetts General Hospital in the Endocrine Division where he worked to analyze patient volumes to improve follow-up care delivery and Joint Commission benchmarking during the COVID-19 pandemic. This internship eventually led to a position as an Administrative Coordinator, where he got the chance to recruit and organize the Administrative Internship Program and work on health equity initiatives to reconcile and eliminate structural racism across the hospital.

During his Administrative Fellowship, Matt chaired a Well-Being Taskforce to develop the initial physician and employee strategic framework for UCSD Health, led the rollout and dissemination of the 2021 Culture of Patient Safety Survey, completed his green belt on Cardiac Monitor process optimization, supported Behavioral Health quality and primary care integration efforts, and served as a project manager for the “New Normal” plan that developed a proactive, data-driven framework for predicting and combating future COVID/respiratory virus surges alongside the CMO.

Matt currently serves as Manager, Outpatient Psychiatry for UC San Diego Health. He has led efforts on expanding access to care, volume growth and capacity, process and policy standardization, financial modeling and demand forecasting for psychotherapy services, and revenue cycle improvement and optimization.

At the clinic, Matt partners in a dyad leadership model with the Clinic Medical Director and supports a team of 50+ psychiatrists, psychologists, master-level LCSW therapists, patient service coordinators, medical assistants, and nurses. His professional mission is to advance holistic behavioral healthcare by leading and contributing to a variety of strategic initiatives and quality improvement opportunities to improve care across San Diego.

Dania Jabali joined UC San Diego Health as the 2020-2021 Administrative Fellow. She earned her Bachelor of Arts in Public Health Policy from UC Irvine in addition to her Master of Health Administration from The George Washington University (GWU).

After undergrad, Dania served as a Bilingual (Spanish) Case Manager for MAXIMUS CalWORKs Welfare to Work Program in Orange County, California where she managed an average monthly caseload of 65 families to provide 1:1 consultations, comprehensive ancillary services, and employment services. Her case management experience in addressing social determinants of health has driven her to improve healthcare access, experience, and outcomes on a leadership level.

As a graduate student, Dania was the Professional Development Chair of the GWU MHA Student Association and completed Administrative Internships for the Emergency Services Institute at Cleveland Clinic, Children’s National Goldberg Center for Pediatric Health, and Goodwin House Independent Living Center.

During her Administrative Fellowship, Dania worked on a variety of operational projects during the peak pandemic. She assisted in the launch of the Mass Vaccine Clinic at Petco Park to vaccinate roughly 5,000 patients per day. In addition, Dania worked on a Lean Six Sigma Black Belt project with the Cardiovascular Institute to streamline pre-op processes across the PTU and EP Lab for improved patient prep, hand-offs, and nursing documentation.

Dania is currently the manager of Hillcrest Guest Services under the Office of Experience Transformation. She manages an experience operations team with functions across the main Hospital lobby, inpatient units, and emergency department.

Dania also works on a variety of strategic initiatives focused on patient experience, wayfinding, wheelchair and escort assistance, and process improvement throughout the organization. Dania has strong interests in clinical and system operations and looks forward in continuing to assess the needs of UC San Diego Health and local communities in her current role.

Sabrina Moxcey joined UC San Diego Health as one of the 2019-2020 Administrative Fellows. She earned her Bachelor of Arts in Political Science and Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies, as well as a Master of Health Administration (MHA) at The Ohio State University. During her undergraduate studies Sabrina developed an interest in community and public health while working at a drop-in center for homeless youth. She pursued these passions after graduation, serving as a Community Health Volunteer for Peace Corps Peru, leading a prevention program at Young People In Recovery, and working as a consultant for Ohio Medicaid.

After returning to Ohio State to earn MHA, Sabrina was selected to be the program’s Leadership Education in Neurodevelopmental Disabilities (LEND) Fellow. As a LEND Fellow Sabrina learned about health disparities and outcomes among children with disabilities. She also joined two interdisciplinary work groups aimed to advance provider competencies and advocate for patient and family centered care. Sabrina also had the opportunity to work at Nationwide Children’s Hospital as an Administrative Resident, where she focused on preparations for the first freestanding pediatric psychiatric hospital. She then transitioned to Planning, where she continued to work on business and strategic plans.

As an Administrative Fellow, Sabrina completed projects across the system ranging from operations, patient experience, and strategy. During Sabrina’s fellowship, UCSDH became one of the first hospitals to care for patients with COVID-19. Sabrina assisted in the Hospital Incident Command Center, supported ambulatory clinics in physical distancing planning, and helped facilitate the organization’s FEMA application.

One of Sabrina’s most rewarding projects was helping take the University of California Health Milk Bank from a business plan to an operational community resource. This included operations planning, financial management, and working with partners throughout the system to successfully open a new and unique service. Sabrina has continued this work in her role as Business Manager at the Milk Bank.

Andrew Richards joined UC San Diego Health as one of the 2019-2020 Administrative Fellows. He received his Bachelor's in Finance and Economics from Utah State University and Master of Healthcare Administration from the University of Minnesota while completing an administrative internship at University of Utah Health in the department of Business Innovation.

During his graduate degree program, Andrew worked as a project manager in Quality Improvement at an outpatient clinic providing care to under-served populations. Andrew also worked with patients in a memory care unit and volunteered with the University of Minnesota chapter of the Institute of Healthcare Improvement, where he worked with a local health system to develop a housing community for their most vulnerable patients.

During his fellowship, Andrew had the opportunity to work in the Cardiovascular Institute, completing projects related to revenue cycle, enhanced recovery after surgery (ERAS) protocols and program accreditation. He also worked on projects within the Innovation & Transformation and Strategy departments. Andrew spent the final months of his fellowship supporting UC San Diego Health's COVID-19 response. This included supporting the formation and management of a labor pool, redesigning the check-in process at ambulatory sites and contributing to the FEMA Public Assistance application.

Andrew now works as a Finance Manager, with responsibilities spanning the Medical Center. His current service line portfolio includes the Cardiovascular Institute, Care Management and the COO’s Office. Additionally, Andrew is responsible for capital forecasting, approvals and tracking processes. This work allows Andrew to collaborate with leaders and stakeholders across the organization.

Jacob Weissburg joined UC San Diego Health as one of the 2019-2020 Administrative Fellows. He received his Bachelor of Business Administration from the University of Wisconsin-Madison (Class of 2017) and his Master of Health Administration from the University of Missouri-Columbia (Class of 2019). While studying at the Wisconsin School of Business, Jacob held summer positions with American Family Insurance and at the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health, both in Madison, Wisconsin. On campus, Jacob led the Zeta Beta Tau Fraternity, serving as President in 2015.

As a graduate student, Jacob served as Treasurer of the Health Management and Informatics Graduate Student Association, competed in case competitions at KU Medical Center and at the University of Alabama-Birmingham, earned a Graduate Certificate in Health Informatics and obtained his Lean Six Sigma Green Belt. Jacob completed his administrative internship at UC San Diego Health with the Project Management Office (Health Systems Operations) where he led a process improvement initiative for non-invasive cardiac imaging, managed planning for the 2018 University of California Telehealth Summit and assisted with other strategic and operational initiatives across the health system.

During his fellowship, Jacob worked closely with the UC San Diego Health Physician Group and Physician Group leadership. His projects included leading analysis for internalizing outsourced billing functions, managing a Medi-Cal Optimization Task Force and improving the clinic operations for the Division of Infectious Diseases. In addition, during the COVID-19 crisis, Jacob aided in the creation of an ambulatory labor pool system to redeploy staff to areas of need including the development of a web-based portal for current and future incidents.

After his fellowship, Jacob joined UW Health in Madison, Wisconsin as a Business Operations Specialist. In this role, Jacob provided wide-ranging analytic support for the development and implementation of Telehealth services. Currently, Jacob serves as a Consultant for Optum Advisory Services where he leads Care Transformation initiatives and manages Care Coordination teams for client health systems.

Donna joined UC San Diego Health as the 2018-2019 Administrative Fellow. She received her Bachelor of Science in Biological Sciences (Genetics, Cell & Developmental Biology) and Master of Science in the Science of Health Care Delivery from Arizona State University.

As a graduate student, Donna gained experience working in higher education, earned her Lean Six Sigma Green Belt, and served on the leadership team of the Student Health Outreach for Wellness (SHOW) organization - a tri-university, student-run initiative that provides team-based, interprofessional care and resources to vulnerable populations. Donna’s graduate research involved using continuous improvement methodologies to optimize processes carried out by clinic management. This work required coordination with the SHOW Clinic Task Force, faculty preceptors at Arizona State University, and the leadership of a local non-profit community health organization to implement changes that enhanced safety and workflow efficiency.

During her time as an Administrative Fellow, Donna supported 14 distinct projects that spanned patient access, operations, program development, and experience. This allowed her to work with leaders across the medical center and ambulatory care sites. She pursued further training in process improvement and obtained her Lean Six Sigma Black Belt in August 2019 by completing a project within the Cardiovascular Institute focused on reducing errors in matching ECG scans to patient health records.

Donna also served as a member of her local ACHE chapter, the San Diego Organization of Healthcare Leaders (SOHL), during which time she had additional opportunities to host and support community-wide events. Following the fellowship, she served as an Operations Analyst under the Associate Chief Operating Officer of the UC San Diego Health Physician group & oversaw work related to managing labor across the enterprise as part of UCSD Health’s COVID-19 response.

Donna is now a Senior Project Manager for the Practice Development and Project Management team within the UC San Diego Health Physician Group. She maintains a broad portfolio of work related to patient access, referral processing, clinic workflow optimization, and operational efficiency. Outside of work, Donna is an avid yogi and a newly certified yoga instructor. If she’s not practicing yoga, you will find her at the park or the beach enjoying the beautiful San Diego sunshine!

Peter Chu joined UC San Diego Health as one of the 2017-2018 Administrative Fellows. After receiving his Bachelor’s in Neuroscience from UCLA and completing a patient experience internship at UCLA Health, Peter pursued a Master of Health Services Administration degree from the University of Michigan and interned at Cleveland Clinic’s Taussig Cancer Institute. At Michigan, Peter served as President of Michigan’s chapter of the Institute for Healthcare Improvement Open School with a focus on quality and safety, improvement science, and interprofessional education across the university’s health professional schools.

During his fellowship, Peter’s projects included strategic planning for clinical programming and space planning for the Hillcrest campus redevelopment. He also performed market and regulatory research on reopening Hillcrest’s Level II NICU and contributed to the health system’s community benefit by helping organize a Hepatitis A vaccination clinic. His portfolio also included refining a patient experience survey and contributing to the initiation of multiple air ambulance contracts with the health system’s International Patient Program. After his fellowship, Peter became a Project Manager in Quality and Patient Safety focused on the analytics behind hospital public reporting profiles (Vizient, CMS, Leapfrog, U.S. News & World Report) as well as coordinating care transformation teams as part of the Public Hospital Redesign and Incentives in Medi-Cal (PRIME) and Quality Incentive Program (QIP) population health and value-based care initiatives.

He also facilitated the institution’s Quality Council required for The Joint Commission and collaborated with the Transformational Healthcare Team to develop Lean Six Sigma and Daily Engagement System capabilities across the organization. He also fostered a collaboration between UC San Diego Health and Rady Children’s Hospital known as ACQUIRE, a new body that fast-tracked approvals for EBP/QA/QI projects and encouraged physician participation in QI by offering MOC4 credit for ongoing specialty certification.

Peter is now a Project Director in Strategy and Network Development at UCSF Benioff Children’s Hospitals where he leads strategic plan implementation as well as projects and initiatives related to hospital and medical group affiliations, network growth and regionalization, and physician recruitment and retention. Prior to this role, Peter was a Quality Improvement Advisor driving quality and safety projects with the BCH QI team

Alena Shelton joined UC San Diego Health as one of the 2017-2018 Administrative Fellows. She received her Bachelor of Science in Community Health from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign and a Master of Science in Health Systems Management from Rush University. While obtaining her graduate degree, Alena worked in the Perioperative Services Department at Rush University Medical Center.

Her role provided support to the Neurosurgery Department in developing clinical pathways and program development. Alena’s graduate research evaluated an Enhanced Recovery After Surgery (ERAS) protocol for impact on length of stay in minimally invasive spine patients. Her interest in pain management and clinical outcomes continued in her project work as a Fellow at UC San Diego Health, supporting the Surgery Department.

During her fellowship, Alena had the opportunity to work with the Sulpizio Cardiovascular Center to optimize daily operations and patient access. In the Clinical Laboratory space, Alena worked with the team to complete a capacity analysis and strategic vision for the Pneumatic Tube System. Her final project in the Fellow role was a continuous improvement project in the Non-Invasive Cardiac Clinic to increase patient flow and resource management.

Alena’s strong interest in operations continues to grow post-fellowship, remaining in operations roles. Immediately after her fellowship, Alena became the Business Operations Manager for Imaging Services. Alena oversaw the Imaging Contact Center and Digital Library to increase patient access and optimize workflow processes. As Business Operations Manager, Alena supported the Radiology Department and Modality Managers to increase productivity, patient throughput, and financial reporting systems.

After five years in San Diego, Alena moved back to Chicago, IL to pursue an opportunity at Rush University Medical Center as Director of Perioperative Services. While at Rush, Alena directed a process improvement team that supported operational efficiency programs in the Operating Room, Interventional Services, and Endoscopy. Alena participated in Scheduling and Billing standardization efforts in her role for the Perioperative Department. She enjoyed the experience she gained in Operating Room Allocation optimization while at Rush.

Currently, Alena is the Director of Business Operations for Perioperative Services at UC Davis Health. Her role supports the Central Processing Department, Surgical Scheduling Department, OR Billing Team, Audit Team, Quality and Safety Team, and Payroll. She enjoys the variability in each day and challenges of managing daily operations while strategically planning for future surgery growth. Alena has enjoyed working closely with the Pre-Anesthesia Clinic on pre-operative surgery readiness. She is looking forward to the new Ambulatory Surgery “48X” location opening at UC Davis in 2025.

Melinda Hudson joined UC San Diego Health as an Administrative Fellow from 2016-2017. Melinda received her Bachelor of Arts in Psychology and Journalism from Boston University and a Master of Health Administration from Tulane University. While attending Tulane University, Melinda worked for New Orleans East Hospital as an administrative resident.

During her UCSD Administrative Fellowship, Melinda completed business plans within the Strategic Planning Department, drove projects within the Project Management Office, and assisted in the opening of the Jacobs Medical Center. She also earned her Lean Six Sigma Black Belt. Following her fellowship Melinda became a Project Manager with the Enterprise Project Management Office. In 2018, she joined the Transformational Healthcare Team as a Senior Transformational Healthcare Coach. In this role she led system-level process improvement initiatives, such as Rapid Process Improvement Workshops and the deployment of the Daily Engagement System.

In 2020, Melinda moved to Tucson, Arizona and is currently the Arizona Market Manager for P3 Health Partners Arizona, which is a population health management company.

Christine Tran joined UC San Diego Health as an Administrative Fellow from 2015-2016. Christine is a graduate of the University of California, Santa Barbara where she earned a Bachelor of Arts degree and University of California, Los Angeles- Fielding School of Public Health where she earned a Master of Public Health in Health Policy & Management.

During her fellowship, Christine completed projects in strategic planning, ambulatory operations, and optimization.

Following her fellowship, Christine took a position as Manager of Hepatology. In this role she managed operations and process improvement initiatives. Christine worked as a Senior Planning Analyst at Stanford Children’s Health after this role and is currently a Strategic Market Planning and Execution Consultant at Kaiser Permanente.

Alicia Gormican joined UC San Diego Health as the health system’s first Administrative Fellow from 2007-2009. Alicia earned her Bachelor of Science in Biochemistry and Cell Biology from UC San Diego and her Master of Public Health, Health Services Administration from San Diego State University. Prior to working at UC San Diego, Alicia was a research associate at Pfizer and Alere. 

During her fellowship, Alicia worked on various projects including serving as Interim Manager for breast imaging, starting a business proposal for Integrative Medicine, involvement with the expansion of radiation oncology, completing the application for Thornton Hospital to be a California Children’s Services General Community Hospital, and various contracting projects. 

Upon completion of her fellowship, Alicia joined the revenue cycle team as the Information Technology Analyst. In this role she served as Subject Matter Expert in technologies that enable business functions across the revenue cycle. Alicia transitioned from the revenue cycle team when she became the Manager for Pulmonary Vascular Medicine and later on the Manager for Thoracic Transplant Operations. In both roles, she was responsible for the oversight and management of all non-clinical program aspects as well as managing the pulmonary vascular nursing and administrative staff. 

Presently, Alicia serves as the Manager for Cardiovascular Operations at UC San Diego Health. In this role she is responsible for the day-to-day workflow of the cardiovascular programs by providing administrative, operations and business management oversight in conjunction with department managers. She also has direct oversight and management of the Adult Congenital Heart Disease, Pulmonary Vascular Medicine, and Structural Heart Programs.