Our Leadership

As President of the AltaMed Foundation and Executive Vice President & Chief Administrative Officer of AltaMed Health Services, Zoila D. Escobar is dedicated to leveling disparities in health care. She combines her own personal insight into the Latino experience with four decades of experience in community health leadership. She has spearheaded everything from grassroots initiatives to major policy changes at the national level.

Early in her career, Ms. Escobar found that transformative change only occurred when there was funding to support the initiatives. As a result, she has become a prolific fundraiser, developing a vision for the organization and community and cultivating critical partnerships. Some of Ms. Escobar’s most important contributions include transforming attitudes around philanthropic giving in the Latino community, as well as leading an employee-giving effort to engage 100% of the AltaMed workforce. During the COVID-19 pandemic, Ms. Escobar was instrumental in supporting the AltaMed response by ensuring there was funding for the initiatives that were necessary for our community. She spearheaded funding efforts, both private and public, which allowed AltaMed to be an early responder and invest over $30M in 2020 to the COVID response.

Ms. Escobar oversees development, corporate communications, branding, facilities development and maintenance, patient experience, culture and language equity, human resources, strategic planning and execution, analytics, government relations and civic engagement. Through her leadership, she shapes the entire continuum of the patient experience, ranging from where people get care, to innovative programs and services for patients, to ensuring that everyone whom AltaMed serves receives patient-centered care in a way that honors their cultural preferences. Ms. Escobar brings an extraordinary depth of experience to her work at AltaMed. Her fund development experience dates back to 1984 at the American Cancer Society (ACS), as Director of Development for Special Populations. While at ACS, Ms. Escobar also helped develop national policy in the area of uterine and breast cancer screening, smoking cessation, and HIV/AIDS for Spanish-speaking populations.

Empowerment is the focus of Ms. Escobar’s other professional engagements and memberships. In her role as Treasurer for the American Nurses Foundation Board of Directors, she advocates to advance the careers, well-being, and public image of nurses. As a member of the University of La Verne Board of Trustees, she works to promote equal opportunities for all students. She also serves as a board member for California State University Monterey Bay-External Leadership Council and the NCLR/CSULB Center for Latino Culture and Health. For nearly 15 years, Ms. Escobar was a member of the international Health Initiative of the Americas.

Education:
Ed.D., University of La Verne
MBA, University of La Verne
B.S. Health Services Administration, University of La Verne

In July 2020, Dr. Cristian Rico was named Chief Medical Officer of Health Services at AltaMed. In this role, he oversees AltaMed’s medical leadership, encompassing areas such as telehealth, women’s health, quality and population health, and complex care. Dr. Rico previously served as AltaMed’s Vice President of Medical Groups, overseeing the recruitment and performance of providers at all primary clinics, dental services, and HIV services. Dr. Rico also serves as an AltaMed media spokesperson, often offering subject matter expertise on a variety of topics, including the Affordable Care Act, culturally competent care, medically underserved areas and community needs. He joined AltaMed’s Executive Governance Leadership Committee in August 2019.

A native of Southern California, Dr. Rico has dedicated his career to the underserved communities of East Los Angeles by improving quality, patient experience and satisfaction, and access to care. He joined AltaMed Health Services as a staff physician in 2004, served as Medical Director for AltaMed Medical and Dental Group — El Monte from 2005 to 2010, and served as Regional Medical Director (RMD) for Los Angeles County from 2010 to 2015.

As an RMD, Dr. Rico’s first task was to improve medical provider recruitment. He was able to create an efficient and sustainable process to recruit competent providers with desirable attributes, and identify emerging leaders who have gone on to become medical and regional medical directors. He has also worked with several medical, nurse practitioner, and physician assistant schools to provide students with firsthand experience in community medicine at AltaMed.

Education:
M.D., Charles R. Drew/UCLA School of Medicine 
B.S., Biology, University of California, Riverside

In July 2020, Dr. Efrain Talamantes was named Chief Operations Officer (COO) of Health Services at AltaMed. For the two years prior, he served as Medical Director for the AltaMed Institute for Health Equity (AIHE) and Medical Education, leading health services and community-partnered research and training to advance health equity and medical education at AltaMed. Under Dr. Talamantes’ leadership, the Institute received Patient Centered Outcomes Research funding, enabling a community partnership that has informed research priorities at AltaMed. Dr. Talamantes also serves as the inaugural Designated Institutional Officer (DIO) for the AltaMed Graduate Medical Education Committee and as a member of the AltaMed Executive Governance Leadership Committee. In 2020, Dr. Talamantes was selected as Managed Healthcare Executive 10 Emerging Industry Leaders.

Dr. Talamantes has been critical in re-designing all AltaMed Clinical Operations to focus on improving value-based care outcomes by addressing complex social and clinical patient care needs. As COO, he led the development of AltaMed Plus a comprehensive primary care program focused on improving senior care. He was also instrumental in building numerous specialty care services within AltaMed. In addition, he is focused on developing methods to best support evidence-based practice, including the use of an electronic medical records system (Epic) implemented in 2019. In 2022, Dr. Talamantes received the Physicians for a Healthy California 2022 Robert D. Sparks, M.D., Leadership Achievement Award.

Dr. Talamantes has published numerous peer-reviewed articles and is a recognized health equity advocate and leads initiatives throughout the country to enhance leadership and diversity in the healthcare workforce. He previously served as Associate Director for the UC Davis Center for Reducing Health Disparities and Associate Program Director for the Internal Medicine Residency Program. He also co-directed the Center for a Diverse Healthcare Workforce (CDHW), is the co-founder of MiMentor.org, and leads initiatives throughout the country to enhance leadership and diversity in the health care workforce. He currently serves as the Chair of Latino Coalition for a Healthy California, and is a board member of the University of California, Riverside School of Medicine, National Medical Fellowships and Chicago School of Psychology.

Education:
MSc, UCLA Fielding School of Public Health
M.D., David Geffen School of Medicine at the University of California, Los Angeles
Robert Wood Johnson Clinical Scholars Fellowship, University of California, Los Angeles
MBA, Emory University Goizueta Business School
B.S., Psychobiology, University of California, Los Angeles

Esiquio Casillas, M.D., is a board certified family physician who serves as Senior Vice President and Chief Medical Officer for the Program for All Inclusive Care for the Elderly (PACE) and Senior Services at AltaMed Health Services. He oversees all aspects of care delivery to improve health outcomes for the elderly and high-risk population served by PACE.

Prior to joining AltaMed in 2012, Dr. Casillas worked at the Los Angeles Jewish Home for the Aging as an Associate Medical Director for the Department of Home and Community Based Services helping to prepare for the launch of their PACE program. He also served as an Associate Medical Director at Regal Medical Group, where he developed and directed programming for vulnerable patient populations, such as a high-risk case management program, a home visiting physician program, chronic disease tele-monitoring programs, and a high-risk clinic program. Dr. Casillas also worked with Care Level Management as a home visiting physician for elderly patients in South and East Los Angeles.

Dr. Casillas received his medical degree from Harvard Medical School and completed his residency in Family Practice at Adventist Health-White Memorial, where he completed a Health Policy Fellowship funded by The California Wellness Foundation. Through this fellowship he helped develop innovative strategies to address health policy issues affecting underserved communities. He also organized and coordinated the first annual Practice Management in Primary Care Conference for physicians and residents in California designed to assist health care providers build successful and sustainable medical practices in underserved communities.

Dr. Casillas continued his studies in health policy as a California Endowment Health Policy Scholar at the Harvard School of Public Health. There, he received a Master of Public Health (MPH), focusing on stabilizing the health care safety net by improving the private practice infrastructure and processes for community physicians.

Education:
M.D., Harvard Medical School
Internship and Residency — Adventist Health White Memorial
MPH, Harvard School of Public Health

Raymond Lowe joined AltaMed Health Services in January 2018 as Senior Vice President and Chief Information Officer. He is an accomplished healthcare Information Systems (IS) & Information Technology (IT) executive with extensive experience in complex system delivery and operations. At AltaMed, he is responsible for IS and IT for the organization, including strategy, innovation, clinical systems delivery, corporate systems delivery, technical operations, cybersecurity and merger and acquisition activities.

Among his many accomplishments at AltaMed, Mr. Lowe has been integral in the organization’s clinical systems transformation from the legacy system to EPIC, implementing the new Electronic Medical Record (EMR) platform system-wide, while meeting strict timeline and budgetary parameters. He also spearheaded the establishment of foundational infrastructure, cybersecurity enhancements, and application stabilization required to support the enterprise organization.

Mr. Lowe has held senior executive roles at Dignity Health, Providence Health systems and Kaiser Permanente with responsibility spanning digital technology transformation, enterprise system delivery and regional CIO responsibilities.

Mr. Lowe has been recognized with such distinguished honors as:

2023 HIMSS “Change Maker of the Year Award
Becker’s Healthcare 100 Top CIOs to Watch in 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022
BT150’s Most Transformational Leaders in 2019 among other noted recognitions.
2023 Healthcare Digital “Top 10 CIOs in Healthcare”

Education:
M.S. Engineering Management, University of Southern California
B.S. Electrical Engineering, University of Southern California

Berenice Núñez Constant is the Senior Vice President of Government Affairs and Civic Engagement at AltaMed Health Services Corporation. In 2017, she joined AltaMed as Vice President of Government Relations, leading legislative and policy advocacy strategies to advance state initiatives to eliminate disparities in health care access and outcomes. Ms. Núñez Constant also helped spearhead the formation of AltaMed’s Civic Engagement Program, inclusive of the My Vote. My Health. campaign, as well as a campaign to boost Census 2020 participation. In her current role, Ms. Núñez Constant continues to lead policy and civic engagement initiatives aimed at impacting the social determinants affecting many of AltaMed’s patients and communities, and engaging communities in Los Angeles and Orange counties in the electoral process.

Collectively, Ms. Núñez Constant has nearly 20 years of experience in the health care sector, working at both federal and state levels to support the health care needs of underserved populations. Prior to joining AltaMed, she worked with Molina Healthcare, Inc., one of our nation’s largest health plans. There, she served as Associate Vice President of Government Contracts, leading regulatory and advocacy strategies to initiate and advance state and federal initiatives to support the health care needs of underserved populations enrolled or eligible to enroll in government sponsored programs. She also supported new business development expansion opportunities in current and prospective markets nationally. Further, she established the company’s Latino legislative advocacy strategy to promote and advance policies for Latinos within Molina’s national advocacy agenda.

In 2010, Ms. Núñez Constant was a recipient of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus Institute Health Policy Graduate Fellowship. She also serves on various boards, coalitions, and committees, including the Latino Coalition for a Healthy California, the UCLA Latino Policy and Politics Initiative, and the SELA Collaborative, and was appointed to the State of California’s Master Plan for Aging Stakeholder Advisory Committee in 2019.

Education:
B.A., Sociology, California State University, Long Beach
MPH, University of California, Los Angeles

Seema Kamal serves as AltaMed’s General Counsel, advising AltaMed executive leadership on the company’s strategic initiatives and providing legal counsel to the AltaMed Board of Directors. Ms. Kamal joined AltaMed in December 2018, as Vice President, Corporate Counsel. In this role, she provided support to AltaMed’s Human Resources and Compliance and Risk Management departments, as well as the AltaMed Health Network and Altura Management Services.

Seema Kamal serves as AltaMed’s General Counsel, advising AltaMed executive leadership on the company’s strategic initiatives and providing legal counsel to the AltaMed Board of Directors. Ms. Kamal joined AltaMed in December 2018, as Vice President, Corporate Counsel. In this role, she provided support to AltaMed’s Human Resources and Compliance and Risk Management departments, as well as the AltaMed Health Network and Altura Management Services.

Ms. Kamal has more than 20 years of advisory experience in health care, labor and employment, mergers and acquisitions, corporate and board governance, and more. Prior to joining AltaMed, she served as Director of Litigation with a southern California law firm, managing a team that provided regulatory and strategic guidance to clients like Tenet Healthcare, Dignity Health, Prime Healthcare, USC, and Providence St. Joseph Medical Center. Previously, she spent six years as General Counsel and Chief Legal Officer with Avanti Hospitals (now Pipeline Health), a hospital network with 500 beds, and served as a health care attorney in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan and Phoenix, Arizona before moving to Los Angeles in 2008.

Ms. Kamal serves as the Chair of the Los Angeles County Bar Association’s Healthcare Law Executive Committee. Before launching her legal career, she was a collegiate national champion, provincial record holder, and a sponsored member of the Canadian National Track and Field Team, competing internationally for over a decade.

Education:
J.D. University of Saskatchewan, Canada
B.Sc. Adv., Physiology and Biochemistry, University of Saskatchewan, Canada

Ms. Anna Tran joined AltaMed’s senior leadership team in 2017 as Senior Strategy Executive. She oversees AltaMed’s Managed Care as well as the Sales and Marketing team, focusing on membership growth. She also supports our President & CEO in planning the long-term strategic growth of the organization.

Ms. Tran comes to AltaMed with an extensive history in health care leadership. While she previously served as CFO at Pacific Alliance Medical Center, she later spent a total of 18 years on the leadership team of Care1st, where she held the roles of CFO, COO, CEO, President, and Strategic Advisor, eventually facilitating the sale of Care1st and the transition of more than 500,000 members to Blue Shield of California. From 2011 to 2014, Ms. Tran was a member of AltaMed’s Board of Trustees.

Education:
M.S., Accounting, California State University, Los Angeles
B.S., Biology, California State University, Los Angeles

Greg Townsend joined AltaMed in 2022 as Chief Data and Analytics Officer. He works directly with leadership and key stakeholders to develop and maintain the data and information strategy for AltaMed Health Services and to ensure a consistent understanding of the current environment. He is essential in driving business decisions related to quality, cost of care, growth, and other strategic priorities.

Mr. Townsend has more than 25 years of experience in health care leadership, data science, analytics, business intelligence, and innovation. He taught Health System Research and Analysis at the University of New Hampshire starting in 2015.

Prior to joining AltaMed, he served as the Chief Data and Informatics Officer at MassHealth’s Executive Office of Health and Human Services, the government-run health care program for the state of Massachusetts. He served as the key strategist, who shaped and drove MassHealth’s core data, analytics infrastructure, and systems. His expertise produced actionable data insights to improve the health of MassHealth members and lower the cost of health services. He also served as the Vice President of Business Intelligence and Analytics at Commonwealth Care Alliance from 2011 to 2020.

Education:
B.S. Health Promotion, Plymouth State College

Fernando Flores first joined AltaMed in 2009 as Corporate Controller and was named Senior Vice President, Finance and Associate Chief Financial Officer in 2023. In this capacity, Mr. Flores is responsible for the overall strategy, financial statements, and reporting for the organization.

Mr. Flores also serves as a key member of the AltaMed Executive Leadership team and advises on the development, deployment, on-going management, and execution of annual strategic initiatives and objectives impacting financial and operating results.

During his time at AltaMed, Mr. Flores has helped develop multi-year medical clinic affordability initiatives to identify opportunities for revenue enhancement, cost reduction and clinical care redesign. He is an accomplished finance and accounting executive with more than 25 years of experience in private and public health care and not-for-profit industries, including 13 years performing financial and compliance audits.

Prior to joining AltaMed, Mr. Flores was the Senior Manager, Audit and Enterprise Risk Services at leading audit firm Deloitte & Touche, LLP. He became a Certified Public Accountant in 2001 and is a member of the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants, California Society of Certified Public Accountants, and Finance Committee Member – CPCA Alternative Payment Methodology.

Education:
University of California, Los Angeles – Bachelor of Science, Economics
Certified Public Accountant – California

Daniel Ruiz was named Senior Vice President, Health Services Operations Quality in 2023. He provides direct leadership oversight for enabling support functions for AltaMed primary care medical, dental, HIV, and behavioral health services to underserved communities and families. He previously served as Vice President, Strategy Execution & Analytics where he provided leadership and oversight for enterprise strategy development and deployment, market research, patient experience and project management functions.

Mr. Ruiz joined AltaMed in 2003, and has been essential in the deployment of AltaMed COVID-19 testing, evaluation and vaccine initiatives, development and implementation of the CalAIM Enhanced Care Management program, and the integration of Value Based Care strategies to impact health equity and population health outcomes. 

Before AltaMed, Mr. Ruiz was the Program Director of a non-profit organization for developing Charter school programs. Overall, he has more than 25 years of experience working with mission driven, non-profit health, social and educational service organizations focused on eliminating the inequities and disparities that exist from institutional racial, cultural, gender and identity bias and discrimination. 

Education:
B.A. Political Science, University of Southern California

Joyita Garg was named Senior Vice President, Chief Operating Officer of AltaMed PACE in 2023. She joined AltaMed in 2019 as Associate Vice President of PACE Operations and rapidly helped transform the program’s leadership structure, empowering site leaders to proactively engage and participate in program process improvement and decision-making. Prior to AltaMed, Ms. Garg successfully led the largest PACE program in the state of Florida.

Through Ms. Garg’s leadership and collaborative approach, the AltaMed PACE program has successfully grown and improved on staff engagement and quality metrics, while building much needed program infrastructure and support and championing important innovations in the PACE program.

Ms. Garg serves as a board member at the National PACE Association and CalPACE. Her affiliation with both organizations has helped solidify AltaMed PACE as a national leader in the PACE model. She started her career more than 25 years ago at American Express which allowed her to bring a diverse business operations experience in banking, finance and risk management, entrepreneurship, and health care administration and management to AltaMed PACE.

Education:
University of Miami, Herbert Business School – Master of Business Administration in Healthcare Management and Policy
Stanford University –  Innovative Healthcare Leadership Program
Symbiosis Institute of Management Studies – Post Graduate Diploma in Business Management, Marketing
Delhi University – Bachelor of Science, Chemistry

Jerry Jackson has been a leader in our compliance department for the past seven years as Vice President of Corporate Compliance. He was promoted to Senior Vice President, Chief Compliance Officer in May 2023. Mr. Jackson leads the compliance, privacy, internal audit, and risk managements organizational functions. His contributions to AltaMed’s success are in part based upon his 30 years of experience working in health care management, and earning a Bachelors and Masters in Health Administration, and Juris Doctorate degrees.

Mr. Jackson has played in an integral and vital role in the development of future health care management leaders as a professor of Health Law in the Health Administration Program at California State University, Northridge for the last eighteen years.

Mr. Jackson has been instrumental in leading strategic efforts, regulatory agencies and health plan audits, advancing and maturing the compliance functions for AltaMed and its affiliated entities, and supporting the development of compliance staff members.

Education:
B.A., Health Administration, California State University, Northridge
M.S., Health Administration, California State University, Northridge
J.D., University of West Los Angeles

Rashi Hemnani joined AltaMed in 2022 as Vice President of IPA Network Operations. She is responsible for planning, directing, and managing the operational and business development functions and activities of the IPA primary care and specialty delivery networks. She leads a team of directors, managers, and provider relation specialists to enhance access to quality care, drive clinical and financial outcomes, ensure enrollment growth and retention, and promote member satisfaction and superior provider relationships.

Prior to joining AltaMed, Ms. Hemnani worked at Optum in various capacities, including managing and overseeing the IPA network in the Los Angeles community, directing integration efforts of IPA and other acquisitions, and leading growth and expansion efforts for the region.

Ms. Hemnani is a member of several professional organizations, including the American College of Healthcare Executives and Healthcare Executives of Southern California. Her experience and collaboration is essential to AltaMed and its continuous focus on patients and delivering exceptional care.

Education:
University of Minnesota – Carlson School of Management, Master of Business Administration
University of Minnesota – School of Public Health, Master of Healthcare Administration
American University – Kogod School of Business, Bachelor of Science in Business Administration (Finance and CIS)

Milan de la Rocha was named Vice President, Business Growth and Innovation in 2022 and leads the organization’s health care real estate and deployment strategies along with digital innovation and business development.

At AltaMed, Mr. de la Rocha has overseen investments in systems and processes to navigate a changing marketplace and support organizational growth. His accomplishments include real estate transactions that expanded the AltaMed physical service delivery footprint by more than 500,000 square feet.

Since joining AltaMed in 2015, Mr. de la Rocha has served in various capacities, including overseeing mergers and acquisitions, setting strategic partnerships, and leading the growth of our Customer Relationship Management (CRM) systems. He was also instrumental in the launch of the mPulse mobile communications tool to improve the patient experience. Most recently, Mr. de la Rocha negotiated the acquisition of the former Crown City Medical Group Pasadena and Healthy Smiles for Kids of Orange County further expanding the AltaMed reach into communities throughout Los Angeles and Orange counties.

Education:
California State University, Fullerton – Business Administration, Entrepreneurship

Paula Jamison, MA, is the Senior Vice President of Population Health Management for AltaMed Health Services. She joined the organization in 2018 and supported key initiatives concerning value-based care transformation, pandemic response, and quality performance. Her responsibilities include leading teams over Quality Improvement, Patient Experience, Access to Care, Paneling Operations, Health Information Management Systems, Women’s Health, Senior Care, CalAIM: Enhanced Care Management, Telehealth, and Virtual Care and Complex Care Models. Paula has over 20 years of experience in health care leadership in a multitude of capacities within hospitals, health plans, integrated delivery systems, and developing comprehensive care models across the care continuum.

Education:
M.A., California State University, Long Beach, Applied Anthropology (emphasis in Medical Anthropology)
B.A., University of California Irvine, History; Latin American Studies