advisory TEAM
pre-health advisors
Dr. Alexis Smith |
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I was raised by parents who are very passionate about social justice. I came to Harbor-UCLA Family Medicine for residency in 2016 because I wanted a training environment that would teach me how to both care and advocate for patients, especially for those with limited resources. I work as a primary care and urgent care attending physician for Los Angeles County Department of Health Services, have taught M1-M4 medical students, and was part of the county wide Equity/ Diversity/ Inclusion/Anti Racism Initiative. I also have mentored SUHF students since 2018, mostly providing free counseling sessions, mock interviews, and application review/edits. I find mentoring the next generation to be super rewarding because I am so impressed with and inspired by the passion and talent that the new generation brings to the medical field! I now have a very young daughter. Feel free to contact me any time and I will try to help as much as I can.
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Stephania Luna |
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Stephania Luna is a Los Angeles native who was raised and currently lives in Hawthorne with her parents, grandmother, brother, and fur baby, Bubbles. In 2019, she earned her Bachelor of Science in Biology with an emphasis in environmental science from Mount Saint Mary’s University - Los Angeles During her gap years before medical school, Luna focused her volunteer work and professional experience on social justice and health advocacy through the UCLA Medical Preparation and Education Pipeline (MEDPEP) Program as a peer mentor and the Medical Journal Scholars Co-Chair, fellow with the Harbor-UCLA Summer Urban Health Fellowship (SUHF), volunteer at the Harbor-UCLA Free Clinic , and as a clinic coordinator helping to serve underserved youth at the Harbor-UCLA Department of Family Medicine Gardena High School Clinic. With the support of her family, friends, and mentors, she has developed an interest in environmental justice, mentorship, and dedicating service to underserved communities.
Luna is a rising first-year medical student at Charles R. Drew University of Medicine and Science, College of Medicine as part of its inaugural class. She plans to pursue a career as a family medicine physician to serve her community and communities in need, expand mentorship to the surrounding communities of CDU, and continue to explore her interest in environmental justice for low-income communities and communities of color through policy and research. |
emma ledesma |
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Emma Ledesma was born in Lagos de Moreno, Jalisco, México. The first in her family to attend college, Emma received her Bachelor’s degree in Liberal Arts from California State University, San Marcos and later received her Masters of Arts degree in Educational Counseling from Azusa Pacific University. Emma worked for the University of California System for 21 years, both at UC Irvine and at UCLA where she helped with the development and success of PRIME-LA. Currently, Emma is the Director for the Postbaccalaureate Leadership Program (PLP) at Charles Drew University of Medicine and Science where she is cultivating leaders who will address health disparities in under-resourced populations.
She has served as a Latino Medical Student Association (LMSA) advisor for the UCLA & CDU Chapters for the last sixteen years and was a LMSA West Advisor for six years. Emma shares LMSA’s vision in recruiting and supporting individuals in healthcare professions who will strive to improve the access and delivery of healthcare to Latinos and medically underserved populations. She feels honored to work both UCLA and CDU LMSA chapters on both community and school events. Emma enjoys spending time with her family and friends. You can usually catch her on a hike, visiting baseball stadiums, cheering on the Los Angeles Dodgers, gardening or traveling. |
Anthony Diep-Rosas |
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Antho Diep Rosas was born and raised in Compton/Willowbrook, CA, a working-class urban city in the South Central Los Angeles region. He is a proud child to a Vietnamese refugee father and Mexican immigrant mother, and is thankful to them for instilling values of hard work and taking care of others.
Antho is a product of mentorship: despite a below average SAT score and non-competitive GPA in high school, he was accepted into Kalamazoo College with the guidance of his first mentor who was a high school senior student. He graduated from Kalamazoo College in 2019, and is the first in his family to graduate from college. From 2016-2018, he participated in the Summer Medical Dental Education Program at University of Washington in Seattle, Washington and became an undergraduate fellow/coordinator for the Harbor-UCLA Summer Urban Health Fellowship in Los Angeles, CA, where he met near-peer mentors and doctor-mentors who affirmed and supported his interest to become a doctor. During college, he co-founded the Multicultural Association of Pre-Health Students, where he built a partnership between WMed and Kalamazoo College to help pair pre-medical students of URM backgrounds with medical student mentors. In 2021, he matriculated into the PRIME-US program at the University of California, San Francisco, and is currently a 3rd year medical student. At UCSF, he co-founded the Vietnamese American Medical Student Association, and served as an executive board member for the Latinx Medical Student Association (LMSA) where he collaborated with Harvard Medical School’s LMSA to inaugurate a panel event dedicated to providing resources for trainees in medicine of undocumented and DACA status. To this day, Antho has found so much joy from the accomplishments of his mentees — from acceptances into college, medical school, job placement or a hobby they’ve taken on. Antho will be a future doctor because other people believed in him, and he hopes to do the same for others — one of his purposes in medicine is to amplify efforts to mentor and train new generations of healers from minoritized backgrounds. |