Jamie DaSilva

It’s been a busy summer and as we head into the fall, we are pleased to announce two significant steps forward in our DEIB work.  As you may recall, the Re-Imagining DEIB (RTD) met between November and February and developed some key recommendations that centered in two specific areas of work: 1) Launch a DEIB Committee and 2) Establish a Director of DEIB. We’re pleased to provide you with an update and invite you to participate.

1.DEIB Committee Nominations Now Open!  Over the spring and summer months we took the feedback from the RTD and Senior Leadership Team (SLT) and developed a charter for the new DEIB committee. The DEIB Committee will meet monthly during work hours and will be facilitated by Dr. Shawan Worsley (of Mmapeu Consulting) and Damali Robertson, our new DEIB Director who will start September 11th. Please review the Charter and if you are interested or you know a colleague who would be interested in serving on the DEIB Committee, we are actively encouraging staff to nominate themselves or their colleagues. We worked to simplify the nomination form after absorbing feedback from the RTD process.  If you want to self-nominate or nominate a colleague, please use this link.

2. LifeLong’s first Director of Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Belonging (DEIB), Damali Robertson, will start Sept 11. During the spring and early summer, we developed a job description, broadly distributed the announcement internally and externally, and adopted a new way of screening and interviewing candidates with a DEIB lens. We held two panel interviews made up members from the RTD members and SLT. The finalists were interviewed by LifeLong CEO, David B. Vliet, who will supervise the position. Damali Robertson will start Sept 11. We’re excited to welcome her to LifeLong and a deeper email introduction will be coming soon.

If you have any questions, please contact Julie Sinai or Brenda Goldstein.

 Here are people who’ve recently started working at LifeLong. Be sure to welcome them!

West Berkeley Family Practice:

• Janet Lopez, Referrals Coordinator
• Joanna Robles, Community Health Worker – Perinatal & Pediatric
• Jada Young, Medical Assistant 1
• Vanessa Bishop, CHW – Behavioral Intern
• Lindsey Lastimosa, Medical Assistant 1
• Edlin Quin, Case Manager – Care Neighborhood

Berkeley Dental:

• Sarah Saleh, Dental Assistant

Brookside San Pablo:

• Andrea Heredia, Front Office & Eligibility Coordinator

LeNoir Health Center

• Theresa Kirkwood, Medical Assistant 1

William Jenkins:

• Estefania Estrada-Ortiz, CHW – Behavioral Intern
• Gita Rohanitazangi, Dentist

William Jenkins Dental:

• Linh Truong, Dental Assistant

East Oakland:

Makda Dawit, CHW-Behavioral Intern

West Oakland Middle School (WOMS):

• Tristan Olson, Associate Clinical Social Worker

Ashby:

• Eugene Kim, Physician
• Kaylan LiCausi, Associate Clinical Social Worker

Ashby/East Oakland:

• Jordan Gardner, Associate Clinical Social Worker

Street Team:

Jocelyn Perez-Guevara, Case Manager – Street Outreach

Admin:

• Alaina Miramontes, Recruiting Manager
• Oludayo Oladipo, COVID-19 Vaccination Registered Nurse
• Deyanira Rodriguez, Patient Services Advocate
• Aakanksha Aloni, Employee Relations Specialist

William Jenkins – FMRP:

• Bethany Hencrickson, Project Manager – Family Medicine Residency Curriculum
• Neida Marques, Medical Assistant 1

Trust:

Leah Salgado, Case Manager – Care Neighborhood

By Jamie DaSilva, Internal Communications Manager

On August 18, LifeLong Medical Care’s current Dental Extern Cohort finished their month-long externship. This four-person group of young dentists was the sixth group from Howard University’s dental program to take part in LifeLong’s program.

The four — Ashleigh Bellamy, Marissa Dopson, Vaishnavi Iyer and Israa Mohamed – rotated through the dental care departments at Brookside San Pablo, Pinole, William Jenkins, and Berkeley. Cumulatively, the dental students cared for about four hundred patients during their time with LifeLong. Many said they had learned new modalities here that they had never been exposed to before.

Extern Israa Mohamed experienced treating four patients on LifeLong’s Dental Van that treats the unhoused population in Oakland and said that it was inspiring getting to meet the patients in the van and helping them with their dental needs.

Each of the women noted that at LifeLong they had more exposure to pediatric patients than they had ever had before. The externs also expressed how welcomed they felt by the staff at each health center. Chief Dental Officer Dr. Miriam Parker, a Howard graduate herself, expressed how proud she was of this group, whom she called her “angels.”

During their stay, two externs were invited to meet with the General Practice Residency Program directors and Oral Maxillofacial Surgery Program at Highland Hospital. Both are applying to their programs for 2024-2025.

Intranet Picture from left to right: Vaishnavi Iyer, Israa Mohamed, Ashleigh Bellamy and Marissa Dopson

The IT Department has extended the previous deadline of September 1 to September 15. All staff working remotely who have been issued a LifeLong laptop or desktop must have their laptops or desktop updated ASAP. Please submit a Helpdesk ticket so IT can schedule the security update. The security update will take approximately 30 minutes to complete. Security updates must be made by September 15, 2023. If you do not complete the update by then, you will not be able access LifeLong’s network or resources after that date.