Who We Are
Meet the HEDI Leadership Team
Medell Briggs-Malonson, MD, MPH (she/her/hers)
Chief, Health Equity, Diversity and Inclusion
Associate Clinical Professor of Emergency Medicine
Experience
Dr. Medell Briggs-Malonson, MD, MPH, MSHS is the Chief of Health Equity, Diversity and Inclusion for the UCLA Hospital and Clinic System. She is also an Associate Professor of Emergency Medicine at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA. In her current role, she is responsible for the implementation and oversight of organizational structures and initiatives that promote inclusivity and equity among UCLA Health staff, patients, and communities.
Dr. Briggs-Malonson prides herself in building a culture of innovation, collaboration, and excellence. This has led her to become a nationally recognized healthcare improvement advisor, speaker, and best-selling author.
She has held several administrative and academic roles throughout her career focused on innovative healthcare system redesign to advance health equity within diverse communities. Through her health disparities research, national lectures on implicit bias in medicine, and advocacy to recruit and retain more women and people of color in academic medicine, she has continued to increase awareness of how diversity within the health care workforce plays a critical role in eliminating health inequities. She has held several hospital executive and department leadership positions including being the Senior Medical Director of Quality for Martin Luther King Jr. Community Hospital in South Los Angeles and the Medical Director of Clinical Effectiveness for UCLA Health.
Education
Dr. Briggs-Malonson received her undergraduate degree from UCLA, MD from Harvard Medical School, MPH from Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health and her MSHS from the UCLA Fielding School of Public Health. She completed her emergency medicine residency training at Harbor-UCLA Medical Center, where she also served as chief resident.
Following her clinical training, she was a Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Clinical Scholar whose research focused on developing novel health care delivery models to improve the quality of health care services provided in under-resourced communities of color. Dr. Briggs-Malonson is also an improvement adviser certified by the Institute for Healthcare Improvement and is trained in Lean Healthcare and Six Sigma improvement methodologies. She has received several awards of recognition, including being named among the 2015 Top Healthcare Professionals Under 40 from the National Medical Association and the Los Angeles Dodgers 2021 Healthcare All-Star.
Mikel Whittier, MHA (he/him/his)
Director, Health Equity, Diversity and Inclusion, UCLA Health
Experience
Whittier is the inaugural director for Health Equity, Diversity and Inclusion for UCLA Health.
Whittier has vast experience advancing health equity and racial equity in health care. He previously served as the senior director of Equity, Diversity and Inclusion at the University of Utah Hospitals and Clinics. His past leadership includes roles at St. Louis Integrated Health Network, where he worked to advance racial equity in care coordination across a network of hospitals, medical schools, federally qualified health centers, and public health departments for divested demographics in the St. Louis region. This work was established and subsequently developed out of recommendations by the Ferguson Commission and reports developed after the killing of Michael Brown Jr.
Whittier also served as the coalitions director on the Healthcare for Missouri: Medicaid Expansion Campaign. The historic victory resulted from one of the most diverse coalitions in Missouri campaign history, with more than 350 organizations of various political affiliations, religions and community organizations across Missouri. Additionally, his experience spans various roles at Mercy Hospital St. Louis. He also served as an adjunct professor in the College of Public Health and Social Justice at Saint Louis University.
His service includes former board membership on the Regional Health Commission’s Advisory Board and co-chair of Barnes Jewish Hospital’s Community and Faith Advisory Council. In all these roles, he aided the advancement of health equity solutions to address health inequities across the state of Missouri.
Whittier enjoys community service as a Big in the Big Brothers, Big Sisters program and membership in 100 Black Men of America. He is also a proud member of Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity Inc. and the National Association of Health Services Executives.
Education
Whittier received his master’s degree in health care administration from the University of Missouri and is currently a doctoral candidate in business administration at Liberty University.
Emery Chang, MD (he/him/his)
LGBTQ+ Medical Director, UCLA Health
Experience
Dr. Chang's career in LGBTQ+ health and HIV primary care began at the University of Minnesota Medical School, where he had elective rotations in transgender health and HIV medicine. He entered Tulane University's Internal Medicine and Pediatrics residency program where he maintained a weekly clinic serving HIV+ adults, teens and children at Charity Hospital. Dr. Chang came to UCLA via CARE's HIV fellowship program to deepen his HIV experience and afterward joined the CARE and Med-Peds faculty.
Globally, Dr. Chang has served as a strategic adviser in building health system infrastructure and nutritional programs in Rwanda supporting mothers and infants affected by HIV.
He is a co-founder of the UCLA Health Pride Network, a co-director of the DGSOM's LGBTQ+ Early Authentic Clinical Experience, executive producer of the LGBTQ+ Health Training Films and director of the LGBTQ+ Lecture Series.
Education
Dr. Chang received his MD from the University of Minnesota Medical School. He completed a dual residency in Internal Medicine & Pediatrics at Tulane University.
Amy Weimer, MD (she/her/hers)
Medical Director, UCLA Gender Health Program Associate Clinical Professor, DGSOM, Departments of Medicine and Pediatrics
Experience
In 2016, Dr. Amy Weimer co-founded the UCLA Gender Health Program, a large comprehensive care program for transgender and gender-diverse patients of all ages. She is active in clinical care, education, advocacy and research within the transgender health care realm.
Education
Dr. Weimer graduated from Brown University with a degree in Neuroscience and attended medical school at UC San Diego. She completed her residency in Internal Medicine and Pediatrics at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, subsequently serving as chief resident in Internal Medicine. She has since practiced primary care for adults and children, and joined UCLA faculty in 2013.
Brian Zunner-Keating, MS, RN (he/him/his)
Director, Homeless Healthcare Collaborative, UCLA Health
Experience
Brian Zunner-Keating is a registered nurse with clinical expertise in public and community health. As a nurse, he began his career with Boston Healthcare for the Homeless in their medical respite center. This experience inspired him to pursue a degree in public health nursing from the University of California, San Francisco. Prior to joining UCLA Health, Zunner-Keating worked on a mobile clinic in Los Angeles where he worked as a nurse while also improving program evaluation, optimizing the electronic health record system, and helping design two brand new mobile units. His passion for advocacy and system-level improvements led him to health care administration. Since joining UCLA Health in 2016, Zunner-Keating has worked in the Quality and Performance Excellence departments. He has facilitated a variety of institutional initiatives including readmission reduction initiatives, clinical denial prevention, and the implementation of UV germicidal irradiation for N95 reuse during the COVID-19 pandemic. During his spare time, Zunner-Keating enjoys playing saxophone, working on cars, tinkering, and spending time with his family.
Education
Zunner-Keating graduated with a bachelor’s degree in nursing from Boston College and earned his master’s degree in advanced practice public health nursing from UCSF.
Patricia De Jesus Alberto, MPH, RN, (she/her/hers)
Organizational Consultant, Lean Specialist, Performance Excellence, UCLA Health
Experience
Patricia De Jesus Alberto is an Organizational Consultant and Lean Specialist in the Performance Excellence Department. De Jesus Alberto is a registered nurse with clinical experience in pediatrics hematology-oncology. She joined UCLA Health as a new grad nurse in 2010 and has progressively transitioned to healthcare administration roles. She leads various clinical and non-clinical cross-functional teams and leaders across the system through strategic deployment of quality, operational, and finance improvement initiatives that align with UCLA Health’s objectives such as discharge planning, readmission reduction, clinical denials reduction, as well as change management, organizational development, and cultural transformation. She currently supports the development and deployment of standardized structures and initiatives that promote equity and inclusivity under the Office of Health Equity, Diversity and Inclusion (HEDI) in the UCLA Hospital & Clinic Systems.
Education
De Jesus Alberto received a master’s degree in public health with an emphasis on health care management and a bachelor’s in nursing, both from the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA). As a first-generation master’s graduate and professional, Patricia is passionate about designing structures and systems that promote people’s well-being, and she feels empowered to improve patient outcomes, care delivery and patient and employee experience. She also serves as the inaugural vice chair of the Asian American & Pacific Islander affinity group.
Kerline Ordeus, CPhT, MHA-HRM (she/her/hers)
Lean Specialist, Performance Excellence, UCLA Health
Experience
Kerline Ordeus started her career at UCLA Health in hospital Operations as an Administrative Fellow working on health inequities catalyzed by COVID-19, supporting UCLA’s long-term strategy for Sexual Violence, Sexual Harassment (SVSH), and advocating for cancer transplantation survivors’ peer support program. Ordeus is now part of the Performance Excellence team as a Lean Specialist in the Quality department.
Before joining UCLA Health, Ordeus worked at Cerner Corporation in Kansas City, Missouri as a Behavioral Health Solution Design Analyst. At Cerner Corporation, she managed Cerner’s Millennium content and led client projects for the Behavioral Health Solutions supporting individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities. Ordeus has over eight years of diverse experience in leadership and management in business sectors and the healthcare industry. Areas of expertise include financial management, operational management, and change management. In addition, Ordeus is very passionate about helping people and has been committed to making a difference in her community that lacks resources and representation, which stem from her past foreign upbringings and experiences as a minority.
Education
Ordeus received her Master of Healthcare Administration with a certificate in Human Resource Management from Park University and earned her Bachelor of Health Sciences from the University of Missouri, Kansas City.
Affinity Groups
Our community is strengthened by diverse perspectives, collective dialogue and focused action.
At UCLA Health, we believe that affinity groups help enhance our diversity and create a greater sense of belonging that is vital to our work and vision to heal humankind. Affinity groups play a critical role in driving organizational change, resolving specific issues and fostering safe spaces for people to share their experiences.
UCLA Health affinity groups include:
- 3AG (Black and African American)
- Black Leadership Coalition
- InspirASIAN (Asian American and Pacific Islander)
- UCLadies (Women’s Empowerment)
- Pride Network (LGBTQ+) (Requires employee login)
- Christian Faith
- Jewish Faith
- Muslim Faith
- Gen Z and Millennial
- Hispanic, Latino(a), Latinx, Latiné
- Indigenous, American Indian and Alaska Native
- Middle Eastern and North African
- People Living with Disabilities
- Working Caregivers
For additional information on how to join or initiate a new affinity group, please contact us at [email protected]
We welcome and invite questions, concerns or ideas
We welcome your ideas on how to best co-develop our future steps to achieve an equitable and inclusive environment for people of all backgrounds and circumstances.