Our Team

Leadership Team

Kiran Savage-Sangwan, MPA, Executive Director

Kiran Savage-Sangwan is the Executive Director of the California Pan-Ethnic Health Network (CPEHN). CPEHN is a statewide multicultural health advocacy organization, focused on eliminating persistent health inequities and addressing structural racism in health care. Prior to becoming Executive Director in 2019, Kiran served as CPEHN Deputy Director and Health Integration Policy Director. In those roles, she was the chief architect of many CPEHN bills, in particular the groundbreaking bill to prohibit hospital patient dumping that became California law in 2018. Kiran has been instrumental in positioning CPEHN as a leader in the health equity field, expanding CPEHN’s work in public, mental, and oral health, deepening CPEHN’s local advocacy impact, and developing new partnerships and campaigns.

Kiran has a background in immigrant and mental health organizing and advocacy. Immediately prior to joining CPEHN, Kiran worked as the Director of Legislation and Advocacy for the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI) California. There, she led policy initiatives to improve access to behavioral health care and to reduce the stigma and discrimination surrounding mental illness. Before NAMI California, Kiran worked at the American Civil Liberties Union of Northern California as an Organizer, primarily focused on immigrants’ rights, and at the New York State Youth Leadership Council, which she co-founded.

Kiran graduated from New York University with a B.A. and a Master of Public Administration. She is a member of the Board of Directors of Community Catalyst and previously chaired the Sacramento Community Police Review Commission.. Kiran frequently testifies before state boards, commissions, and legislative committees, and is often cited by state and local media. She lives in Davis with her spouse and two daughters.

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Ronald Coleman Baeza, Managing Policy Director

Ronald E. Coleman Baeza joined CPEHN in February 2021 as the Managing Director of Policy. He leads CPEHN’s legislative, budgetary, and administrative advocacy portfolio and manages our Policy Team.

Prior to joining CPEHN, Ronald was the Director of Policy and Legislative Advocacy at Health Access California representing California’s health care consumers in the State Capitol.

In 2018, Ronald also managed his own advocacy firm and lobbied on behalf of the ACLU of California, the California Low-Income Consumers Coalition (CLICC), and the California Street Vendors Campaign. Before going out on his own, Ronald was the Director of Government Affairs at the California Immigrant Policy Center for 7 years, where he led numerous legislative and budgetary campaigns to improve the lives of California’s immigrants and communities of color. Ronald was also the Legislative and Policy Director at both ACORN and the Alliance of Californians for Community Empowerment (ACCE), where he represented low-to-moderate income families on a wide range of economic justice and consumer protection issues.

Ronald received his Juris Doctorate from Southern University Law Center, and his BA in Political Science from Xavier University of Louisiana in New Orleans. He is originally from New Jersey, and a member of their State Bar.

Rachel Katz, Finance and Administration Director

Rachel Katz specializes in building the strength and effectiveness of organizations, especially in times of growth. In this role she oversees finance, human resources, technology, office operations, and grants administration.

Prior to joining CPEHN, Rachel has provided nonprofit management at a variety of organizations over the last twenty years including the Asian Pacific Institute on Gender-Based Violence, Global Student Embassy, The Mosaic Project, and as a founding member of Dancing Rabbit Ecovillage. She has a BA in Feminist Studies from Stanford University and MS in Biology from Truman State University.

Mihae Jung Lozano, MSW, Managing Program Director

Mihae is an impact-focused, multi-disciplinary social worker with 15 + years of experience in program development, policy advocacy, and storytelling. She has taught, supervised, and mentored 100+ culturally diverse interns, staff, and students. She also worked as an Adjunct Faculty at Cal State Northridge in their MSW program for four years.

Her approach to work is human-centered, holistic, and creative. Both personal and professional, she invests her time/resources in work that generates connection, empowerment, and freedom among BIPOC + LGBTQ+ people. In 2023, she launched Anchor Journals—journals that help you explore values, needs, and boundaries and self-produced its accompanying podcast Anchor Chats.

Mihae has a BA in Film and Media Studies at UC Santa Barbara and MSW from the University of Washington in Seattle, WA. She is a lifelong student of yoga and has received 300 hours of teacher training. At CPEHN, she oversees programs, networks, and mentoring/coaching staff.

Aviva Prager, Associate Operations Director

Aviva Prager graduated with a B.A. in Politics/Environmental Studies from Whitman College in Washington State. Previously, Aviva worked as the public policy intern at Californians for a Healthy and Green Economy (CHANGE) and as the science education intern at the Breast Cancer Prevention Partnership (formerly Breast Cancer Fund). Aviva’s experience includes researching environmental health disparities, program and administrative support.

Cary Sanders, MPP, Senior Policy Director

Cary Sanders earned a Master of Public Policy from the University of California at Berkeley. Prior to joining CPEHN, Cary worked as a policy analyst for the California Immigrant Policy Center (CIPC) promoting pro-immigrant policies that address and respect the needs and contributions of California’s diverse immigrant communities and their families. She has also worked as Assistant Policy Director for SEIU United Health Care Workers-West representing over 150,000 health care workers in California and as Policy Director for Services, Immigrant Rights and Education Network (SIREN) in San Jose. Cary is proficient in Spanish after having lived and worked in Guatemala.

Weiyu Zhang, MPH, Policy Director

As a public health practitioner, Weiyu is committed to leveraging the vision, values, analysis and tools of “public health” to solve social problems. For the last decade, she has mostly worked in non-profit organizations and focused on areas such as policy analyses and advocacy, coalition building, community health education and health care navigation, and community-based crisis intervention, all aiming to build power with Black, Indigenous, immigrant and other communities of color in California. At CPEHN, Weiyu leads the newly formed “public health pod” and tackles issues such as racial equity in governance, equitable local budgeting, and leadership development for grassroots community organizations. She often draws upon her research and analytical skills from previously working as a scientist in biomedical research and biopharmaceutical production in Asia. Weiyu has an MPH from the University of Southern California and a Bachelor of Science in Applied Biology and Biotechnology from the Hong Kong Polytechnic University.

Weiyu grew up in Sichuan, China – a region known for pandas and spicy food. As an immigrant and femme of color, she practices public health from a place of continued learning/unlearning, community care, and community self-determination. In her free time, she loves being in nature with her pup Kiwi (a sweet & sassy 14 pound terrier mix born in 2021).

Strategy & External Affairs

Ronald Coleman Baeza, Managing Policy Director

Cassandra Aguilar, Communications & Events Coordinator

Cassandra Aguilar joined CPEHN in August 2022. Prior to joining CPEHN, she concurrently completed several internships which included being a Strategic Communications and Multimedia Intern for the Fresno State Athletics Department, a Sales Executive Intern for The Collegian at Fresno State, and an Account Coordinator Intern at JP Marketing. Cassandra also served as the Social Media Manager for the Media, Communications and Journalism (MCJ) Department at Fresno State and oversaw its online presence across Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, TikTok, and LinkedIn.

Cassandra is a proud first-generation Filipina-American college graduate and received her B.A. in MCJ: Public Relations and Advertising from California State University, Fresno where she rebranded the department’s student-professional networking event, A Taste of the Industry, as part of her senior capstone, and served as the Vice President and Treasurer for the University’s Public Relations Student Society of America (PRSSA) chapter.

Cassandra has a strong background in the social media, retail, and restaurant industries with over 8 years of experience leading, directing, and training teams of people.

In her spare time, Cassandra enjoys archery, cooking, reading, going to the movies, and spending quality time with her friends and family. You can often find her playing with her dog and two kids outside or planning her family’s next trip to Disneyland.

Johan Cardenas, Legislative Coordinator

Johan Cardenas joined CPEHN in August 2022 as a Legislative Associate. Prior to joining CPEHN, Johan worked for Public Health Advocates (PHA) advocating for reducing distress, removing barriers to access, and increasing the cultural responsiveness of Public Health Services for communities of color.

Johan is a first-generation college graduate from Sacramento State University, where he earned his B.A. in Political Science.

His experience growing up in an unhealthy and unsafe environment allowed him to visualize a world where children could thrive, and he knew he wanted to be part of that change.

As a Legislative Associate, Johan looks forward to advancing policies and legislation that adequately assist in developing better systems and procedures that help improve the lives of underserved communities of color.

During his free time, Johan enjoys playing soccer and discovering new coffee shops.

Mihae Jung Lozano, MSW, Managing Program Director

Samantha Schwimmer, Southern California Regional ORganizer

Samantha Schwimmer (she/her) is a community activist and artist from San Diego, California. She is the Southern California Regional Organizer at CPEHN. She also serves as the Chair of the Board of the San Diego Coalition for Reproductive Justice. Prior to CPEHN, Samantha worked for the San Diego LGBT Community Center, San Diego Legal Aid Society, and Planned Parenthood Maine Action Fund. Samantha has a BA in Religion and Anthropology from Bowdoin College. In her free time, she enjoys cooking with loved ones and watching San Diego Wave FC.

Kei Yamamoto, Senior Policy Engagement Manager

Kei Yamamoto joined CPEHN in January 2024 as the Senior Policy Engagement Manager. Kei is responsible for developing relationships with community-based organizations, coordinating CPEHN’s advocacy campaigns, and representing CPEHN in diverse spaces.

Kei does this work to be of use to the community and live a life of public service. Building power requires combining intentionality, reflection, and action. Prior to joining CPEHN, Kei was a community organizer at the Martin Luther King Jr. Freedom Center. There he helped high school students from historically marginalized communities use their voice to advocate for racial and economic justice.

Kei received a BA in Psychology and a minor in Sociology from Alma College in Michigan. He was born in Japan and grew up in Chicago.

Health Systems and Prevention

Cary Sanders, MPP, Senior Policy Director

Selene Betancourt, MPP, Senior Policy Manager

Selene Betancourt (she/her) is a Policy Coordinator at CPHEN. Before joining CPEHN, she worked as a research assistant at UCLA’s Luskin School of Public Affairs, analyzing congressional actions on health care reform. As a former fellow with NARAL Pro-Choice California, she worked directly with statewide partners and NARAL volunteers to advocate for legislation that expanded reproductive freedom and reduced barriers to abortion access. She previously interned with Determined Health, where she was responsible for researching how states are addressing social isolation and loneliness for Medicaid and Medicare members.

Selene earned her Master of Public Policy from the University of California, Los Angeles, where she was a proud union steward organizing her fellow graduate student workers in the largest higher-education strike in U.S. history. She was also a member of Survivors + Allies, a student research collective that advocates for survivors of sexual violence at the UCs. She directed policy development and led the advocacy team, meeting with state legislators and UC administrators to share Survivors + Allies’ findings and recommendations from their systemwide survey of the UC community.

Selene holds a B.A. in Theater from UC Santa Barbara and uses her theater directing background to weave storytelling into her policy advocacy work. In her spare time, she enjoys volunteering as a board member on her local Los Angeles Neighborhood Council, cooking new recipes, and caring for her plants.

Natalie Lupin, Senior Policy Coordinator

Natalie Lupin (she/her) is a Senior Policy Coordinator at CPEHN. Before joining CPEHN, Natalie completed her Master of Public Health at UC Berkeley, where she specialized in Maternal, Child, and Adolescent Health. Natalie is committed to advocating for marginalized communities and using her privilege to amplify those who often get left behind in the health system. She is passionate about advancing inclusive health research and data collection, ensuring that community members’ voices and lived experiences inform health policy. Her work is guided by principles of continuous learning, humility, and compassion.

Natalie’s background in public health evaluation research and health policy drives her commitment to addressing health inequities in California. Prior to graduate school, she worked at Mathematica, where she focused on evaluating health programs and conducting policy research. In this role, she contributed to the Rockefeller Foundation’s COVID-19 Equity-First Vaccine initiative and developed Medi-Cal policy recommendations focused on preventing intimate partner violence (IPV). Prior to Mathematica, she worked at the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine where she planned health policy conferences and wrote policy recommendations aimed at improving the US healthcare system.

In her free time, Natalie enjoys going on hikes with her dog, taking dance classes, spending quality time with family and friends, and cooking new meals!

Andrea Mackey, MPH, Associate Oranizing Director

Andrea Mackey is a Policy Manager with California Pan-Ethnic Health Network. Her commitment to challenge health disparities and under representation in research is rooted in her experiences as a mixed Filipina Scottish American. She brings over 6 years of community organizing experiences of youth empowerment and youth leadership development having equipped elementary to college Filipinx/a/o Americans and Tongan youth with the knowledge and skills to be lifelong learners and to act as agents of social change. She is was the Project Coordinator with Youth and Allies Against Homelessness, a podcast host with Filipinx/a/o Community Health Association, a Community Health Worker with the International Diabetes Center and a high school educator with Pin@y Education Partnerships. She earned her Masters in Public Health with a focus in Health and Social Behavior at UC Berkeley and B.A. in Neuroscience at Scripps College. Through her experiences as a community organizer and leader in the Filipinx/a/o and Pacific Islander communities, Andrea has become further empowered to promote access and equity for all historically marginalized communities as well as increase Asian American and Pacific Islander representation in healthcare, research, and education.

Mental and Oral Health

Ruqayya Ahmad, MPP, Policy manager

Ruqayya Ahmad is a Policy Manager with CPEHN. As a proud Muslim-American immigrant, her passion for eliminating health disparities stems from her background as a beneficiary of Medi-Cal. Growing up, she witnessed firsthand the challenges within the health care safety net, and understands the significance of reimagining our health care systems to ensure that they work better for marginalized communities. Prior to joining CPEHN, Ruqayya worked at former Senator Kamala Harris’ office helping to resolve constituents’ issues with various federal agencies. She also conducted research on the COVID-19 pandemic with Dr. Abdul El-Sayed, focusing on the importance of addressing systemic racism and other social conditions that inhibit positive health outcomes for BIPOC. Previously, Ruqayya has interned at the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health where she was responsible for a data-intensive project contributing to the County’s Vision Zero initiative, as well as the Council on American-Islamic Relations providing direct service to immigrants, refugees, and asylum-seekers in her community. She earned her Master of Public Policy from the Ford School of Public Policy at the University of Michigan, and her B.A. in International Studies from the University of California, Irvine. In her free time, she can be found at the park reading in a hammock, out and about in search of scenic views, or looking for new boba shops to try in her neighborhood.

Vincent Chou, Community Advocacy Manager

Vincent is a proud second-generation Mien American and South Sacramento native who received his Bachelor of Arts in Asian American Studies at the University of California, Los Angeles. Prior to joining CPEHN, Vincent was the Citizenship Project Coordinator at Asian Americans Advancing Justice-LA, where he led one of the nation’s largest naturalization programs and was a key leader in establishing a local worker’s Union at the organization. He also has extensive experience working for the Sacramento County Department of Human Assistance as a Human Services Specialist where he specialized in securing public benefits; such as CalWorks, CalFresh, and Medi-Cal, for low-income families in his community.