Kevin has more than 35 years of leadership experience in the healthcare field.  He is proud to serve in his capacity as CEO, and is committed to the mission of the San Ysidro Health. Ensuring quality healthcare for those that need it has always been part of his career. Since joining San Ysidro Health in 2000 he has been an instrumental part of the organization’s growth and success. He served as Senior Vice-President prior to his promotion to CEO and was responsible for various operational responsibilities focused on organizational quality and financial sustainability. His healthcare experience includes financial and operational positions with Federally Qualified Health Centers, hospitals, multi-specialty medical groups, independent practice associations and management service organizations.

Kevin served as chairman of the board of Health Center Partners of Southern California and currently serves on the California Primary Care Association Board (chair of their Finance committee) and the CalPACE  Board. He is a member the Healthcare Financial Managers Association and Medical Group Managers Association. Kevin earned his BA in Business Administration and Accounting from Chadron State College.

As Executive Vice President of Operations for San Ysidro Health, Veronica Dela Rosa leads the organization with key oversight of Clinic Operations, Information Technology, Population Health and Performance Excellence, Compliance, Human Resources, Pharmacy Operations and Diversity and Inclusion initiatives.

With over 25 years of healthcare experience, Veronica spent 20 years as a health care administrator for Kaiser Permanente where she oversaw the medical group’s Primary Care Services Division focusing on quality, access and innovative health care delivery services to over 600,000+ patients.

Veronica has a special place in her heart for San Ysidro Health. In the summer of 1984 and while in high school, she entered the organization as a volunteer. Thereafter, she was hired as a receptionist, and for the next 11 years her continual growth and development ensued as she prepared to become a healthcare leader and executive.

In both her career and community involvement, Veronica has a long history of advocating for: women’s health, social justice, and health equity.  She has helped shape multiple non-profit organizations as a board member and continues that work today. Veronica holds a master’s degree in Business Administration from National University and certifications from UCLA’s Health Executive Program, USC’s Marshall School of Business as well as a Health Policy Fellow from Milken School of Public Health from George Washington University.

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Dr. Maria Carriedo-Ceniceros has over a decade of experience as a Family Medicine Physician within community health center settings, including four years of Clinic Lead experience and two years of Family Medicine Department Head experience.  

Dr. Carriedo-Ceniceros graduated in 1983 with a Bachelor of Arts in Economics degree from Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts and earned her Doctorate of Medicine from the University of California, San Diego – School of Medicine in 2000.  

Dr. Carriedo-Ceniceros has been a Member of San Ysidro Women’s Club since 2009, serving as an Executive Board Member and as its Treasurer, as well as continuing to contribute her time as a Faculty Mentor for UCSD Medical Students.

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Dan Howard is Vice President & Chief Information Officer for San Ysidro Health. He leads various teams within the organization and is responsible for all technologies, application development, clinical and business applications and digital transformation efforts.

Before joining San Ysidro Health, Mr. Howard ran his own consultancy, served as Chief Information Officer at the University of South Alabama Heath System, Site CIO for Loma Linda University Health, and held various technology leadership positions at Fidelity Information Systems, Metavante, Vicor, and Kaiser Permanente.  Prior to his technology career, Dan worked on the frontlines of healthcare for 9 years, specializing in pediatric and neonatal intensive care nursing.

Dan holds undergraduate degrees in nursing and biology and has an MBA with an Information Management and Finance emphasis. He maintains active certifications as a Project Management Professional, is a Certified Healthcare CIO and Certified Digital Health Executive through the College of Health Information Management Executives.

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Art Mejia joined San Ysidro Health in 2021, bringing with him over 24 years of progressive management experience within hospital-based services and medical group environments. With a broad range of expertise in many aspect of healthcare operations, such as clinical service delivery, service line-development, organizational accreditation, state licensing, healthcare finance, and strategic planning – Art leads Clinic Operations for San Ysidro Health which include the Medical, Dental, Behavioral Health, Ancillary, Health Promotion and Research divisions.

Art’s passion for his work originates in his commitment to quality health and improved access to health for the underserved communities with whom he is privileged to work. Fully embracing the opportunity to improve healthcare for all patients, he brings energy and vision to our teams and a sincere commitment to developing and mentoring the future leaders of our healthcare industry.

Prior to San Ysidro Health, Art spent time working for various non-profit and for-profit healthcare organizations across Southern California.  Spending valuable time amongst larger organizations such as Kaiser Permanente, Scripps Health, and Tenet Healthcare. He holds a Master’s Degree in Public Administration from San Diego State University and is a Fellow in the American College of Healthcare Executives, having served as a prior Board Member for the San Diego Organization of Healthcare Leaders.

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Ana R. Melgoza, MPA, is Vice President of External Affairs for San Ysidro Health (SYHealth).  Ms. Melgoza is committed to SYHealth’s mission of improving the health and well-being of the communities served with access for all and has been a part of SYHealth leadership for nearly 20 years.  As part of the Executive Team, Ms. Melgoza oversees government relations/advocacy, public/private/non-profit partnerships, private fund development, social media, media relations and corporate communications.

She is a graduate of the National Urban Fellows Program, earning her Masters Degree in Public Administration from the Baruch School of Public Affairs in New York City.  Ms. Melgoza is an alumna of the Hispanas Organized for Political Equality Leadership Institute and a graduate of LEAD San Diego.

Ms. Melgoza serves as: Advisory Member for the National Council on Aging- Equity in Aging Collaborative; Commissioner and Inaugural Chair for the Healthy Chula Vista Advisory Commission; District 1 Representative -San Diego County Health Services Advisory Board; and Boardmember for Circulate San Diego.  Ana was honored with the San Diego County Health Equity SHEro award for her advocacy and exemplary representation of service to all especially underserved families by County Vice Chair Nora Vargas.

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Edward Topps brings 20 years of Human Resource experience with proven abilities including innovation, strategy, and analytical thinking. He has demonstrated expertise in developing, executing, and leading a variety of human resource departments, initiatives, and programs including regulatory compliance, diversity, equity, inclusion, and workforce planning for Fortune 500 companies, startups, and nonprofit organizations.

Prior to joining San Ysidro Health, Edward held numerous leadership roles at national and regional companies such as Humana, L.A. Care, and Molina Healthcare. During his tenure, Edward was responsible for operating and evaluating the impact of HR strategies, programs, and technologies with particular focus on recruitment process, HRIS, Learning & Development design, and contingent workforce programs. Edward’s breadth and depth of healthcare and managed care experience coupled with his Master of Jurisprudence from Tulane University Law School and his Bachelor of Science in Organizational Psychology from California State University, Los Angeles ensures he will continue to elevate HR outcomes.

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Vernita Todd has been a leader in the nonprofit sector for more than 20 years and joined San Ysidro Health as its Vice President and Chief Strategy Officer. Her responsibilities include the development and execution of strategy related to organizational planning, mergers and acquisitions, business development and marketing. She is in charge of developing, communicating and implementing strategic initiatives for San Ysidro Health including the organization’s strategic plan.

Vernita has spent the last 14 years promoting access for underserved families through the community health center movement. Prior to joining San Ysidro Health, Vernita was the Chief Experience Officer (CXO) for Health Center Partners of Southern California where she represented policy and regulatory concerns of 17 primary care organizations to state and federal elected officials – ensuring that SoCal health centers had a voice at the table in emerging policy and regulatory discussions. Vernita began her health center career as the CEO of Heart City Health Center in northern Indiana in 2005.

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Sonia Tucker is the Vice President of Population Health. Her passion to address population health through process improvement, integration and efficiency is at the forefront. As the VP of Population Health, Sonia partners with key directors overseeing patient engagement, risk, patient access and quality.

Brian Wallace serves as the Vice President and Chief Financial Officer for San Ysidro Health and has over 20 years of experience in finance, accounting and business management. He joined San Ysidro Health in 2014 as the Director of Finance and Controller and in 2019 was promoted to Vice President and Chief Financial Officer. Prior to joining San Ysidro Health, Brian served as the Chief Financial Officer and Chief Operations Officer at Memphis Health Center where he led financial operations, strategic planning and statutory reporting for the Center and prepared operational, capital, staffing and program budgets. In addition he also previously served as the founding Director of Finance and Operations at the Memphis College Preparatory Elementary School and Senior Operations Manager at TLS, Inc.

Brian received a Bachelor of Business Administration in Accounting and Finance as well as a Master’s in Business Administration Degree from the University of Memphis.

Terry Whitaker has worked in the healthcare field for 21 years, managing multiple clinic sites and assuring high-quality, primary healthcare services to low-income, medically underserved residents in San Diego County.  His service to San Ysidro Health began in 1998 as Director of Resource Development.  In 2005, Terry moved into his role as Vice President & Chief Operations Officer, overseeing the day-to-day operations of San Ysidro Health’s network of primary care clinics, as well as a providing leadership over a multitude of special programs and services.  Specifically, his responsibilities included the planning, development, implementation, and evaluation of ongoing activities and efforts, as well as various new programs and services.

In 2020, Terry became Senior Vice President of Facility Development and Management.  His new role focuses on the management of all of San Ysidro Health’s state-of-the-art clinic, program and administration facilities located all over San Diego County, as well as the planning and development of new sites as the organization grows.

Prior to joining San Ysidro Health, Terry served in a leadership capacity at Community Health Centers of Nevada.  He has been recognized for excellence in developing, implementing and supervising innovative healthcare programs and services. Terry holds a Bachelor of Science in Criminal Justice degree from Indiana University, as well as having proudly served as an officer in The United States Army and as a Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Officer prior to entering the healthcare field.

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Fatima Muñoz joined San Ysidro Health as the Director of the Research and Health Promotion Department in 2016, as she was recently promoted as the Associate Vice President of Health Support Services. She completed her medical and Master’s in Public Health training in Mexico and a postdoctoral training in the Division of Global Public Health, University of California San Diego with over 15 years of health promotion and research experience focused on epidemiology and implementation of health prevention programs specifically among underserved communities.

Fatima has extensive experience engaging a variety of public health issues and building strong bridges between public health, government and academic leaders on both sides of the U.S.-Mexico border. Her research over the last years has focused on chronic and infectious disease epidemiology, specifically, HIV prevention and tuberculosis care and the impact of bi-national access to care on health policy. Her research experience involves the use of community-based participatory research with emphasis in the elimination of health disparities. Fatima has also experience examining health services utilization and the potential of Health technology integration into existing health services in order to improve treatment adherence and reduce the burden of high priority diseases, such as diabetes, TB and HIV. In 2016, SYHealth was awarded the All of Us Research Program from the National Institute of Health and it is only one of six FQHCs west of the Mississippi that is part of this Program, Fatima has served as the Principal Investigator for SYHealth. In this capacity, she and her team have been contributing in the development and implementation of the program to engage populations that have been underrepresented in biomedical research, such as Latinx – specifically Spanish speaking communities.

Fatima is also a Co-Investigator from San Ysidro Health in research study that has been conducted in collaboration with UCSD to address individual, social, and contextual factors related to access to, and acceptance of, the COVID-19 vaccine among Latinx and Black adults in San Diego. Most recently, by the recommendation of the California State Senate Fatima was selected to be a Member of the new Advisory Council for the California Initiative to Advance Precision Medicine (CIAPM).