Board Members
Dennis Levitt
Mr. Levitt is a graduate of Temple University in Philadelphia Pennsylvania with a BA in Radio, TV and Film, and a minor in European history. His career spanned two decades as an executive in automotive industry public relations and marketing. He currently serves as Vice Chairman of the Board of Trustees for The Battleship New Jersey Museum and Memorial. Mr. Levitt is also a member of the Board of Directors of The Crossings Animal Society, an Animal Rescue organization in Bucks county PA. Mr. Levitt’s interests include European and American history, cars, scale model construction, and video editing.
Barry Simon, MD -
President, Board of Directors
Dr. Simon is the Chair of the Department of Emergency Medicine at Highland Hospital - Alameda Health System and has served in that capacity since 1996. He is also a Clinical Professor of Emergency Medicine at the University of California, San Francisco. Dr. Simon is originally from Detroit, MI and attended Michigan State University. He received his MD from Wayne State University and did a residency in Emergency Medicine at Denver General Hospital. Dr. Simon is the founding President of the Board of Directors for the Andrew Levitt Center for Social Emergency Medicine. His interests include hiking, travel, reading, dogs, tech toys and his children and grandchildren.
Harrison J. Alter, MS, MD -
Founding Executive Director, Director of Research
Dr. Alter is the Associate Chair for Research at Highland Hospital - Alameda Health System, and has been an attending emergency physician at Highland since 2004. He is a Clinical Associate Professor of Emergency Medicine at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF). Dr. Alter also serves as Executive Director of the Andrew Levitt Center for Social Emergency Medicine (levittcenter.org), and is a lecturer in the UC Berkeley-UCSF Joint Medical Program. Prior to his current appointment, Dr. Alter was on the faculty of emergency medicine at the University of Washington and its Harborview Injury Prevention and Research Center, and served also as an emergency physician for the Navajo Nation. Dr. Alter received his medical degree and Master’s in health and medical sciences from the UC Berkeley-UCSF Joint Medical Program, and was a Robert Wood Johnson Clinical Scholar at the University of Washington. He is a graduate of Brown University, with a concentration in Comparative Literature. Dr. Alter is the founding Executive Director for the Andrew Levitt Center for Social Emergency Medicine. His interests include fiction, hockey, skiing and his children.
Sharyn Levitt
Ms. Levitt is a graduate of The School of Hotel Administration, Cornell University. She currently serves on the Board of Directors of The Crossings Animal Sanctuary in Washington Crossing, PA. The organization is working to establish the first “no-kill” animal facility in Bucks county Pennsylvania.
Ewen Wang, MD — Director of Programs
Dr. Nancy Ewen Wang is a Professor Emerita of Emergency Medicine and Pediatrics. She was Associate Director of Pediatric Emergency Medicine at the Stanford University School of Medicine for more than 20 years. Her career has been committed to serving vulnerable populations as well as decreasing health disparities locally as well as globally. She founded the Stanford section in Social Emergency Medicine, a field which uses the perspective of the Emergency Department (ED) to identify patient social needs which contribute to disease and to develop solutions to decrease health disparities. As such, she directed the Social Emergency Medicine fellowship and was medical director for a student-run group which screened ED patients for social needs (Stanford Health Advocates and Research in the ED (SHAR(ED)). She has worked clinically and educated trainees and faculty globally, including at sites in Chiapas, Mexico; Borneo Indonesia and Galapagos, Ecuador. Her current research and advocacy includes investigating disparities in specialty care access and quality, including trauma and mental health. Dr. Wang also works with community organizations to understand best models to provide wraparound social and medical services for unaccompanied immigrant children, for which she has received Stanford Impact Labs; Center for Innovation in Global Health and Office of Community Engagement grants. She has been a medical expert for the Flores Settlement Agreement witnessing the conditions of detention for unaccompanied immigrant children. Most recently, she has been appointed as Faculty Director of the new REACH MD/MS Program in Health Equity Research at the Stanford School of Medicine. Dr. Wang completed an Emergency Medicine Residency at Stanford and then a Pediatric Emergency Medicine Fellowship between LPCH and Children's Oakland.
DaShawn Hickman, MD, PhD
DaShawn Hickman is from Columbia, South Carolina and earned a Bachelor of Science in Biomedical Engineering from Yale University. He graduated from the Medical Scientist Training Program (MD/PhD), at Case Western Reserve University. He is a Resident Physician in Emergency Medicine at Highland Hospital in Oakland, CA. He also works at Care Access as Patient Access Diversity Program Lead working to increase diversity in clinical trials. DaShawn served on the SNMA (Student National Medical Association) Board of Directors, including as Chair of the Board of Directors. His long-term goal is to use his training as an emergency medicine physician-scientist and social activist to lead a health care system aimed at eliminating health disparities.
Nathan Irvin, MD
Dr. Irvin is an Associate Professor in the Department of Emergency Medicine and the Assistant Dean for Medical Student Diversity, Equity and Inclusion at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. He earned a medical degree at Harvard in 2003. Following medical school, he completed a residency in emergency medicine at Alameda Health System’s Highland Hospital in Oakland, California, where he was a chief resident, prior to graduating in 2011. He subsequently completed a fellowship in the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation’s Clinical Scholars Program at the University of Pennsylvania, graduating in 2013 with a master's degree in health policy research.
Dr. Nathan Irvin is a clinician-educator and researcher committed to improving the health of vulnerable populations including economically disadvantaged persons and racial/ethnic minorities that disproportionately receive care in emergency departments. Dr. Irvin’s scholarly work addresses many of the health and behavioral problems that affect people living in urban communities including violence, trauma, HIV/AIDs and substance abuse and often involves incorporating novel approaches including the use of humanities-based disciplines to affect change. He is the director of the 4th year social emergency medicine Focused Advanced Specialty Training (FAST) where he mentors senior level projects on projects focused on addressing the social and structural barriers to patients maximizing their health. Additionally, Dr. Irvin is also the Co-Director of the Center for Health and Humanities at Hopkins emergency medicine (H3EM) and in this capacity, seeks to equip learners with the tools to understand and address the human experiences of health and illness, to see their patients as individuals in the context of larger social perspectives using humanities-based techniques. He also co-directs a pathway program called Generation Tomorrow’s Health Disparities Scholars focused on providing research experiences and mentorship for students from underrepresented backgrounds in medicine.
Foster Goss, DO, MMSc
Foster R. Goss, DO, MMSc is currently Chief Medical Information Officer at Valley View Hospital and an Associate Professor of Emergency Medicine within the University of Colorado School of Medicine. Dr. Goss completed his residency training at Albert Einstein Medical Center and then pursued a National Library of Medicine sponsored fellowship and Masters in Medical Science in Biomedical Informatics at Harvard Medical School and Clinical Decision Making fellowship at Tufts Medical Center. His research focuses on natural language processing, health equity, electronic health records and climate change. He is also the founder of CareLoop, a digital health company focused on improving patient experience, transitions in care & care coordination that was recently acquired by DispatchHealth. His work has led to multiple grants, publications and presentations at national conferences.
Michele Young - Secretary, Board of Directors
Michele Young works for the Genentech Access To Care Foundation where her responsibilities include the policy and governance for the organization. Prior to the Genentech Access To Care Foundation, Michele worked in the biotechnology industry on projects ranging from product R&D to Commercialization. Michele studied at UC Riverside where she majored in Liberal Arts. Her passions include her children, health care access and literacy along with enjoying dance and food.
Henry Hecht, JD
Henry Hecht begun teaching at the University of California, Berkeley, School of Law (Berkeley Law) in July 1983 and retired 41 years later in December 2024. In addition to his teaching at Berkeley Law, he is an independent consultant on skills training for lawyers and founder of The Hecht Training Group, which presents in-house workshops at law firms, corporate law offices, and government agencies. Before joining the Berkeley Law faculty, Henry had an active litigation practice, first with the Watergate Special Prosecution Force as an Assistant Special Prosecutor, and then with Heller Ehrman LLP as Special Counsel. Henry has lectured and written extensively for the American Bar Association (ABA), the American Law Institute-American Bar Association (ALI-ABA), the Practicing Law Institute (PLI), California Continuing Education of the Bar (CEB), and the National Practice Institute (NPI). His publications include one book, Effective Depositions 2nd ed. (ABA 2010), and numerous training case files as well as multi-media resources. He also serves on the Board of Directors for the Practice Program for the United States District Court for the Northern District of California. Previously Henry served on the Board of Directors of the East Bay Community Law Center (EBCLC) for 16 years. In addition, he is an elected member of the American Law Institute (ALI) and the American Bar Foundation (ABF). Mr. Hecht is a graduate of Harvard Law School (J.D. cum laude 1973) and Williams College (B.A. magna cum laude 1968).
Theresa Cheng, MD, JD - Treasurer, Board of Directors
A native of rural South Carolina, Theresa Cheng holds a M.D. from the Mayo Clinic and a J.D. with specialization in International Law from the University of California, Berkeley School of Law. Dr, Cheng finished her residency at the University of California, Los Angeles-Olive View program, where she was a Levitt Center Lynton Scholar of Social Emergency Medicine and was awarded the highest distinction of the Marshall T. Morgan Humanism award. She co-authored a book chapter on homelessness in the textbook Social Injustice and Public Health, ed. 4th. Dr, Cheng has staffed urgent cares in facilities for unaccompanied migrant children and worked with the ACLU to investigate the reproductive health violations of migrants in detention centers. She is also on the Board of Directors for Border Kindness, a non-profit providing medical and legal care for homeless immigrants in Mexico. Dr. Cheng is currently a Skadden Fellow at Bay Area Legal Aid where she has started Alameda County’s first and only medical-legal partnership for unhoused survivors of intimate partner violence.
In her free time, she enjoys exploring the mom-and-pop restaurants of San Francisco and hiking with her husband and dog.
Kristen Nordenholz, MD, MSc, FACEP — Medical Director
Kristen Nordenholz, MD, MSc, FACEP is a Professor of Emergency Medicine at the University of Colorado School of Medicine. She is Core Educational Faculty responsible for educating residents and medical students and has over 30 years of experience in Emergency Medicine, including 5 years working with the Indian Health Service at rural Tuba City Arizona. Her career has centered around improving patient care, primarily in the realm of venous thromboembolism, anticoagulation, point of care ultrasound and pathway development to standardize and improve care but she is now branching more in a Social EM direction. Kristen is the Colorado State Lead of the Committee to Protect Healthcare (CTP), a non-profit national advocacy organization centering medical professionals’ voices for “an America where everyone has the health care they need to thrive” and active in Healthier Colorado, a nonprofit bipartisan group which supports health (defined broadly) initiatives and has been involved in Colorado’s State legislative process. As the new Medical Director of the Levitt Center, she is excited to expand the work of the Andrew Levitt Center and broaden the reach of Social EM in Colorado as well as nationally. Her undergraduate degree is from Cornell University in Biochemistry and she graduated medical school from the University of Rochester. Her interests include travel, hiking and music, particularly choral singing.
John Lewis, Jr, MD, MS FACEP
John Edward Lewis, Jr. is an Assistant Professor of Emergency Medicine and core educational faculty at the Emory University School of Medicine, where he serves as the co-chair of Social Emergency Medicine and Director of APP Education. A Morehouse College graduate, John received his medical doctorate from Howard University. In 2003, he completed his residency in Emergency Medicine at Cook County Hospital, Chicago, IL.
John is passionate about teaching and has also held academic positions at Cook County Hospital and Hampton University. He has received several teaching awards throughout his career. Most recently, John served as the co-chair of the ACEP (American College of Emergency Physicians) Social Emergency Medicine Education Workgroup. In this role, he co-led a national team composed of joint members of the Society for Academic Emergency Physicians (SAEM) and ACEP in the development of a free onlinesocial emergency medicine curriculum, SEMinal Study, which launched in May 2024.
Dr. Lewis co-founded a layperson’s health literacy start-up, Emergency Medicine Remix, whose mission is to educate and end preventable health disparities through synergistic partnerships with educators, creatives, and artists. Toolkits, collaborations, and live events can also be accessed at EMREMX.com. Emergency Medicine Remix -The Podcast can be found on all streaming and social media platforms.
Executive Director
Karen Sakanashi, JD, LLM
Karen Sakanashi is the executive director of the Levitt Center. Born in Oakland, California, she grew up in the Bay Area and received her undergraduate degree in International Relations from Stanford University. Karen received her JD from Columbia University and her LLM in Taxation from New York University. Karen worked as a corporate tax attorney at Simpson Thacher & Bartlett in New York, Tokyo and Hong Kong. In additional to her corporate tax law practice, Karen worked in the Exempt Organizations Group advising public charities and private foundations. She has served on the board of various nonprofits. Her interests include hiking, gardening and photography.
Senior Scientists
Douglas AE White, MD
Dr. Douglas AE. White is an Associate Professor of Emergency Medicine at the University of California, San Francisco who works as an attending emergency physician at Highland Hospital, Alameda Health System (formerly the Alameda County Medical Center). He serves as an Associate Researcher for the Andrew Levitt Center for Social Emergency Medicine in Oakland, California and is the Director of Emergency Department HIV and Hepatitis C Virus (HCV) Screening as well as the Director of Residency Education for the Department of Emergency Medicine.
Since 2004, Dr. White has been actively involved in public health research with a focus on implementing models of HIV and HCV screening in the urban ED. His work has been supported through several grants from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), California State Office of AIDS, Gilead Sciences, and the National Institutes of Health (NIH). Dr. White has partnered with the CDC in providing training and clinical expertise in their workshop series, “Implementation of HIV Screening in Acute Care Settings†and has been an active member of the National Emergency Department HIV Testing Consortium. He is currently a co-investigator in an NIH-funded randomized controlled trial evaluating 3 HIV screening methods in EDs. Over the past 3 years, Dr. White has integrated both targeted HCV screening (risk-based and birth cohort) as well as non-risk-based screening into ED clinical operations.
Andrew Herring, MD
Andrew A. Herring, MD, is an attending emergency physician at Highland Hospital Alameda Health System in Oakland, California, and a clinical instructor at UCSF. He graduated from Harvard Medical School in 2008 and is board certified in addiction medicine. Herring conducts research on non-opioid pain management approaches in the emergency department, and teaches nationally on integrating ultrasound-guided regional anesthesia and interventional pain procedures into a practical approach to emergency pain management. He is a member of the American Academy of Pain Medicine’s advisory panel on acute pain medicine. Herring is leading a series of pilots funded by the California Health Care Foundation to launch provision of medication-assisted treatment for opioid use disorder in emergency settings.
Erik S. Anderson, MD
Erik S. Anderson is an attending physician of the Department of Emergency Medicine (EM) at Alameda Health System, and works clinically at Highland Hospital and San Leandro Hospital. He also works in the Substance Use Disorder Clinic at Highland Hospital. After receiving an MD from the University of Minnesota, he trained in emergency medicine at Highland Hospital and did a fellowship at Stanford University in Population Health and Social Emergency Medicine. Following residency he worked for the Indian Health Service in Shiprock, New Mexico and acted as the Chief of Emergency Medicine and Trauma Medical Director. Now back at Alameda Health System, he runs the HIV/HCV screening program at San Leandro Hospital, and works with the Substance Use Disorder program. He is actively engaged with public health research and the intersection of the emergency department, substance use disorders, and blood-borne viral infections.
Amelia Breyre, MD
Amelia Breyre, MD is an emergency medicine physician. She graduated from the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine. She completed her Emergency Medicine training at Highland Hospital Alameda Health System in Oakland and Emergency Medical Services (EMS)/Disaster Medicine fellowship at UCSF in San Francisco, California. Her academic and research interests include disaster medicine and improving care for patients approaching the end-of-life both in hospital and out-of-hospital settings. Amelia recently has joined the Emergency Medicine Faculty at Yale University in New Haven Connecticut, where she continues her work with education, advocacy and research.
Eric Giannella, PhD
Eric is an Associate Research Professor at the Georgetown Better Government Lab. Most of his work focuses on identifying, measuring, and reducing administrative burdens in safety net services. He was most recently Senior Director of Data Science at Code for America (CfA), a nonprofit where he spent six years building capacity for data analysis, quantitative research, and rigorous experimentation. His research has won several awards, including the American Journal of Public Health Best Paper Award and the Behavioral Science & Policy Best Paper Award. He has a Ph.D. in sociology from UC Berkeley, where he was an NSF Graduate Research Fellow and a UC Regents Intern Fellow. Before turning to research, Eric worked in tech and received his B.A. in History and M.S. in Management Science and Engineering from Stanford University.
Our Staff
Serene Chen, MD, Design Innovator
Jahan Fahimi, MD, MPH, Advisor
Bradley Frazee, MD, Advisor
Jocelyn Freeman, MS, MD, Advisor
Rohan Jha, Data Science Innovator
Coco Lemberg, Intern
Matilda Lynton, Data Science Innovator
Kitty Rothschild, Senior Advisor
Our Scientific Advisory Panel
James A. Gordon, MD, MPA, Professor of Emergency Medicine, Harvard Medical School
Renee Y. Hsia, MD, MSc, Professor of Emergency Medicine, University of California, San Francisco
Robert Lowe, MD, MPH, Professor, Departments of Emergency Medicine, Public Health and Preventive Medicine and Medical Informatics and Epidemiology, and Senior Scholar, Center for Policy and Research in Emergency Medicine, Oregon Health Sciences University
Robert Rodriguez, MD, Professor of Emergency Medicine, Research Director, SFGH, Department of Emergency Medicine, University of California, San Francisco
Knox H. Todd, MD, MPH, Director, EMLine.org