Chester Choi, MD, MACP Professor of Medicine UCLA Geffen School of Medicine
Program director of Internal Medicine at St. Mary Medical Center

Chester Choi, Program Director, was born and raised in Chicago, Illinois. He received his MD from the University of California, Davis School of Medicine and completed his Internal Medicine residency at St. Mary Medical Center in 1976.  Following a fellowship in Infectious Disease at Harbor - UCLA, he returned to join the faculty at St. Mary's in 1980. He is currently a Professor of Medicine at the UCLA School of Medicine and serves as the Southern California Region I Governor for the American College of Physicians. Areas of expertise include the rational use of antibiotics, meningitis, tuberculosis, sexually transmitted diseases, community acquired pneumonia, urinary tract infections and infections in the elderly.  Other professional activities include serving as a consultant in the Division of Infectious Disease at Harbor - UCLA Medical Center, directing the St. Mary Medical Center Travelers' Clinic and serving as Chief Proctor for the American Board of Internal Medicine.   His hobbies include woodworking, computers, and  gardening.  He enjoys traveling and hiking in Yosemite with his wife Lynn.

Santos Cortez, DDS Pediatric Dentistry, Long Beach

Dr. Santos Cortez Jr. was born in Tulare, California and raised in Southern California.  He attended Cerritos College, Cal State University Long Beach and received his Doctor of Dental Surgery Degree at the University of Southern California (USC) in 1976. He obtained his specialty certification in Pediatric Dentistry and earned certification in Hospital Dentistry and Cleft lip/Cleft Palate Rehabilitation at USC in 1978.  Dr. Cortez has been a Clinical Assistant Professor at USC in the department of Advanced Pediatric Dentistry since 1979.  He has been on staff at Miller Children’s Hospital since 1982 and has been in private practice since 1978.  Dr. Cortez has served as a member and officer for a number of professional and community organizations.

Currently, he is a clinical instructor at USC in the department of Advanced Pediatric Dentistry.  Dr. Cortez is an Advisor at the Children’s Dental Health Clinic in Long Beach and also is a consultant for the southeast Head-Start program. He is past chairman of the Miller Children’s Hospital Advisory Board as well as past-president of the California Society of Pediatric Dentistry.  Dr. Cortez has been on the Cleft Palate Board at Long Beach Memorial Medical Center since 1982.  He has completed a term as the dental representative to the Healthy Families Program Advisory Panel and is a member of the First 5 California Scientific Advisory Committee.  Dr. Cortez serves on the Long Beach Memorial Medical Center Board of Directors and the Memorial Health Services Board of Directors.  He served as chair of the Government Affairs Council for the California Dental Association from 2006-2009, as well as the inaugural chairman of the Long Beach Children’s Oral Health Task Force.

Dr Goodfriend is a Clinical Assistant Professor of Pediatrics and Psychiatry at the University of Florida. She is both certified in Pediatrics, Psychiatry and Neurology. She has practiced both specialties in the US as well as in other countries including Cambodia, Laos, Uganda, Russia, Haiti. She is the Chairwoman of the Membership Committee of the American Academy of Pediatrics Section on International Child Health. She was the Chief of Pediatrics at Angkor Hospital for Children in Siem Reap, Cambodia, from January 1999 to January 2000 and was instrumental in developing the outpatient department of the AHC during the start-up year. She has volunteered as a pediatric psychiatrist for American Jewish World Service at Sovann Komar orphanage in Phnom Penh, Cambodia in the last 4 years. Currently she is working as a Mental Health Advisor for Medecins Sans Frontieres in Amsterdam, the Netherlands.

Dr Goodfriend attended the University of Michigan, a Graduate of the Northwestern University of Medicine, and trained at the Children’s Memorial Hospital in Chicago, Illinois. She has received numerous awards: Best Doctors in America Midwest Region 1996, 1997, North Florida 2006, Northwestern Alumni Association Service to Society Award 2003, Exemplary Teacher, University of Florida College of Medicine 2006, 2007, 2008. She has published numerous peer review articles in Pediatrics and Clinical Pediatrics and book chapters.

Unlike most other Cambodian refugees living in America and around the world, Mr. Krithny Horn and his large family of 21 persons, were trapped under the occupation of the Khmer Rouge twice in Cambodia before finally escaping to the U.S. in 1975.

Born in Angkor Borei, Prey Kabas, Takeo, Mr. Horn and his large family, along with everyone else in his village, were caught in the cross-fire when the Vietnam War began, spilling over into Cambodia in the early Spring of 1970. All villagers suddenly fell under communist occupation.

It was almost four years later, in November 1973, that Mr. Horn and his family managed to escape from the Khmer Rouge’s occupied zones in Takeo to freedom at the U.S. backed Saigon government’s areas in South Vietnam. After living in this location for 20 days, Mr. Horn and his family managed to return to Kompot Privince in Cambodia.

On April 17, 1975, during the final victory of the Khmer Rouge in Cambodia, Mr. Horn and his family were trapped once again—this time under the Cambodian communists, better known as the “Killing Fields”, for an additional three months. The family was able to escape to Thailand and subsequently resettled in Long Beach, California, on November 25, 1975.

In Long Beach, Mr. Horn became the first Cambodian refugee to become a businessman. Horns Auto Center was established and has been successfully providing auto sales and auto body shop services since that time.

A pediatrician, public health practitioner, and health administrator, Dr. Elisa Nicholas has devoted her career to caring and advocating for underserved children and families.  As Chief Executive Officer of The Children’s Clinic, Serving Children and Their Families (TCC), she has led the growth from one site to the addition of 7 satellite clinics. Through Dr. Nicholas’ vision, TCC has become a dynamic system of not-for-profit community health centers in Long Beach that provide over 70,000 visits per year to a diverse and growing population, and is dedicated to caring and advocating for underserved children and their families

With her expertise in community pediatrics and a mother of a son with special health care needs, Dr. Nicholas continues to focus on addressing disparities by designing and/or implementing critical programs which include asthma coalitions, school-based health programs, immunization awareness campaigns, and healthy lifestyle programs such as the Long Beach Alliance for Food and Fitness. She is a Project Co-Chair of the YMCA Activate America: Pioneering Healthy Communities.

In addition to her role as CEO of TCC, Dr. Nicholas serves as Project Director for the Long Beach Alliance for Children with Asthma (LBACA), the American Academy of Pediatrics CATCH (Community Access to Child Health) District Co-Facilitator, a member of the Community Advisory Board for the National Children’s Study of Los Angeles-Ventura Study Center, and a board member of CCALAC ().  An Associate Professor of Pediatrics at UC Irvine, she is also an active staff member and former Chief of Staff at Miller Children’s Hospital where she worked closely with practicing pediatricians. She formerly served on the AAP Executive Committee for the Section on Community Pediatrics, Task Force on Youth and Education for strategic planning for the City of Long Beach, LA Care Health Plan Children’s Health Consultant Advisory Committee and Los Angeles County Children’s Planning Committee, to name a few.   She has been the recipient of numerous community awards such as State Senator Alan Lowenthal’s California Woman of the Year Award.

Dr. Nicholas has had a long term commitment to children’s health on a global level. She has worked in Haiti, at the Hospital Albert Schweitzer and Hopital de L'universite D'etat D’Haiti. She implemented a Child Survival grant in Uganda. She more recently visited Cuba studying health and the built environment.

Dr. Nicholas is a graduate of the UCLA School of Medicine.  She completed her pediatric residency training at the Yale University School of Medicine/New Haven Hospital and was a Robert Wood Johnson Clinical Scholar at the UCLA School of Medicine.  She completed her Masters of Science in Public Health and a preventive medicine residency at UCLA.

David Pugatch, MD, FAAP Director
Pediatric Infectious Disease
Children's Hospital of Central California

Dr. Pugatch is a board-certified Pediatrician. After graduating from the McGill University Faculty of Medicine in 1990, Dr. Pugatch completed residency training in Pediatrics and fellowship training in Pediatric Infectious Diseases at Brown Medical School. Dr. Pugatch has worked in Cambodia on numerous medical projects since 1992.  He served as director of the Brown University Fogarty International HIV/AIDS Cambodian project, funded by the National Institutes of Health from 1999 to 2008.  Dr. Pugatch also functioned as Medical Advisor to the William J. Clinton Foundation's HIV/AIDS Initiative in Cambodia from 2005 until 2008.  Dr.Pugatch has volunteered as a pediatrician at the Angkor Hospital for Children, in Siem Reap, Cambodia, since 1999.  He also serves on the board of directors for Friends Without a Border, a U.S.-based non-profit organization which oversees and sponsors the Angkor Hospital for Children. Dr. Pugatch presently works at Children's Hospital  Central California, in Madera, CA, where he serves as Medical Director for the Division of Pediatric Infectious Diseases. Dr. Pugatch's wife, Nanine, is a neonatal ICU nurse in Fresno, CA. Their son, Jason, is 16 years old and daughter, Maya, is 11.