Elimination Heroes Recipients
2024 Recipients
Adama Dyoniziak
Adama Dyoniziak is the Executive Director of Champions for Health, a key partner in TB elimination efforts in San Diego. The organization has addressed healthcare gaps for low-income and uninsured residents, collaborating with the County TB program to integrate TB risk assessments into flu shot clinics since 2019. Champions for Health led the creation of the CARE TB initiative through three successful TEA mini-grants (2020-2023), completing over 130 needs assessments, six focus groups, and three health fairs in partnership with AAPI organizations, universities, and healthcare agencies. In 2023, they secured funding for the San Diego TB Prevention Education and Community Engagement Summit, set for March 22, 2024, to strengthen TB prevention strategies across the community.
Mayra Aviña
Mayra Aviña is a Family Nurse Practitioner at Napa County’s only FQHC, CommuniCare+Ole, where she provides high-quality healthcare to underserved communities in Napa and Solano counties. A bicultural, native Spanish speaker, Mayra has worked at CommuniCare+Ole for 8 years in various roles, including collaborating on farm worker health fairs and implementing the eCW medical record system. Her passion for serving her community led her to return home after earning her degree. Mayra manages a large portion of the LTBI patients at the health center and has played a key role in revitalizing Napa County’s LTBI clinic, set to restart this year. Offering bilingual sessions in both English and Spanish.
Mission Neighborhood Health Center
Mission Neighborhood Health Center (MNHC) has been a committed partner in the fight against tuberculosis (TB) in San Francisco’s Mission district for many years. Over a decade ago, MNHC launched a nurse follow-up program for patients with positive TB tests, ensuring they received comprehensive care, including diagnosis and preventive treatment. This initiative significantly improved patient outcomes and helped prevent the spread of TB within the community. We thank and appreciate MNHC for all of their hard work and contributions to TB prevention!
East LA Health Center Group
The Pharmacist Clinic for LTBI Treatment is an embedded clinic within an adult primary care setting. Primary care doctors first identify and evaluate LTBI patients, then refer them to the pharmacy clinic for treatment supervision. This setup provides more consistent and accessible follow-up care than typically possible in busy primary care clinics. The clinic maintains standardized documentation for LTBI treatment completion, ensuring compliance with LA County DPH TB Control recommendations. This team-based approach helps retain patients in the LTBI care cascade while minimizing the burden on primary care providers.
Jose Eli Villanueva
Jose has been an invaluable member of the San Diego County TB outreach team as their video producer for eight years. He has created a range of educational videos, including the “What is TB?” video, patient testimonials, and guides for chest x-rays, sputum collection, and video DOT recording. Working with native language narrators, he has translated videos into Spanish, Vietnamese, Mandarin, Tagalog, and Russian, making outreach accessible to diverse communities. Supported by the San Diego County Communications Office, Jose has also created videos for other California health jurisdictions, with many shared nationally, including by the CDC. Known for his enthusiasm and professionalism, Jose’s contributions have significantly advanced TB prevention and education.
Marytere Carrasquillo-Navarro
Dr. Marytere Carrasquillo-Navarro is a dedicated TB Elimination Hero in Butte County, a semi-rural region with limited specialized healthcare providers. As an internal medicine and infectious disease specialist at multiple FQHC locations, she primarily manages HIV patients while also partnering with public health to treat TB cases, including those with HIV coinfection. She goes above and beyond, even using her lunch hours for case discussions to strategize patient care. Her work addresses TB care complexities, including chronic conditions, mental health, and socioeconomic barriers, ensuring equitable healthcare access. Butte County Public Health recognizes her unwavering commitment to advancing TB care and health equity in the community.
David Mendez, Arturo Mendoza, & Frances Alvarez
Central City Community Health Center’s outreach team has partnered with the Los Angeles County TB Control Program for 10 years, providing mobile primary care to non-US born, undocumented immigrants experiencing homelessness and undergoing substance use treatment. This partnership has been vital in responding to TB outbreaks, offering comprehensive TB testing and treatment services throughout the pandemic. Active surveillance has been conducted at five to eight Grupo sites since 2014, identifying 11 TB cases, evaluating 4,103 individuals, and testing 1,806, with annual TB positivity rates.
Sunita Lohiya
Dr. Sunita Lohiya has played a key role in improving TB reporting and treatment for status adjusters in California through a CDC-funded Civil Surgeon Project. Her clinic, Royal Medical Group, reported 72% of LTBI status adjusters in Orange County in 2023, with treatment referrals increasing by 85%. Her clinic adopted materials for status adjusters, and nearly 100% of patients received treatment referral information by year-end. A civil surgeon since 1987, Dr. Lohiya has nearly 40 years of experience in family and occupational medicine.
2023 Recipients
Margo Sidener
Margo Sidener has been a dedicated leader in TB prevention for 40 years in Santa Clara County with Breathe California. From 1996-2015, she helped establish and sustain the TB Prevention Partnership (TPP), collaborating with the Santa Clara County Tuberculosis Control Program and securing funding to create outreach materials and organize annual World TB Day events. Under her leadership, TPP trained community providers, engaged schools and CBOs, and reached thousands of high-risk individuals through strategic outreach. Her advocacy led to improved provider training, better treatment outcomes, and enhanced TB prevention efforts. In recent years, she has shared her expertise with the Coalition for a TB-Free California, continuing her fight for TB prevention funding and awareness. Thank you, Margo, for your unwavering leadership and passion.
Amy Tang
Since 2019, Dr. Tang has been a dedicated advocate for TB prevention as Director of Immigrant Health at North East Medical Service (NEMS). Alongside providing primary care to at-risk populations during the pandemic, she has trained providers on LTBI care, developed quality improvement measures, and analyzed a decade of NEMS data to strengthen the LTBI care cascade. Her efforts have led to increased LTBI testing and treatment, demonstrating the impact of primary care interventions in reducing barriers to care. Dr. Tang’s work has also secured a TB Epidemiology Studies Consortium Grant to further evaluate clinic interventions. A generous collaborator, she continues to share her expertise, benefiting patients and clinics across California.
San Diego TB Elimination Alliance (TEA) Coalition
The San Diego TB Elimination Alliance (TEA) Coalition, formed by three national TEA mini-grant recipient agencies, recently collaborated at a health fair hosted by UCSD’s Medical Education Mission Outreach (MEMO) in City Heights, a high-risk TB area. The event, held on February 18, 2023, featured a dedicated “TB Elimination Area.” Asian Pacific Health Foundation led TB education, CARE TB/Champions for Health provided TB screening and testing, and La Maestra promoted their new City Heights clinic program. San Diego County TB Control screened and tested 8 participants, who will be followed through the LTBI cascade of care.
San Diego County TB Elimination Initiative Community of Practice (TBEI CoP)
The San Diego County TB Elimination Initiative Community of Practice (TBEI CoP) was established in October 2021 to promote the development and use of an LTBI care cascade across healthcare organizations in the county. Members, including healthcare providers and organizations, meet quarterly to share LTBI improvement projects, best practices, lessons learned, and data on their LTBI care cascades. TBEI CoP members are recognized as TB elimination heroes for initiating changes in their practices, such as presentations to decision-makers, EHR enhancements, LTBI coordinator positions, workflow improvements, telehealth integration, and provider education.
Sonia Lira
For the past seven years, Sonia Lira has been a vital partner in TB education, working with the San Diego County TB Control Branch’s Outreach and Education Team (OET) to expand outreach to high schools in high-risk TB communities. She has helped connect the OET with over 10 schools, delivering TB 101 presentations to more than 1,500 students. Her dedication led to the development of the TB Peer Educator Project (TB PEP), a multi-week, project-based curriculum that has engaged 190 students in creating TB prevention messaging for young adults. Thanks to Sonia’s commitment and energy, students have produced TikTok videos, school announcements, social media campaigns, and even a TB prevention t-shirt fundraiser. The San Diego County TBCRHB and OET are deeply grateful for her unwavering support in TB prevention efforts.
Fayette Truax
Dr. Fayette Truax has been a dedicated leader in TB prevention in Orange County, focusing on the high-risk Vietnamese population. As an Assistant Professor at Loma Linda University and a Pediatric Nurse Practitioner, she has led impactful quality improvement (QI) projects to enhance LTBI care. Her 2017–2018 initiative at Nhan Hoa Health Center significantly increased LTBI treatment rates from 7% to 72% within four months and improved the use of short-course treatment regimens. Currently, she is spearheading another QI project at Southland Health Center, supported by a TB Elimination Alliance mini-grant, incorporating culturally relevant patient education and provider training.
Devan Jaganath
Dr. Devan Jaganath is a dedicated TB Elimination Hero, advancing TB prevention through research, mentorship, and public health collaboration. He has improved LTBI testing and treatment among pediatric patients in the East Bay through UCSF and Children’s Hospital Oakland. His work on TB-HBV and LTBI-HBV has led to key publications, including guidance for gastroenterologists and hepatologists. Additionally, he has analyzed TB surveillance data and co-mentored an MD-MPH student at UC Berkeley, resulting in two publications on TB in the elderly. A trusted resource for public health and pediatric TB experts.
Suzanne Khambata
Suzanne Khambata has been a leading advocate for TB prevention in schools, serving as Co-chair of San Diego County’s TB Elimination Initiative (TBEI) Schools Committee since 2020. She has assessed TB practices at local colleges, engaged stakeholders, and provided strategic guidance as part of the TBEI Advisory Committee. At Mesa Community College, she has integrated the LTBI care cascade into student health records, organized vaccination clinics with TB risk assessments, and supported a peer education program for ESL students at risk for TB. Her efforts have strengthened TB prevention strategies in schools across San Diego County.