Program Committee
Rachel Alvarez
Rachel M. Alvarez, MPH, CHES (she|her|ella) is the Program Manager for ATOD (alcohol, tobacco, and other drugs) at ETR, where she works on the Tobacco Education Clearinghouse of California (TECC) program. Prior to her work at ETR, Rachel was a Health Educator for ATOD at Sacramento State and held a variety of health promotion positions at the Sacramento Native American Health Center. She has been working in tobacco prevention and education for over 6 years and is passionate about finding progressive ways to reduce the harm that tobacco products cause in our communities. Rachel earned her Master’s in Public Health from the University of San Francisco and also is a Certified Health Education Specialist. She can be found on LinkedIn (Rachel M. Alvarez) or reached via email at rachel.alvarez@etr.org.
Isaiah De La Rosa
Isaiah De La Rosa is currently a senior attending Edison High School and is a member of the Biomedical Pathway; he will graduate this June with the distinction of Magna Cum Laude. At the age of 17, Isaiah has always lived in California. He is interested in helping improve his community through new technologies, volunteering, and innovation (which is why the Inspire+ project appealed so much to him). Isaiah is currently an active member of Edison's Biomed Club and iMentor Club. He also enjoys running and is a member of Edison's varsity cross country team. Isaiah likes to read, play video games, and spend time with his family and friends in his free time.
Sarah Han
Sarah is a Youth-Centered Health Designer and contributes to a variety of YTH programs related to community health and sexual and reproductive health, such as INSPIRE+, a youth-centered design accelerator for substance use prevention projects, and PrEPTECH, an integrated tech approach to increasing pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) uptake among young gay men and transgender women. Sarah brings a background in health equity and human-centered design, communications and storytelling skills, and experience in rigorous quantitative and qualitative analyses. She is a first-generation Korean immigrant who is passionate about how technology and innovation can be leveraged to move the needle on entrenched or overlooked sexual and reproductive health, such as contraception access and menstruation. Prior to working at YTH, Sarah graduated from University of California, Berkeley with her Masters in Public Health with a concentration in Maternal, Child, and Adolescent Health (MCAH).
Kelly L'Engle
Kelly L’Engle, PhD, MPH, is a Social and Behavioral Health Scientist with 25 years’ experience designing, implementing, and partnering on research and programs in cross-cultural and global settings. She was an early adopter of using mobile phones to improve reproductive health in international settings, and she continues to embrace digital health promotion to meet young people where they are at and to provide support when they need it most. Kelly joined the faculty in the School of Nursing and Health Professions at the University of San Francisco in 2015, where she leads the MPH-Behavioral Health program and teaches adolescent health, behavior change theory, research methods, and health and professional communication courses.
Li Lock
Dr. Li Lock (they/them/theirs) is a research associate at ETR working across multiple projects pertaining to HIV and sexual and reproductive health and wellbeing. Li has worked as a sexuality researcher, program evaluator, and educator for the past decade. Their areas of interest include sexual wellbeing, gender identity and development, the intersection of sex and substances, and sexological worldview development. Li is passionate about supporting individuals in pursuing sexual wellbeing, and organizations working to enable health, safety, and justice in their communities. Li holds a PhD and MEd in Human Sexuality Studies from Widener University, and an MS in Human Development & Family Studies from the University of Rhode Island.
Jo Michelle
Hello! My name is Jo and I use they/them pronouns. I am an activist and advocate who wants a lot of change to occur in the world, and sometimes I portray that through art as well in my personal life. I'm truly excited to be working with the YTH, especially because of the youth advocacy and health awareness components, which I have taken prior interest in as well.
Kate Plourde
Kate Plourde is a technical advisor for adolescents and youth within the Bureau for Global Health, Office of HIV/AIDS, Priority Populations, Integration, and Rights (PPIR) Division (USAID/GH/OHA/PPIR) at USAID. Her areas of specialization include advancing the health and well-being of adolescent girls and young women; addressing social norms, including negative gender norms; and using new technology, including mobile phones and social media, for health education and promotion. Dr. Plourde has published papers on the application of positive youth development approaches for adolescent health, the impact of protective assets on the reproductive health of adolescent girls and young women, how to better serve adolescent key populations, and digital health programs for adolescent sexual and reproductive health, among other topics. She received her DrPH from the University of Illinois at Chicago School of Public Health and earned a Master of Public Health with a Global Health concentration from Boston University.
Azzia Roberts
Azzia Roberts, MPH, CHES (She/Her/Hers) is the Project Coordinator of the Youth Engagement Network at ETR, a 3-year OPA funded initiative at ETR that aims to strengthen youth engagement in sexual reproductive health programs, systems, and services. Her professional background includes 8 years of experience in coordinating multidisciplinary health education and health care teams, with the last 3 years focused specifically on improving adolescent health care quality and access across the country. She earned her Master’s in Public Health Education & Promotion at The University of Toledo in Toledo, OH. Azzia was born and raised in Detroit, MI, where she experienced the difficulty of finding adolescent appropriate health education as a teenager, specifically regarding sexual health services. This experience led to her discovery of public health education and contributed to her overall professional goal to improve health equity for socially disadvantaged and underserved populations.
Karishma Swarup
Karishma (she/her) is an internationally experienced sexuality educator and advocate, holds an undergraduate degree in Geology-Biology from Brown University and runs a sex ed instagram page @talkyounevergot. Karishma was awarded “Influencer of the Year 2021” by UK’s NHS SH:24 and Brook. While studying in the U.S., Karishma volunteered with Planned Parenthood to teach sex-Ed to high-schoolers for 3 years. In India, she conducts workshops & online webinars with top educational institutions, student groups and young adults. On a day-to-day basis, Karishma works at a global social impact consulting firm as an analyst.
Julie Tinker
Julie Tinker has spent her career working in social impact as a design thinker, strategist, and creator of health solutions, from health care products to educational app development to national and international print and video campaigns. Working with large foundations like the Kaiser Family Foundation to nonprofit organizations like International Planned Parenthood, to mission-driven corporations like Seventh Generation, she’s now excited to lead equity, innovation, and design initiatives at Hopelab. Julie uses her skills and interests in community health, health equity, behavioral science, and design to build more equitable health outcomes for young people. Julie holds a BA in Communication and MA in Sociology from Stanford University and an MFA in Design from The School of Visual Arts in New York. A former professional athlete, Julie has made health and wellness the center of her family’s life through exercise, time outdoors, music, and dancing like nobody’s watching.
Meru Vashisht
Meru Vashisht is a human-centred design practitioner with experience working on complex social challenges targeted towards underserved communities. She understands people, their fears and aspirations, and the complex system they are a part of, before designing a solution for their problems.
As a Design Strategist at TinkerLabs, she has led research and designed strategy for healthcare experiences particularly sexual and reproductive health with vulnerable groups including peri-urban and rural adolescents and youth. She is also a youth representative from South Asia at the Youth Leadership Hub of HCDExchange where she brings HCD learning and experience to the field of ASRH as well as increases youth engagement in all pillars of HCDExchange.
Meru is committed towards gender equality and brings a feminist lens to both social and business projects. She also spends her time volunteering, writing, designing and campaigning for feminist causes.
Ellen Wagner
Ellen Wagner (she/her) is the Business Development Manager at ETR. She has over fifteen years of experience working in health and human services, adolescent health, and public health. Ellen’s prior roles include the Director of the Adolescent Health Initiative in Ann Arbor, Michigan and Outcomes Manager at the Jewish Board of Family and Children’s Services in New York City. She has a Master’s Degree in Public Health from Columbia University’s Mailman School of Public Health and a Master’s Degree in Basic Medical Sciences from New York Medical College. She holds a Bachelor’s Degree in in Politics from the University of California, Santa Cruz.
At ETR Ellen manages organization-wide business development efforts including the creation of a business development infrastructure, proposal process management, grant prospecting, and strategic partnership cultivation. She is passionate about using her role to center health equity at ETR and beyond.
