CHILDREN'S HOSPITAL LOS ANGELES MEDICAL GROUP - Key Persons

Chairman, Department of Anesthesiology Critical Care Medicine
Chairman, Department of Anesthesiology Critical Care Medicine ( CHLA ) Professor of Clinical Pediatrics and Anesthesiology ( USC )
Member of the Pediatric Section of the Society of Critical Care Medicine

Dr. Markovitz joined Children's Hospital Los Angeles in 2006 to head the hospital's Division of Critical Care Medicine and serve as Medical Director of the Pediatric Intensive Care Unit. He is also a professor of Clinical Pediatrics and Anesthesiology at the Keck School of Medicine of USC. Dr. Markovitz is Board-certified in anesthesiology and pediatric anesthesiology, as well as pediatrics and pediatric critical care medicine. He has been involved in numerous research studies related to intensive care throughout his career, including transfusions, relationships between Pediatric ICU volume and outcomes, and the treatment of sepsis and acute respiratory distress syndrome. Dr. Markovitz is a member of the Pediatric Section of the Society of Critical Care Medicine, the Pediatric Cardiac Intensive Care Society, and he has served on the Executive Committee of the critical care section of the American Academy of Pediatrics. He serves on several editorial boards and was Chair of the Research Committee of VPS, LLC (Virtual Pediatric Systems), an international pediatric ICU quality and research collaborative. He also recently completed a term as Chair of the Scientific Committee of PALISI (Pediatric Acute Lung Injury and Sepsis Investigators), the largest pediatric critical care research network in North America.

Bede Broome

Job Titles:

Member of the Foundation Board of Trustees

Brooke Anderson

Job Titles:

Member of the Foundation Board of Trustees

Brooke Josephson

Job Titles:

Member of the Foundation Board of Trustees

Burt Levitch

Job Titles:

Director

Byron Allen

Job Titles:

Member of the Foundation Board of Trustees

Byron Pollitt

Job Titles:

Director

Carl Grushkin

Job Titles:

Member of the Foundation Board of Trustees

Caroline Altergott

Job Titles:

Attending Physician

Caroline Andler

Job Titles:

Attending Physician

Caroline Keck

Job Titles:

Member of the Foundation Board of Trustees

Charmaine S. Bailey

Job Titles:

Member of the Foundation Board of Trustees

Cheryl Kunin Fair

Job Titles:

Director
Member of the Foundation Board of Trustees

Cheryl Saban

Job Titles:

Honorary Director

Christian (Chris) M. Driscoll

Job Titles:

Member of the Foundation Board of Trustees

Christina N. Hoffman

Job Titles:

Member of the Foundation Board of Trustees

Christopher (Chris) C. Martin

Job Titles:

Director

Conrad Band

Job Titles:

Member of the Executive Leadership Team
Interim Senior Vice President and Chief Information Officer

Conrad Band, BS, is a technical, visionary and strategic health care leader. For more than two decades, he has led technical teams across a variety of industries: health care systems, health networks, nonprofit organizations, and for-profit health care, financial and technology services providers. Band began his tenure at Children's Hospital Los Angeles as Chief Information Security Officer in late 2017 and has worked tirelessly to create a security ecosystem that not only protects the hospital's valued patients and clinicians, but also utilizes the latest technology to improve operations and enhance clinical outcomes in times of high stress. During the COVID-19 pandemic, the hospital's Information Services (IS) team thrived under his leadership and supported the organization in new, innovative and collaborative ways. In May 2021, Band was appointed Interim Senior Vice President and Chief Information Officer, leading more than 250 team members who help support CHLA's mission. He is focused on developing the legacy of IS with a three-year strategic plan, pivoting from building infrastructure to aligning technology delivery and support with enterprise operations. Balancing the user experience and financial stewardship with the delivery of timely and high-quality digital solutions for an ever-growing organization, Band and the IS team continue to drive the evolution of technology at Children's Hospital Los Angeles. Prior to joining CHLA, Band served as the Vice President of IT Operations at Verity Health System, a health care organization with 1,650 inpatient beds in six hospitals in the Los Angeles, San Jose and San Francisco regions. Previous to that, Conrad spent several years as the Director of Applications of Kootenai Health in Idaho, which is comprised of a hospital and 28 health clinics serving patients in northern Idaho, eastern Washington, Montana and the Inland Northwest. Band earned his bachelor's degree in Computer Information Systems, Cyber Security from Eastern Washington University. He currently serves on his local City Planning Commission, as well as on the Board of Directors for a small non-profit credit union in Spokane, WA.

Craig Gordon

Job Titles:

Member of the Foundation Board of Trustees

Daniel Allison

Job Titles:

Attending Surgeon
Attending Surgeon / Associate Professor of Clinical Orthopedic Surgery, Keck School of Medicine of USC

David J. Aroesty

Job Titles:

Member of the Foundation Board of Trustees

David Kass

Job Titles:

Member of the Foundation Board of Trustees

Deborah (Debbie) A. Freund

Job Titles:

Member of the Foundation Board of Trustees

Deborah Braidic

Job Titles:

Member of the Executive Leadership Team

Denizhan Akan

Job Titles:

Attending Physician

Diana M. Bontá

Job Titles:

Director
Member of the Foundation Board of Trustees

Ellen Gordon

Job Titles:

Member of the Foundation Board of Trustees

Erik J. Larson

Job Titles:

Member of the Foundation Board of Trustees

Ernest (Ernie) O. Ellison

Job Titles:

Honorary Director
Honorary Foundation Trustee

Eugene (Mitch) Mitchell

Job Titles:

Director

Ford Theodore Miller Murphy

Job Titles:

Chairman in Surgical Oncology / Children 's Hospital Los Angeles

Frank Abella Ayala

Job Titles:

Attending Physician

Gabe Greenbaum

Job Titles:

Member of the Foundation Board of Trustees

George H. Brown

Job Titles:

Director
Member of the Foundation Board of Trustees

Grace E. Oh - Chief Legal Officer, SVP

Job Titles:

Assistant General Counsel
General Counsel
Senior Vice President
Senior Vice President and General Counsel at Children 's Hospital Los Angeles

Grace serves as senior vice president and general counsel at Children's Hospital Los Angeles. In this role, Grace is a key advisor to senior leadership of the hospital, including the President and CEO and the Board of Directors. She oversees and directs the provision of legal services regarding strategic initiatives, corporate transactions, litigation and legal proceedings, tax issues, conflicts of interest, personnel matters, health care regulatory issues, intellectual property protection and patent and trademark portfolio management, research issues, and fundraising issues. Grace is responsible for the hospital's risk management activities and the design and direction of the hospital's insurance portfolio. She also oversees the hospital's compliance and privacy program which handles issues involving corporate ethics, compliance with complex laws and regulations governing the hospital's provision of and reimbursement for health care services, research activities, and development activities. Grace joined the hospital in 2009 as the assistant general counsel, became associate general counsel in 2012, and was appointed senior vice president and general counsel in 2014. Prior to 2009, she was an associate in the transactional and corporate practice of the international law firm of White & Case, LLP.

Hanna Song

Job Titles:

Senior Vice President and Chief Diversity, Equity and Inclusion ( DEI ) Officer

Heidi Johnson

Job Titles:

Member of the Foundation Board of Trustees

Hisham Abdel-Azim

Job Titles:

Principal
Certified Physician
Co - Principal Investigator
Director, Transplantation and Cellular Therapy Fellowship Program Director, FACS Laboratory / Co - Director, Transplantation and Cellular Therapy Laboratory
Expert
Investigator

Dr Abdel-Azim is currently a principal and a co-principal investigator on several investigator-initiated and multi-center studies. He has authored numerous peer-reviewed journal articles and book chapters. His lab research is mainly focused on acute leukemia and flow image analysis. Dr. Abdel-Azim is an expert in blood and marrow transplantation, cellular and immunotherapy for a wide variety of cancers, bone marrow disorders, and genetic and non-malignant diseases. He also has special expertise in laboratory assessment for minimal residual disease in blood cancers and immune recovery after blood and marrow transplantation. His research interests include infections in immune compromised host, reduction of transplant-associated complications, treatment of graft vs host disease, and use of cell therapy for treatment of malignant and non-malignant diseases.

James (Jim) M. Galbraith

Job Titles:

Honorary Foundation Trustee

James E. Stein - SVP

Job Titles:

Chief Medical Officer
Senior Vice President
Professor of Clinical Surgery at Keck School of Medicine

James Stein, MD, MSc, FACS, FAAP is CHLA's inaugural senior vice president and chief medical officer. Dr. Stein is responsible for developing care delivery systems that set the bar in all metrics including quality, outcomes and institutional operational and financial performance. Since joining CHLA in 1996, Dr. Stein, professor of Clinical Surgery at Keck School of Medicine of the University of Southern California, has held a variety of leadership roles. He was named vice chair for CHLA's department of Surgery ahead of the institution's successful move into the Marion and John E. Anderson Pavilion in 2011. Between 2004 and 2005, he served as the interim chief of the division of Pediatric Surgery. Additionally, he led the Division of Pediatric Surgery's efforts to offer outpatient care for families in locations that are closer to home, particularly in the San Gabriel Valley. He has served as a lead surgeon in no less than six conjoined twin separation surgeries-of which he led four-procedures that require intense multidisciplinary planning and coordination and meticulous execution. He was part of a CHLA and Keck Medicine of USC team trip to Haiti to separate that nation's first set of conjoined twins with an abdominal fusion, which received international attention. Board-certified in surgery and pediatric surgery, Dr. Stein obtained a bachelor's degree from Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island, and a medical degree from Tufts University School of Medicine in Boston, where he also fulfilled his internship and residency, and ultimately went on to serve as chief surgical resident. He completed three fellowships: a research fellowship at Boston Children's Hospital; a pediatric surgery fellowship at The Royal Children's Hospital in Melbourne, Australia; and a pediatric surgery fellowship at Babies and Children's Hospital in New York. Dr. Stein also obtained a master's degree in health care management from Harvard School of Public Health. He is a member of the American Academy of Pediatrics, American College of Surgeons and the American Pediatric Surgical Association, and is on the California Children's Hospital Association Quality Leaders. He is a member of the Children's Hospital Association Quality Leaders, and an inaugural board member for the California Hospital Patient Safety Organization and the Hospital Quality Institute. Recently, Dr. Stein was selected to the Quality and Patient Safety Board of the California Children's Hospital Association. He is a past Morris and Mary Press Humanism Award nominee and has been named a Top Doctor by The Hollywood Reporter, Best Doctors in America, U.S. News & World Report magazine, Castle Connolly America's Top Doctors, Pasadena Magazine and Southern California Super Doctors. Education Medical School: Tufts University School of Medicine Senior Vice President and Chief Medical Officer; Ford Theodore Miller Murphy Chair in Surgical Oncology (CHLA); Professor of Clinical Surgery (USC)

James G. Ellis

Job Titles:

Member of the Foundation Board of Trustees

Jondavid Menteer

Job Titles:

Chief of Staff Medical Director, Heart Failure and Transplant Program and Cardiac Mechanical Support Program ( CHLA ) Clinical Associate Professor of Pediatrics ( USC )

Joseph (Joe) Knott

Job Titles:

Member of the Foundation Board of Trustees

Judy Gawlik Brown

Job Titles:

Member of the Foundation Board of Trustees

June Banta

Job Titles:

Member of the Foundation Board of Trustees

Karen B. Kaplan

Job Titles:

Member of the Foundation Board of Trustees

Kathleen McCarthy

Job Titles:

Honorary Director

Kevin H. Brogan - Chairman

Job Titles:

Chairman of the Board of Directors
Director
Member of the Foundation Board of Trustees

Kimberly (Kim) Hegardt

Job Titles:

Member of the Foundation Board of Trustees

Kimberly (Kim) Shepherd

Job Titles:

Director

Kristine Andrade

Job Titles:

Attending Physician

Lara M. Khouri

Job Titles:

Member of the Foundation Board of Trustees
Executive Vice President and Chief Strategy and Transformation Officer
Executive Vice President and Chief Strategy and Transformation Officer of Children 's Hospital Los Angeles

Lara Khouri is executive vice president and chief strategy and transformation officer of Children's Hospital Los Angeles. In this role, she works with the hospital and its physicians to develop an expanded system of care for children in Los Angeles and beyond. This includes the development and performance management of the hospital's primary care and community provider network and associated governance structures. Khouri has responsibility for Strategic Planning; Health System Development and Integration; Government, Community and Business Relations; Marketing and Communications; and the Center for Global Health; and Service Lines. Previously, Khouri was executive director of the Boston Children's Hospital Integrated Care Organization and senior director of Integrated Care at Boston Children's Hospital. In both roles she oversaw the implementation of accountable care delivery, including quality and cost performance measurement and improvement, as well as development and implementation of integrated care models and value-based payment models. Prior to her work in Boston, Khouri was the founding program director of the Healthy Weight Program at the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia. She has been a lecturer in health policy and management at Columbia University's Mailman School of Public Health since 2004. She is a member of Women in Health Administration of Southern California and was honored by this organization as Woman of the Year in 2016. Khouri earned a Master of Business Administration and a Master of Public Health from Columbia University; she has undergraduate degrees in geography and economics from George Washington University. She is adjunct faculty at the Fielding School of Public Health at UCLA.

Laurence (Larry) E. Paul

Job Titles:

Director

Lindsay Andras

Job Titles:

Associate Division Chief / Director of the Spine Program

Lydia Andras

Job Titles:

Anesthesiologist

Lynda Boone Fetter

Job Titles:

Member of the Foundation Board of Trustees

M. Scott Lieberenz - CFO, SVP

Job Titles:

Chief Financial Officer
Senior Vice President
MSA

Mamoon Syed - CHRO, SVP

Job Titles:

Chief People Officer
Senior Vice President

Mamoon Syed is Senior Vice President and Chief People Officer. Mamoon provides leadership and strategic direction for all areas of Human Resources and partners closely with other senior executives and leaders to provide vision and guidance for human capital. This includes the development of strategic programs, policies and practices that drive results in support of the organization's mission, vision, and business and operational objectives, while promoting a positive culture of high performance. In his previous role at The Ohio State University (OSU) in Columbus, Ohio, Mamoon served as chief human resources officer and associate vice president for Human Resources, Health Sciences at Wexner Medical Center and interim chief human resources officer and senior associate vice president, Human Resources for the university as a whole. Among other accomplishments at OSU, he advised university leaders on strategic talent and cultural matters, and improved the medical center's employee engagement score, physician contract approval turnaround times, and staff, physician and faculty member turnover rates. He also partnered with the chief diversity officer to develop an integrated diversity plan to enhance the university's commitment to inclusive excellence. Prior to his role at OSU, Mamoon served as vice president, Human Resources and Support Services at Rady Children's Hospital and Health Center in San Diego, Calif., and vice president, Human Resources at Children's Hospital of Orange County in Orange, Calif. There he repositioned the department for success and served as the first executive to lead an initiative between Rady Children's and CHOC to identify collaborative talent management opportunities.

Marcia Wilson Hobbs

Job Titles:

Member of the Foundation Board of Trustees

Margaret (Peggy) Rodi Galbraith

Job Titles:

Member of the Foundation Board of Trustees

Marion Anderson

Job Titles:

Honorary Director
Co - Chair and Director Emeritus )

Mark D. Krieger - SVP

Job Titles:

Director
Member of the Foundation Board of Trustees
Senior Vice President
Surgeon
Surgeon - in - Chief / Senior Vice President, Department of Surgery

Senior Vice President and Surgeon-in-Chief; Billy and Audrey L. Wilder Chair in Neurosurgery; Executive Advisor, Neurological Institute (CHLA); Professor of Clinical Neurosurgery (USC)

Marvin D. Nelson

Job Titles:

Chairman of the Department of Radiology

Marvin D. Nelson, Jr., MD, MBA, is chairman of the Department of Radiology at Children's Hospital Los Angeles and professor of Radiology at the Keck School of Medicine of the University of Southern California (USC). He received his bachelor of science degree in chemistry from Loma Linda University and his medical degree from Loma Linda University Medical School, then served his internship and residency in diagnostic radiology at Loma Linda University Medical Center. Dr. Nelson completed three fellowships: neuroradiology, the National Hospital for Nervous Disease, London; interventional neuroradiology, the Foundation Ophthalmologique A. de Rothschild, Paris; and pediatric radiology, Children's Memorial Hospital, Chicago. In addition, he has earned a masters of business administration at the USC Marshall School of Business. In 2002 , Dr. Nelson received the John L. Gwinn Professorship in Pediatric Radiology at Children's Hospital Los Angeles. His research includes the use of spectroscopy and other advanced imaging techniques in diagnosing such conditions as brain tumors, pediatric acute hydrocephalus and sickle cell disease damage. He serves on the editorial board of Pediatric Radiology, and has served as a reviewer for many prestigious medical journals. He is a past president of the American Society of Pediatric Neuroradiology and the Western Neuroradiology Society. Education Medical School: Loma Linda University School of Medicine

Mary Adams O'Connell

Job Titles:

Member of the Board of Trustees

Mary Adams O'Connell has been a member of the Board of Trustees since 2002. She is vice chair of The Saban Research Institute Committee and serves on the Audit and Investment committees.

Mary Hart

Job Titles:

Honorary Director
Member of the Foundation Board of Trustees

Matt Keefer

Job Titles:

Director

Michael (Mike) S. Dreyer

Job Titles:

Member of the Foundation Board of Trustees

Michael Epstein

Job Titles:

Member of the Foundation Board of Trustees

Moromisato DY

Job Titles:

Dodek PM

Namrata Ahuja

Job Titles:

Associate Director, Pediatric Fellowship Program, Division of Hospital Medicine

Nikki DeLoach - Chairman

Job Titles:

Chairman
Member of the Foundation Board of Trustees

Nusrat Ahsan

Job Titles:

Attending Physician, Division of Neurology
Attending Physician, Division of Neurology / Assistant Professor of Neurology, Keck School of Medicine of USC

Oussama Abousamra

Job Titles:

Director, Limb Lengthening and Reconstruction Program

Pat Levitt - VP

Job Titles:

Chief Scientific Officer
Vice President
Chief Scientific Officer, Vice President and Director, the Saban Research Institute

State, M.W., Levitt, P. (2011) The conundrums of understanding genetic risks for autism spectrum disorders. Nat. Neurosci. 14:1-8. Aldinger, K.A., Lane, C.J., Veenstra-VanderWeele, J., Levitt, P. (2015) Patterns of risk for multiple co-occurring medical conditions replicate across distinct cohorts of children with autism spectrum disorder. Autism Res., e-Ahead of Print. Vice President and Chief Scientific Officer; Director, The Saban Research Institute; Simms/Mann Chair in Developmental Neurogenetics (CHLA); W.M. Keck Provost Professor of Neurogenetics (USC)

Paul S. Viviano - CEO, President

Job Titles:

Chief Executive Officer
Director
Member of the Executive Leadership Team
President
Health Care Leader

Paul S. Viviano is a health care leader and a prominent national children's health care advocate. For more than three decades, he has led academic health care systems, nonprofit community health care organizations and for-profit health care services providers that have delivered excellence in clinical care, research and medical education. Viviano joined Children's Hospital Los Angeles in late 2015 as President and Chief Executive Officer as well as a member of the Board of Directors and the Foundation Board of Trustees. Founded in 1901, Children's Hospital Los Angeles is the highest-ranked children's hospital in California and eighth in the nation, according to U.S. News & World Report. CHLA also operates one of the largest pediatric residency training programs in the country. The Saban Research Institute of CHLA is consistently ranked among the top children's hospitals for National Institutes of Health funding and is home to more than 350 funded scientists and physician scientists. Prior to joining CHLA, Viviano served as the Chief Executive Officer of UC San Diego Health System and Associate Vice Chancellor of UC San Diego Health Sciences. There he oversaw the entire $1.7 billion UC San Diego health care enterprise, which included leading-edge medical care; training of medical students, residents and fellows, responsibility for the faculty practice plan and all patient care delivery. Prior to his work at UCSD, Viviano served as Chair of the Board and CEO of Alliance HealthCare Services-a for-profit, publicly traded organization that is the nation's largest provider of outpatient diagnostic imaging services and a national leader in delivery of radiation oncology services. Paul continues to serve as a Director for Alliance, chairing the Compensation Committee and the company's Special Committee. Viviano also previously served as President and Chief Executive Officer of University of Southern California University Hospital and USC/Norris Cancer Hospital. Additionally, Viviano held various hospital and regional chief executive positions for the St. Joseph Health System in Orange, California, including Health System President and Chief Operating Officer. As part of his efforts in support of child health care, Viviano is actively involved with several state and national organizations committed to protecting and preserving preventative, acute and specialty health care for children. He is the immediate past Board Chair of the California Children's Hospital Association (CCHA) and continues to serve on the Association's Board of Directors. He represents the CCHA on the California Hospital Association Board and also serves on the CHA Board Executive Committee. Viviano also chairs the Public Policy Committee of the national Children's Hospital Association and is a Board member of Solutions for Patient Safety, the national consortium that sets clinical standards for U.S. children's hospitals. In addition, he is the Chair of the Board of Trustees of Loyola Marymount University, the Catholic Jesuit University in Los Angeles, and is President of the UCLA Health Policy and Management Alumni Association. Viviano is a California native and earned his bachelor's degrees at the University of California, Santa Barbara, as well as a master's degree in public administration-public health at the University of California, Los Angeles. He and his wife, Carole, have two daughters and four grandchildren, and reside in Huntington Beach, CA.

Peggy Tsiang Cherng

Job Titles:

Honorary Foundation Trustee

Peter Heilbron

Job Titles:

Member of the Foundation Board of Trustees

Qiu, S. Lu

Qiu, S. Lu, Z., Levitt, P. (2014) MET receptor tyrosine kinase controls dendritic complexity, spine morphogenesis and glutamatergic synapse formation in the hippocampus. J. Neurosci. 34:16166-16179, 2014.

Ranjan Goswami

Job Titles:

Member of the Foundation Board of Trustees

Reshma Ambaram

Job Titles:

Attending Physician

Robert (Bob) Adler

Job Titles:

Member of the Executive Leadership Team
Member of the Foundation Board of Trustees
Head of the Division of General Pediatrics
MSEd

Bob Adler, MD, MSEd serves as Chief Medical Director of the CHLA Pediatric Health Network, Senior Vice Chair of Pediatrics and sits on the Finance Committee for the Board of Trustees at CHLA. He is also a professor of Pediatrics and former vice chair of the Department of Pediatrics at the Keck School of Medicine of the University of Southern California. Dr. Adler was the first CHLA faculty member on the Residency Review Committee, which develops national training guidelines and policies and accredits all pediatric training programs in the U.S. Previously serving as head of the Division of General Pediatrics, Dr. Adler was involved in primary care and served as acting head of the Divisions of Emergency Medicine, Genetics, Neurology and Critical Care as the need arose. A recipient of numerous teaching awards, Dr. Adler has served on the board of the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) and on the National Task Force on the Future of Pediatric Education. Dr. Adler has been listed in "Best Doctors in America," "Who's Who in Medicine and Healthcare," "America's Top Pediatricians" and "Who's Who in Science and Engineering." He serves on the Medical Advisory Board of The Painted Turtle Camp, a camp for children with chronic pediatric illnesses. He was the recipient of the Los Angeles Business Journal "Healthcare Executive" award in 2013, the Robert M. McAllister Award for faculty mentoring and the USC Mellon Mentoring Award. He was the inaugural recipient of the CHLA Alumni Recognition Award and in 2015 he was the first physician to receive the prestigious DAISY Award which is typically bestowed upon exceptional nurses by leadership and their peers for compassionate care at the bedside of sick and injured children. Dr. Adler received a medical degree from the University of California, Los Angeles in 1973 and a master's degree in medical education from the University of Southern California in 1986. He and his wife, Agi, have three children and thirteen grandchildren, with one expected in May 2016, and live in Los Angeles. Education Medical School: University of California Los Angeles School of Medicine

Robert (Bob) E. Shaddy

Job Titles:

Chief Wellness Officer
Director

Robert (Bob) M. Kay

Job Titles:

Member of the Foundation Board of Trustees

Robert J. Coury

Job Titles:

Member of the Foundation Board of Trustees

Roger A. Featherston

Job Titles:

Member of the Foundation Board of Trustees

Sanchia Anderson

Job Titles:

Attending Physician

Sara L. Semal

As the Chief Wellness Officer at Children's Hospital Los Angeles, Sara Semal, MA, LPCC, is responsible for developing a vision and plan for a wellness strategy, building upon the hospital's current strengths and addressing opportunities for improvement within the organization. In her leadership position, she identifies institutional barriers to team member wellness, provides opportunities for building personal resilience and mindfulness to decrease burnout and attrition, establishes emotional and psychological support systems by connecting team members with appropriate resources, and supervises research and quality improvement efforts at CHLA related to wellness. Semal joined Children's Hospital Los Angeles from Occidental College, where she served as Chief Wellness Officer, Senior Director of Student Wellness and Special Advisor to the President on Health and Safety, with the goal of advancing the health and well-being of all Occidental faculty, staff and students. Prior to Occidental, she was the clinical director of a public health and counseling program at Cook County Health and Hospital Systems in Chicago. Her background includes work in sexual assault and trauma, LGBTQIA health, infectious disease and disease prevention, and reproductive health. Semal earned her master's degree in counseling psychology from New York University and public health from George Washington University. She also completed a fellowship in advanced psychodynamic clinical practice at the University of Chicago. Semal has a small private practice in Highland Park where she provides psychotherapeutic services and executive coaching.