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Micromentor bios
Amanda Millstein, MD, FAAP
Dr. Amanda Millstein graduated from residency 11 years ago and in that time has worked at 3 different primary care clinics in the Bay Area, including now at an academic clinic. She took time away from clinical medicine to lead a non-profit related to climate change and health. She is happy to talk to any mentees, especially about primary care, advocacy, climate/environmental health, balancing parenting and doctoring, and more.
Amy Whittle, MD, FAAP
Dr. Amy Whittle is a general pediatrician seeing patients in primary care and urgent care at the Children's Health Center at ZSFG. She also holds educational and clinic leadership roles related to behavior & development and mental health. She is the medical director for a social need referral program called HealthAdvocates.
Colleen Kraft, MD, FAAP
Dr. Colleen Kraft co-directs the Advocacy track at CHLA and has spent most of her career working with non-profit organizations that do good work for children. She was both a chapter and National AAP President. She cares about advocacy at the Individual, Community and Legislative levels.
Gena Lewis, MD, FAAP
Dr. Gena Lewis has spent over 30 years at UCSF Benioff Children's Hospital Oakland, leading the Primary Care Clinic and FQHC while building programs in immigrant health, homeless outreach, and complex care coordination through partnerships with 20+ community organizations. She has been a statewide leader in pediatric advocacy training, co-founding the California Collaborative for Pediatric Resident Advocacy Training and creating a medical-legal collaborative and mobile health van to address social inequities affecting children. She currently practices at an FQHC serving immigrant and medically complex children while directing the residency continuity clinic.
Grace Lee, MD, MPH, FAAP
Dr. Grace Lee is a pediatric ID physician with extensive work in vaccines, infection prevention, public health surveillance, and health policy. She currently serve as Chief Quality Officer for Stanford Medicine Children's Health, where she oversees safety, quality, patient experience, and health equity work for our organization.
Jyothi Marbin, MD, FAAP
Dr. Jyothi Marbin is a pediatrician at UCSF Benioff Children's Hospital Oakland and Assistant Dean of the UCSF Regional Campus at UC Berkeley, where she directs the UC Berkeley–UCSF Joint Medical Program. Her work bridges medical education, medicine and immigration. She is a USCIS-designated Civil Surgeon, volunteers in the UCSF Health & Human Rights Pediatric Asylum Clinic, and supports immigration legal casework with the East Bay Community Law Center.
Lisa Patel, MD, FAAP
Dr. Lisa Patel practices as a pediatric community hospitalist and serves as Executive Director of the Medical Society Consortium on Climate and Health, a network of 58 medical societies and 30 climate and health state groups advocating for local and state climate policy. Her work spans plant-forward diets, sustainable healthcare, climate-resilient schools, renewable energy transitions, and challenging the fossil fuel industry. She is passionate about coalition-building, organizational change, effective storytelling-based communication, and activating health professionals to use their trusted voice.
Mark Del Monte, JD
Mark Del Monte serves as CEO/Executive Vice President of the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP), where he has worked for 21 years. Prior to becoming CEO, he served as the AAP's Chief Deputy and Senior Vice President for Advocacy and External Affairs, directing the organization's communications, public relations, and advocacy activities. Before joining the AAP, he was Director of Policy and Government Affairs for the AIDS Alliance for Children, Youth & Families, a national organization advocating for children and families with HIV/AIDS. He began his career as a lawyer in his home state of California, providing direct legal services to low-income children and families affected by HIV.
Ndidi Unaka, MD, MEd, FAAP
Dr. Ndidi Unaka is Chief Health Equity Officer (CHEO) for Stanford Medicine Children’s Health (SMCH) and a Clinical Professor in the Department of Pediatrics at Stanford University School of Medicine. She completed pediatric residency and chief residency at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital and was faculty in the Division of Hospital Medicine at Cincinnati Children’s from 2011 – June 2024. In addition to her clinical role as a pediatric hospitalist, she served as the Associate Program Director of the Pediatric Residency Program at Cincinnati Children’s from 2011 – January 2022. Prior to her transition to SMCH in July 2024, she worked on institution-level community health initiatives at Cincinnati Children’s within the Fisher Child Health Equity Center and the Office of Population Health.
Neel Patel, MD, FAAP
Dr. Neel Patel has been an active AAP member since completing training at Children's Oakland in 2004. At AAP-CA1 he has served in roles such as Young Physicians Committee co-chair, San Mateo Area Director, President , and First 5 San Mateo Physician Champion focused on Help Me Grow. As President, he is committed to advocating for children, families, and pediatricians while promoting diversity, equity, and inclusion, chapter philanthropy, and CME opportunities. He is inspired by his chapter's network of dedicated pediatricians and aims to strengthen those bonds while connecting Chapter 1 with other California chapters.
Nicole Webb, MD, FAAP
Dr. Nikki Webb is a pediatric hospitalist, residency program director at Kaiser Oakland, immediate past president of AAP CA-1 and current executive board member of AAP CA. She is passionate about advocacy and medical education, and leveraging all of the tools in our toolbox to improve outcomes for kids and communities. She also oversees the AAP resolution process for CA, which is a powerful mechanism for individual members to make their voices heard by national AAP on child health issues they are passionate about.
Nora Pfaff, MD, FAAP
Dr. Nora Pfaff is an Associate Professor of Pediatrics and pediatric hospitalist at UCSF Benioff Children's Hospital. She has been actively involved in pediatric advocacy for more than six years through the American Academy of Pediatrics, serving as a Chapter 1 State Government Affairs representative and helping lead local and statewide advocacy initiatives. Her advocacy interests include child health policy, healthcare access, and physician engagement in advocacy. She is passionate about mentoring trainees and early-career physicians in developing advocacy skills and integrating advocacy into their careers.
Serena Yang, MD, MPH, FAAP
Dr. Serena Yang is a Clinical Professor of Pediatrics at UC Davis Health, completed her pediatric residency and fellowship in Academic General Pediatrics at Baylor College of Medicine/Texas Children’s Hospital. During her fellowship, she attained an MPH in International and Family Health at UT Houston School of Public Health. Dr. Yang’s academic interests focus on community health/advocacy training and establishing innovative and sustainable community-clinical partnerships that improve networks of care, community linkages, and systems that advance health equity for all children and families.
Zea Malawa, MD, FAAP
Dr. Zea Malawa is a pediatrician and public health professional who is convinced health inequities are a structural issue and require structural solutions. To that end, her career has become focused on systems change, and she can teach from her experience of a) drafting and passing the law that made doula care a covered Medi-Cal benefit (CA Momnibus Act-2021), b) starting a statewide non-profit, c) chairing San Francisco's First 5 commission, and d) fundraising millions of dollars to implement radical patient support services. She has published articles about anti-racism in the academic and popular press. She has been to the edge of burnout and found her way back to joy. She is happy to share about her experiences with mentees!
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