HIV Clinical Leadership Program Fellows
2020 -2022 Class
Dr. Johnathan Kao
Dr. Johnathan Kao, MD was born and did most of his schooling in California before going off to explore the rest of the country. He first went to Michigan to attend Michigan State University College of Human Medicine where working with the underserved communities in Flint, Michigan solidified his interest in primary care. He then traveled to Memphis, Tennessee to do his residency in Internal Medicine and Pediatrics at the University of Tennessee Health Science Center. His work with the HIV clinic led him to pursue a career in HIV Primary Care. In addition to HIV medicine, he is interested in helping patients transition from their pediatric providers to adult physicians and stay connected and engaged with the healthcare community throughout their lives. After many years away from Southern California, Johnathan is excited to be returning home to all the amazing food and to continue his training in HIV medicine.
Dr. Johnathan Kao, MD was born and did most of his schooling in California before going off to explore the rest of the country. He first went to Michigan to attend Michigan State University College of Human Medicine where working with the underserved communities in Flint, Michigan solidified his interest in primary care. He then traveled to Memphis, Tennessee to do his residency in Internal Medicine and Pediatrics at the University of Tennessee Health Science Center. His work with the HIV clinic led him to pursue a career in HIV Primary Care. In addition to HIV medicine, he is interested in helping patients transition from their pediatric providers to adult physicians and stay connected and engaged with the healthcare community throughout their lives. After many years away from Southern California, Johnathan is excited to be returning home to all the amazing food and to continue his training in HIV medicine.
Dr. Tri Trang
Hey everyone! My name is Tri (pronounced try). I was born by the coast of central Vietnam and moved with my family to the frigid Northeast at the young age of two.
We lived in central Massachusetts for most of my life and fun fact, I was able to return to the exact clinic we used when we first settled to complete my residency training in family medicine.
I completed both undergraduate training and medical school in the capital district of New York and couldn't be happier to try out the West Coast for the first time!
My upbringing was very urban so I have been a long time fan of hip-hop and being immersed in various cultures from all over the world. I thrive through anything that provides adrenaline such as traveling to foreign places, snowboarding, and hiking.
As a self-proclaimed foodie, I'm also always on the hunt for trying out new restaurants and cooking interesting recipes. My somewhat fast-paced lifestyle is kept balanced through meditation, structured gym sessions, and never-ending love for evidenced-based medicine.
I'm looking forward to setting new roots in Los Angeles and soaking up everything the city and program has to offer. Let's have some fun!
Hey everyone! My name is Tri (pronounced try). I was born by the coast of central Vietnam and moved with my family to the frigid Northeast at the young age of two.
We lived in central Massachusetts for most of my life and fun fact, I was able to return to the exact clinic we used when we first settled to complete my residency training in family medicine.
I completed both undergraduate training and medical school in the capital district of New York and couldn't be happier to try out the West Coast for the first time!
My upbringing was very urban so I have been a long time fan of hip-hop and being immersed in various cultures from all over the world. I thrive through anything that provides adrenaline such as traveling to foreign places, snowboarding, and hiking.
As a self-proclaimed foodie, I'm also always on the hunt for trying out new restaurants and cooking interesting recipes. My somewhat fast-paced lifestyle is kept balanced through meditation, structured gym sessions, and never-ending love for evidenced-based medicine.
I'm looking forward to setting new roots in Los Angeles and soaking up everything the city and program has to offer. Let's have some fun!
2019 - 2021 Class
Emma Allseits
Dr. Emma Allseits
Emma was born and grew up in a rural village in the south of France. When she turned 15, she moved to Miami with her family and started a new adventure. She completed undergrad at the University of Miami and medical school at FIU Herbert Wertheim COM. Her passion for caring for HIV patients started in college and has grown since. In college, she was part of an HIV awareness group and was a research volunteer who investigated how coping with HIV affects health in people living with HIV/AIDS. In medical school, she had the opportunity to serve underserved communities across the globe, from locally in Miami to internationally. Those experiences fueled her passion for underserved care and led her to her family medicine residency at UIC in Chicago, where she worked in an FQHC clinic serving a diverse, underserved population. Her interactions with HIV patients in her clinic confirmed for her that she not only wanted to be the primary care provider for her patients, but also be the physician to manage their HIV care as well. Her interaction with patients and providers in diverse settings reinforced that she wanted to become an advocate and leader in HIV care and practice HIV medicine in underserved areas.
Emma was born and grew up in a rural village in the south of France. When she turned 15, she moved to Miami with her family and started a new adventure. She completed undergrad at the University of Miami and medical school at FIU Herbert Wertheim COM. Her passion for caring for HIV patients started in college and has grown since. In college, she was part of an HIV awareness group and was a research volunteer who investigated how coping with HIV affects health in people living with HIV/AIDS. In medical school, she had the opportunity to serve underserved communities across the globe, from locally in Miami to internationally. Those experiences fueled her passion for underserved care and led her to her family medicine residency at UIC in Chicago, where she worked in an FQHC clinic serving a diverse, underserved population. Her interactions with HIV patients in her clinic confirmed for her that she not only wanted to be the primary care provider for her patients, but also be the physician to manage their HIV care as well. Her interaction with patients and providers in diverse settings reinforced that she wanted to become an advocate and leader in HIV care and practice HIV medicine in underserved areas.
2019-2020 Class
Michael Stefanowicz
Dr. Michael Stefanowicz
Mike Stefanowicz is a Pittsburgh native who moved to Austin, Texas for residency at the University of Texas Dell Medical School's Family Medicine Residency where he served as chief resident. Previously a case manager for street homeless men and women at Project H.O.M.E in Philadelphia, Mike's first experiences with HIV medicine involved coordinating medical care and appointments for many of his clients living with HIV. It was during this time that he realized that stable affordable housing and a source of income are just as impactful as modern HAART therapy when it comes to controlling HIV. Mike's primary medical interests aside from HIV medicine include caring for homeless and unstably housed individuals, pre-exposure prophylaxis (PreP) for HIV, gender care and hormone replacement therapies for transgender men and women, harm reduction in primary care, and medication assisted treatment (MAT) for substance abuse. Mike lives with his husband and two dogs. He enjoys spending time hiking, kayaking, bird watching and whiling away the hours reading in coffee shops.
Mike Stefanowicz is a Pittsburgh native who moved to Austin, Texas for residency at the University of Texas Dell Medical School's Family Medicine Residency where he served as chief resident. Previously a case manager for street homeless men and women at Project H.O.M.E in Philadelphia, Mike's first experiences with HIV medicine involved coordinating medical care and appointments for many of his clients living with HIV. It was during this time that he realized that stable affordable housing and a source of income are just as impactful as modern HAART therapy when it comes to controlling HIV. Mike's primary medical interests aside from HIV medicine include caring for homeless and unstably housed individuals, pre-exposure prophylaxis (PreP) for HIV, gender care and hormone replacement therapies for transgender men and women, harm reduction in primary care, and medication assisted treatment (MAT) for substance abuse. Mike lives with his husband and two dogs. He enjoys spending time hiking, kayaking, bird watching and whiling away the hours reading in coffee shops.
2018-2020 Class
Dr. Jessica Schneider
Dr. Jessica Schneider was born in New York and enjoyed a migratory childhood across the Deep South and Midwest before landing in Baltimore, where she studied creative writing and Kiswahili at Johns Hopkins University. After college she joined the Peace Corps, and spent three years in Zambia, where she taught people how to dig and maintain fish ponds and realized that she would rather study parasites than host them. This led to an increased awareness about health disparities and the decision to go to medical school. After four years in the mountains at University of Colorado, she moved to the beach, and spent four years at Jackson Memorial Hospital/University of Miami Internal Medicine-Pediatrics Residency, working at one of the largest public hospitals in the country. As an aficionado of both tropical fruit and tropical viruses, Jessica loved the four years she spent in Miami, but despite regular encounters with Dengue, Zika, and Chikungunya, HIV was the virus that most captured her professional attention. She is super excited to live in LA as a fellow in the HIV Clinical Leadership Program, where she is acquiring a full set of skills to become an agent of positive change in medicine!
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Please click link below for, my video diary journey here as an HIV Primary Care Physician Fellow:
Dr. Jessica Schneider
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Dr. Jessica Schneider was born in New York and enjoyed a migratory childhood across the Deep South and Midwest before landing in Baltimore, where she studied creative writing and Kiswahili at Johns Hopkins University. After college she joined the Peace Corps, and spent three years in Zambia, where she taught people how to dig and maintain fish ponds and realized that she would rather study parasites than host them. This led to an increased awareness about health disparities and the decision to go to medical school. After four years in the mountains at University of Colorado, she moved to the beach, and spent four years at Jackson Memorial Hospital/University of Miami Internal Medicine-Pediatrics Residency, working at one of the largest public hospitals in the country. As an aficionado of both tropical fruit and tropical viruses, Jessica loved the four years she spent in Miami, but despite regular encounters with Dengue, Zika, and Chikungunya, HIV was the virus that most captured her professional attention. She is super excited to live in LA as a fellow in the HIV Clinical Leadership Program, where she is acquiring a full set of skills to become an agent of positive change in medicine!
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Please click link below for, my video diary journey here as an HIV Primary Care Physician Fellow:
Dr. Jessica Schneider
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Dr. Kevin Tangonan
Dr. Kevin Tangonan D.O. most recently completed his Residency in Family Medicine locally in Boyle Heights: White Memorial Medical Center. Kevin completed his undergraduate studies in Clinical Laboratory Sciences at Loma Linda University after which he attended medical school at Touro University CA. Throughout his training, Kevin has strove to maintain an active role in his community by volunteering as a mentor at various local high schools as well as providing STI testing and safer sex education within the LGBT community. Through his work within the community of east LA, Kevin experienced the lack of general medical knowledge and unnecessary stigma surrounding the diagnosis of HIV firsthand. This deficit was noted not just with his interactions with his patients but extended throughout the medical healthcare community as well. Kevin believes that a physician’s primary responsibility is to provide information to his community and advocate for his patients. By affecting a change in attitude amongst patients and co-workers at a local level, Kevin hopes to impact how HIV care is delivered and received within the community of Los Angeles
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Please click link below for, my video diary journey here as an HIV Primary Care Physician Fellow:
Dr. Kevin Tangonan D. O.
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Dr. Kevin Tangonan D.O. most recently completed his Residency in Family Medicine locally in Boyle Heights: White Memorial Medical Center. Kevin completed his undergraduate studies in Clinical Laboratory Sciences at Loma Linda University after which he attended medical school at Touro University CA. Throughout his training, Kevin has strove to maintain an active role in his community by volunteering as a mentor at various local high schools as well as providing STI testing and safer sex education within the LGBT community. Through his work within the community of east LA, Kevin experienced the lack of general medical knowledge and unnecessary stigma surrounding the diagnosis of HIV firsthand. This deficit was noted not just with his interactions with his patients but extended throughout the medical healthcare community as well. Kevin believes that a physician’s primary responsibility is to provide information to his community and advocate for his patients. By affecting a change in attitude amongst patients and co-workers at a local level, Kevin hopes to impact how HIV care is delivered and received within the community of Los Angeles
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Please click link below for, my video diary journey here as an HIV Primary Care Physician Fellow:
Dr. Kevin Tangonan D. O.
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Dr. Norris Tran Duc, MD
Dr. Norris Tran Duc, MD received his Bachelor of Arts and Bachelor of Science from the University of California, Berkeley and his Medical Degree from the McGovern Medical School (formerly known as the University of Texas Medical School at Houston). He completed his Family Medicine training locally at the Glendale Adventist Medical Center Family Medicine Residency Program in 2018, where he graduated as Chief Resident.
He applied to Family Medicine because he wanted to become a physician that could empathize, treat, and heal high-risk and underrepresented patient groups, focusing on a culture of prevention, harm reduction, outreach and awareness, and non-marginalized access. He has particular interest in spreading health care awareness and addressing health care disparities in the LGBTQ and immigrant communities.
With greater advancements in the care of HIV, the diagnosis is slowly becoming more of a chronic condition, befitting of the preventive health, continuity of care, and trust, characteristic of the family medicine practitioner. He is excited to be trained in HIV primary care to become a force of change to help drive away stigma, prevent, and treat HIV. He wishes to make patients living with HIV feel that although the diagnosis may be a part of their identity, it should not define or confine them.
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Please click link below for, my video diary journey here as an HIV Primary Care Physician Fellow:
Dr. Norris Tran Duc, MD
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Dr. Norris Tran Duc, MD received his Bachelor of Arts and Bachelor of Science from the University of California, Berkeley and his Medical Degree from the McGovern Medical School (formerly known as the University of Texas Medical School at Houston). He completed his Family Medicine training locally at the Glendale Adventist Medical Center Family Medicine Residency Program in 2018, where he graduated as Chief Resident.
He applied to Family Medicine because he wanted to become a physician that could empathize, treat, and heal high-risk and underrepresented patient groups, focusing on a culture of prevention, harm reduction, outreach and awareness, and non-marginalized access. He has particular interest in spreading health care awareness and addressing health care disparities in the LGBTQ and immigrant communities.
With greater advancements in the care of HIV, the diagnosis is slowly becoming more of a chronic condition, befitting of the preventive health, continuity of care, and trust, characteristic of the family medicine practitioner. He is excited to be trained in HIV primary care to become a force of change to help drive away stigma, prevent, and treat HIV. He wishes to make patients living with HIV feel that although the diagnosis may be a part of their identity, it should not define or confine them.
_____________________________
Please click link below for, my video diary journey here as an HIV Primary Care Physician Fellow:
Dr. Norris Tran Duc, MD
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