David Buck

Founder & Board Chair, PCIC
Associate Dean of Community Health, UH College of Medicine

David Buck, MD, MPH serves as Associate Dean for Community Health at the University of Houston’s College of Medicine. He was previously Professor at Baylor College of Medicine's Department of Family & Community Medicine from 1997-2018.

He began developing underserved clinics for the indigent population in Houston in 1984 after working with Mother Teresa in Calcutta, India. In 1999, he founded Healthcare for the Homeless—Houston.

Dr. Buck is the recipient of many awards and honors including: the 2014 TMAF John P McGovern Champion of Health Award, 2013 American Academy of Family Physicians (AAFP) Public Health Leader National Award; in 2012 Dr. Buck was honored at the First Lady's Luncheon hosted by the Congressional Club to honor First Lady Michelle Obama in Washington D.C.; 2011 St. Luke's Episcopal Charities Community Health Leadership Award.

He has authored many peer reviewed publications, and served on local, national and international boards.

From 2009-2012 Dr. Buck served on the national Health and Human Services Consumer Operated and Oriented Plan Advisory Board. In May 2018, he received the honorary degree of Doctor of Science from Colorado College.

Kallol Mahata

Co-Founder & Chief Executive Officer, PCIC
Senior Solutions Architect Consultant, PDC

Kallol Mahata is the Chief Executive Officer at PCIC - Houston and runs operations at the organization. He has over 14 years of experience in software design, development and project management and has designed and built multiple enterprise level, multi-tier systems from the ground up.

Kallol started his work in designing and improving Electronic Medical Record Systems used for street outreach as part of his graduate school research work. This was part of a collaboration between the University of Texas, Baylor College of Medicine, and Healthcare for the Homeless - Houston. He has continued working on this project and is one of the founding members of PCIC. He has co-authored multiple publications and presented at numerous conferences.

Kallol received his M.S. in Computer Science Engineering from the University of Texas; his thesis addressed developing agile Electronic Medical Record Systems. He received the Lockheed Martin Aeronautics Award for Outstanding Service and Impact at the University. He worked with Process Data Control Corporation as a software solutions architect for 10 years, consulting with Fortune 500 oil and gas and manufacturing companies. He also holds a Bachelor of Technology in Chemical Engineering.

In his spare time Kallol enjoys photography and traveling.

S. Eric Lobpries II

DevOps & Support Engineer

At PCIC, Eric Lobpries manages IT operations and infrastructure. He is constantly improving our complex application and database structure through his technical expertise. Eric is responsible for security and systems training for staff, information security, leveraging cloud resources and implementing quality assurance for systems and code through analytics. While working at PCIC, he constructed the virtual server and networking system. In addition, he developed the Computer Security Incident Response Plan and Disaster Recovery Plan to ensure preparedness.

Always willing to help, Eric is frequently troubleshooting IT issues that arise with various company resources. These include SharePoint Online, Office 365, Azure Active Directory, Microsoft Azure and other enterprise solutions. Along with support, Eric also provides technical support to our external users.

Eric enjoys coaching and watching his daughters play soccer. When reading, he prefers science fiction and tech articles. Eric has a collection of old maps. His favorites are a pull-down classroom map from the 1920s and a map of his family's homeland, Austria, from the 1890s. Finally, he also spends time volunteering at his kids' schools.

Puneeth Umesh Bharadwaj

Developer

Puneeth is a software developer working on Microsoft.NET framework, StreetEMR, Data Visualisation and ad-hoc projects.

He likes traveling, especially hiking, trekking, camping and basically any outdoor activity. On a typical day, he either walks or runs to rack up step counter. Food is his thing and he goes in search of vegetarian or egg based food and good coffee on weekends. He binge watches TV Shows, Anime and YouTube. Books are his personal way to escape from the fast pace of his work at PCIC.

Andy Grimbergen

Care Coordinator

As part of the Intervention Team, Andy Grimbergen advocates on behalf of our clients - connecting them to medical and social resources needed to improve quality of life. Andy with the intervention team walks alongside them as they begin building new support structures within the community. Issues addressed include: accessing consistent, affordable primary care and specialty physicians, understanding how to manage chronic illness within the home, accessing home health providers and nurses, organizing reliable medical transportation, and setting up stable, affordable housing if needed. Our work is guided by our clients' personal goals to create sustainable plans for long-term health and wellbeing.

Andy is a California native who moved to Houston in 2011. She graduated from Rice University in 2015 and plans to pursue a MD/MPH with a focus on improving healthcare accessibility.

David Finn

Board Secretary
Executive Vice President, Governance, Risk, Compliance for First Health Advisory

David Finn, CISA, CISM, CRISC is the Executive Vice President overseeing Governance, Risk, and Compliance at First Health Advisory. Formerly Executive Vice President for Cynergistek, Inc., David has been involved in leading the planning, management, and control of enterprise-wide, mission-critical information technology and business processes for more than 30 years. His unique experience in risk management and control objectives of technology (including audit, security, and privacy) allows him a distinctive perspective in the design and implementation of business applications and the processes that the technology must support. David is focused on using technology as an enabler of operating efficiency and deriving business value through the optimization and control of technology. He is known for creatively engaging all types of audiences, conveying messages that even change-resistant users listen to and remember.

David has presented nationally and internationally on such topics as project management, professional leadership and staff development, and privacy and security. He has contributed to or written articles on IT Management, Disaster Recovery and Security for such as journals as CIO Digest and Baseline.

David holds a BA degree from the University of North Dakota and an MA from Angelo State University. In the past, he has served on the national Board of HIMSS and on the Privacy and Security Committee of HIMSS, as well as on the CHIME Board of Trustees and on the Information Systems Audit and Control Association's (ISACA's) Professional Influence and Advocacy Committee (PIAC). He is a charter mentor of HIMSS' executive mentoring program.

Richard Lee

Board Treasurer
AVP and CFO Cook Children's Health Plan UT Dallas

Richard is responsible for the Finance, Analytics and Internal Audit functions at CHC. He currently oversees a budget of $700 million in revenue.

Richard has over 15 years of experience in the managed care industry.  Prior to joining CHC in 2002 as the Controller, Richard served as Senior Financial Analyst with MethodistCare, as well as a Financial Analyst with Aetna US Healthcare and as an Accountant with New Era Life Insurance Company.

Richard is a graduate of Tunghai University in Taichung, Taiwan with a Bachelor of Business Administration in Accounting.  He also holds a Masters in Accounting from the University of Texas at Dallas.

Richard is also a Certified Public Acountant and received his Fellow, Life Management Institute Designation in 1996. 

Rodney C. Dykehouse

Strategy Committee

Rodney C. Dykehouse brings more than 28 years of experience as a CIO in healthcare. Currently, he is President and Founder of CIO Consulting, LLC and provides interim CIO advisory and consulting support to healthcare organizations through this role. Most recently he served as SVP, CIO for Penn State Health and Penn State Hershey Medical Center and College of Medicine. Penn State Health and Penn State College of Medicine comprise an academic health system that includes a tertiary care hospital, a children’s hospital, a community hospital in Reading, and a large academic medical group of 1,400+ providers in 65+ locations. As CIO, he was responsible for the effective deployment, adoption, use, and support of information technologies across the entire clinical, academic and research enterprise.

Rodney brings extensive experience as a CIO in both academic medical centers and large health care systems. He previously served as CIO for both UCLA Medical Sciences, and Froedtert Health System, an academic partner of the Medical College of Wisconsin. At UCLA, he oversaw IT for the organizations’ medical centers, faculty practice groups and schools of medicine, including IT support for research initiatives. He also holds CIO experience with large health systems, including St. John Health System in Detroit, Michigan, and ProHealth Care in Waukesha, Wisconsin.

Annise Parker

Board Member
Former Mayor of Houston

DeeAndrea Phillips

Administrator Coordinator II

In her career, DeeAndrea has provided administrative and patient care support throughout the Houston Medical Center including Baylor College of Medicine Department of Surgery, The Methodist Hospital in Cardiovascular Surgery, and as an Executive Secretary in Internal Medicine.  She joined the PCIC team in February 2016.

DeeAndrea completed a B.S. in Psychology at the University of Houston Downtown. She brings forth effort and experienced support to the PCIC team to help improve healthcare for our clients.

Susan MacDonald

Board Member
Former Exec. Vice President, Texas Children's Hospital

Susan MacDonald is a Registered Nurse with over 35 years of clinical and administrative leadership in hospital settings. Most recently, she served as former Executive Vice President at Texas Children’s with responsibility for inpatient clinical care, research, and quality/safety programs across the system. In her tenure she guided the expansion of outpatient subspecialty clinics, including five Health Centers located around the city. She led the strategic assessment, development and opening of Texas Children’s West Campus, Houston’s first community hospital designed, built and equipped exclusively for children. MacDonald also led the negotiation of the 20-year affiliation agreement with a children’s hospital in Central Texas.

Throughout her career, she has provided operational oversight with strong financial performance for assigned areas of responsibility. MacDonald has led many strategic planning efforts during her leadership career. Most importantly, she has fostered an environment of teamwork, collaboration, and talent development at all levels of the organization.

Li Gai

Senior Data Analyst

Li Gai is a Data Analyst at PCIC and joined PCIC in August, 2015. As part of her graduate course work, she worked on a project to visualize data and build dashboards for data discovery and patient selection. Upon completing her graduate degree in Business Analytics at Southern Methodist University, Dallas, she joined the PCIC technology team to pursue her passion in data analytics in the public health arena.

As data analyst, Li works with SQL database design, ETL, database management, dashboard development and reporting. She also assists in application backend development and testing.

Aside from her passion in data and analytics, Li enjoys hiking, gardening and spending time with her pet turtles.

Swetha Kiledar Siddaramappa

Senior Software Engineer

Swetha is a Senior Software Engineer at PCIC. She joined PCIC in October 2016. She is currently working on development activities related to PCIC's rebranding and the design and development of our StreetEMR dashboard. She aims to excel in UI/UX areas and is also working towards implementing predictive analysis at PCIC with Azure Machine Learning. Swetha earned her Master's degree in Computer Science from University of Texas at Arlington in 2016.

In her free time, Swetha spends most of the time experimenting with cooking, watching movies or traveling to serene places to enjoy nature at its best.

Michael Walton

Research - Strategy

Michael Walton, M.Phil. has taught development economics at the Harvard Kennedy School of Government since 2004. Prior to this he worked for 20 years at the World Bank, including as Director for Poverty Reduction, Chief Economist for East Asia, and director of two World Development Reports. He has extensive experience of strategy work and of both RCT and mixed method research.

Isabel Guerrero

Research - Economics and Psychology

Isabel Guerrero, M.S. volunteers in PCIC Research projects bringing decades of experience in international development, most recently as the Vice President of the World Bank South Asia Region, where she managed a loan portfolio of $39 billion and an administrative budget of $150 million. She is an economist from London School of Economics and a psychoanalyst trained at the Washington Psychoanalytic Society. Isabel teaches on Scaling Up for Development Impact at Harvard and is a Senior Lecturer in leadership at MIT.

Zachary Green

Research - Group Relations Consultant

Zachary Green, Ph.D. is a volunteer consultant who brings 30 years of experience working with grassroots organizations, helping them unleash possibilities and reach their deeper potential. He has a PhD in Clinical and Community Psychology from Boston University, and M.Ed. in Counseling from Cleveland University. He is an executive coach, Professor of Practice and the Associate Director of the Leadership Institute at the University of San Diego.

Scott Hickey

Research - Psychologist/Psychometrician

Scott Hickey, PhD is a clinical psychologist currently employed as the Director of Outcomes Management for Texas’ largest public mental health agency. In his 20 years as a program evaluator he has published in peer–reviewed journals and has given numerous conference presentations. He has developed and maintained an interest in evaluating interventions from a systems point of view.

Janick Bridges

Nurse Practitioner

Janick Bridges is an experienced nurse practitioner and works as a resource for the PCIC intervention team. Her role includes participating in outreach to meet clients and providing education to clients and staff in regards to medical issues. She also helps develop care plans.

Janick holds a master's degree as a family nurse practitioner (FNP) from Texas Woman's University and earned a post-master's as a psychiatric mental health nurse practitioner (PMHNP) from the University of Texas in Arlington.

Janick worked for many years as staff nurse in two large institutions in the Texas medical center in Houston, and has experience working in the emergency room and in critical care.

Janick enjoys working with at risk populations and is currently also working for a clinic that serves primarily people in homelessness in Houston. Janick is interested in providing holistic care.

In her spare time Janick enjoys walking, bicycling and taking Zen classes.

Kate Mallula

Project Manager

Kate Mallula brings 8 years of experience supporting vulnerable populations through the provision of client-centered, trauma-informed interventions and coordination of evidence-based programs. She has worked extensively with families experiencing homelessness, domestic violence, substance abuse, and mental illness and has in-depth training in quantitative analysis, program planning, and evaluation.

With an MPH (Maternal/Child Health) and MSW (Direct Practice in Health) from the University of California, Berkeley, she is committed to pursuing quantitative and qualitative research questions that can improve healthcare interventions and promote the well-being of patients with complex needs. Advocating for more responsive, adaptive systems of care and creating opportunities for patients and their communities to shape interventions are also areas of focus for Kate.

In her capacity as Project Manager at PCIC, Kate will coordinate ongoing research initiatives, in addition to collaborating with the PCIC team and external stakeholders to drive forward novel research and evaluative activities.

Kathryn Reynolds

Communications Specialist

Kathryn has joined PCIC to support internal and external communications. Her responsibilities include developing content for monthly newsletters, supporting PCIC's social media presence, and re-writing pages on the website to make the content more accessible.

Kathryn is an Oregon native who moved to Houston in July. After graduating from Washington University in St. Louis in 2015, she served with AmeriCorps to help found a start-up, urban middle school in Denver, CO. Looking ahead, Kathryn hopes to pursue a dual MBA/MPH. Ultimately, her goal is to run a public health organization that informs health policy.

In her free time, Kathryn can be found painting along to Bob Ross, playing sand volleyball, and avoiding mosquitoes as she intrepidly explores Houston's nature trails.

Wesley Yin

Economic Researcher

As an Economic Researcher for PCIC, Wesley Yin is responsible for leading efforts to evaluate coordinated care initiatives, and providing strategic guidance on research and evaluation at PCIC. He is an Associate Professor at the UCLA’s Luskin School of Public Policy and Anderson School of Management, and is a Faculty Research Fellow at the National Bureau of Economic Research.

Yin’s academic research focuses on health care delivery, insurance markets, consumer finance and economic inequality. His work has been published in top academic outlets including the Quarterly Journal of Economics, Review of Economics and Statistics, and Annals of Internal Medicine. His work and commentary has received coverage in the Washington Post, the New Yorker and Vox.

Prior to coming to UCLA, Yin served in the Obama Administration as Acting Assistant Secretary of Economic Policy at the Department of Treasury, and Senior Economist in the White House Council of Economic Advisers. He was also a Robert Wood Johnson Scholar in Health Policy at Harvard University. Yin received a PhD in economics from Princeton University.

Taylor Palen

Senior Social Worker

As Senior Social Worker with the Intervention Team, Taylor Palen works with clients and community stakeholders to navigate the complexities of the health care system. Taylor provides a clinical lens to identify and address barriers to accessing health care services based on the goals, values, and environment of the clients we serve. Taylor has obtained valuable experience working alongside young adults living with HIV/AIDS in Kansas City and adults living with chronic medical and behavioral health concerns in the Bronx which she will utilize in her work with PCIC.

Taylor recently moved to Houston after living in New York and Kansas City. Taylor received her Masters of Social Work from the University of Kansas, which is known for pioneering the Strengths Perspective model of social work, as well as college basketball – ROCK CHALK! In her free time, Taylor enjoys spending time outdoors, exploring Houston, and cheering on her favorite basketball and baseballteams.

Qing Yuan

Data Analyst

Qing Yuan is a data analyst on PCIC's technology team. Data is to her what water is to fish. At PCIC, Qing will interact with the team to translate public healthcare needs into scalable solutions. She will design ETL processes, perform SQL queries, and develop analytics dashboards to help PCIC's stakeholders to make data-informed decisions. Qing holds an M.S. in Information Technology and Management from the University of Texas at Dallas and holds a B.S. in Mathematical Economics from Northwest University (China). She comes to PCIC equipped with knowledge in programming, big data, and machine learning. At PCIC, she is focusing on how technologies can better serve the healthcare industry.

In her spare time, Qing likes reading, traveling, and tasting foods from different places. She also enjoys making healthy foods and exercising to keep fit.

Victoria Bryant

Sr. Medical Social Worker

Victoria is the Sr. Medical Social Worker at PCIC and joined in July 2018. She is a key member of the Care Coordination team and assists with coordinating and prioritizing daily tasks, remaining up-to-date of best practices to meet the needs of our clients, identifying and enrolling new clients, developing care coordination plans, and monitoring client progress.

Victoria received her Bachelor of Science degree in Social Work from Texas Southern University in Houston, Texas and holds a Master's in Social Work from Western New Mexico University in Silver City, New Mexico. She has a diverse social work background working with children and families, community engagement, and the affordable housing industry among others.

In her free time, Victoria enjoys road trips, old movies and reading books from Bill Gates reading lists.

Homa Koohi

Intern of IMAGO Grassroots in PCIC

Homa is an Intern of IMAGO Grassroots in PCIC. She is using System Dynamics tools and exploratory research methods to model growth of PCIC over time and identify leverage point for change.

Homa is currently pursuing her master’s degree in Public Administration, International Development (MPA/ID) at Harvard Kennedy School of Government. Before joining Kennedy school, Homa was a Research Assistant at MIT, Sloan School of Management. In that role, she investigated how retail industry corporations can transition effectively from “bad jobs strategy” to “good jobs strategy”, in which employees have higher wages, more predictable schedules and more advancement opportunities. In this research, Homa focused on designing and developing human subject experiments to understand barriers to effective implementation of this transition.

Previously, Homa has worked with several educational non-profits in Iran, including Asemaan, where she worked as an executive and project manager, developing systems thinking skills in young children. Homa holds a B.Sc. in Electrical Engineering and Master of Business Administration (MBA) from Sharif University of Technology, Iran.

Fayz Quadri

Intern

Fayz joined PCIC in May 2018. I shadow the street outreach team with an effort to improve the StreetEMR platform and dashboard. Furthermore, he aims to identify some of the unique social determinants among homeless individuals with a desire to find new and integrative ways to make the testing platform more applicable to the greater homeless population of Houston. He will earn his Bachelor's of Arts in Economics from The University of Texas at Austin in May 2019 and plans on attending medical school.

In his free time, he enjoys spending time with my family and friends. He has a huge passion for sports, basketball being his favorite. Go Rockets! He also enjoys watching TV shows and movies, his favorite being Game of Thrones and The Dark Knight, respectively.

Andrea Link

Director of Clinical Integration

Andrea Link, MD joined the PCIC team in July of 2018 as the Director of Clinical Integration. In this role, she is responsible for guiding the implementation and execution of the model and training the intervention team members. She also provides supervision and support to the intervention team, especially in the area of client enrollment and prioritizing of goals based on medical acuity.

Andrea did her medical training and residency in pediatrics at Stanford University School of Medicine. After several years as a pediatrician with Texas Children's Hospital, she had a shift in her clinical interests and spent three years working with incarcerated women at Harris County Jail as part of Healthcare for the Homeless Houston’s Jail Inreach Program. From her experiences working with these women, she developed "Healthy and Whole," an innovative and award-winning program which provides women exiting prostitution and incarceration with comprehensive trauma-informed health and wellness programming. She is Board Chair of the Albert Schweitzer Fellowship Houston-Galveston and a member of the New Hope Housing and I Am Waters boards.

In her spare time, she enjoys watching her 15 year old son and 20 year old daughter perform in musicals and operas, and travels every chance she gets with her husband and children. She also loves learning new languages and is currently studying German and French.

Osama I. Mikhail, PhD

AVP, Health Affairs at the University of Texas at El Paso
Professor, Department of Management, Policy and Community Health at University of Texas, School of Public Health

Dr. Mikhail is currently AVP, Health Affairs at the University of Texas in El Paso (UTEP) and has served as interim dean of the College of Health Sciences at UTEP. He is a professor of management and policy sciences at the School of Public Health at the University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston having joined the School in 1989. In addition, Dr. Mikhail served as interim dean of the School of Public Health in Houston. He also served as senior vice president, strategic planning at The University of Texas, Health Science Center-Houston from 2007 through 2017, and in 2016 spent seven months evaluating UTMB’s efforts in population health. From 1989 until January 2007, Dr. Mikhail served in a number of capacities at St. Luke’s Episcopal Health System in Houston (prior to its sale to CHI), primarily as the chief strategic officer – most recently as senior vice president, planning, development & academic affairs with oversight responsibility for Kelsey-Seybold Management Services and Episcopal Health Charities. Under St. Luke’s affiliation agreement with Baylor College of Medicine, he chaired the Joint Management Council in 2004-05.

Dr. Mikhail started his professional career in 1973 as a senior operations research analyst and project manager for Continental Bank in Chicago. He later served as director, financial systems and assistant vice president for product development at Mellon bank in Pittsburgh, and as a corporate planner for the Mead Corporation in Dayton, Ohio. In 1981 he was appointed director of strategic planning for Eli Lilly International in Indianapolis, Indiana, and in 1985 joined the Sisters of Charity Health Care System in Houston as senior vice president, corporate strategy.

Dr. Mikhail received a B.S. in math/physics from the American University of Beirut in Lebanon, an M.B.A. in finance from the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School, and an M.S. and Ph.D. in industrial administration/systems sciences from the Graduate School of Industrial Administration at Carnegie-Mellon University in Pittsburgh.

Dr. Mikhail has been a consultant to a number of healthcare organizations including Duke and Vanderbilt University Medical Centers, Westchester Medical Center in New York and to a number of physician groups in the Houston area. During 2006 and 2007, he served as project director, curriculum development for the Center for Healthcare Governance (an AHA affiliate). He has also served as president of the board of Northwest Assistance Ministries, a community-based organization providing health and social services to northwest Houston, and as a board member and board chairman of Tanox, Inc., a public (NASDAQ) biotech company headquartered in Houston and acquired by Genentech in August 2007.

Jamika Josey

Volunteer Intern

Jamika joined PCIC September 2018 as a volunteer intern with the Care Coordination team.

She will earn her Bachelor of Arts in social work from Texas Southern University in May 2019 and plans on getting her Master’s in social work at University of Houston.

In her free time Jamika enjoys traveling with her family to exotic places out of the country and running marathons.

Brian Lima

Volunteer Intern

Brian joined PCIC in September 2018 as a volunteer intern with the Care Coordination team.

He received his Bachelor of Science degree in Psychology from University of Houston. He worked as an Emergency Medical Technician for a few months and currently works as a Patient Care Technician in the emergency department of Memorial Hermann Southwest. He did volunteer work at Healthcare for the Homeless(HHH) which was his first experience with working with the homeless and gaining knowledge of the type of services that exist for them. He received an Outstanding Volunteer award for his work at HHH. He is currently working to attend medical school to have a greater contribution to the needs of the underserved community.

In his free time, he likes to travel, run, do indoor rock climbing and play the guitar.

Charday Foster

Medical Social Worker

Charday Foster joined PCIC in October 2018 as a Medical Social Worker within the Care Coordination and Intervention Team. Charday provides values-based case management and care coordination to clients with complex healthcare needs while supporting them accomplish their care plan goals. Charday also monitors client progress throughout the intervention and helps facilitate access to community resources.

Charday holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in Psychology from the University of California, Riverside and received her Master of Social Work (MSW) degree from the University of Southern California. Her previous experience includes case management with children, families and older adults. While in graduate school, Charday designated her studies within the Health concentration and completed her second year internship in a hospital working several medical floors as a Medical Social Work Intern (NICU, Oncology, ICU).

To practice self-care, Charday writes poetry and enjoys working out at her boxing gym. Charday also enjoys playing co-rec softball and attending Polynesian dance classes. Charday is originally from Oakland, CA so she is currently enjoying exploring her new home city of Houston and familiarizing herself with this great city.

Srivalli Karra

Software Developer

Srivalli earned her Bachelor's in Computer Science. Prior to joining PCIC in 2018, she worked on development of products for embedded platforms. She will use this experience, along with her interest in helping people lead healthier lives, in building products for PCIC. She will be working on the development of PCIC's Community Care Coordination and Data Exchange platforms for the Unified Care Continuum Platform product. She is keen on gaining the business insight by analyzing the data and aim to pursue Data Analytics, Machine Learning and Management Skills.

In her free time, Srivalli enjoys listening to music, reading novels and spending time outdoors.

Markisa Holmes

Patient Navigator

Markisa comes to PCIC with a wide variety of healthcare experience, ranging from Community Outreach to working with a number of health insurance plans. She is currently pursuing her Bachelor’s Degree from AIU in Criminal Justice, with a minor in Social Work.

Markisa is originally from Flint, Michigan where she worked with a Federal Qualified Health Center as the Homeless Outreach Coordinator. Upon relocating to Houston, Texas, in 2012 she advanced her career by working with numerous Texas Health Plans such as Amerigroup, Molina and Aetna.

Now, as the Patient Navigator at PCIC, Markisa will have a unique role in patient care: She will build working relationships, solve problems and support patients while they learn to self-navigate the health care system.

Sophiya Das

Policy Analyst

Sophiya Das, PhD joined the PCIC team in January 2019 as a Policy Analyst. In her role, she assists with the coordination of key projects with external partners and helps with grant preparations. In addition to helping with the strategic development of project initiatives, she is involved in building the research capacity of the organization with a focus on identifying health barriers for High-Need, High-Cost patients.

Sophiya holds a Doctoral degree in Political Science (Public Policy) from the University of Houston. Her dissertation analyzed the institution-level influence enjoyed by the pharmaceutical and healthcare organizations on the Food and Drug Administration. She has presented her work in numerous conferences and worked on multiple papers. Sophiya also holds Bachelors and Masters degrees in Economics. During her Undergraduate years, she worked with a nonprofit organization geared towards helping underprivileged children in India.

Reading is her passion. In her free time, she loves to read anything, ranging from academic journals to fiction bestsellers. Netflix also rates high on her list.

Judie Cross

Associate Director of Business Development

Judie has joined PCIC to lead the expansion of products and services in Houston and into new markets. Her responsibilities include identifying, evaluating, structuring, and selling strategic business alliances and partnerships with large anchor clients to build PCIC’s network of community partners, with a strong emphasis on large hospitals, health systems, local governments, and social service providers.

Judie will be using her career experiences and skills in sales and business development in the commercial interior spaces and legal industries to cultivate relationships with key providers. She began her career with Wilson Business Products and Services, where she started as the secretary to the Vice President. She ended her furniture dealership career at McCoy, Inc. as the Vice President of Customer Service. Judie worked for large law firms in Houston, with an emphasis on business development and attorney coaching.

When not focused on her career, Judie enjoys spending time with her teenage daughter, going to movies, and eating out at Houston’s wonderful restaurants.

Tara Pitts

Medical Social Worker

Tara received her Bachelor of Arts in Social Work from Texas Southern University in May 2018. While attending school, she interned as a case manager at The Beacon, a non-profit organization that serves the Houston homeless community, working in Brigid’s Hope, a program which assists women with transitioning from incarceration to self-sufficiency. After graduation, she worked in disaster case management assisting families with recovery from Hurricane Harvey. Beginning in August 2019, Tara plans on pursuing master’s degree in social work from the University of Texas at Arlington.

In her spare time, Tara likes to spend quality time with her family, listen to music, and watch action movies.

Angie Pennington

Marketing, Media, Communications

Angie joined PCIC as a Content Developer in July 2024. With over 10 years of experience in marketing, technical writing, and business writing across private and public sectors, Angie is the team’s go-to source to ensure that PCIC’s mission reaches the people it can help most.

Angie is a PhD student in the Technical Communication & Rhetoric program at Texas Tech University (Go Raiders!). Her research there focuses on how highly regulated organizations such as PCIC and its partners are leveraging artificial intelligence (AI) for their workplace writing, and how they are training their teams on how to write with AI ethically and legally.

Outside of work and school, Angie loves to travel, play video games, volunteer in the community, and spend time with her partner Joe and her cat Psychie.

Mengjia Joyce Zhou

Senior Data Analyst

Joyce Zhou joined PCIC in October 2019 as a Senior Data Analyst with the technology team.

Joyce received her Master’s degree from Virginia Commonwealth University in Information System. She has over 10 years of experience in data analysis, data modeling, manipulation, dashboard design, ad hoc analysis and reporting.

Joyce worked in the banking industry and shifted to public health related analysis and research. She joined PCIC to further her desire to help change lives and quality of life, by interpreting data, identifying trends and finding the story.

In her leisure time, Joyce spends a lot of time traveling, reading, and watching movies with her family and friends. She is also an advocate of simple living and protecting the environment through minimal usage of plastic bags and non-recyclable items.

Jacky Chan

Jr. Data Analyst

Jacky Chan joined PCIC in March 2020 as a part time Data Science intern with the Student Work program from University of Houston.

Jacky graduated in May 2020 with Bachelor of Science in Computer Science. Although He is majoring in computer science, He has always found himself being more passionate in data. He is curious to explore what insights can be distilled from massive data, and how they can beneficial for wide-spread use, especially in a public health context.

In his spare time Jacky enjoys watching and playing basketball. He is a huge Miami Heat fan.

Sasha Green

Social Work Intern, Texas Southern University

Sasha joined PCIC as Intern Social Work in September 2024. With her knowledge and supervision from Ms. Tara Pitts, MSW where she can integrate her skills, while demonstrating ethical standards in the social work profession. Her main project while interning at PCIC will be verifying resources and referrals through the Community Resource Exchange (CRX).

Sasha is a Bachelor Social Work Candidate for 2025 at Texas Southern University (Go Tigers!). Her studies there have prepared her to apply skills in her profession. She has experience working with individuals with intellectual disabilities and currently the Program Director at 1 Care Premier Services, a Home and Community Based Services & Texas Home Living Agency. Her ultimate career goals are to open a non-profit organization for underprivileged youth in New Orleans, Louisiana where she is originally from.

Outside of work and school, Sasha loves to spend time with her family, try new restaurants, go for walks, commit to volunteer opportunities, online shopping, and watch suspense movies.

Jaeden Bessellieu

Social Work Intern, Texas Southern University

Jaeden Bessellieu is an undergraduate student at Texas Southern University, pursuing a degree in Social Work with the goal of working in the Department of Veterans Affairs. She is passionate about supporting veterans and is particularly interested in the role of marketing in social services, using social media to raise awareness and foster community engagement.

Outside of academics, she enjoys poetry, journaling, and connecting with nature. Currently, she is gaining hands-on experience at the Patient Care Intervention Center, applying her skills in patient care and advocacy. Jaeden is excited to continue her journey in social work and make a meaningful impact in the lives of others.

Komal Patel

Senior Software Developer

Komal Patel joined PCIC in May 2021 as a Sr. Software Developer. At PCIC she is contributing towards the development and design of the UCCP software platform. She earned her master's degree in computer science from Prairie View A & M University.

Komal likes to utilize her spare time doing arts & crafts and engaging in waste- management projects. She enjoys cooking, playing games with her family and friends and traveling to explore new places.

Shanthi Ragu

Senior Software Developer

Shanthi started working at PCIC in Oct 2021. She will be supporting PCIC's products in her role as Sr. Software Developer. She has extensive experience in software development using Microsoft technologies across multiple industries. Shanthi has earned MBA in Informations Management. She wants to learn and explore Data Science and Analytics.

In her personal time, she listens to music, cycles and meditates.

Lisa Dahm

Board Member
Attorney at Law, Adjunct Professor, South Texas College of Law-Houston

Ms. Dahm spent more than 20 years in all facets of the healthcare information systems business prior to attending law school. Immediately following her graduation from South Texas College of Law-Houston, she worked as an in-house counsel for Memorial Hermann Healthcare System where she was responsible for drafting and negotiating system agreements, drafting system-wide policies and procedures, developing the System’s Corporate Compliance Program, and coordinating outside defense counsel.

Three years later, Ms. Dahm joined Deloitte & Touche as a Senior Manager, where she focused her practice on providing healthcare compliance consulting services and services related to the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (“HIPAA”). She was a member of the firm’s National Healthcare Regulatory Practice and a co-founder of the firm’s HIPAA advisory and consulting services practice. Ms. Dahm also worked for over 8 years as an Assistant County Attorney at Harris County Attorney's Office and was the County’s Privacy Officer.

Ms. Dahm has written numerous articles and papers on HIPAA as well as other legal topics, and is a frequent speaker at healthcare, HIPAA, and legal regional and national conferences across the United States.

Presently, Ms. Dahm is an Adjunct Professor at South Texas College of Law-Houston where she teaches Health Law, Privacy Law, and the Transactional Skills courses. She also has a solo practice focused on health law, employment law, information technology and data sharing, privacy, including HIPAA, and contract negotiations and drafting.

SreyRam Kuy

Board Member
Assistant Professor of Surgery, Baylor College of Medicine

Dr. SreyRam Kuy's work has spanned from serving as Deputy Under Secretary for Health at the Department of Veterans Affairs, managing a $14.5 billion budget and 7,300 staff providing access to Community Care for the veterans VA serves nationwide, to leading state level efforts as Chief Medical Officer for Louisiana Medicaid in a $10.7 billion health system providing managed care for 1.6 million patients.

Dr. Kuy trained as a Robert Wood Johnson Clinical Scholar at Yale, Presidential Leadership Scholar, Eisenhower Fellow, Kaiser Family Foundation Health Policy Scholar in the US Senate, American College of Surgeons Health Policy Scholar at Brandeis and Aspen Institute Health Innovators Fellow. She has published widely on quality, safety, and health policy in NEJM Catalyst, JAMA Open, JAMA Surgery and has written for the lay public in the Los Angeles Times, Washington Post, USA Today, Salon and Huffington Post.

As a practicing general surgeon, Dr. Kuy brings clinical experience from the bedside and the operating room to her leadership as a healthcare executive, educator, and researcher.

With two decades of experience in the VA, beginning as a medical student, and continuing throughout her career as a resident, fellow, VA staff surgeon, VA Medical Center Associate Chief of Staff, Deputy Under Secretary and Advisor to the VA Secretary, Dr. Kuy is passionate about serving our nation's veterans and committed to caring for vulnerable populations.

Harshit Dave

Senior Software Developer

Harshit joined PCIC in December 2021 as a Senior Software Developer. His role at PCIC is to provide continuous support and development of the Unified Care Continuum Platform. Harshit earned his Master’s degree in Management Information Systems from University of Houston Clear-Lake. Prior to PCIC, he worked in the law enforcement Industry as a Software Developer for 9 years. He will utilize his experience for the development of PCIC’s products. Harshit likes to learn new technologies and improve his skill sets.

In his leisure time, he likes to spend time with family and friends, listen music, watching movies, travel and play games.

Ethan Yeh

Strategy Committee

Ethan is a data science and technology executive, angel investor, and startup advisor. He is currently Adjunct Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Rice University. He was formerly Head of Data Science at Stripe, responsible for machine learning, experimentation, analytics, and data engineering, where he grew the team from 3 to 100.

Previously, he led data science teams at Twitter across user growth and revenue, and worked on global health and HIV at the World Bank. Ethan received an undergraduate degree from Harvard College and a Ph.D. in Economics from the University of California at Berkeley.

Rodney C. Dykehouse

Strategy Committee

Rodney C. Dykehouse brings more than 28 years of experience as a CIO in healthcare. Currently, he is President and Founder of CIO Consulting, LLC and provides interim CIO advisory and consulting support to healthcare organizations through this role. Most recently he served as SVP, CIO for Penn State Health and Penn State Hershey Medical Center and College of Medicine. Penn State Health and Penn State College of Medicine comprise an academic health system that includes a tertiary care hospital, a children’s hospital, a community hospital in Reading, and a large academic medical group of 1,400+ providers in 65+ locations. As CIO, he was responsible for the effective deployment, adoption, use, and support of information technologies across the entire clinical, academic and research enterprise.

Rodney brings extensive experience as a CIO in both academic medical centers and large health care systems. He previously served as CIO for both UCLA Medical Sciences, and Froedtert Health System, an academic partner of the Medical College of Wisconsin. At UCLA, he oversaw IT for the organizations’ medical centers, faculty practice groups and schools of medicine, including IT support for research initiatives. He also holds CIO experience with large health systems, including St. John Health System in Detroit, Michigan, and ProHealth Care in Waukesha, Wisconsin.

Tray Cockerell

Chief Growth Officer, PCIC

Tray Cockerell joins the PCIC team as the Chief Growth Officer. As CGO, he helps establish and support PCIC's scaling efforts through strategic investment opportunities and comprehensive branding and marketing initiatives.

Tray brings over two decades experience in healthcare- most recently as a senior executive working in Humana’s Health Equity and Community Engagement team leading Strategic Academic Relationships. Previously he has collaborated with the University of Houston to support the start-up of a new medical school and to help integrate the existing clinical colleges in an inter-professional model that leverages Humana’s clinical expertise and application of value-based care payment innovation and integrated care delivery. Additionally, he led Humana’s strategic partnership in the University of Louisville Health Equity Innovation Hub in the company’s hometown headquarters of Louisville, Kentucky.

During his twenty-year career at Humana, Mr. Cockerell has led multiple parts of Human Resources, as well as Corporate Policy and Acquisition Integration. He functioned as Chief of Staff for Marketing and Innovation before moving into a broad-based leadership role, working for the Chief Operating Officer and ultimately for the Chief Executive Officer. In this capacity, Mr. Cockerell led work ranging from operational and human capital integration efforts to leading practices for worksite employee health programs and primary care operations development. Notably, Mr. Cockerell architected the start-up, strategy, and operations for Humana’s Population Health efforts, known as the “Bold Goal: To improve the health of the communities we serve by making it easy for people to achieve their best health.”

Zane Burke

Strategy Committee

Zane is the senior operating executive, board member and investor for innovative digital health, healthcare information technology and tech-enabled services companies. Currently he holds positions as CEO of Quantum Health and board member for Owlet, Cotiviti (backed by Veritas Capital), and Bardavon Health Innovations. He formerly served as CEO of Livongo, Inc. and President of Cerner Corporation.

He brings extensive experience guiding healthcare technology enterprises with innovative and disruptive business models. He is an internationally recognized health IT leader, with a clear vision of the future of digital healthcare and a unique understanding of the challenges associated with the current delivery model of healthcare in both the U.S. and international markets.