Associate Dean, Public Health Practice
Jeffrey S Oxendine
141-F University Hall
510-642-2414
925-330-5363 (cel)
oxendine "at" berkeley.edu
Carlin Colbert
Assistant to Associate Dean
141 University Hall
510-642-9870
carlin "at" berkeley.edu
Field Supervisors
Obiel A. Leyva
Field Supervisor for the Maternal and Child Health and Public Health Nutrition
141-D University Hall
(510) 643-7541
obiel "at" berkeley.edu
Jeffrey S Oxendine
Field Supervisor, Health Policy & Management
141-F University Hall
510-642-2414
925-330-5363 (cel)
oxendine "at" berkeley.edu
Ellie Schindelman
Field Supervisor
Isms Initiative & Leadership Development
273 University Hall
510-642-2084
ebs "at" berkeley.edu
Guenet Sebsibe
Field Supervisor, Infectious Diseases and Epidemiology/Biostatistics
141-G University Hall
510-642-9839
guenet_sebsibe "at" berkeley.edu
Internship and Career Services
Ruthann M. Haffke
Career Services Manager
141-H University Hall
510-642-0431
haffke "at" berkeley.edu
Cathy Torres Mercado
Practice Coordinator
141 Unversity Hall
510-643-0970
ctm "at" berkeley.edu
Applied Community Research & Evaluation (ACRE)
Maria Hernandez
Director, ACRE
141-E University Hall
maria.hernandez "at" berkeley.edu
Sona R. Saha, MPH
Epidemiologist & Associate Field Supervisor
141-G University Hall
510-869-8489
ssaha "at" berkeley.edu
Jeffrey S. Oxendine, MBA, MPH,is Associate Dean for Public Health Practice and Executive Director of the Center for Public Health Practice. He is also a Lecturer in the SPH Health Policy and Management program and the Haas School of Business Graduate Program in Health Management. In addition, he is the Field Supervisor for Health Policy and Management program.
Jeff has been an executive, educator and consultant in healthcare for 24 years. Prior to joining UC Berkeley, Jeff held senior administrative positions in leading hospitals and medical groups including Partners Healthcare System, Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Bay Imaging Consultants Medical Group and Alta Bates Medical Center. Jeff has taught health policy and management for over 10 years including 5 years at Harvard School of Public Health, and is a Steering Committee member of the Alameda County Coalition on Language Access in Healthcare. He also started and operates his own consulting practice.
Jeff is the founder and President of Health Career Connection, a nonprofit dedicated to assisting undergraduate students to discover and pursue health careers, and to increasing diversity in the health professions.
Jeff obtained his masters degrees in Business and Public Health from UC Berkeley. He has served as President of the Berkeley Health Management Alumni Association and President of Healthcare Executives of Northern California. He is a board member of the Kaiser Permanente National Institute for Culturally Competent Care and also the Community Health Academy in Oakland.
Ruthann Haffke, MS, NCC,is the Career Services Manager for the School of Public Health. She has over 15 years of experience working in career services and helping students achieve their life goals. She has worked with college students in a variety of settings including UC Berkeley, UC Santa Barbara, San Francisco State University, and California College of the Arts. In her role as the Career Services Manager for the School of Public Health, Ruthann develops and implements customized career services for SPH students and alumni including workshops, online job listings, individualized appointments, and industry information. She assists students with resumes, cover letters, interviewing skills, job search strategies, career exploration and decision making. Before working for the School of Public Health, Ruthann spent nine years providing career counseling at the UC Berkeley Career Center. While employed at UC Berkeley, she has received the Chancellor's Outstanding Staff Award and the Distinguished Service Award. Ruthann is a National Certified Counselor (NCC), and received her MS in Career and College Counseling from San Francisco State University and BA in Sociology from UC Santa Barbara.
Obiel Leyva, MPH, is the Field Supervisor for the Maternal and Child Health and Public Health Nutrition programs. Prior to joining CPHP, Obiel was the Associate Program Officer for the Community Health Program at the San Francisco Foundation. Obiel has extensive public health, community organizing, and health education training and skills which he has used in his work with underserved, low-income, and/or communities of color on various health issues (HIV/AIDS, diabetes, reproductive health, etc.). Understanding the importance of accessible healthcare services as an immigrant from Mexico, Obiel has played an important leadership role in the creation and delivery of culturally and linguistically competent health care services for Bay Area residents. Currently, Obiel serves as the Chair of the Board of Directors of SalvaSIDA, Inc., a nonprofit organization whose mission is to improve the health and healthcare of Latinos/as living with HIV/AIDS in Alameda County. Obiel received his BA from UC Berkeley in 1990 and his MPH from UCLA in 1995.
Sona R. Saha, MPH is an Associate Field Supervisor with the Center for Public Health Practice. Ms. Saha also currently serves as the Director of the East Bay AIDS Research Institute, a community academic partnership linking the two largest sites for HIV care in the East Bay (the East Bay AIDS Center at Alta Bates Summit Medical Center and the Alameda County Medical Center) with the University of California. The mission of EBARI is to advance the scientific understanding of HIV/AIDS in the understudied and underserved populations of the East Bay. Ms. Saha received her MPH in Infectious Diseases from the University of California, Berkeley, and is currently a PhD candidate in Epidemiology, focusing on the epidemiology of gastrointestinal illness among HIV-infected individuals and the development of microarrays for the detection of enteric pathogens. Her research interests include social support and adherence to antiretroviral medications, integration of HIV rapid testing in clinical care settings, and determinants of late presentation for HIV treatment. She has also served in leadership roles in community based organizations, including on the Board of Directors of Narika, a South Asian domestic violence agency. Narika seeks to address the unmet needs of South Asian women and children confronting abuse and violence by providing advocacy, support, and referrals within a linguistically and culturally sensitive model.
Guenet Sebsibe, MD, MPH is the Field Supervisor for the Infectious Disease and Epidemiology/Biostatistics programs. Prior to attending the UC Berkeley SPH, Guenet, got her MD degree and practiced clinical medicine in Ethiopia. Her experiences range from studying the prevalence of Schistosoma Mansoni in the highlands of Ethiopia to ophthalmological research in New York City. After graduating from the MPH program in 1994, she’s been working with local community-based and international organizations in research and program development activities. She’s worked as the Health Services Program Specialist for 4 years with the City of Berkeley Public Health Clinic, developing and managing the anonymous HIV/AIDS/ STI testing and counseling sites. She later joined the Center for Health Improvement at Blue Shield of California for 5 years designing disease management programs and data analysis. In the 2 years prior to joining CPHP, she worked as the Cultural & Linguistics Services Manager and QI Analyst with Alameda Alliance for Health. She currently serves on the Board of the International Child’s Resource Institute, an international organization located in Berkeley, with multiple projects and contacts all over the world.