Justice, Equity, Diversity & Inclusion

Madhavi Dandu, MD, MPH is a Professor of Medicine at UCSF and the Director of the UC Global Health Institute. She received her undergraduate degree in Comparative Literature and medical degree from the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor. She completed her residency training in the Categorical Medicine Program at UCSF in 2003. Afterward, Dr. Dandu attended the University of California, Berkeley, and received a Masters in Public Health with a focus on international health and health and human rights. At UCSF, Dr. Dandu spends time in the inpatient clinical services supervising and teaching medical students and residents. Her main non-clinical areas of focus are global health education, curriculum development, and mentorship, especially in the areas of ethics and cultural humility. She has previously directed the Master of Science in Global Health program at UCSF and the Global Health Pathway/Area of Distinction for the Internal Medicine Residency. In addition, she previously co-directed the Global Health Core for the Division of Hospital Medicine and was a senior curriculum adviser for the HEAL Fellowship.

Dr. Dandu continues to pursue her research interests in human rights and global public health. She collaborates with colleagues at UCSF and several community-based organizations to create cultural humility training for public health professionals.

Maxwell Mattern, MS in Higher Education & Student Affairs is the Program Analyst for the UC Global Health Institute. Max joins UCGHI from the Youth Mental Health Academy where he served as the Learning Manager, developing a mental health curriculum for high school students passionate for the field. He also brings his experience from UC Berkeley where he served as Associate Director and Interim Director at New Student Services, facilitating programming yearly for the incoming 10,000 students. Max has more than 7 years of program development and coordination experience.

Melissa Smith, M.D., is a family medicine physician who has worked in primary care clinics in low-income communities in the US and Central America for three decades. Dr. Smith is the Director of Health Equity Initiatives at UC Santa Barbara, where she co-teaches a seminar on Community-based Participatory Research on health disparities, and is involved in collaborative efforts to address health concerns of historically marginalized communities in Santa Barbara County. She is also a member of UCGHI’s Black Lives Matter Task Force.

Dr. Smith has developed culturally sensitive training programs for community health workers and midwives in Nicaragua and Guatemala, and has been engaged in a Participatory Action Research project focused on maternal health in Mexico. She has served as medical editor and writer for Hesperian Health Guides, who produce widely used public health manuals on community health and empowerment. Dr. Smith is lead author of Hesperian's book, Health Actions for Women: Practical Strategies to Mobilize for Change, which is now translated into six languages and accessed by people around the globe on Hesperian’s open-source digital platform.

Dr. Smith obtained a BA from Harvard University and an M.D. from the University of Washington.

Samantha (Sam) Ying is a professor in the Environmental Science Department.  She is passionate about her research, teaching, and, in particular, engagement with her students and community.  She is dedicated to empowering the disadvantaged and ensuring equity for all.  Sam’s research and teaching focus on chemical and biological processes within soils that shape water quality, food security, and the global cycles of critical elements such as carbon and nitrogen.  Her work seeks to provide soil and water management practices for a healthy and sustainable future while training the leaders of tomorrow.   Sam received her B.S. from UC Santa Barbara and Ph.D. from Stanford University; she joined the UCR faculty in 2015.

Stephanie Sumstine-Felice, MPH, is the Communications Specialist for UCGHI. Stephanie joins UCGHI from the UCLA Center for Community Health where she worked as a Project Director for six years working on research studies on substance use, sexual health, and addressing health disparities in historically underserved communities. Stephanie was the Center Coordinator for UCGHI’s Center for Gender and Health Justice (CGHJ) for over five years where she managed communications and the Center’s education and training programs. She has supported the CGHJ’s signature research project on local and global campus-based violence prevention since 2018. She is passionate about health equity, reproductive justice, addiction prevention, and sustainability. Prior to working at UCLA, Stephanie worked on community and place-based evaluation initiatives in Long Beach, including the Building Healthy Communities and Narrative Change Strategy for Youth Investment projects.

Ushma Upadhyay, PhD, MPH is Associate Professor at UCSF and a public health Social Scientist at Advancing New Standards in Reproductive Health (ANSIRH). She is also Co-Director of the University of California Global Health Institute’s Center for Gender & Health Justice. Dr. Upadhyay was born and raised near Boston, Massachusetts. As a person of South Asian descent, primarily raised by her mother who immigrated to the U.S. from Tanzania, she is drawn to reproductive health from a social justice perspective. Dr. Upadhyay has expertise in abortion safety, abortion access in the U.S., medication abortion, and state-level abortion restrictions. Her current research focuses on the safety, efficacy, and acceptability of telehealth for abortion care and how telehealth can increase reproductive equity. She has developed and validated two measures: the Reproductive Autonomy Scale and the Sexual and Reproductive Empowerment Scale for Adolescents and Young Adults, both of which researchers can use to quantitatively measure individual-level power in reproductive outcomes. She co-authored Family Planning: A Global Handbook for Providers, a Johns Hopkins/WHO/USAID publication. She earned a BA in Public Communication and International Studies from American University, her MPH from Columbia University, and her PhD from Johns Hopkins School of Public Health.