Richard Afable, MD, MPH
President and Board Chair of Be Well OC
Adjunct Professor and Lecturer, UC Irvine Paul Merage School of Business
Dr. Afable is currently the President and Board Chair of Be Well OC, a public-private partnership working to improve the mental health for all residents of Orange County, CA. Afable is the retired President and CEO of St. Joseph Hoag Health. He was also previously the President and CEO of Hoag Hospital in Newport Beach. Afable has over 20 years of medical practice experience as a solo, group and academic practitioner. He was Associate Professor of Medicine at Wake Forest University School of Medicine in North Carolina, and Clinical Assistant Professor at Northwestern School of Medicine in Chicago. He is board certified in Internal Medicine with added qualification in Geriatric Medicine. Afable received his BS degree from Loyola University in Chicago and MD from the Loyola Stritch School of Medicine. He obtained a Masters of Public Health degree from the University of Illinois and a Certificate in Business Administration from Villanova University. He is a Fellow of the American College of Physicians. He currently serves as Adjunct Professor and Lecturer at the UC Irvine Merage School of Business in Irvine, CA.
Steve Goldstein, MA, MD, PhD, FAAP
Vice Chancellor, Health Affairs
Distinguished Professor, Departments of Pediatrics, Physiology & Biophysics, and Pharmaceutical Sciences
Susan & Henry Samueli College of Health Sciences and UCI Health
Dr. Steve Goldstein is a nationally renowned physician-scientist, pediatric cardiologist and academic administrator. As Vice Chancellor of Health Affairs at UC Irvine, he oversees the $4.5 billion enterprise comprised of the Susan & Henry Samueli College of Health Sciences, the UC Irvine centers and institutes of health and health care delivery system, UCI Health. He is leading a major expansion rooted in a One Health vision that unites health disciplines through a Discover, Teach and Heal mission to educate the diverse healthcare workforce of the future to provide whole-person, team-based, precision care. Goldstein holds an MD and PhD from Harvard University. He has been a senior leader at Yale University, University of Chicago, Brandeis University and Loyola University; has served as an advisor to the National Institutes of Health, the National Science Foundation and non-profits committed to health; and is the recipient of numerous honors. Read full bio here.
Sachin Jain, MD, MBA
CEO of SCAN Group and SCAN Health Plan
Sachin Jain, MD, MBA is CEO of SCAN Group and SCAN Health Plan, where he is charged with leading the organization’s growth, diversification and emerging efforts to reduce healthcare disparities. Rated number one in customer satisfaction among Medicare Advantage plans in California, SCAN’s revenues top $4.8 billion and the organization serves more than 300,000 members. Dr. Jain graduated magna cum laude from Harvard College, and earned his MD from Harvard Medical School and his MBA from Harvard Business School. He trained in medicine at the Brigham and Women’s Hospital, and earned his board certification from the American Board of Internal Medicine. He is an adjunct Professor of Medicine at the Stanford University School of Medicine and a practicing Academic Hospitalist with the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs. A respected thought leader in healthcare, Jain’s columns for Forbes are widely read by healthcare leaders. He has been recognized by Modern Healthcare as one of the “100 Most Influential People in US Healthcare,” by the Boston VA Medical Center for excellence in clinical care with the “Golden Heart Award,” and by Brigham and Women’s Hospital for excellence in mentorship.
Anne Marie Watkins, DNP, MSHCA, RN, CENP
Senior Vice President & Chief Nursing Executive
Anne Marie Watkins, DNP, MSHCA, RN, CENP, is the chief nursing executive and a senior vice president at UCI Health. She oversees all aspects of patient care and nursing practice within the academic health system. Additionally, she serves as the assistant dean of nursing education at the UC Irvine Sue & Bill Gross School of Nursing. Prior to joining UCI Health, Watkins held the position of Vice President of National Patient Care Services, Operations and Strategy at Kaiser Foundation Hospital and Health Plan. Her executive leadership extended to the organization’s National Patient Care Services programs across all Kaiser Permanente markets. Previously, she served as the Chief Nursing Executive for Kaiser Permanente at San Diego Medical Center and Zion Medical Center in San Diego. With extensive experience in Orange County, she has held nursing leadership roles at Placentia-Linda Hospital, Fountain Valley Regional Medical Center, CHOC Children’s and OC Global Medical Center Santa Ana. Watkins earned her Doctor of Nursing Practice degree from the University of Illinois at Chicago, along with master’s degrees in nursing and healthcare administration from California State University, Long Beach. She also holds a specialty certification in executive nursing practice.
Robert McCarron, DO, DFAPA, FAIHM
Director of Education, Susan Samueli Integrative Health Institute
Associate Dean, CME
Director, UC Irvine Train New Trainers (TNT) Primary Care Fellowships
Professor, Department of Psychiatry and Human Behavior
UC Irvine School of Medicine
Robert McCarron, DO, completed a dual residency in internal medicine and psychiatry at Rush University and received board certification in psychiatry, psychosomatic medicine and internal medicine. He completed a two-year fellowship in integrative medicine at the Academy of Integrative Health and Medicine. Dr. McCarron is the Founding Director of TNT fellowship programs designed to train primary care providers in the essentials of adult psychiatry, pediatric psychiatry and SUD behavioral health. McCarron serves as a Professor in the Department of Psychiatry and Human Behavior and the Associate Dean of Continuing Medical Education at the UCI School of Medicine. In addition, he is the Director of Education for the UCI Susan Samueli Integrative Health Institute. McCarron serves on the ACGME Residency Review Committee for Psychiatry. He is also a California National Alliance on Mental Illness Board Member. McCarron has numerous publications in the areas of medical education; unexplained physical complaints; pain management; depression and anxiety in the primary care setting; preventive medicine; medical / psychiatric cross-disciplinary education; and integrative care.
Nimisha Parekh, MD, MPH, FACG, AGAF
Clinical Professor of Medicine
Director of Inflammatory Bowel Disease Program, Chao Digestive Health Institute
Associate Dean of Faculty Development, School of Medicine
Nimisha Parekh, MD, MPH, FACG, AGAF, is a board-certified gastroenterologist and brings extensive knowledge in the field of Crohn’s disease and ulcerative colitis. Dr. Parekh earned both her undergraduate and medical degrees from Tulane University in New Orleans, where she also completed her internal medicine training and chief residency. She continued her gastroenterology fellowship at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas and went on to receive advanced training in inflammatory bowel disease at the University of Chicago. Since joining the faculty at UC Irvine in 2006, Parekh has led impactful programs in patient care and education. She currently serves as the Director of the Inflammatory Bowel Disease Program at the Chao Digestive Health Institute and is the Medical Director of the Culinary Medicine Program at the Susan Samueli Integrative Health Institute. In addition, she is the Founder and Director of the Summer Healthcare Experience Program, which has guided hundreds of high school juniors and seniors toward careers in science and healthcare since 2014. As Associate Dean of Faculty Development at the UC Irvine School of Medicine, Parekh has been instrumental in launching a leadership academy for faculty, improving mentoring and curating professional development programs for faculty.
