Board of Directors Archives - Tiba

Susan Jacobson, MD

tibafoundation — Tue, 18 Feb 2025 17:48:57 +0000

Susan, an infectious disease physician, joined the Tiba Board in late 2024, having volunteered at Matibabu numerous times over 20 years. Her undergraduate degree was from the University of California, Berkeley. She trained in medicine at Stanford University and moved to Boston for internal medicine residency and infectious disease fellowship, including tuberculosis research. A brief exposure to AIDS in Zimbabwe, Africa in 1989 opened her eyes to global challenges as she returned to northern California for a clinical ID practice in Berkeley. In 2002 she became the ID physician in Kaiser Fremont, as that hospital opened. Effective therapy for HIV became the norm. Managing the Covid pandemic into 2021 reminded her of the early days AIDS. During her time at Kaiser, she was able to return to Africa on brief trips with Tiba to the Matibabu clinic, later hospital, in Ukwala, in rural western Kenya.
She recalls on her first trip to Kenya in 2005, only 1 person came to a clinic with medication for HIV, despite widespread HIV/AIDS in the country. Nearly 20 years later she observed a dedicated government (and PEPFAR) funded nurse provide cutting edge antivirals for nearly 1000 people living with HIV in the Ukwala community at Matibabu, transforming their lives. As Matibabu health care services evolve, she hopes to aid in the transformation of the diagnosis and treatment of other important community conditions.

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Ram Ramachandra, MD

emergestudiosco — Thu, 11 Jan 2024 19:46:15 +0000

Srinivas “Ram” Ramachandra was born in Bangalore, India. He joined the Department of Surgery at Kaiser Permanente’s Hayward Medical Center in 1982, and became Chief of Surgery in 1987. He is now in private practice in Danville, CA. Ram is Board Certified by the American Board of Surgery and has a special interest in minimally invasive surgery. He has a long history of volunteerism, and is Tiba’s most active volunteer surgeon in Kenya, having performed many, many surgeries at the Siaya District Hospital. Ram also coordinates the surgical teams we send to Africa. In addition to English, he speaks Hindi, Kannada, and Tamil (with a sprinkling of Dholuo).

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Michael Mellenthin, MD

emergestudiosco — Wed, 10 Jan 2024 19:09:31 +0000

Michael joined Tiba’s board after serving as a volunteer anesthesiologist on several surgical team trips to Matibabu Hospital. Back home Michael is an anesthesiologist in pediatric dental offices and surgery centers. He started his practice in 1989, having completed his medical degree at the UCLA School of Medicine and his anesthesia residency at the Stanford School of Medicine. In 1999, he completed a business degree at the Stanford Graduate School of Business. With over 30 years of hospital-based experience, he has served in several medical director and department chair positions. Michael has a passion for global health initiatives, having served in multiple surgical camps throughout the world. He has a special fondness for Matibabu as they endeavor to become a high-quality, self-sufficient resource for the health needs of rural Kenya.

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Paul Oseso

emergestudiosco — Wed, 10 Jan 2024 19:04:06 +0000

Paul, born and educated in Kenya, is a hotel consultant now living in Napa, California. He graduated from Kenya Utalii College a Swiss Hotel and Tourism School. His career as a hotelier took him from Nairobi to Cairo, London, and Birmingham, England. Paul moved with his family to the United States in 2001, where he has managed and owned hotels. He is the General Manager of Aegis Living in Napa, a leading company in the Senior Living industry. He is the founder and principal at Pacific International Hotel Consultants and partner at Travel Square One LLC. He is a long-time Rotary Club member whose knowledge of Kenyan politics, economics, and culture are a constant source of strength for the Tiba Board of Directors.

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Rose Wahome

emergestudiosco — Sun, 07 Jan 2024 19:02:29 +0000

Rose has worked in corporate treasury for over fifteen years domestic and internationally within professional services at both public and private companies.

At URS Corporation she led a range of acquisition integration projects after several M&A’s and risk management initiatives, including implementing a cash pooling banking structure in Europe and drafting the first company investment policy during the financial crisis of 2008.

While at Morrison and Foerster LLP Rose worked collaboratively creating a receivables FX hedging program to hedge exposures in Asia. She was also involved with renewal of the firm’s credit facility.

An entrepreneurial venture then took her back to her country-of-origin Kenya, where she in partnership successfully established and operated a fine dining restaurant and accommodations in Nairobi. During this time Rose managed a team and the administrative side of the business including licensing, insurance, marketing, accounting, and tax.
Upon returning to the A&E industry, she joined the liquidity group at AECOM where she focused on improving cash forecasting and cash collections by way of a factoring program. She also oversaw share repurchase, debt and investment transactions.

Rose is currently Director of Treasury at Gensler based in the SF Bay Area.
Rose holds a Bachelor of Business Economics from Brock University, St. Catherines, Canada.

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Gail Wagner, MD

emergestudiosco — Sat, 06 Jan 2024 18:21:28 +0000

Gail Wagner met young community organizer Daniel Ogola in Nairobi’s Kibera slum in 2003. The two discussed an audacious idea for a comprehensive community health care system in Dan’s impoverished rural home near Lake Victoria. They began with a trip of North American-based medical volunteers in 2004. In 2022, Tiba Foundation helps support outpatient clinics and a hospital that we built. It is a phenomenally successful community health worker program in the villages that is changing not only the lives of patients, but also the productivity of a community. Gail retired from her position as an oncologist at Kaiser Permanente in 2016. She describes the work she does in rural Kenya as “the most important thing I will ever do in my life.”

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Bridget Wylie, RN

tibafoundation — Fri, 05 Jan 2024 17:05:48 +0000

Originally from Montreal, Canada, Bridget obtained her Nursing Degree, and specialized in Pediatric Oncology.
She came to the United States as a Travel Nurse in 1992. She had contracts all over the US and finally settled in the San Francisco Bay Area in 1997.
She worked at UCSF and Stanford, in Pediatric Oncology, Neonatal Intensive Care and Pediatric ER.
At UCSF in 1997, she met a wonderful nurse–Mary Ann van Dam. They developed a lifelong friendship. In 2022, she joined Mary Ann on a trip to Ukwala to celebrate the Graduation of the Nursing Students at the Mary Ann van Dam School of Nursing. This is how she was introduced to Matibabu and Tiba Foundations.
Her passion for Nursing and STEM opportunities for High School age girls, aligned with her philanthropic goals.
In the years that she has been involved with the Tiba Foundation, she has seen the impact that the Nursing Promise has made.
It is her hope to continue to offer opportunities that educate and empower women in the Ukwala region.

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Amanda Schoenberg, MD

emergestudiosco — Thu, 04 Jan 2024 19:47:10 +0000

Amanda is one of the founding members of Tiba/Matibabu Foundation. She completed college and medical school at Columbia College and Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons respectively. After finishing her Pediatric Residency at Columbia University Children’s Hospital of New York, Amanda moved out to San Francisco and joined Kaiser Hayward in 2001, presently as a Senior Physician in the Department of Pediatrics. She has a special interest in global health and medical education. Amanda is a (volunteer) Clinical Professor at UCSF and Site Director for the UCSF 3rd Year Medical Student Pediatric Core Clinical Rotation. She is also Co-Director in the development and launch of the Kaiser Regional TPMG Global Health Program. As one of the most active medical volunteers in Tiba’s community, Amanda has made yearly working trips to Kenya and Rwanda since 2004 to take care of children. She has worked diligently with our local partner in Kenya, Dan Ogola, to spearhead a deworming project that has helped to significantly increase primary school graduation rates. Amanda’s deep generosity in every form underscores her commitment to the communities we serve in Africa.

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Arne Wagner, JD, PhD

emergestudiosco — Wed, 03 Jan 2024 18:37:02 +0000

Arne Wagner is a retired attorney that specialized in commercial litigation, including financial services, securities and construction litigation. He partnered at Calvo & Clark LLP, a law firm with offices in Guam, San Francisco and Saipan, which represents clients across the Pacific Rim in litigation and transactional matters. Previously Arne was also a partner at Morrison & Foerster and director of worldwide litigation for Bank of America. He received his law degree from the University of California at Berkeley (Boalt Hall) where he was a member of the Order of the Coif. He received a Ph.D. in Statistics from the University of California at Berkeley. Arne brings discipline to planning and finance on the Tiba board. Very few people know that he is also a concert pianist.

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Rhiana Menen, MD

emergestudiosco — Tue, 02 Jan 2024 19:47:54 +0000

Rhiana Menen is an attending surgeon of breast and general surgery and Medical Director of Breast Surgery at St Luke’s hospital in Boise, Idaho. She attended medical school at UC San Diego, general surgery residency at UCSF-Eastbay, and completed a fellowship in breast surgery at MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, TX. Dr Menen has been volunteering with the Tiba Foundation for surgical camps since 2016 and is one of the co-founders of the BodaGirls Program. She is inspired by Tiba’s commitment to helping women find their power.

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