UCGHI Leadership

A team of inspired and committed faculty and staff lead UCGHI, providing strategic direction and oversight of UCGHI programs.

Leadership Team

Madhavi Dandu, MD, MPHMadhavi 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.

Ndola Prata, MD, MSc, a physician and medical demographer from Angola and the Associate Director of the UC Global Health Institute, earned her medical degree from the University of Angola and an MSc in medical demography from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. Dr. Prata began her career practicing medicine in Angola for 10 years and served as head of the Social Statistics Department at the National Institute of Statistics of Angola. Shortly after moving to the US, while beginning her tenure as a researcher and lecturer at UC Berkeley, she served as a demographer/analyst for the Centers for Disease Control's Division of Reproductive Health for six years, a role she resumed briefly from 2010 to 2011. Her research focuses on the design, implementation, and evaluation of family planning and maternal health interventions that maximize distribution and financing to increase access to contraceptives in developing countries, particularly for underserved populations. Her projects investigate strategies for harnessing existing resources, including human capacity and healthcare infrastructure, while also gathering evidence for setting priorities on national health agendas. 

Sun Yu Cotter, MPHSun Yu Cotter, MPH, is the deputy director for UCGHI and leads operations and strategic development. She is co-Chair of the UCGHI Black Lives Matter Task Force. Sun is a multi-lingual global health professional certified in mediation & conflict resolution and trained in restorative justice, diversity, equity, and inclusion champion with 15+ years of experience in academic, non-profit, and private settings. Sun is also a member of the UCOP Anti-Racism Working Group. Prior to UCGHI, she was a senior program manager at UCSF’s Institute for Global Health Sciences on a project aiming to improve the quality of maternal health, family planning and abortion care for women in Kenya and India. She also has extensive field experience implementing large clinical trials in Africa, including a study on childhood mortality and childhood morbidity. Her passion for global health began as a Peace Corps Volunteer in rural Uzbekistan.

Program Directors

Planetary Health

Samantha Ying, PhD
UC Riverside

Gender & Health Justice 

Health Workforce Equity

Education Director

Oladele Ogunseitan

Oladele A. Ogunseitan, PhD, MPH
UC Irvine

GloCal Health Fellowship Director

Craig Cohen, MD, MPH
UCSF

Staff

Kemi AminKemi Amin, MBA
Communications Consultant

Kemi is the communications director for the UC Global Health Institute. Kemi joins UCGHI from the UCSF Library where she served as the Communications Manager for nearly five years. Prior to her tenure at the Library, Kemi led the marketing and membership departments at the UC Botanical Garden at Berkeley. She has more than 15 years of experience in graphic design, marketing and communications, and strategic planning.

Roshni DesaiRoshni Desai
Global Health Program Coordinator

Roshni Desai, BS, is the Global Health Program Coordinator at UCGHI and most recently was the Program Assistant for the Institute. She earned her Bachelor of Science degree in Global Disease Biology from UC Davis and has experience working in college health & counseling services - focused on health education & promotion, mental health, and COVID-19 campus safety. Roshni is passionate about the transdisciplinary nature of global public health. Her interests include disease surveillance, health security, emergency preparedness, and operationalizing the One Health approach.

Paolo De La CruzPaolo De La Cruz
Program Assistant

Paolo De La Cruz is a recent graduate from UC Irvine (UCI) with a BS in Public Health. He was a 2021 Global Service Scholar for the UCI Blum Center for Poverty Alleviation where he virtually interned under a nonprofit in South Africa. Throughout undergrad, he assisted with research investigating the moral distress of family medicine doctors during the COVID-19 pandemic. He also led a research project to understand undergraduate mental health amidst the pandemic. As a former vice president and community outreach chair for Healing Through Humanities, an organization that combines health and the humanities, he assisted with the operations of a $6000-funded intergenerational photo narrative project. He appreciates the interdisciplinary nature of the field of global health and is particularly interested in pandemic preparedness and response.

Stephanie Sumstine-FeliceStephanie Sumstine-Felice, MPH
Communications Specialist

Stephanie Sumstine-Felice, MPH, is the Communications Specialist for the UC Global Health Institute and also serves on the UCGHI Black Lives Matter Task Force. 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 several community and place-based evaluation initiatives in Long Beach, including the Building Healthy Communities and Narrative Change Strategy for Youth Investment projects.