Dannie Ceseña
Dannie Ceseña (he/him/they/them), is the first Two-Spirit, Indigenous, Director of the California LGBTQ Health and Human Services Network. Dannie has over 15 years of experience working with non-profits in program development and advocacy. Dannie has become a trusted leader in LGBTQ health among partners in the California Tobacco Control Program. He is responsible for building We Breathe: Supporting Tobacco-Free LGBTQ Communities from the ground-up. Dannie is a founding member of the Transgender Health Research Ethics and Advocacy (THREAT) Team which includes members from TGI-led organizations, trans-identified mental providers and academic researchers. He is a graduate of California State University, Long Beach with bachelor’s degrees in English and political science, and is a graduate of National University with a master's degree in public health.
Bee Curiel
Bee Curiel (they/them) is a non-binary Chican@ educator born and raised in the East Bay by a working-class immigrant family. Bee graduated from the University of California, Davis with a bachelor’s degree in Chicana/o Studies and worked in student life and outreach in community colleges across Sacramento for five years before moving to Los Angeles. Bee is currently pursuing a master’s degree in social work at California State University, Northridge and serves as a training coordinator at The TransLatin@ Coalition. Bee believes there is power in our community's collective truths, and deeply values transformation, (re)learning, and healing as critical components to their advocacy work.
Evan Johnson
Evan Johnson (they/them/theirs) is the director of Youth Programs for Trans Family Support Services (TFSS). They’ve fostered connection and understanding over the past six years by sharing their own journey as a nonbinary youth, student, and young professional with many audiences, from national conferences to local organizations. Evan has a bachelor’s degree in social work and helps train people—in health care, legal, education, and other environments—on gender diversity and policy. They are dedicated to educating, advocating, learning, and listening to create a safer world for all trans and gender non-conforming youth.
Kendra J. Muller
Kendra J. Muller (she/they) is a disabled, queer attorney employed at Disability Rights California (DRC), the nation’s largest non-profit disability rights firm. As a part of the Civil Rights Practice Group, Muller challenges civil rights violations by assisting in impact litigation, providing direct services to provide justice for historically marginalized and underserved communities, including LGBTQIA+ individuals, veterans, unhoused persons, people of color, multilingual individuals, seniors, and low-income communities. Muller has worked directly within the community as the previous chair of the University of San Diego’s Name and Gender Change Clinic serving indigent clientele through the process of modifying state and federal identity documents. Muller serves as a board member for the San Diego County Bar Association’s Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Division, and a member of the California Name and Gender Marker Coalition.
Skyler Rosellini
Skyler Rosellini (he/him) is a senior attorney at the National Health Law Program in Los Angeles. He comes with 20 years of experience in LGBTQIA+ activism. Before joining NHeLP, Skyler was a senior attorney at Bay Area Legal Aid’s (BayLegal) Health Consumer Center (HCC), where he advocated for Bay Area residents’ health access rights across eight counties. At BayLegal, Skyler also served as outreach coordinator for the HCC. In this role, he provided training and education on health access to the community. He also supervised name and gender marker clinics with health access screenings for TGI communities. Prior to that, Skyler was in private practice and served on the board of directors for Bay Area Lawyers for Individual Freedom (BALIF) from 2015 to 2019. Skyler received his bachelor’s degree from Saint Mary’s College of California and a Juris Doctor degree from University of La Verne, College of Law.
Dr. Ryan Spielvogel
Dr. Ryan Spielvogel MD, MS (he/him) is a family physician and faculty at the Sutter Family Medicine Residency Program in Sacramento, where he specializes in adult and adolescent transgender medicine. His focus as faculty and as medical director for the Gender Health Center of Sacramento has been on educating the next generation of physicians in providing quality gender-affirming care.
Katalina Zambrano
Katalina Zambrano (she/her/ella) is the dedicated and passionate executive director of Somos Familia Valle Central, a Latino-based LGBTQ resource center located in Merced, California. With a background in the local adult and juvenile criminal justice and child welfare systems, Katalina has leveraged her lived experiences to advocate for and create safe spaces for LGBTQ individuals in the community. Since 2015, she has been conducting cultural humility and competence workshops in Merced and Stanislaus counties, providing training to homeless shelters, local police departments, the Stanislaus County Sheriff's Department, public health, and local school districts. Katalina's tireless efforts and dedication to the LGBTQ community have earned her widespread recognition and respect within the Merced area and beyond.
Ex Officio Members (non-voting)
Bambi Cisneros
Bambi Cisneros (she/her/hers) has over nine years of experience with the Department of Health Care Services (DHCS) and currently serves as the assistant deputy director - managed care, health care delivery systems (ADD-MC, HCDS). In this role, Bambi assists the HCDS deputy director to oversee the planning, implementation, coordination, and management of the program and policies associated with California’s Medi-Cal managed care plans (MCPs) and the managed care delivery system to ensure that Medi-Cal beneficiaries have access to high quality care. Prior to becoming the ADD-MC, Bambi served as the program monitoring and compliance branch chief in the managed care quality and monitoring division. Bambi earned a bachelor’s degree in government from California State University, Sacramento.
Stesha Hodges
Stesha Hodges (she/her/hers) is an assistant chief counsel at the California Department of Insurance (CDI) and chief of CDI’s Health Equity and Access Office (HEAO). Stesha joined CDI as an attorney in 2008. Since 2010, she has worked to improve access to, and equity in, health coverage and care through work implementing the Affordable Care Act and health reform in California’s health insurance markets. Stesha represents CDI and the Insurance Commissioner on health issues in proceedings of the National Association of Insurance Commissioners, and with a wide range of external stakeholders. Prior to joining CDI, Stesha worked as an attorney at the California Department of Social Services, as well as in private law practice. She holds a bachelor’s degree in criminal justice from California State University, Sacramento, and a Juris Doctor degree from the University of the Pacific, McGeorge School of Law.
Adrian Naidu
Adrian Naidu (he/him/his) serves as the health equity officer for the California Public Employees’ Retirement System (CalPERS) and is charged with advancing health equity. Prior to joining CalPERS, he worked for DHCS on improving and advancing health care quality and equity provided at California’s public hospitals. Adrian is passionate about improving access to high quality, affordable and equitable care for all and has also previously worked as a Covered California Certified Enrollment Counselor helping individuals and families enroll in health plans through Covered California and Medi-Cal. He earned his bachelor’s degree at the University of California, Berkeley and master’s degree in health policy and law at University of California, San Francisco and UC Law SF.
Taylor Priestly
Taylor Priestly (she/her) is the deputy director of the health equity and quality transformation division at Covered California, the state’s health benefit marketplace. In this role, she leads health equity policy development and oversees implementation of Covered California's health equity and quality transformation initiatives. She has served as Covered California’s health equity officer since 2018. Taylor started with Covered California in November 2012 and helped launch Qualified Health Plan selection and certification, plan contracting, and standard health and dental benefit plan designs. Taylor joined Covered California after extensive work in health and intervention programs for low-income and vulnerable populations at CommuniCare Health Centers, Sacramento Employment and Training Agency (SETA) Head Start, and the YWCA of Sonoma County. She holds master’s degrees in social welfare and public health from the University of California, Berkeley, where she researched pediatric oral health disparities with a focus on access to care.
Jason Tescher
Jason Tescher (he/him/his) is manager of the gender health equity section in the California Department of Public Health’s (CDPH) Office of Health Equity. Prior to joining CDPH, Jason worked as the grassroots and political organizing specialist for Planned Parenthood Affiliates of California and served as the Transgender Law Center’s first health policy director. Jason’s state service began at the California Department of Insurance as part of the team tasked with implementing the Affordable Care Act where his specialty was health coverage issues impacting vulnerable communities including and especially LGBTQ Californians. In 2011, Jason led efforts to promulgate and implement first-in-the-nation regulations banning discrimination against transgender people in health insurance and produced groundbreaking analyses used by other states and the federal government to eliminate these discriminatory practices. Jason is a proud queer person with a strong commitment to his community and public service.