Staff

Margaret Lynn Yonekura, MD, is Executive Director of LA Best Babies Network, an organization dedicated to improving pregnancy and birth outcomes in Los Angeles County. As a strategic partner of First 5 LA, the Network oversees the design and coordination of the Healthy Births Initiative, a $28 million effort of First 5 L.A. In addition to leading LA Best Babies Network, Dr. Yonekura is Director of Community Benefits for California Hospital Medical Center, and Executive Director of Hope Street Family Center. HSFC’s innovative programs optimize and enhance child development, and strengthen family stability and economic self-sufficiency. Dr. Yonekura is an Associate Professor of Clinical Ob-Gyn of both USC and UCLA Schools of Medicine, Division of Maternal-Fetal Medicine, with a research focus in infectious diseases in Ob-Gyn and perinatal substance abuse. She continues to oversee Options for Recovery: Harbor-South Bay, the comprehensive perinatal substance abuse treatment program she established over 20 years ago at Harbor-UCLA Medical Center. She also teaches Ob-Gyn residents and Maternal-Fetal Medicine fellows at Harbor-UCLA. Over the course of her career, Dr. Yonekura has received numerous awards for teaching excellence and has been recognized at the local, state and national levels for her service to the community and for the programs that she directs. Dr. Yonekura serves on the Los Angeles County Women’s Health Policy Council, the Board of Trustees of Pomona College, and the Good Hope Medical Foundation.

Carolina Reyes, MD, the Principal Investigator for LA Best Babies Network, is a perinatologist, educator, and advocate for maternal and child heath. As executive director of LA Best Babies Network, from 2005 to 2009, Dr. Reyes led the development and implementation of the First 5 LA Healthy Births Initiative, designed to improve pregnancy and birth outcomes in Los Angeles County. She also led the design of a universal perinatal home visitation pilot for First 5 LA. Dr. Reyes is Associate Professor of Obstetrics and Gynecology in the Division of Maternal-Fetal Medicine at the Keck School of Medicine at the University of Southern California. She was appointed as a Senior Scholar with the U.S. Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) and received an AHRQ Director’s Team Award for developing a health services research agenda on intimate partner violence. She has been appointed to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Select Committee on Preconception Care and the California Pregnancy Associated Maternal Mortality Review Committee. Her past appointments include the U.S. Secretary of Health’s Advisory Committee on Infant Mortality. Dr. Reyes served on the Institute of Medicine Committee studying “Understanding and Eliminating Racial and Ethic Disparities in Health Care.” Most recently, Dr. Reyes was a member of the California Community Foundation Board of Directors and the California Hospital Medical Center Community Board. She has earned numerous awards in recognition of her professional and community service, including the Los Angeles Medical Women’s Association, LA County Board of Supervisors, California/Latino Medical Association, National Medical Fellowship Distinguished Alumni Award, and the National Hispanic Scholarship Leadership Award.

Janice French, CNM, MS, is the Director of Programs for LA Best Babies Network. Ms. French has a long history of working clinically as a nurse-midwife and as a researcher in the areas of women's health and preterm birth prevention. She is a nationally recognized speaker in the area of prevention of preterm birth. Ms. French is a past faculty member at the University of Colorado Health Sciences Center School of Nursing, Nurse Midwifery faculty and School of Medicine Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology. Her passion is to translate information from research into practice in order to help more women have healthy pregnancies, and have more babies be born healthy.

Deborah Munoz, MA, MBA, is the Director of Administration for LA Best Babies Network. Since joining the Network in 2005, Ms. Munoz has been responsible for ensuring that the organization operates at optimum levels, and is in compliance with all state and federal regulations, as they relate to the workplace. Ms. Munoz has committed the last 17 years of her professional career to working with several local agencies to ensure that disadvantaged families have a fighting chance at living the American Dream. Ms. Munoz has pursued academia in order to strengthen this voice, and is currently completing her doctoral dissertation on leadership development at DeVry University’s Keller Graduate School of Management.

Lorena Wagner, BS, MBA is the Executive Coordinator to Dr. Lynn Yonekura and assists in the logistics and planning for all training and learning sessions held by LA Best Babies Network for the Healthy Births Care Quality Collaborative, Best Babies Collaboratives and Healthy Births Learning Collaboratives. She has been part of CHW-California Hospital Medical Center for the last 17 years, holding various positions at the Women’s Health Center, where among other achievements she designed, developed and implemented an electronic scheduling system. In 1996, she became the Administrative Assistant for the Midwifery Service, and in 2006 joined LA Best Babies Network. She received her Bachelor of Science in Biology from Loyola Marymount University and her Master of Business Administration from the University of Phoenix. She has dedicated her career to healthy families and babies, completing training in the Lamaze International Childbirth Program and initiating Doula training under DONA International.

Caron Post, PhD is the Director of the Perinatal Mental Health Task Force.

Erika Reyes is the Policy Administrative Coordinator.

Mia Taylor is the Communications Specialist II for LA Best Babies Network, where she provides communications strategy and helps oversee creative services.

Kaya Tith, MSPH is the Public Health Research Associate for LA Best Babies Network. She earned her Master's from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. Her professional background includes overseeing the Healthy Lifestyles program at a community clinic in Long Beach. Her volunteer experience includes working in Cambodia for a non-governmental organization addressing the trafficking of women and children, and on the Bad River Indian Reservation in Wisconsin for AmeriCorps VISTA, on a diabetes prevention project. The Network’s work and mission align with Ms. Tith’s passion for addressing the needs of underserved populations and helping to build healthy communities.

Donna Ayala, EdD, MS Ed, is Senior Research Analyst for LA Best Babies Network. Prior to joining the Network, Dr. Ayala worked at the University of Southern California (USC) where she researched the effects of cognitive readiness in a simulation, and the effects of learning strategies embedded within a traditional college math class. Dr. Ayala’s experience also involves many years of teaching students in kindergarten, high school and college. She is a lecturer at California State University, Los Angeles, under the Division of Child and Family Studies. Dr. Ayala received her Doctorate of Education in educational psychology and a Master of Science in education policy from USC.

Beiney Nercissian, BS, is the Care Quality Project Coordinator for LA Best Babies Network. She is committed to helping clinics belonging to the Healthy Births Care Quality Collaborative decrease their infant mortality rate, promote education, breastfeeding, and prevent alcohol and substance abuse. She is proud of the fact that the project has been successful in increasing maternal depression screening rates. Ms. Nercissian has also been the general manager for Dental Hygiene, Inc., serving long-term care facilities, and has worked with the Pacific West Health Disparities Collaborative for Diabetes and Hypertension programs, as a patient electronic care system coordinator, and as a case manager assistant for Queens Care Family Clinics. She developed and implemented the Electronic Medical Record system and worked closely as a team member of the Childhood Obesity pilot program, ENERGY, for Queens Care Family Clinics. She received her BS in health care administration from West Coast University.

Kenya Jordan is the LA Best Babies Network Operations Manager. Mrs. Jordan assists with maintaining financial records, planning events, and also provides administrative and technical support to the Network. Mrs. Jordan has more than 15 years of office experience, including managing a trucking company and owning a transportation brokerage company.  Mrs. Jordan also has extensive experience in facilitating collaboration in a corporate setting.