Our Team

Leadership Team

Jaime Sepúlveda Amor, MD, DSc, MPH

Former Executive Director, Institute for Global Health Sciences, UCSF

  • Dr. Sepulveda obtained his Medical Degree from Mexicos National Autonomous University (UNAM), two masters and a doctoral degree from Harvard University. He is the Former Executive Director of UCSF’s Institute for Global Health Sciences, where he lead a team of over 300 faculty and staff engaged in translating scientific leadership into programs that positively impact health and reduce inequities globally. From 2007 to 2011, he was a member of the Foundation Leadership Team at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and served at the BMGF in various roles. He chaired GAVIs Executive Committe to increase access to vaccines and other effective health solutions in developing countries. Dr. Sepulveda worked for more than two decades in a variety of senior health posts in the Mexican government, becoming  Director-General of Epidemiology and at age 36, was appointed Vice-Minister of Health. From 2003 to 2006, he served as Director of the National Institutes of Health of Mexico. For almost a decade, he was Director-General of Mexico’s National Institute of Public Health and Dean of the National School of Public Health. In addition to his research credentials, Sepulveda is an experienced implementer of effective health programs. Sepulveda designed Mexico’s Universal Vaccination Program, which eliminated polio, measles, and diphtheria by achieving universal childhood immunization coverage. He also modernized the national health surveillance system, created the National Health Surveys System and founded Mexico’s National AIDS Council. Sepulveda is an elected member of the National Academy of Medicine and of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.

Ietza Bojórquez Chapela, MD, PhD, MSc

Colegio de la Frontera Norte, Mexico (El Colef)

  • Dr. Bojorquez holds a Ph.D. in Epidemiology, and a MSc in Public Health. Her main research interest is on the social determinants of health, in the areas of migrant health, mental health, health policies and health- related practices. After graduating from medical school, she worked in health promotion in rural areas in Mexico. From 2007 to 2010 she was Deputy Director of Operations Research in Mexico’s Ministry of Health. Since 2010 she has been a professor-researcher at the Department of Population Studies, El Colegio de la Frontera Norte, Mexico (El Colef). She is a member and co-lead of the board of the Lancet Commission on Migration and Health-Latin America Node, and a member of the Lancet Commission on Health, Conflict and Forced Displacement. She is currently a co-PI in intervention studies to improve the mental health of migrants, and a study of food insecurity and dietary change during migration. She is the general coordinator of the Surveys of Migration in Mexico’s Borders (EMIF), and the academic coordinator of the Certificate in Mental Health and Psychosocial Support (IOM-El Colef joint program).

Solange Madriz Silva, MA, MS 

Institute for Global Health Sciences, UCSF

  • Solange Madriz, MA, MS, is an Academic Coordinator at the Institute of Global Health Sciences at University of California, San Francisco. She is currently a third-year doctoral student at University of California Berkeley, School of Public Health.    Her dissertation focuses on evaluation methods of global health trainings.  For the past 10 years Ms. Madriz has designed, implemented, and monitored global health programs in diverse settings including Mexico, Guatemala, Ecuador, Paraguay, India and the United States. In addition to her research activities, Ms. Madriz teaches graduate level courses on global health for public health practittioners.  From 2015 to 2018, Ms. Madriz led the implementation of a maternal and newborn health quality improvement project in all the secondary health facilities of the states of Huehuetenango and Alta Verapaz, Guatemala.  This program continues as a capacity strengthening strategy. During the COVID-19 pandemic, Ms. Madriz led the educational program to train over 100 community-based organization members as case investigators and contact tracers working for the San Francisco Department of Public Health.  Ms. Madriz obtained her undergraduate degree from the Central University of Venezuela and a MA in International Studies from the University of San Francisco followed by a MS in Global Health from the University of California, San Francisco.   

César Arturo Méndez Lizárraga, MD, MSc, MPH 

Institute for Global Health Sciences, UCSF

  • Cesar is a Center for Pandemic Preparedness and Response Scholar and Technical Lead at the Institute for Global Health Sciences, University of California San Francisco. His research focuses on infectious diseases, vaccines, and policies. He is a Research Candidate from Mexico’s National System of Researchers (CONAHCYT). In addition to this, Cesar is a professor of medicine at Universidad Autonoma de Baja California and has also served as a public health officer, leading disease surveillance programs at the State Health Ministry of Baja California, Mexico. He holds a Medical Degree from the Universidad Autonoma de Baja California, Mexico, a Public Health Master’s in Infectious Diseases from the National Institute of Public Health, Mexico, and a Master’s in Global Health Sciences from the University of California San Francisco.

Field Coordination Team

María Inés Barrios de la O, PhD, MSc 

Ciudad Juárez, Chihuahua

  • She has a PhD in Migration Studies from El Colegio de la Frontera Norte. In the last decade she has collaborated in the design and implementation of intervention projects and direct care for people in mobility situations in International Agencies, Civil Society Organizations and educational institutions in Mexico and the United States. She is currently a member of the Interdisciplinary Group on Migration Issues in the state of Chihuahua, Méx. She is a candidate for the National System of Researchers (SNII) of Conahcyt. Among her recent publications are: Biopolitics and genetic surveillance of asylum seekers on the southern border of the United States (2023). From internally displaced people to asylum seekers. The complexity of the migration phenomenon due to violence (2022), Hardening of the Mexico-United States border and its impact on the receipt of remittances. The case of Ciudad Juárez in the context of Covid-19 (2022) and she is the author of the book Human mobility in Ciudad Juárez: moving from labor immigration to emigration and forced displacement (Colef, 2016). Since 2019 she has served as academic coordinator of the Master's Degree in International Migration Studies at El Colef and as a professor at the Universidad Autónoma de Ciudad Juárez. Her research topics focus on migration on northern border Mexico, Mexican migrants in the United States, and forced internal displacement. 

    maria.barrios@uacj.mx 

César Rodríguez

César Rodríguez, PhD(c), MSc  

Tijuana, Baja California

  • César is a PhD candidate in Health Promotion and Behavioral Sciences at the School of Public Health, University of Texas Health Science Center in Houston. Since 2010, he has been involved in research focused on migration and health. He has been researching in-transit (i.e., unregularized) migrant’s right to access health services in the countries of transit and destination. He has collaborated in multicentric and nationwide projects in Mexico and Latin America. His collaboration with colleagues from the National Institute of Public Health of Mexico, the Colegio de la Frontera Norte, and other national and international institutions have resulted in the creation of the Advisory Group in Migration and Health (GAMyS in Spanish). His current PhD project is focused on developing a toolkit to increase ITMs’ individual and collective agency to exercise their right to access public health services in Mexico. He has several publications in peer-reviewed journals and has participated in conference presentations in public health. He was recently appointed as a next-generation researcher in the recently created CHH-Lancet Commission on Health, Conflict, and Displacement.

Health promotion teams

  • Tijuana: Arizaí Anzueto, Esmeralda Rivas, Zuleyka Aispuro, Fernanda Hernández, Imelda Verduzco, Esveydhy Suárez, Marta Muñoz, Oscar Arroyo, Rubí Vásquez, Xanic Serrano, Yuly Ramírez,  

  • Ciudad Juárez: Bertha Vargas, Karla Delgado, Ana de la Paz, Carolina Oropeza, Gabriela Terrazas, Mariana Cortés, Jesús Maldonado, Daniela Guerra, Daniel Soto, Yazmin García 

Consultants

  • Isabel Vietez, MD, MPH – Public Health and Preventive Medicine 

  • Uriel López – Mental Health, Clinical Psychologist 

  • Pro Salud A.C. – Sexual and Reproductive Health Specialist 

  • UCSF’s Human Health Rights Initiative – Mental Health 

  • Ernesto Rodríguez MSc – Migration Specialist 

  • Issa Tuxpan – Communications Specialist 

Partners  

  • Doctors Without Borders (MSF) 

  • Tijuana: Jurisdicción Sanitaria (Local Health Jurisdiciton), Pro-Salud; Parterías y Medicinas Ancestrales, Prevencasa AC, Nido, Centro de Salud Tijuana, Centro 32, Centro Multiservicios BC Frontera Solidaria.   

  • Ciudad Juárez: Jurisdicción Sanitaria (Local Health Jurisdiciton) and migrant shelters; Vida, Tierra de Oro, Región Sanitaria, Pan de Vida, Kiki Romero, El Buen Samaritano, CIM Leona Vicario, Casa Eudes and Alabanzas