MHA Ambassadors

MHA Student Ambassador Bios

Kate Allen is currently a first year Master of Health Administration student at USC. She has a Bachelor’s Degree from The Ohio State University in History, with a minor in Nutrition. She is passionate about combining altruism with business practices, and hopes to one day start her own business. She is a long-time USC supporter and is excited to see where the MHA will launch her. When she is not working or in school, you can find Kate snowboarding, mountain biking, watching USC and OSU football, or hanging out with her dachshund, Kevin.

Bhavika Anand is a second year MHA student and is excited to be returning as a Student Ambassador! She finds it to be a gratifying experience to help give back to the school through these initiatives! Bhavika’s passion of helping others has intensified since her career choice back in 2011 when she decided to pursue dentistry in India. After her graduation in 2016, she realized how much she loved working in teams and to expand her horizons further, she began my journey to pursue Health Administration at USC Price in 2018. In her current role as an Administrative Resident at HealthCare Partners (now Optum), she is exploring the nuances of patient experience at central and regional level.

USC Price has given Bhavika plenty of opportunities to get involved and find the right individuals pivotal to her success, and she hopes she can help you find yours with her experiences and knowledge she gained this far! Please reach out to her and ask her questions. She loves to talk and eat, so let the bonding begin!

Christina Dupas is a first year progressive Masters of Health Administration student from Glendale, CA. She is in her last undergraduate year at USC and will be graduating with a Bachelors of Science in Health Promotion and Disease Prevention within the Keck School of Medicine. She was drawn to the MHA program at USC due to the progressive option and because of its highly rated residency program that allows students to get first-hand experience while still in school. After experiencing poor healthcare service while visiting family in Greece, she became extremely passionate about hospital care both outside of the US and within the country. She hopes to achieve her goal of becoming a hospital administrator and be able to provide quality hospital care for all.

Yasmine Ghazvini is a first year MHA student at Price. She graduated with a bachelor’s degree in Public Health in May 2019. During her time at USC, she has been involved with several departments and organizations on campus. Yasmine enjoys learning about health issues and want to become more involved in helping the community. It gives her joy that she gets the opportunity to help educate her fellow peers on their lifestyle choices. Currently, she is a Student Worker for USC Price’s Communications Department. Yasmine has two years of healthcare experience from volunteering in both a hospital and clinical setting. After graduation, she hopes to work in the Health Administration field for either a hospital or for a healthcare system.

Justine Jamero is a first year Master of Health Administration (MHA) student from Ripon, California. She graduated from UCLA in 2017 with a Bachelor’s of Science in Psychobiology. After working in administration at a mental health clinic in Los Angeles for two years, she decided to pursue an MHA degree. Justine chose USC’s MHA program because of the required residency that would give her the real-world experience in healthcare to supplement lessons learned in the classroom. She is interested in learning about operations and health information technology.

Azniv Libaryan is a second year Master of Health Administration and first year Master of Arts in Medical Gerontology student at USC. She is also concurrently completing two graduate certifications at USC in Administration of Long Term Care and Ambulatory Care Systems Management. Prior to attending Price, Azniv received her Bachelor of Science degree in Public Health from California Baptist University in 2017. Improving health and wellness in her community has always been a passion of hers, which is why she has immersed herself in multiple community service projects and healthcare related internships/careers within Los Angeles. Azniv currently works for a local hospital as a Compliance and Contracts Coordinator. Azniv is interested in integrating social justice and medicine, with emphasis in helping the homeless and geriatric communities which is why she chose to attend USC for her MHA as the program is housed in a public policy school. She hopes to gain a broader perspective of the healthcare delivery system, health laws, policy, and compliance to focus on solving contemporary issues our healthcare system faces. On her free time, Azniv loves to cook, bake, and draw, to express her artistic side, volunteer at local health fairs or community events, and explore beaches, coffee shops, and restaurants throughout SoCal.

Shelly Ma is a first year Master of Health Administration student from the outskirts of the Los Angeles area. She graduated from UC Irvine with a degree in Business Economics in 2017 and stumbled upon the MHA program while researching prospective graduate programs. The one aspect that truly drew her into the program was the 1000-hour residency requirement, which would undoubtedly allow students to apply theory into practice as well as gain connections with professionals in the field. Shelly’s previous healthcare experience lies in working for a healthcare financial company, in which she was exposed to the many inefficiencies that healthcare systems face within all levels, whether pertaining to insurance, provider and charge transparency, patient experience, and much more. As a result, she hopes to learn more about the complex issues that our healthcare system faces and what changes can be implemented to improve the delivery and access of healthcare in an ever-changing industry.

Dhara Shah is currently a first year Master of Health Administration student with a previous bachelor degree in Dental Surgery from Kasturba Medical College in India. Her biggest attraction to the MHA program was the 1000-hour residency component and the tremendous network along with the alumni support all throughout the course.
She has two residencies currently, one where she is working as a Quality Assurance Auditor with Keck Medicine of USC and another as a Graduate resident with America’s Physician groups (APG). Along with gaining huge insights on how real life healthcare functions, she also understands the value of time-management to maintain her balancing act professionally and personally.

While one residency has a total commercial and entrepreneurial outlook and experience the other one is more about quality improvement and patient-centric. It was a tough decision for her to pick one and the whole idea of 2 residencies was to absorb the best of both the worlds and then see what she loves doing the most. Eventually, Dhara wants to work with either a consulting firm, IDN or in a more holistic hospital setting.

Msgana Tamrat is a born and raised Los Angeles native who developed an interest in health care policy after receiving her Bachelor’s degree from UCLA. Following a few years spent in the work place gaining experience in healthcare in clinical, administration and research areas she decided to go back to school and obtain an MHA. With this degree Msgana hopes to further her career and expand access to healthcare and promote inclusivity and healthcare literacy.

Kyle Underwood is a first year Masters of Health Administration student from San Diego, California. He completed his bachelor’s degree from the University of California, San Diego majoring in Public Health with a minor in Business. His previous experiences include working as an administrative intern at a large health system and being a part of a telehealth startup company. Beyond that, Kyle has experienced several health challenges in the past, and looks forward to bringing this unique patient perspective to the table both in school and in career. He was drawn to USC Price for several reasons; the Trojan Family, the location and the residency. These three reasons aligned perfectly with his goals of becoming a seasoned and sought after healthcare executive in Southern California, and thus why he chose to attend USC. Upon graduation, Kyle has several career interests including hospital operations, strategy, and finance, as well as potentially entering the consulting field.

Jovo Angel Velasco is a first year MHA student and holds a bachelor’s degree in Public Health from the University of California, Merced. During his undergraduate educational career he was involved with research, internships, and volunteering. His previous experiences have made him aware of the health inequalities within certain populations and geographic locations. He chose Price because of the 1,000 hour residency component to the program, which will provide him with the opportunity to apply the various concepts learned in class. He hopes to part take in an executive position within a hospital, specifically in quality improvement or operations to help improve access to care for underrepresented and marginalized communities.

Shefali Viegas is a second year Master of Health Administration student from Mumbai, India with a degree in Dental Surgery from Maharashtra University of Health Sciences. After completing an internship in Chicago, she returned to India to manage a dental office and practice dentistry full-time. Through her dual experience, she recognized the global challenges of accessibility, affordability and quality of healthcare delivery that are prevalent and now hopes to enrich her understanding of health management and policy in order to tackle these systemic organizational inefficiencies. She was drawn to USC for its unique curriculum and administrative residency, the cultural diversity of the cohort, the extensive Trojan network in sunny California and the numerous extracurricular opportunities that the school has to offer. Shefali currently works as an Administrative Resident at UCLA Health in the Speech Pathology and Audiology Clinic. She is the Co-President of the Upsilon Phi Delta Honor Society and also sings with the Oriana Choir at the USC Thornton School of Music.