Our Team

Helene Calvet, MD, received her MD from UCLA School of Medicine, completed residency in Internal Medicine at University of Texas, Southwestern, in Dallas, TX, and then did a fellowship in Infectious Diseases at Harbor-UCLA Medical Center in Torrance, CA. She recently completed a course in Global Health and received a Certificate of Knowledge in Tropical Medicine.

Dr. Calvet has worked in the field of STDs for more than 20 years, first as a  member of the CDC’s Faculty Expansion Program for STD Education and Research, during which she worked on the Chlamydia partner-delivered therapy trial. She served as Co-Medical Director of the CA PTC from 2000-2007, and worked in Public Health in Long Beach and Orange County for almost 18 years. She left full-time work in Public Health to pursue volunteer work in Global Health, but she continues to work at the Orange County STD Clinic on a part-time basis and volunteers at a local free clinic. Dr. Calvet has co-authored over a dozen publications and has delivered training on STD management to practitioners throughout Region IX and in six countries. 

Aunsha Hall-Everett has over 15-years of experience in Human Services and Public Health, with a strong focus on community empowerment, organizational wellness, and health promotion. Aunsha has facilitated strategic planning meetings for health departments, AIDS-service organizations (ASOs), community-based organizations (CBOs) and grassroots coalitions – strengthening their growth and sustainability by re-imagining and promoting visions of ending the HIV epidemic. Aunsha prides himself with utilizing user-friendly monitoring and evaluation tools to identify opportunities addressing gaps in services or social determinants, further increasing health literacy, promotion, and efficacy to combating HIV. 

Aunsha Hall-Everett holds a Master of Arts in Organization and Leadership Development from Fielding University and is a proud graduate of University of Kentucky, where he received his Bachelor’s of Science in Family Studies. Aunsha is also a certified aerobics instructor, using a portion of his spare time working with others to living their best life by burning the calories and stress. But most of all, Aunsha is the proud father to a beautiful daughter and is always supported and cheered for by his loving husband.

Wanda maintains her connection to frontline work by assisting local Disease Intervention Specialist in contacting, locating and interviewing clients to prevent the spread of STD’s and HIV.

Wanda has successfully completed the requirements of the customized web-based training and blended learning workshops given by Langevin Learning Services, Inc. and has recently completed the development of the national web-based and blended learning curriculum for Partner Service Providers-Passport to Partner Services.

Wanda is committed to providing quality skills-based partner and support services training to aid in intervening and preventing the spread of STD/HIV for healthcare professionals throughout the U.S.

Shavar comes to the CAPTC from the Recovery Resources Center, a community based organization in Cleveland, Ohio, where he was the HIV Prevention Manager overseeing their CDC High Impact Prevention grant. Shavar holds a Masters in Social Work (MSW) and a Masters in Science and Social Administration (MSSA). He is excited about the opportunity to work at the CAPTC and help the CBA team in, "the amazing work that they do."  He also wants to use his professional knowledge and experience to improve the objectives and outcomes of health departments to better meet the needs of those they serve. Shavar is looking forward to moving to the Bay Area and says that he is, "looking forward to our consistently warm weather.  Shavar's strong speaking, writing and training skills will be invaluable to the CBA Program in furthering its mission of "Promoting Health Equity, Reducing Health Disparities” to help health departments throughout the US in addressing their unique HIV care/prevention needs.

Samantha Lekus serves as the Human Resources & Finance Manager for the CAPTC. She has more than 20 years of experience as an academic and non-profit management professional focused on strategy, operations, HR and fiscal management.  She applies her experience by providing creative solutions to strategically address operational needs within international and domestic organizations including university, NGOs and smaller nonprofit environments. Samantha is committed to supporting vulnerable populations’ reproductive health and promoting HIV and STI prevention. She is thrilled to contribute to the work of the CAPTC. Samantha holds master’s degrees in Family counseling and HIV rehabilitation counseling.

Catalina is Education Technology Manager at the California Prevention Training Center.  An erstwhile science educator and marine biology enthusiast, Catalina is passionate about science and public health communication.  Catalina works on expanding the CAPTC’s reach through developing and sharing online learning materials. Catalina enjoys highlighting the great work of colleagues by adapting our website to meet the changing needs of all the CAPTC’s programs.  

Nicole Nguyen, MPH serves as the health educator for the Family PACT Program. She provides T/TA support for providers to build capacity and knowledge to better serve their Family PACT clients. She has worked in health education and prevention for more than a decade. Her primary focus has been in areas of sexual health, reproductive justice, community outreach, and global health both at home and abroad. Prior to joining CAPTC, Nicole worked at women’s clinics and taught classes at public high schools and colleges in Oakland, Berkeley, and Sacramento on comprehensive sexual health education and access for teens and young adults. She has also worked alongside doctors and nurse practitioners to provide birth control/family planning services, STI testing/treatment, and abortion care in underserved communities. She received her BA in Gender & Women’s Studies with a minor in Global Poverty & Practice from UC Berkeley and her MPH in Health Education from UC Davis.

Ina Park, MD, MS is the Medical Director of the Clinical Team at the California Prevention Training Center.  She is an Associate Professor in the Department of Family and Community Medicine at the University of California San Francisco School of Medicine and a Medical Consultant in the Division of STD Prevention at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.  She is a co-author of the forthcoming 2020 CDC STD Treatment Guidelines, the country’s premier resource for diagnosis and treatment of sexually transmitted infections.  

Importance of Promoting Health Equity and Reducing Health Disparities:

As a member of what some may call a “marginalized community”, marginalization has never been an option for me. I am part of an American community and have spent my life fighting for equality and social justice in this country. We all deserve to have access to, and receive, quality health care, regardless of our race or ethnicity, sexual orientation or socioeconomic status. The sad fact is that we don’t. I am committed to see the day when “universal health care” is not just an idea or a catch-phrase, but indeed, a reality.

Michael Policar, MD, MPH, currently serves as Senior Medical Advisor. He is a Clinical Professor of Obstetrics, Gynecology, and Reproductive Sciences at the University of California, San Francisco, School of Medicine. From 2005 through 2014, he was Medical Director of UCSF Program Support and Evaluation for the Family PACT Program, the family planning and STI program operated by the California State Office of Family Planning. He currently serves on expert advisory panels of the Centers for Disease Control and the U.S. Office of Population Affairs that are engaged in developing national clinical practice guidelines for contraceptive management. Dr. Policar received his MD degree at the University of California, San Francisco, School of Medicine and completed his residency in Obstetrics and Gynecology at the UCLA School of Medicine.  Subsequently he received a Master of Public Health degree in Health Services Management from UCLA School of Public Health.

Jennifer Rogers is a Communications Specialist at the California Prevention Training Center (CAPTC). Jennifer joined the CAPTC after serving in a key role at a leading adolescent sexual health education nonprofit, Health Connected. There she spearheaded communications initiatives, played a central role in development efforts, and designed and implemented comprehensive sex education programs for youth. With a background in inclusive pedagogy, Jennifer has taught thousands of diverse youth throughout California. She has supported sexual health and HIV prevention programs both domestically and abroad.  

Prior to that, Jennifer managed stakeholder engagement campaigns for critical flood improvement programs throughout the western United States. She strives to use communication as a form of activism – fighting stigma and moving toward health equity. 

Eric Tang, MD, MPH, is part of the clinical faculty at the California Prevention Training Center and is a Public Health Medical Officer for the STD Control Branch at the California Department of Public Health.  He received his medical degree at Columbia University College of Physicians & Surgeons and his Master of Public Health at the University of California, Berkeley.  He completed a combined internal medicine and preventive medicine residency program through Kaiser San Francisco and the University of California, San Francisco.  He currently sees patients at City Clinic, the municipal STD clinic in San Francisco.

Promoting Health Equity: Reducing Health Disparities

It is extremely important to me to do work that promotes social justice and improve health outcomes to communities that I identify with and have been a part of for most of my life. The passion, creativity, and intelligence it takes to make meaningful change in this area inspires me daily. The chasm that continues to exist between those that can successfully engage in systems of care and prevention and those that cannot, clearly points to the need for structural changes and a critical examination of the root causes. Larger factors such as racism, homophobia, HIV-related stigma, gender-equity, educational attainment, access to healthcare need to be the focus of our work. Having the opportunity to work with providers of service in a deep and meaningful to deconstruct these factors and build strategies to respond to them to promote health equity is a tremendous privilege.

Stacy Vogan, MPH has more than 25 years of national and international experience in public health focusing on HIV and STD prevention and care, program development and implementation, evaluation design and analysis, and strategic planning. She currently leads the evaluation of CAPTC’s federal, local, and global funded initiatives to ensure its programs are responding to key community needs, stakeholder priorities, and health outcome data. Additionally, Stacy has developed and delivered numerous curricula and professional trainings encompassing such topics as program monitoring and evaluation, transformative learning and group development, bridging gaps between research and practice, program planning, and advanced facilitation.

Stacy has provided individual consulting with community-based organizations and international agencies and served as co-chair on the National Network of Prevention Training Centers Evaluation Committee. She has taught on-line graduate level courses at San Jose State University and presented at multiple national and international conferences. She holds a strong belief in developing sustainable practices and skills that build from the strengths inherent in an individual, agency, and/or community. Stacy is committed to bringing community knowledge and insight to the forefront of public health planning to create effective and sustainable implementation strategies, inform research that translates back into useful community practices, and build relationships to collaboratively address disparities and promote health equity.