Margaret Lynn Yonekura, MD is Executive Director of LA Best Babies Network. 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. 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..
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 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 higher learning 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.
Caron Post, PhD is the Director of the Perinatal Mental Health Task Force. She received her doctorate in clinical psychology from New York University. She is a clinical psychologist who specializes in maternal mental health, perinatal mood disorders and parent-child relationships. She is the former coordinator of the Clinical Training Program at the Early Childhood Center-Cedars Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles. She maintains a private practice in Los Angeles, California.
Erika Reyes is the Administrative Coordinator for Policy.
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 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.
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 also works as 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.
Yukai Chen is the Development Associate for LA Best Babies Network and serves in a fundraising role. She is responsible for fund development with a primary focus on grant writing and establishing diversified funding streams as opportunities arise. Ms. Chen has worked in the non-profit field since receiving a Bachelor of Arts in Economics from Michigan State University. After graduation, she volunteered for AmeriCorps VISTA serving a micro-finance organization in New Mexico. Prior to joining LA Best Babies Network, she was a grant writer for Covenant House of California, a homeless shelter for youth in Hollywood, and Center for the Pacific Asian Family, a domestic violence shelter serving Asian Pacific Islander families. As a new mother herself, Ms. Chen is passionate about the Network’s mission of promoting healthy pregnancies and babies, especially among the most vulnerable populations.
