About Leila

[Pronouns: she / her / ella]

Leila is proudly born, raised, and educated in Oakland, California. She earned her Master’s degree in Public Health from Columbia University, after which she landed back home at a local managed care plan where she started building her career in health policy and the healthcare safety net. Throughout her career, she has had several roles within the healthcare system – from health educator at a school-based health center, support tech in an operating room, HIV test counselor at a community clinic, policy analyst at a state public health department, to currently leading strategy at West Oakland Health – a Black-serving, Black-focused, and Black-led community health center. She’s led multi-disciplinary teams, built programs, analyzed policy and proposed legislation, created and executed strategic plans, developed partnerships and engaged stakeholders and staff. True to her health education roots, she very much enjoys making policy and other complex issues relatable to a variety of audiences. She can be stubborn and exacting like her mother and laughs easily like her father. A proud child of immigrants from Chile and Iran, she loves Minions, racial equity, fireworks, books, and anything hand-shaped.