Council of Young
Filipinx Americans in medicine
Executive Student and Resident Committee - 1
Lorenzo Ramos
(He/Him/His)
Publicity Chair
Lorenzo is a pre-medical student from Palm Springs, California attending school in Los Angeles at UCLA as a biology major. He joined CYFAM after recommendations from other students at UCLA and wants to engage and connect more with the larger Filipinx community. Lorenzo is an avid fisher on the weekends.
Shannon Recio
Publicity Chair
Shannen Recio is a current first generation student at UC Davis pursuing a degree in Global Diseases Biology, where she is focusing on researching topics related to immunology, archaeology, and neonatal care. She hopes to pursue a career in medicine after graduating as well as to stay involved in humanitarian work around the world. She founded a nonprofit called New Beginnings after doing some work with refugees as part of the Congressional Action Team member for UNICEF and a youth speaker and advocate for genUN.
Moreover, she has taken on various leadership roles, including being the president of two large organizations on campus (Doctors Without Borders and Filipinx Association for Health Careers), coordinating impactful events for hundreds of people from a health conference to a youth summit in Washington, DC for Multiplying Good Foundation, and getting a variety of healthcare experience with becoming a doula at Sutter Health and a clinical research fellow at UCSF.
Shannen hopes to continue exploring her passions with medicine and community building through CYFAM leadership as Publicity Chair this year! Outside of all her academics and organization involvements, she is a proud dog mom to a frenchie-pug named Khaleesi and a pomeranian-chihuahua named Kai! She also loves to read and binge-watch k-dramas during her free time.
Danny Domingo
Social Chair
Kevin Castor
Social Chair
Rommell Noche
(He/Him/His)
Fundraising Chair
Rommell Noche is a second year medical student at Frank H. Netter School of Medicine in Connecticut, with a concentration in Health Communications. Born in Guam, Rommell moved to Southern California at the age of five. He graduated from the University of Pennsylvania in 2018 with a Bachelor of Arts in Biochemistry and Master of Science in Chemistry in the Vagelos Scholars Program in the Molecular Life Sciences. Prior to medical school, Rommell worked for two years as a postgraduate research associate at Yale School of Medicine. He became involved with CYFAM after meeting Dr. Antonio Moya, one of the organization's founders, at the American Academy of Neurology Annual Meeting in 2020. Outside of CYFAM, Rommell is a student representative in Netter's curriculum oversight committee and a board member in their student-run clinic. His current interests include vascular disease, precision medicine, and health equity.
Nina Gutierrez
(She/Her/Hers)
Fundraising Chair
Ms. Gutierrez is from Sacramento, CA. She attended the University of California, Berkeley and graduated . While at Cal, she was an undergraduate research assistant in the Blackman Lab where she studied monkeyflowers. She also participated in two premedical organizations, the American Medical Women’s Association (AMWA) and the Pilipino Association for Health Careers (PAHC). She made some of her best memories in these organizations and later held leadership positions in both for two years. She also had a great time volunteering at the Mabuhay Health Center as a health coach and Fundraising Chair. She graduated from UC Berkeley in 2019 with a Bachelor’s degree in Molecular and Cell Biology with an emphasis in Immunology and Infectious Diseases and a minor in Disability Studies.
She took a gap year while applying to medical school where she worked as a medical assistant at Marin Retina, a private practice ophthalmology clinic. Now she is an MS2 student at Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York.
Katherine Chua
(She/Her/Hers)
Community Engagement Chair
Katherine is a pre-medical student from Santa Clarita, CA. She is a fourth year Human Biology and Society major with a minor in Asian American Studies at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA). Katherine identifies as a second generation Chinese Filipino American. Her ethnic and cultural identity has played a large role in who she is today.
At UCLA, Katherine is involved in many Filipinx-centered spaces including Pilipinos for Community Health (PCH), Pilipino Transfer Student Partnership, and Samahang Pilipino Advancing Community Empowerment. Through PCH, she became passionate about advocating for health equity and justice within underserved communities, especially Asian American and Pacific Islander communities. Katherine formerly served as a PCH Preventive Health Director and Health Fairs Director, where she led health sites at local Filipinx supermarkets, co-created an event that explored the intersectionality between Filipinx culture and physical and mental health, and co-organized a virtual health fair that empowered Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC) communities to advocate for their well-being. She currently serves as the President of the organization.
Katherine joined CYFAM during the planning of its inaugural conference in 2020. Through her involvement, Katherine has found a supportive and inspiring network of Filipinx Americans within the medical field. As a Community Engagement Chair, Katherine hopes to identify the needs of Filipinx American communities nationally and initiate partnerships with individuals and organizations invested in the well-being of these communities to promote health equity.
During her free time, Katherine likes to play basketball and piano, and most importantly, spend time with her Pomeranian, Maya.
Gianna Kaye Apoderado,
(She/Her/Hers)
Community Engagement Chair
Ms. Apoderado is currently in her gap year, preparing to apply to medical school. She was born and raised in the Philippines, immigrating to the U.S. in 2008. She currently resides in Fontana, CA. She graduated cum laude at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), earning her bachelor’s degree in Biology. She got involved in CYFAM as part of its inaugural conference leadership, with the goal of helping foster a network and community of Filipino-American healthcare professionals, current and aspiring. In her spare time, she enjoys knitting, crocheting, baking, and playing with her maltese mix dog, Momo.
Valerie Lim
(She/Her/Hers)
Community Engagement Chair
Valerie is a 4th year medical student at Rutgers New Jersey Medical School. She is a New Jersey native and completed both her BA in Cell Biology/Neuroscience and Master's in Biomedical Science at Rutgers. She is deeply passionate about leading discussions on social determinants of health and health equity and is heavily involved in her medical school's student run-free clinic. Through CYFAM, she wants to engage in health equity discussions and community outreach projects with other physicians and trainees, specifically with regards to the Filipinx-American community. In terms of hobbies, you can catch her hiking the local trails, rock climbing or catching up on her favorite netflix shows.
Netanya Flores
(She/Her/Hers)
Community Engagement Chair
Ms. Flores graduated from Jackson Memorial High School in Jackson, NJ and was actively involved as President of the Science League, Editor-in-Chief of the school newspaper, was on the varsity cross country and track & field teams, secretary of the her school's National Honor Society and Science National Honor Society and graduated in the top 10% of her class in 2017.
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She graduated in May 2021 with departmental honors from Rutgers University-New Brunswick with a Bachelor of Arts in Cognitive Science and double minors in Biological Sciences and Health & Society. During her undergraduate years, Netanya was an active member of the Rutgers Cognitive Science Club where she became the first Director of Alumni Relations on their executive board. Netanya was one of three undergraduates to help found the only Rutgers undergraduate chapter of the Asian Pacific American Medical Student Association where she was both Vice President ('19-'20) and President ('20-'21). Under her leadership, Netanya helped to create the only pre-PA and pre-Med mentorship program affiliated with various doctorate programs in NJ, raised money for the victims of the Beirut explosion and girls of The Malala Fund, collaborated with other APIDA focused organizations, and connected undergraduates with medical professionals and students from all fields of healthcare. For 2 years she worked as the marketing coordinator and community and outreach coordinator at the Office for Violence Prevention and Victim Assistance which aids survivors of domestic, sexual and interpersonal violence. Despite all this, her fondest memory was the ability to be chosen as a conference speaker at the national MARK Conference in March 2021.
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Currently, Netanya is pursuing her Master of Biomedical Sciences Degree at Rutgers University-Newark Biomedical and Health Sciences Program. She is planning to pursue a career as a podiatric physician with a focus in either neurovascular diabetic care or reconstructive and trauma surgery. Beyond academics, Netanya finds joy in traveling, reading, hiking and running, hosting her podcast "The Simply Spoken" and trying new bubble tea shops.
Alexander Andrew Argame
(He/Him/His)
Community Engagement Chair
Alex is a pre-medical student from Southern California who plans to begin medical school in Fall 2022. He graduated from California State University, Long Beach's School of Nursing back in 2015 and has been a Registered Nurse since then with experience in the following units: Medical-Surgical, Post-Anesthesia Care Unit, Pre-Op Same-Day Surgery, Interventional Radiology, and Intensive Care Unit. Currently, Alex serves as Quality Assurance Director of a Federally Qualified Health Center Look-Alike in Los Angeles county. Being a first-generation born and raised Filipino American, Alex wants to engage with his local community to bring more awareness of the health needs of Filipinx people, which is why he became involved with CYFAM. Alex finds a balance of work, school, and other responsibilities through bodybuilding, jiu-jitsu, salsa and bachata dancing, and playing the piano.
Jane Dantinguinoo
(She/Her/Hers)
Membership Engagement Chair
Jane Datinguinoo is an OMS-III at Michigan State University College of Osteopathic Medicine and CYFAM's Membership Engagement co-chair. She graduated from UC Davis with a degree in Genetics and a minor in Spanish. As a non-traditional student, she completed a post-bacc while working at a woman’s clinic. She then went out to work as a research assistant in Alzheimer’s disease during the day and for the Golden State Warriors during game nights before moving from California to Michigan for medical school. In medical school, she enjoys learning & applying OMM and seeing all the different specialties at work through clinical rotations. Jane got involved with CYFAM by discovering all the amazing things they do on social media. As the Membership Engagement co-chair, she strives to create a supportive and dynamic space for CYFAM members on our Mighty Networks page. To balance medical school with wellness, she recharges by going to Orangetheory and tending to her rescue pup.
Jaira Mendoza
(She/Her/Hers)
Membership Engagement Chair
Jaira Mendoza (she/her/hers) is a fourth year pre-medical student at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) majoring in Physiological Science and minoring in Global Health. She is a first generation immigrant, having been born and raised in Laguna in the Philippines and immigrated to the California Central Valley to reunite with her family in 2013. For the past three years at UCLA, she has been actively involved in Samahang Pilipino Advancing Community Empowerment (SPACE) as a peer tutor and Student Success Coordinator and in Pilipinos for Community Health (PCH), serving as its Pre-Health Advising and Mentorship Director for two years before transitioning to the Historian position, where she excited to co-lead and facilitate the first ever PCH Internship class.
Jaira first joined CYFAM through the national conference planning committee, serving as the inaugural conference's Program Committee Head. Inspired by the amazing community, support, and guidance from so many Pilipinx-identifying leaders and trainees across the country, she hopes to help keep the growing CYFAMilya connected as one of the Membership Engagement Committee Heads. She hopes to attend medical and public health school after her gap years.
She spends most of her free time looking at pictures or videos of cute animals (currently *really* enjoying capybara videos!!), playing badminton and video games, reading (mostly manga!), spending time with friends and loved ones, and trying out amazing food and desserts in Los Angeles!
