Meet the Team

Our team is united by a passion for medicine and a desire to mitigate the inequalities within the healthcare system. We both resonate with and are inspired by our mentors’ experiences with medicine, positive and negative alike. As academically ambitious high school students, we strive to give back to our community through this project.

Venezia Garza

Co-founder

Venezia Garza is from Los Angeles, California and is a senior at Orange County School of the Arts. Within school, Venezia serves as a student board member within the Coalition on Anti Racism and Inclusion and is also the President of Spanish Honors Society. Stemming from experiences within college-prep scholarship programs including; Johns Hopkins CTY Scholars, UCLA Riordan Scholars, and Thrive Scholars, she is passionate about sharing knowledge she has learned with other first-generation, underrepresented high school students. Furthermore, to continue exposing herself to the medical field, Venezia volunteers at Beverly Hospital within the departments of Pediatrics, Observation, and Emergency Care. As a result of personal experiences and what she has witnessed as a volunteer, Venezia is adamant about increasing access to proper healthcare and hopes to contribute to the dismantling of that issue through this project. Aside from that, Venezia is an avid dancer, a voracious reader, and a fan of Disney.

Desiree E. Sanchez, MD

Co-founder, Mentor

Dr. Sanchez grew up in Delano, California and graduated first generation from UCLA with a BS in Psychobiology. She was raised by a single teenage mom and began working at the age of 14 and throughout high school and college to help support her family. Since the age of 11 her goal was to become a surgeon and she never lost sight of that. After college she worked in a neuropathology translational medicine laboratory before attending medical school at the University of Washington in Seattle where she received a grant from the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institutes. She also served on the UWSOM Admissions Committee and was an officer in SNMA where she prepared URM medical school applicants for interviews. She then matched into Urology Residency at UCLA, one of the most competitive spots in the country. Given her upbringing, her clinical and research interests center on bridging the healthcare inequity gap with an emphasis on healthcare delivery to the marginalized and underserved. She is very passionate about mentorship and when she is not mentoring the awesome AccessiHealth team, you'll find her in the operating room, searching for new music, reading motivational books, or in the ocean getting buried by the waves as she learns to surf.

Abhishek Venkataramana

Co-Founder, Mentor

Abhi grew up in the Bay Area, CA and spent much of his childhood seeing family members struggle to navigate both their health and the healthcare system. This inspired him to focus his undergraduate years at Stanford on exploring how healthcare delivery innovation and human-centered design can help improve the way that marginalized patients engage with the health system. He spent his undergraduate years building mobile tools to help NGO community health workers in rural Jordan deliver hearing care to village children and helping a day laborer center start a worker-owned catering cooperative to provide affordable, healthy meals to the local community.

The AccessiHealth project was inspired his and Dr. Sanchez's experiences working within the LA County health system and seeing patients struggle to access Urologic care, resulting in delayed diagnosis and lost follow-up -- sometimes even to the point of irreversible damage. Abhi firmly believes that technology and human-centered design can help us reimagine the way our patients engage with the healthcare system, and help underserved patient populations better access, afford, and navigate healthcare. Abhi is excited to share what he's learned with this incredible group of high school students, and help them make a meaningful impact on improving access to healthcare - and health - for those in need.

Ernesto Alvarez

Ernesto Alvarez is from Los Angeles, California and is a rising senior at DRAV Harbor Teacher Preparation Academy. While in school, Ernesto takes part in multiple clubs in various fields such as being on his Policy Debate Team and Political Discourse club, working with teams on projects from his MESA club and Robotics Club, and participating in Academic Decathlon. Additionally, Ernesto is on the Principal’s Honor Roll every year and is part of the college preparation program Thrive Scholars. Having learned so much from all of his experiences, Ernesto wishes to meet with and help other first-generation and historically disadvantaged students to help them on their path through college and into their career. When Ernesto is not in class, he likes to go biking and swimming, read informational and philosophical books, and spend time with his extended family—especially through cooking.

Sabrina Cheng

Sabrina Cheng is a high school senior that attends the Orange County School of the Arts for Creative Writing, where she strives for academic excellence. Outside of the classroom, she enjoys participating in community service initiatives that focus on Creative Writing. For instance, she co-founded an organization called Project Storybird, which fosters children's interest in Creative Writing. She is currently exploring her academic interests to determine if a profession in the medical field is appropriate for her. Sabrina hopes to make meaningful contributions to her community by devoting her time to efforts that mitigate societal inequalities. For example, Sabrina views the lack of universal access to healthcare as a severe and unjust issue in today's medical system. However, she can envision a society in which every individual receives quality medical treatment and is equipped with the means to maintain a robust level of health.

Jasmin Amezcua

Jasmin Amezcua lives in Monterey Park, California, as a senior at Schurr High School. In school, Jasmin has taken rigorous science classes, such as Honors and AP Biology, and Honors Chemistry. Hence, her interests include science and biology. She plans to major in biology in college and eventually pursue a career as a medical laboratory scientist. Participating as a tutor at the Commerce library showed her that helping others was fun and purposeful, therefore she concentrates on supporting those who need guidance. Since she is the president of the Hispanic Awareness Club, at Schurr High School, she is committed to assisting minority groups. She has an interest in easier access to medical help due to her family’s history of having Diabetes. During her free-time, Jasmin plays with her two spoiled dogs. She also enjoys spending time with family, painting her nails, and trying new foods.

Tracy Nguyen

Tracy Nguyen is a First-generation, Vietnamese-American senior at Abraham Lincoln High School. She was born and raised in East Los Angeles and lives with her two parents, little brother and grandpa. She was involved in a seven-week long Lung Cancer internship in Dr. Crystal Marconett’s lab, where she gathered data in the USC Norris Cancer Center for her professor’s research. In school, she is involved with Varsity Volleyball, Magnet Government, Science Bowl, and Advanced Orchestra. She is also involved with Community-based Organizations such as USC NAI and Thrive Scholars. Tracy is motivated to contribute and make AccessiHealth a possibility because of her family’s poor experiences with the healthcare system. She remembers her mom’s complaints about her varicose veins left untreated and her grandpa’s intense head pain that carried him to the Emergency room. She remembers and wants to make a difference to lessen the health care burdens that her family and other low-income, minority families face while managing their healt.

Mya Ibarra

Mya Ibarra is a junior high school student located in Los Angeles, California. She attends California High School and is a part of the rigorous Scholars Academy as a member and part of their cabinet. Mya is also on the Varsity Song team and is their team captain. She is an involved student, participating in school clubs including Junior Class Council and the Soroptimist Club as well as partaking in the UCLA Riordan Scholars Program. Mya is an eager advocate for equality for all, and AccessiHealth allows her to help ease the health care disparity that minorities face. From her experience, she has a perspective that allows her to understand what others have gone through within the healthcare system and implement those ideas into the app.