Los Angeles — L.A. Care Health Plan, the nation’s largest publicly operated health plan serving more than 1.6 million members, today announced that the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors has appointed Dr. Kimberly Uyeda as the newest member of L.A. Care’s Board of Governors, replacing Dr. Thomas Klitzner. Dr. Uyeda is the Director of Student Medical Services & Community Partnerships/Medi-Cal Programs at L.A. Unified School District (LAUSD), where she directs service delivery to underserved populations through innovative school-community partnerships.
L.A. Care’s Board of Governors is a 13-member stakeholder board, which includes representatives of various stakeholder groups, including community clinics, doctors, members and the County of Los Angeles, among others. Dr. Uyeda will represent the Children’s Health Care Providers group.
“We are very pleased to have Dr. Uyeda join our Board of Governors given her extensive experience in meeting the health care needs of vulnerable children,” said L.A. Care interim CEO John Wallace. “There’s no doubt our members will benefit greatly from her expertise, especially the children we serve throughout L.A. County.”
In her role at LAUSD, Dr. Uyeda oversees health providers who render direct medical services, such as school entry exams, immunizations, assessments for special education, and other types of specialty care. Under her leadership, 14 new school-based Wellness Centers have launched in LAUSD over the last three years. She previously served as a principal investigator of the Merck Childhood Asthma Network-sponsored asthma program at LAUSD, and is currently co-investigator on the UCLA/RAND Healthy Adolescent Living Study, which focuses on obesity prevention in middle school youth. She also serves on the board of directors of the California School-based Health Alliance.
Dr. Uyeda earned a Doctor of Medicine degree from UC San Diego and completed her internship and residency at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Pediatrics. She also holds Master’s degree in Community Health Sciences from the UCLA Fielding School of Public Health.