Women in Medicine & Science 2023

Gina Perez-Baron, MD '06

Advanced Integrative Medical Science Institute

Dr. Perez has focused her practice on addiction treatment and care for the underserved. Blending clinical knowledge with her perspective as an Apache-descent / Chicana, she has focused her career on creating novel treatment approaches and improving health outcomes by integrating best practices with cultural knowledge and traditional wisdom. She received her MD degree from Stanford School of Medicine, is family medicine board-certified, and specializes in Primary Care, Addiction and Myofascial Pain. She is the creator of the Alchemy Treatment Model and past Medical Director at the Seattle Indian Health Board. Her work has been highlighted in Gabor Maté’s “Talks on Trauma” series. She now shares her time between Lummi Tribal Health and private practice caring for people with cancer and complex chronic disease in an integrative practice, research and residency setting. 

Yi-Ching Ong, Phd ’10

Executive Director, Haas Center for Public Service

Dr. Yi-Ching Ong is the newly appointed Executive Director of the Haas Center for Public Service at Stanford University. She comes to Stanford from Princeton University, where she served as Senior Associate Director of experiential learning and Service Focus program director at the Pace Center for Civic Engagement. In this role, Ong worked with a team to develop and offer internships, fellowships, and other programs to support students in engaging with societal issues and connecting academic inquiry with learning from community partners. Before her time at the Pace Center, Ong served as an associate research scholar and lecturer in the Global Health Program at Princeton and as a Robert Wood Johnson Health and Society Scholar at Columbia University. She holds a PhD in microbiology and immunology from Stanford University, a Master of Philosophy degree in development studies from Oxford University, and an undergraduate degree in biochemic al sciences from Harvard University.

Yana Vaks, MD ’08

Chief of Inpatient Pediatrics, Kaiser Permanente Santa Clara

Pediatric Critical Care Physician 

Co-founder SAMPL (Society of Aspiring Minority Physician Leaders)

Yana Vaks is a pediatric ICU physician and Chief of Inpatient Pediatrics at Kaiser Permanente in Santa Clara, passionate about promoting equitable, patient-centered, high value medical care. Yana was born in Ukraine, grew up in Russia and came to the United States as a refugee in 1996. She majored in neuroscience at the University of Rochester (2003) and received her MD from the Stanford University School of Medicine (2008). She continued her training at Stanford, completing her pediatrics residency, pediatric ICU fellowship and a research fellowship in healthcare delivery innovation (2014). In 2017, Yana co-founded SAMPL, the Society of Aspiring Minority Physician Leaders, a mentoring network for students and physicians underrepresented in medicine. The SAMPL mission is to increase diversity in medical leadership. In her spare time Yana enjoys attending her 17-year old son’s theatrical productions, making art with her 4-year old daughter and re-imagining medical culture with her partner and SAMPL co-founder Leo Aliaga, MD.

Leticia Britos Cavagnaro, PhD ’11 

Adjunct Professor, Hasso Plattner Institute of Design (d.school) 

Leticia Britos Cavagnaro is a scientist turned designer. While earning her Ph.D. in Developmental Biology from Stanford University, her passion for designing learning experiences led her to the d.school in 2006, and she never left. Leticia has created and facilitated a wide range of courses in design, creativity, and innovation, including Advanced Reflective Practice, which she developed for the Stanford MS Program in Design. As co-founder and co-Director of the University Innovation Fellows program, she has empowered thousands of students and educators from over 300 universities globally to be agents of change. Leticia has also worked with corporate and social sector leaders. Her creative methods include the use of emerging technologies to help people grow as self-directed, action-oriented, reflective, and responsible shapers of the future. If she were granted a wish, she would bring her home country of Uruguay a tad closer to San Francisco, California, where she lives with her husband.