Welcome Danielle Taylor and Izabel Pisikyan!

Please join us in welcoming two new staff member to our Division of Geriatrics!

Danielle Taylor started this past Monday and will be supporting the new State-funded Dementia Aware Program as the Associate Director of Operations!

Danielle earned her Bachelor of Arts degree in Neuroscience and a Minor in Public Health at Boston University.  Prior to UCSF, she worked for the City and County of San Francisco in the Department of Homelessness and Department of Public Health as a Senior Quality Improvement and Implementation Specialist and Director of the COVID-19 Outbreak Management Group.  At the Department of Homelessness, Danielle served as the liaison with DPH to case conference around medically acute clients to appropriately place in nursing supported units.  At the DPH COVID-19 Outbreak Management Group, she managed approximately 40 staff, including nurses, health workers, epidemiologists, project managers, and administrators in COVID-19 communicable disease response.  Danielle is extremely talented in people and change management, quality improvement and project management – as demonstrated by her promotions at CCSF from Performance Improvement Specialist to Manager of Special Projects to Director in a short period of time!  She is also a recent recipient of the California Association of Public Hospitals and Health System (CAPH) / California Health Care Safety Net Institute (SNI) 2021 Quality Leader Award for Innovation for her work in San Francisco’s school reopening effort.

We are so lucky to have snatched up Danielle to help lead the Dementia Aware program alongside Drs. Anna Chodos and Josette Rivera (and many others at UCSF and beyond!)  In her new role as Associate Director of Operations, Danielle will lead program implementation including outreach and social media campaigns, liaise with multiple UC campuses (and non-UC partners) to ensure we meet program deliverables, as well as supervise multiple program staff.  We’re so excited to welcome Danielle and can’t wait to see the amazing impact she’ll bring to the team.  Danielle can be reached at [email protected] if you need to get a hold of her, OR just to welcome her to the team! 

 

Izabel Pisikyan also started this past Monday and will be supporting the new State-funded Dementia Aware Program as the Program Coordinator!

Izabel earned both her Bachelor of Arts degree in Psychology and Master of Arts degree in Developmental Psychology at San Francisco State University (SFSU), where she also worked as an Undergraduate and Graduate Researcher.  She was involved in the Preschool Project, as well as the Parents and Youth Study – and she wrote her master’s thesis on Mindfulness and Self-Compassion Study.  Through her extensive research experience, Izabel is well-versed in data analysis techniques, using various statistical programs including R and SPSS, as well as familiar with research protocols.  Before coming to UCSF, Izabel worked as a Behavioral Health Administrator at Asian Perinatal Advocates Family Support Services.  APA’s mission is to promote healthy children and families by providing family support services to prevent child abuse and domestic violence.  In her Administrator role, Izabel worked with diverse and underserved communities to provide access to mental health resources, managed data, and prepared reports, supervised a cohort of 6 behavioral health interns, as well as supported the grant writing process.

In her new role as Program Coordinator, Izabel will work closely with Danielle to support program operations and deliverables as well as the overall success of Dementia Aware.  Izabel is gifted in technical, organizational and communication skills and has a ton of experience in data management and working with diverse teams.  We’re thrilled that Izabel has chosen to join our team and exciting new program! 

Izabel can be reached at [email protected] if you need to get a hold of her, OR just to welcome her to the team!