08/28/2026
Yesterday, we had the pleasure of attending the Los Angeles Business Journal Healthcare Leadership Awards.
We got a little emotional thinking about the many years of hard work, rejection, persistence, and determination that brought us into the same room as hospital and insurance CEOs. It was very insightful meeting the president and CEO of Blue Shield Promise, Kristen Cerf and Rachel E. Start the Regional Chief Nursing Officer at City of Hope. We also saw our friend Jemal, founder of TENA | Los Angeles Nonprofit . Although we didn’t win the award, being named a finalist was unexpected and meant so much to us.
It’s especially meaningful knowing that Vida started with a simple conversation in PA school about our own journeys as kids without insurance and our wanting to help people. That conversation ignited something that kept us going.
In 2020, we started Vida in the middle of a pandemic, still hustling in our other PA jobs, with so many unknowns. What we did have was a group of dedicated pre-health volunteers who simply wanted to help. They showed up with no questions asked, limited in PPE, and a heart to make a difference. Today, we have had the privilege of watching many of those students graduate and become physicians, PAs, nurses, and other healthcare professionals. Some have even returned to give back to the communities they once served as students.
Since then, Vida has provided services to more than 9,000 individuals through our free clinic, unhoused foot care clinic, wildfire relief efforts, and healthcare provider mentorship program and we will keep reaching more as we expand, as with our animal wellness program. Vida is not federally or state funded. We know that our greatest strength has always been our community, the people who volunteer, donate, partner with us, open doors, and believe in what we are trying to build.
So today was about our team, volunteers and the community that makes Vida possible.
To every team member, volunteer who showed up, every student who believed in our mission, every partner who opened a door, every donor who gave what they could, and every person who trusted us with their care: This recognition belongs to you.
We are incredibly grateful. ❤️
