CHP Affiliates

Isaac Kwabena Ayereka is a highly motivated and resulted-driven professional with a diverse background in project management, public policy, monitoring and evaluation, strategic planning etc. He has successfully managed complex projects for various organizations ensuring timely completion and exceeding project targets.

Isaac served a year of mandatory national voluntary service with the Social Welfare Department in Ghana after obtaining his first degree. He was responsible for bringing abusers of children and women to justice. This motivated his desire to help underserved communities and to promote social justice.

Isaac became a Project Manager for the Anglican Diocesan Development and Relief Organization, where he was responsible for malaria prevention and control.

Isaac also worked with MAP International as a Project Officer, where he was in charge of Adolescent Reproductive Health. He served as a Community Led Total Sanitation consultant for USAID/Global Communities and as a Water, Sanitation, and Hygiene (WASH) Resource Person for UNICEF. He then worked as a Project Manager for World Vision Ghana on a WASH project. Isaac is the founder of Teen Health Washington, a non-profit he founded in Seattle in 2022. The organization educates the African migrant population in Seattle about health issues. He is also the Program Manager for Teen Health Ghana. His research interest includes HIV/STI, health education, water sanitation and hygiene, health policy, nutrition, chronic disease, and behavior change.

He worked with several professors as a Research Assistant on the following research projects: Moral Theory and Climate Change: Ethical Perspectives on a Warming Planet, Gender based violence in South Africa and Botswana and Institutional challenges from the climate crisis: preface to a manifest. Isaac is currently a doctoral student pursuing Health Education at Teachers College, Columbia University. Isaac is eager to leverage his expertise to lead strategic initiatives that propel organizations to new heights, and he is poised to make a significant impact in improving the lives of vulnerable people.

Leah V. Estrada, PhD, RN is an Instructor in the Brookdale Department of Geriatrics and Palliative Medicine at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai in NYC. Dr. Estrada holds a joint appointment as a Nurse Scientist within the Center for Nursing Research and Innovation at Mount Sinai Hospital. Dr. Estrada received her PhD in Nursing in 2022 from the Columbia University School of Nursing, where her dissertation was on palliative care services and potentially avoidable hospitalizations for historically marginalized nursing home residents approaching end of life across the United States. Her desire to pursue a career as a nurse scientist was fueled from prior work as a nurse in an intensive care unit for a diverse population, where palliative care was necessary but underutilized. She pursued a PhD so that, through research, she could improve palliative care for all older adults that have been marginalized, not only the ones she had the privilege of serving personally. Dr. Estrada's research focuses on exploring the diverse palliative care needs for Latino persons with dementia and ultimately, work towards achieving health equity.

Dr. Pokiʻi Balaz served as the Interim Executive Director of Lunalilo Home and has devoted her career to senior health with an emphasis on memory care and advocacy for underserved populations. As a Native Hawaiian and geriatric nurse practitioner, Dr. Balaz has seen firsthand how a cultural approach to caregiving improves health outcomes for aging individuals as well as how cultural values motivate the surrounding community to participate in a continuum of care. Her extensive clinical background and focus on resource optimization for the treatment of Alzheimer's and dementia prepared Dr. Balaz to address senior care issues through public policy. Accepting invitations by both her congressman and governor to contribute to the Native Hawaiian Advisory Council and Policy Advisory Board for Elderly Affairs, Dr. Balaz has worked on legislation that protects the interests of aging residents and that educates families on the complexities of healthcare for aging relatives. She served as the immediate past Board Chair of the Alzheimer's Association Aloha Chapter, recipient of the Alzheimer Association’s Advocate of the Year Award, Certificate of Honor from the Hawai'i State Legislation, Congressional Commendation from Congressman Kahele,  Pacific Business News 40 under 40 and Hawaii Business Magazine 20 for the next 20.  Dr Balaz is a double board-certified family nurse practitioner with a Doctorate in Nursing Practice from the University of Hawai'i at Hilo and an Executive Master of Business Administration from Shidler College of Business at the University of Hawaiʻi.

Richard Dorritie PhD, RN, CNOR is a Clinical Assistant Professor at NYU Meyers College of Nursing. His research interests are the intersection of policy, poverty and racism with the quality and safety of surgical care. Dr. Dorritie has focused his teaching and service around nurses taking on leadership roles, both as policy advocates beyond the direct care spectrum and as safety and error reduction champions within healthcare. His work is informed by experience as a clinical nurse in the emergency, transplant, and operating room settings.