Board of Directors
The Board of Directors steers the vision of Medical Minds Matter and provides fiduciary oversight to the volunteer staff.
Shireesha Jevaji, MPH
Chairperson
Shireesha Jevaji is a seasoned health policy and communications professional with over twelve years of content creation experience, strategic planning, and project management. Currently at the American Medical Association (AMA), Shireesha implements physician-focused marketing and communications strategies tailored to empower key stakeholders to move towards outcomes-centered care. Shireesha earned a Master of Public Health (MPH) specializing in Public Health Communications and Social Marketing from The George Washington University’s Milken Institute School of Public Health.
Krysti Vo, MD
Vice Chair, National Conference Chair
Krysti (Lan Chi) Vo is a board-certified, attending psychiatrist with the Autism Integrated Care Program and the Medical Director of Telehealth with the Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP). She’s also a digital health researcher and Assistant Professor at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine. She is an advisor to digital health companies, including to Orchid.Exchange, a software company focused on telehealth for mental health professionals and organizations. As the creator of Adopting Productive Habits, a 8-weeks course based on behavioral science, she broke forming habits into 8 easy steps to help people of all ages and from any industry to learn how to adopt fulfilling habits to create the life they love. Dr. Vo strives to bridge the disparity in mental healthcare across underprivileged communities.
Seeyashree Sodani
Secretary, Health Equity Committee Chair
Seeyashree (Seeya) Sodani is an aspiring counseling psychologist who has become a mental health advocate through her experiences. As a South Asian female with a non-traditional background, she has lived the challenges of limited access to mental health resources, cultural stigmas, and the journey to remission. After witnessing this first hand, she wants to drive equity and transparency across mental health systems. She graduated from the University of Connecticut in 2019 with a B.S. in Finance and a minor in Analytics. She is currently an admissions representative with Undergraduate Admissions at the University of Connecticut working to instill similar values in students and counselors across the United States.
Peeyush Shrivastava
Treasurer, Finance Committee Chair
Peeyush Shrivastava has 8 years of experience as a serial medical technology entrepreneur and technologist. He currently serves as the Co-Founder and CEO of Genetesis, where he has raised over $20 million in venture capital financing and led the company through FDA approval and commercial launch of its flagship product, CardioFlux. Prior to Genetesis, Peeyush co-founded and served as the inaugural Chief Strategy Officer of Proscia, a leading digital health company where he led key business development efforts. Peeyush studied Biomedical Science at The Ohio State University, but left early to pursue his entrepreneurial efforts as a Thiel Fellow.
Neelima Kunam, MD
Director
Dr. Kunam is a Board Certified Psychiatrist that trained at Henry Ford Hospital in Detroit, MI. She is currently the Medical Director of a multi-location group practice in Southern California. She has a young son, a physician husband, and a senior Siberian Husky. She has a passion for breaking down the stigma of mental health and would like to see it change within the medical field. She anjoys working with Perinatal Psychiatric Patients and TMS (Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation).
Derek Pan
Executive Director
Derek is an aspiring physician and mental health advocate studying at UCLA David Geffen School of Medicine. He, along with a group of aspiring physicians who were passionate about mental health, founded Medical Minds Matter in 2020. Drawing from his experiences as a mental health advocate, and tapping into the talented minds and experiences of his Team and Board of Directors, Derek hopes to develop communities of support throughout the medical field – at medical schools and hospital systems across the nation – to transform the narrative of mental health in medicine.
Erin Cox, PsyD
Director, Chapters Committee Chair
Dr. Cox is a licensed psychologist who has focused her career on supporting undergraduate and graduate students at various colleges and universities across the country. She is currently based out of Dallas, Texas. In addition to offering clinical services to the student population, Dr. Cox enjoys providing educational programming on healthy living, suicide prevention, and reducing stigma around mental health concerns. She completed her undergraduate degree in Psychology and Gender Studies at Mount Holyoke College, and her Doctorate of Psychology (Psy.D.) at The George Washington University.
Elizabeth D'Amelio, MSW
Director
Liz D’Amelio is a clinical social worker based in San Francisco, California. While her clinical work is currently focused on COVID-19 response, she maintains an active macro-practice focused on advancing equity in the field of global mental health. She is the founder and Chief Empowerment Officer of the International Mental Health Association, which develops culturally-responsive capacity building projects in collaboration with communities around the world.
Dennis Murphy, MBA
Director
Dennis Murphy has been involved and providing direction in the application of technology to solve complex issues within the healthcare, education, and financial services organizations. He brings twenty plus years of experience in the application of technology solutions to address operational concerns, quality enhancements and improved user experiences, including leadership experiences at Rational Surgical Solutions where he was COO/SVP, Nexistant, Telaid, AVI/SPL, and Goldman Sachs. He received an MBA from Fairleigh Dickinson University.
John Kalb, JD, MA
Director
John Kalb brings more than 20 years of healthcare experience in operations, quality, compliance, performance improvement and change management. His experience includes serving as Chief Client Operations Officer and VP of Quality for International Capital and Management Company, Operational Excellence Executive for Kootenai Health and VP of Quality for Kootenai Medical Center, Master Black Belt for GE Healthcare, and Associate Director of Dissemination for Peterson Center on Healthcare. He attended Brooklyn College where he was awarded an MA in Industrial/Organizational Psychology, and Brooklyn Law School where he was awarded a JD.
Nikhil Rajapuram, MD
Director
Nikhil is a researcher and advocate for medical trainee well-being. He recently graduated from UCSF School of Medicine and is starting Pediatrics residency at Stanford. As a UCSF Yearlong Inquiry Program Fellow, Nikhil carried out the largest multi-institutional study of medical student well-being in the US since 2012 and employs human-centered design methodologies to lobby for structural reform in medical education. He received a B.S. in Bioengineering from the University of Pennsylvania and completed a Fulbright in 2016 focusing on examining access to assistive technology for children with Cerebral Palsy in urban slums of Mumbai, India. He has also worked at Frog Design consulting on projects in the healthcare space. He can be found stir-frying veggies in his kitchen, road biking along the California coast, and practicing drag routines to Queen’s Greatest Hits.