ABOUT
Access to healthcare should not be determined by where you live. Improving the health of tribal communities is not a mission statement. It’s personal. Our friends and families live in tribal communities and we are doing it for them, their children, and the next generation
Leadership Team
Justin Iwasaki MD MPH
Chief Executive Officer & Chief Medical Officer
Dr. Justin Iwasaki has over a decade of experience as a healthcare executive and practicing primary care physician within multiple tribal communities. He has a track record of developing innovative solutions to complex health and social system problems, and has led projects with funding from the CDC, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, and the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation among others. His work has been developed into case studies by Harvard Business School and the Stanford Design School (d.school). He completed a family medicine residency at the University of Washington with concentrations in bioinformatics and global health, where he continues to hold a clinical faculty position. Prior to that he graduated from the University of Utah’s combined MD/MPH program, where he was involved in the start-up and impact investing community. In his spare time can be found chasing his young children around on their mountain bikes, or training for local adventure races with his superstar wife who is also a physician and former Division I athlete.
Angad Singh MD
Chief Medical Information Officer
Angad Singh, MD is a dual board-certified family physician and clinical informaticist who serves as the Chief Medical Information Officer for Tribal Health Connections and the virtual technology expert for the Virtual Care Implementation ECHO. He has a passion for making technology more accessible and approachable for all, with a strong foundation in telehealth, creating The Telemedicine Toolkit in the early days of the pandemic. He is also the Associate Chief Medical Information Officer for Ambulatory Care and Health Equity at the University of Washington, where he is a Clinical Assistant Professor in the Department of Family Medicine. He holds adjunct appointments in the Department of Biomedical Informatics and Medical Education. An avid teacher, Dr. Singh is a core faculty member for the UW Clinical Informatics fellowship and is a regular lecturer in the UW School of Medicine. Outside of medicine, Dr. Singh loves photography, particularly capturing everyday moments and scenery with the convenience of his phone camera.
Chief Medical Information Officer
Brenna Torres
Operations Manager
Ms. Torres is an enrolled Lummi tribal member who brings almost a decade of experience working in tribal government. She has worked in numerous social services sectors including education and health. She also is an experienced fisherwoman working on the family commercial fishing boat. She is actively engaged in furthering her formal education and plans to pursue an MBA.
Jessie Whitfield MD MPH
Director of Education Virtual Care Implementation
Jessica Whitfield, MD, MPH, serves as the Director of Education for the Virtual Care Implementation ECHO which launched in 2021. She brings to this role several years of experience as a practicing psychiatrist using telehealth across a variety of settings, from outpatient specialty health to integrated primary care. She also has expertise in implementation science, having graduated from the Integrated Care Training Program Fellowship at the University of Washington, and currently serves as a Psychiatric Consultant coach at the Advancing Integrated Mental Health Solutions (AIMS) Center, a national leader in Collaborative Care implementation. She is an Assistant Professor in Psychiatry & Behavioral Sciences at the University of Washington School of Medicine, where, along with Dr Bud Vana, she created a new psychiatry resident rotation at a tribal health center improving psychiatric training tailored to tribal communities. She has published review papers and chapters on Collaborative Care, including remote models, and regularly speaks nationally on telehealth and integrated care topics. She received her medical degree from Saint Louis University School of Medicine and her Masters of Public Health from Columbia University. She completed her residency in General Adult Psychiatry at Brown University.
Julia Hale
Patient Care Coordinator
Julia Hale is an enrolled member of the Cherokee Nation. She is a recent graduate from the University of Kansas with a bachelors in psychology. Though just starting her career in the mental health field, she aims to use her time to help make a difference in tribal members lives. She has plans to further her education by obtaining her M.S and PhD in clinical psychology.
