By CenCal Health
Van Do-Reynoso, MPH, PhD has started a new position as Chief Customer Experience Officer (CXO) at CenCal Health, the Medi-Cal managed care plan for Santa Barbara and San Luis Obispo counties. In this position, she will provide strategic leadership for the management of relationships with members, providers, and community partners to ensure the long-term growth and success of these key partnerships. Do-Reynoso will also serve as Health Equity Officer at CenCal Health, responsible for understanding and championing diverse needs and perspectives across the health plan’s service area; sponsoring improvements in access to care, member engagement and satisfaction; provider and community partner retention and satisfaction; and the quality of customer service and service outcomes with an equity lens. She assumed this newly created role on August 1.
“I am thrilled to join CenCal Health, and look forward to collaborating with our partners to advance health equity in every neighborhood so that our communities are the healthiest in California,” said Do-Reynoso.
For the past five years, Do-Reynoso was Public Health Director at the Santa Barbara County Public Health Department, providing oversight of five health care centers, three homeless shelter clinics, and a variety of health programs. She led public health operations during multiple crises including the Thomas Fire, the Montecito debris flows and the COVID-19 pandemic. “Through it all, Van responded with calm and grace,” said Santa Barbara County Supervisor Joan Hartmann, who also sits on the CenCal Health Board of Directors. “She guided us through these extraordinary times with both science and compassion. I know that at CenCal Health she will continue as an innovative and thoughtful health professional in service to the community.”
Van Do-Reynoso
Prior to her tenure in Santa Barbara, Do-Reynoso was Public Health Director for seven years and Interim Behavioral Health Services Director for one year at the Madera County Department of Public Health. She also worked in public health for Tulare County and Asian Health Services in Oakland, and was a postgraduate fellow and management consultant for Kaiser Permanente in Northern California.
Do-Reynoso’s formal education includes a PhD in Public Health from the University of California, Merced; an MPH in Health Policy and Administration from the University of California, Berkeley; and a BA in Biology with History minor from the University of California, Santa Cruz.
“Serving with Van on the CenCal Health Board of Directors, I’ve experienced firsthand her depth of healthcare knowledge and concern for the public’s welfare,” said Debbie Arnold, San Luis Obispo County Supervisor. “In her new position, we can expect to see the same steadfast commitment to positive health outcomes for our underserved residents in SLO County.”
As a public health leader and spokesperson in Santa Barbara County during COVID-19, Do-Reynoso was a steady voice of reason on local broadcast news for the past 2½ years of the pandemic, providing daily briefings to media outlets and the public. Consequently, she became a well-recognized and highly regarded figure in the community, receiving the following awards and recognition, among others:
- 2022 Women of Achievement Award, Association for Women in Communications
- 2022 Public Policy Leader of the Year BRAVO Award, NAWBO
- 2021 Heroes of Hospice, Hospice of Santa Barbara
- 2021 Woman of the Year, California Assembly District 37
- 2020 Hero Award, Santa Barbara Independent
“Those who know Van best, know that she is creative, resilient, collaborative, and aspirational in her pursuit of health equity for all, which aligns with CenCal Health’s vision,” said Marina Owen, CenCal Health CEO. “In this reimagined executive role, Van will focus on expanding access to care, providing excellence in provider service, improving the patient experience, and strengthening community collaboration. I couldn’t ask for a better partner in the years to come.”
More information on CenCal Health is available at cencalhealth.org
About CenCal Health
CenCal Health is a community-accountable health plan that partners with over 1,500 local physicians, hospitals and other providers in delivering patient care to nearly 220,000 members – about one in four residents of Santa Barbara County and one in five residents of San Luis Obispo County. A public agency, the health plan contributes approximately $50 million a month into the local economy, primarily through payments to healthcare providers who serve its membership. Established in 1983, it is the oldest Medicaid managed care plan of its kind in the nation. View its annual Community Report at cencal2021.org
Thank you for your public service in the face of all the ignorant, malignant nonsense spewed by anti-vaxxers and rabid opponents of necessary public health measures during the pandemic.
Well the “anti-vaxxers” were more correct than the public health figures that claimed (with no supporting data) that the vaccines would stop transmission / prevent you from catching the virus and many of public health measures were not only unnecessary but lead to significant negative consequences… like closing schools.
A person who thinks that vaccines are ever 100% effective is patently ignorant on the subject. The purpose of vaccines is to reduce the burden of disease be reducing transmission and lessening severity of disease. Your views are a sign of credulity, reflecting the garbage found on social media that promotes such ignorance.
An article from a medical source, without the unreasonable spin:
https://www.statnews.com/2022/08/11/cdc-eases-covid-19-quarantine-and-testing-guidelines-as-it-marks-a-new-phase-in-pandemic/
No, most are not 100%, but in the 90%+’s at PREVENTING INFECTION. The covid shots simply do not prevent infection, Pfizer knew they weren’t going to, and their trials were specifically focused on reducing severity of illness NOT reducing transmission. The CDC literally changed the definition of “vaccine” since the pandemic began to better fit what the covid shots actually accomplish. This is not ignorance, not misinformation, but fact………………:
An archived CDC web page from May 2018 shows that the agency’s previous definition of vaccine was “a product that stimulates a person’s immune system to produce immunity to a specific disease, protecting the person from that disease.”
The current definition on a CDC web page last updated in September 2021 reads: “A preparation that is used to stimulate the body’s immune response against diseases.”
The latest CDC definition is absent the word “immunity” and just focuses on the stimulation of the body’s immune response.
The CDC also changed its wording for the definition of “vaccination” from “the act of introducing a vaccine into the body to produce immunity to a specific disease” in 2018 to “the act of introducing a vaccine into the body to produce protection from a specific disease.” The key differences here are, again, the absence of the word “immunity” in the latest definition and the change to “protection” instead. ………………………http://web.archive.org/web/20210826113846/https://www.cdc.gov/vaccines/vac-gen/imz-basics.htm
@2:24 from your medical source : “As the guidance states, “high levels of vaccine- and INFECTION-INDUCED IMMUNITY and the availability of effective treatments and prevention tools have substantially reduced the risk of medically significant Covid-19 illness.” ” ——Infection-induced or “natural” immunity was literally labeled as misinformation as recently as last month, and it’s denial lead to many losing their jobs for not ALSO getting the shot after an infection and it kept kids out of school. People on this very board labeled others who brought it up as “covidiots” saying natural immunity isn’t a thing. Let me guess, ‘tHe SciEnCE cHAnGed’….. no it didn’t.
You are really persistent at spreading falsehoods. What’s your motivation? All it does is make you look like a pawn.
What was a falsehood?
“A person who thinks that vaccines are ever 100% effective is patently ignorant on the subject.”
And/or they are a Public Health professional as per the quotes available online from our dearest leaders
Please elaborate? Give me a Top 10 of your “necessary public health measures during the pandemic.”
Here are mine.
1. Voluntary Vaccination
Nobody who knows anything about virology and vaccines, and especially the CDC, has ever claimed that the COVID vaccines would be 100% against infection. Only a complete fool or a politically-motivated shill who spreads disinformation would say so.
The vaccines, especially the mRNA vaccines, did a fantastic job at reducing the rate of spread and the severity of disease.
Example: politically motivated shill “You’re not going to get COVID if you have these vaccinations,” and “If you’re vaccinated, you’re not going to be hospitalized, you’re not going to be in the ICU unit, and you’re not going to die.” – Joe Biden
Example: Somebody that does (should) know something about virology and vaccines, CDC Director Dr. Rochelle P. Walensky claiming “vaccinated people do not carry the virus, don’t get sick, and that is not just in the clinical trials but it’s also in real world data.” – April 2021
Example: CDC: Real-world data shows Pfizer’s and Moderna’s COVID-19 vaccines are 90% effective at preventing infection: https://www.businessinsider.com/cdc-pfizer-and-moderna-vaccines-effective-in-the-real-world-2021-3
On average, how many social gatherings are you invited to?
No vaccine has ever been 100%. Anyone who thinks so is ignorant. Plain ignorance is forgivable. Willful ignorance, like some people constantly display here, is not.