Candidates
Position: Vice-Chair of Program Coordinators and Elections
Barbara Gohre, C-TAGME, CAPM
Senior Program Administrator
Pediatric GI and Hospitalist Medicine Fellowships
Phoenix Children’s Hospital
Mrs. Barbara Gohre is an accomplished Senior Graduate Medical Education Program Administrator at Phoenix Children’s Hospital with over 20 years of experience in the field. In her current role, she is responsible for overseeing the management and administration of graduate medical education programs, ensuring compliance with accreditation standards and regulations, and providing guidance and support to program directors, residents, and fellows.
Mrs. Gohre has worked with residency and fellowship programs from across the valley throughout the years. She has extensive experience in managing residency and fellowship programs, including recruitment, orientation, curriculum development, evaluation, and accreditation. She is also skilled in developing policies and procedures, managing budgets, and maintaining relationships with stakeholders and regulatory bodies.
Mrs. Gohre is known for her strong leadership skills and her ability to work collaboratively with others to achieve common goals. She is passionate about providing high-quality education to medical professionals and is committed to ensuring that all programs under her supervision meet the highest standards of excellence.
Mrs. Gohre holds a bachelor’s degree in Healthcare Administration from Southern New Hampshire University. She is also a certified Graduate Medical Education Professional (CTAGME), while also recently achieving the CAPM, Certificate Associate in Project Management as of 2022, and is actively involved in professional organizations, including the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education and the National Association of Medical Education Specialists.
In her spare time, Mrs. Gohre enjoys volunteering at local charities and spending time with her family. She is also an avid traveler and enjoys exploring new destinations and experiencing different cultures.
Jennifer Martinez
Fellowship Program Coordinator
UCLA David Geffen School of Medicine/UCLA Medical Center
Jennifer first joined the GME community 8 years ago after completing her undergraduate degree at CSULB. Through her various roles, she has been able to apply best practices to improve program processes and network with coordinators across multiple specialties. As the first Lead Senior Multi-Fellowship Program Coordinator in UCLA Pediatrics history, Jennifer supervises six fellowship program coordinators in addition to her own program coordinator responsibilities. After attending the APPD Spring Conference, she has focused her efforts on helping the fellowship program coordinator team find areas of passion in their careers and identifying opportunities for development. As a member of the UCLA Program Coordinator Leadership Committee (PCLC), she is the program coordinator representative in the GMEC, and took part in planning the annual program coordinator retreat.
Outside of work, Jennifer is a mentor for first-generation students and professionals. While on vacation, she spends her time solo traveling to other countries and zip lining as much as possible.
Position: Vice-Chair of Research & Scholarship
Vasudha “Vasu” Bhavaraju, MD
Chief Medical Education Officer & DIO
Phoenix Children’s Hospital
Dr. Vasudha “Vasu” Bhavaraju is a pediatric hospitalist and Chief Medical Education Officer and DIO at Phoenix Children’s Hospital in Arizona. Prior to this position, she served as program director and APD of the pediatric residency for 11 years. She is currently enrolled in a Master of Education program at Arizona State University.
Dr. Bhavaraju has been a member of APPD since 2009 and has attended the Western Region and Spring Meetings annually. Within APPD, Dr. Bhavaraju has presented multiple workshops and posters and served a 3-year cycle as PD Grassroots session moderator. She has also participated in several APPD-sponsored research projects. Vasu served as Vice-Chair of Meetings for the Western Region from 2019-2021 and alongside the regional co-chairs, conducted a virtual meeting which focused on the impact of the pandemic and leadership resiliency. As part of this role, she also reviewed regional grant applications. Vasu has been active in medical education scholarship as a researcher and mentor and is enthusiastic about supporting learners in completing high-quality projects. She is currently mentoring a resident who was the recipient of a W-APPD research grant and has gained additional perspective on the process from this vantage point.
Overall, Vasu is excited about the position of Vice Chair of Research and Education. She looks forward to continuing the research grant process and seeking ways to collaborate on research and educational efforts across the Western region.
Thank you for your consideration.
Position: Vice Chair of Communications
Janice Tsai, MD
Pediatric Hospitalist, Assistant Professor
Program Director, Pediatric Residency Program
Loma Linda University Children’s Hospital
I recently transitioned from the position of associate program director to the categorical pediatrics program director at Loma Linda University Children’s Hospital in October 2021. As the youngest member of our leadership team, I have greatly benefitted from the experience and expertise of the members of the APPD Western Region, especially with all the constant changes that occurred during the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic and the more recent respiratory surge that occurred. These events in addition to my time as PD, APD, and previously a pediatric chief resident have taught me the importance of efficient, effective communication. I have prior experience throughout my undergraduate time at the University of Wisconsin – Madison as well as a medical school training at New York Medical College managing website content for multiple clubs/organizations I have been involved in, as well as managing email listserves. I would be honored to be given the chance to help connect colleagues and share ideas within our region, to keep our region well-informed on current and upcoming events such as meetings or virtual cafes, to keep everyone informed of changes that might affect our programs, to collaborate and engage with other programs, and to utilize more social media if that is something our region might be interested in. Thank you so much for your consideration!
Cherie Lewis, MPH
Director, Medical Education
UCLA David Geffen School of Medicine/UCLA Medical Center
My first exposure to the world of Graduate Medical Education came in 2006 when I joined the Pediatric Medical Education office at UCLA as a student worker. In 2010, after graduating from UCLA with a degree in Physiological Science I joined the Peds MedEd team as a career employee. Over the next 5 years I took on various roles within the UCLA Pediatric Residency office, progressively taking on more responsibility and ultimately taking on the role of Associate Residency Program Coordinator. In 2015, after graduating from the UCLA Fielding School of Public Health with a master’s degree in Health Policy and Management, I became the Pediatric Fellowships Advisor, Pediatric Board Review Course Coordinator and Coordinator of the Medical Genetics and Medical Biochemical Genetics programs. In my role as Fellowships Advisor I worked closely with the Director of Fellowships to improve the fellowship curriculum through the creation of Fellows College and helped to create the first ever multi-fellowship coordinator position at UCLA – a model the department has now implemented across all of our fellowships. In 2018 I joined UCLA’s Institutional Graduate Medical Education office as the Accreditation Analyst and MedHub Superuser. During my time in the institutional GME office I worked hard to ensure all training programs across the institution met the ACGME standards and also created and implemented processes to operationalize the newly ratified resident union contract. In March 2022 I came back “home” to Pediatrics to take on the role of Director of Medical Education. As director I oversee the coordination of any academic, operational, financial and regulatory/required aspects of our Pediatric Residency Program and our 14 Fellowship Programs and manage a team of 11 staff members. Over the years I have thoroughly enjoyed attending the APPD meetings and would be honored to give back as Vice-Chair of Communication, a role I think I would excel at given my work experience and love for Pediatric GME.
Position: Vice Chair of Meetings
Savarra Mantzor, MD
Associate Program Director
Full Circle Health Idaho Pediatrics
Dr. Savarra Mantzor joined Full Circle Health as the Pediatrics Residency of Idaho’s Associate Program Director in July 2022.
Prior, Dr. Mantzor worked in the southern region of Idaho where she practiced as a pediatric hospitalist at St. Luke’s Magic Valley Medical Center from 2020-2022. Preceding that, she was faculty with Baylor College of Medicine and worked as a pediatrician in the Texas Children’s Global Hematology Oncology Pediatric Excellence (HOPE) Program in Botswana (2017-20). She completed her Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia Pincus Global Health Fellowship Program in Botswana from 2015-17. She completed a Chief Resident year (2014-15) and her pediatric residency (2011-14) at Our Lady of the Lake Pediatric Residency Program in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. She obtained her medical degree (M.D.) from the Ben-Gurion University of the Negev in collaboration with Columbia Univeristy, New York (2007-11). She graduated with honors, magna cum laude from Seattle University, Washington with a Bachelor of Science in General Science and a Minor in Political Science.
Dr. Mantzor’s dual passions are 1) the advancement of medical education for learners and teachers, and 2) improving access to care in areas of limited resources, such as rural and global health settings. She is currently obtaining her PhD in Health Professional Education from the University of Cape Town. Through these activities she hopes to facilitate improvement in common healthcare challenges faced in rural and globally diverse settings, as well as to aid in the optimization of pediatric clinical teaching for medical students and residents.
She enjoys traveling, baking, swimming, skiing, horse riding, running, and board games, but mostly spending endless hours of play and fun with her husband and four children.
Position: Chair, Western Region
Jerry G. Larrabee, MD MEd
Associate Program Director
University of New Mexico
While relatively new to the West, I am not new to residency education and training. I moved to New Mexico from Vermont in 2019 after having been PD/APD for University of Vermont Pediatric Residency Program for over 10 years. But having arrived here a few years ago, I have never looked back. I love the West and am putting down deep roots. I am excited about leading and representing our region on a national level, and I feel stepping into the role of Chair of W-APPD would be a nice combination of my love of the west and love of residency education. I serve as APD at University of New Mexico with a stellar leadership team and am enjoying my more specific role as APD for Education and Remediation. My curricular and research interests include Board Review and Entrustable Professional Activities. I have served as Leader of the APD SIG for APPD, was a member of the first cohort of APPD LEAD, and was an invited member of the national writing team for General Pediatric EPAs with ABP. Most recently I have served two years as Vice Chair of Research and Scholarship with W-APPD and have seen our regional residents and fellows through two successful cycles of grant-supported research. Clinically, I am a general pediatrician and I presently serve as Division Chief for General Pediatrics at UNM where I lead a group of 24 providers across 6 sites. I am institutional co-leader of a national QI project in Childhood Obesity Prevention, and institutional co-investigator for a national COVID outcomes research study. I am involved in a number of resident and student educational initiatives. I live in Albuquerque with my family, and enjoy biking, hiking, piano, and visiting extended family in Mexico.
