Meet Our Team
Through partnerships with institutions, hospitals, government agencies, and non-profits, our faculty leadership team plays a key role in strengthening health systems, advancing medical knowledge, and addressing global health challenges.
From the Dean
Global is local. Our mission at the UC Davis Center for Global Health is to actualize this idiom.
When our faculty and trainees work alongside colleagues in Ho Chi Minh City, Dar es Salaam or Kandy, they do not export expertise. They encounter diseases in contexts that challenge assumptions, and forge collaborations that open new lines of inquiry to make their work more rigorous and more relevant.
Our mission rests on a simple conviction: science grows broader and stronger when it crosses borders. The health challenges of our time — climate-driven illness, emerging infections, and cancer in younger and younger people — respect no boundaries. Neither should our response.
We have distinct strengths at UC Davis, in our agricultural roots, world-class veterinary ecologists, and a nursing school devoted to public health. Matching these strengths with our medical faculty and trainees, we aim to contribute to the global community.
Connecting the world is not charity. It is how we do better science, train better doctors, and build the shared knowledge that every community — including our own — deserves.
Shuchi Anand, MD MS
Professor of Medicine
Associate Dean, Global Health
University of California, Davis School of Medicine
Meet Our Team
Our team mentors trainees, collaborate on research, and support organizations dedicated to improving health equity. Committed to sustainable and impactful work, our faculty foster meaningful international partnerships that drive innovation and lasting change in global health.
Leading these efforts, the Center for Global Health’s faculty leadership team is dedicated to creating opportunities and supporting the UC Davis Health community in global health engagement. They develop programs, facilitate collaborations, and provide mentorship to faculty, trainees, and staff interested in global health work. By fostering a network of globally minded professionals, they help expand UC Davis Health’s impact, ensuring that our institution remains a hub for education, research, and service in global health.
N. Shakira Bandolin, MD
Director of Global HealthDr. Bandolin is an Emergency Medicine Physician. She has a special interest and formal training in International Emergency Medicine and the development of emergency care and education globally. She is the Director of Global Emergency Medicine Division and Fellowship Program.
Angel Desai, MD
Director for Medical StudentsDr. Desai is an adult infectious disease specialist offering care for patients with various general infectious disease conditions. She has special clinical interest and expertise in emerging infectious diseases, outbreaks, special pathogens, infection prevention and control, and tropical medicine.
Christine McBeth, DO, MSPH, FACEP
Director for Residents and FellowsDr. McBeth is an emergency medicine physician who completed a two-year fellowship in Ultrasound and Global Health. She is board-certified in Emergency Medicine and achieved Focused Practice Designation in Advanced Emergency Medicine Ultrasonography.
Elysia Alvarez, MD
Director for ResearchDr. Alvarez is a pediatric hematologist/oncologist offering care to children, adolescents and young adults with cancer. She has a special clinic interest and expertise in adolescent and young adult patients with solid tumors. She is also the co-leads a Pediatric, Adolescent, and Young Adult Comprehensive Sarcoma Clinic at the UC Davis Comprehensive Cancer Center.
