Leadership

Karen L. McGlinn, Executive Director, Share Our Selves

Karen McGlinn has served as the Executive Director of Share Our Selves (SOS) for the past 18 years and was a founding board member 40 years ago. She was part of the original group of parishioners at St. John the Baptist Catholic Church who conceived SOS. From these efforts SOS has grown into one of the largest multi-service agencies for direct aid in Orange County. Her expertise, intelligence and commitment to the community are evidenced by her leadership at SOS and by the many organizations whose boards or committees she serves on as a volunteer.

Currently, Karen is a member of the Executive Committee of the Health Funders Partnership overseeing four healthcare initiatives in the county. She is the Chair and Community Liaison for the UCI Institute for Clinical Translational Science. In June 2010 Karen was appointed to the Aging and Disability Resource Connection of Orange County (ADRC OC) Advisory Committee as a Consumer Representative. Karen has twice been a featured speaker on transformational leadership with HRSA (U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Health Resources and Human Services) Clinical Pharmaceutical Services. Karen is the past Chairperson of the Orange County Coalition of Community Clinics and a board member for seven years. She is a former member of the Nonprofit Advisory Board of Orange Coast Magazine, was a member of the CALRHIO (California Regional Health Information Organization) California Team for Privacy and Security, and was a member of the Education Committee of the California Privacy Security Advisory Board (CalPSAB) which reports to the Secretary for Health and Human Services in California. Karen has met with and counseled many board and staff members of local nonprofits who struggle with issues of leadership and funding to help them outline plans to move their agencies forward.

Karen has received numerous awards throughout the years. In September 2008 she received the Community Health Care Research Advocate Award from the UCI Institute for Clinical Translational Science. Under her leadership, SOS received the 2009 outstanding organization from UCI and CalOptima and in 2010 SOS was named the Community Partner of the Year by Public Law Center.

Karen and her husband, John, have been married 48 years and have five children, and 10 grandchildren.

Dr. Margarita Pereyda, Chief Medical Officer

Margarita Pereyda, M.D. is the Chief Medical Officer of the Share Our Selves (SOS) Medical Clinic, the SOS-El Sol Wellness Center in Santa Ana, and a member of the Community Medicine Department of Hoag Memorial Hospital Presbyterian in Newport Beach. During her tenure as medical director, SOS has evolved from a small, volunteer organization providing basic, episodic primary care to a major medical clinic offering, in addition, subspecialty chronic care, disease management and an active case management program. The SOS-El Sol Wellness Center offers an opportunity to extend health and wellness care to low income families and individuals in Santa Ana and Orange County.

Dr. Pereyda's primary interests include health care access, particularly in how poverty affects health, a policy interest in private-public partnerships, and use of health information technology in community health centers. Her work focuses on quality of care for uninsured and underinsured populations and for those with chronic illnesses. She is a physician leader in Orange County playing a critical role in the restructure and redesign of the delivery of primary care services for vulnerable populations. Dr. Pereyda is working with hospital systems to further define the role of community benefit programs. Current academic projects include developing telemedicine access in an urban environment and developing protocols for the use of SMS texting as an aid in self management for patients with chronic illnesses.

She was previously the medical director of a federally qualified health center in San Mateo County and Associate Clinical Faculty at Stanford University. She is a graduate of the University of Arizona and the University of Michigan School of Medicine. She completed her Internal Medicine Residency at Stanford University Hospital.

Currently Dr. Pereyda is a Fellow of the California HealthCare Foundation Health Care Leadership Program and is an advisor to the Clinic Leadership Institute. She is a Trustee on the Irvine Health Foundation Board and is a member of the Orange County Correctional Health Services Quality Committee. She was selected as an Orange County Physician of Excellence in 2008. Most recently, Dr. Pereyda has been appointed as a trustee of CalOptima, a public integrated health care system that administers health insurance programs in Orange County and a Board Member of the California Division of the American Cancer Society.

Dr. Jila Nikkhah, Dental Director

Dr. Jila Nikkhah has been the SOS Dental Director since 1999.

She attended University of California, Irvine for her undergraduate studies and later earned her Doctorate degree in Dental Surgery from University of Maryland, Baltimore. After finishing one year of General Practice Residency (GPR) at Loma Linda VA Hospital, she started working for different private practices.

While attending dental school she took every opportunity to participate in all community outreach programs. As part of her training she spent time in Chinle, Arizona-Navajo land, where she got to work with American Indians in the Reservations. During that month she became familiar with public health settings and recognized the need for education and development.

When Dr. Nikkhah was introduced to SOS, she realized that the need for dental care in Orange County is great. As a health care provider she saw the relationship between the lack of knowledge in oral care and chronic diseases such as diabetes or habits such as smoking. Poor oral care is an epidemic that can be prevented with proper education, especially in underprivileged population.

She says "My primary goal in my professional life has been to serve and educate patients and change lives one smile at a time. There is a great sense of satisfaction to work for the people and help them with their dental needs."