Our Advisors

Dr. Amy Trang, PhD, MEd is the founder and CEO of Social Capital Solutions, Inc. Social Capital Solutions has been contracted to provide management services for the Task Force since 2014. Dr. Trang is passionate about raising awareness about viral hepatitis screening and linkages to care services because she has family and friends personally affected by it. In addition to the National Task Force on Hepatitis B Focus on Asian and Pacific Islander Americans, she also serves as a Program Development Consultant for HBI-DC and Vice President of Administrative Services and Planning for the Vietnam Viral Hepatitis Alliance.

Dr. Trang completed her doctorate degree in Public Policy from George Mason University School of Public Policy after transferring her doctoral studies in Culture and Values of Education from McGill University (Montreal, Canada). She holds a master’s degree in Social and Psychological Foundations of Education from the University of Virginia (UVA) School of Education and Human Development, and a bachelor’s degree in International Studies from George Mason University. She has also been an adjunct faculty at UVA since 2000, where she has taught Sociology of Education, Education in Multicultural Societies, Anthropology of Education, Critical Education Policy, Comparative Education, and Asian Education.

Dr. Carol Brosgart, MD served as the Co-Chair for the National Task Force on Hepatitis B from 2021 to 2024. She also serves as an independent director on the Boards of both public and privately-held biotechnology companies (Galmed, Abivax,Enochian, Intrivo Diagnostics, and Mirum Pharmaceuticals ) and previously served on the Boards of Juvaris (now Bayer) and Tobira (now Allergan, then AbbVie) until they were acquired; as a consultant to global biopharmaceutical companies (currently Dynavax, Hepion, Moderna, and Pardes Biosciences); as a member of the United States Centers for Disease Control (CDC)/Health and Human Services (HHS) Advisory Committee on HIV, Viral Hepatitis, and STD Prevention and Treatment, and was the Senior Advisor on Science and Policy to the Division of Viral Hepatitis at the CDC. She has held numerous senior management positions within biotechnology and health care. Dr. Brosgart was the Chief Medical Officer for Alios BioPharma (now Johnson & Johnson), a biotech company developing therapies to treat viral diseases. Dr. Brosgart joined Alios from UCSF Benioff Children’s Hospital & Research Center in Oakland, California, where she served as Senior Vice President and Chief Medical Officer. For eleven years Dr. Brosgart held a number of senior management positions at Gilead Sciences (Vice President, Clinical Research; Vice President, Medical Affairs; and Vice President, Public Health and Policy). While Vice President of Clinical Research at Gilead she was responsible for the clinical development and approval by the FDA and by regulatory authorities worldwide of two antiviral therapies: Viread® for the treatment of HIV, and Hepsera® for the treatment of Chronic Hepatitis B.

She is a member of the Boards of Directors of the Hepatitis B Foundation, the AP Giannini Foundation and the Berkeley Community Scholars. She also serves on the Steering Committee of the HBV Cure Forum of the Forum for Collaborative Research (FCR) at UC Berkeley School of Public Health.

Prior to Gilead, Dr. Brosgart worked for more than 20 years in public health, clinical care, research, and teaching. She was among the first physicians in the United States to recognize and treat patients with HIV/AIDS. Dr. Brosgart was the founding Medical Director of the East Bay AIDS Center at Alta Bates Medical Center in Berkeley, California. She led NIH clinical trials as a member of the Community Programs for Clinical Research on AIDS (CPCRA), chaired the CPCRA Scientific Advisory Committee, and contributed to HIV antiretroviral drug development, and to the development of prophylactic and treatment agents for opportunistic and malignant complications of HIV/AIDS.

Dr. Brosgart received her B.S. in Community Medicine from the University of California, Berkeley (UCB), her M.D. from the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF), and her residency training in Pediatrics (UCSF) and Public Health and Preventive Medicine (UCB). She has published extensively in the areas of infectious diseases, focusing on antiviral therapy for HIV, HBV, CMV, and related public health policy. She is an active member of the Infectious Diseases Society of America (IDSA), the HIV Medical Association (HIVMA) and the American Association for the Study of Liver Disease (AASLD). She is Clinical Professor of Medicine, Biostatistics and Epidemiology at UCSF.

Richard So served as the Co-Chair of the National Task Force on Hepatitis B from 2020 to 2024. He is the Executive Director of SF Hep B Free – Bay Area, a nonprofit organization in San Francisco, CA dedicated to creating public and healthcare provider awareness about hepatitis B, providing free in-community hepatitis B testing to those who need it, and ensuring access to treatment for chronically infected individuals. Since working at SF Hep B Free, Richard has successfully expanded the program to San Mateo County; increased community education and screening; expanded physician education and created innovative projects to target the most vulnerable populations. He is an active member of both Hep B United and The National Task Force on Hepatitis B Focus on Asian and Pacific Islander Americans (Hep B Task Force). Richard received a Masters in Public Health and Public Policy from Columbia University; has worked as a healthcare consultant; and served in the US Peace Corps as a rural health volunteer in Paraguay. He is excited to bring his myriad of experiences to the Task Force to improve hepatitis B screening, management, and treatment.

Catherine Freeland, PhD, MPH, is the Associate Director of Public Health Research at the Hepatitis B Foundation in Doylestown, PA. She served as the Treasurer for the Task Force from 2016 to 2018 and Secretary from 2018 to 2024. Ms. Freeland received her Ph.D. at Thomas Jefferson University, College of Population Health with a concentration in Health Behavior Science and a dissertation on addressing low hepatitis B birth dose uptake in Nigeria. She led the effort to incorporate values and preferences for people with lived experience within the updated 2024 World Hepatitis Organization Guidelines and continues to focus on addressing barriers and facilitators to hepatitis B elimination globally. She earned her Master of Public Health at East Tennessee State University with a concentration in Community and Behavioral Health. She obtained her Bachelor of Arts degree at Hanover College in Hanover, Indiana. Following her graduation from Hanover College, she spent a year working in Nairobi, Kenya as a Communication and Programming Chair for the Organization of African Instituted Churches. In this position, Dr. Freeland was working to empower, educate, and learn from grassroots community leaders through a train the trainer program. She is interested in reducing health disparities through sustainability projects and collaboration at the community level. As a Frist Field Scholar, Dr. Freeland applied her public health knowledge in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia through Flagstaff International Relief Effort and the World Health Organization focusing on community outreach and education on viral hepatitis and liver cancer. Dr. Freeland has an increased interest in viral hepatitis prevention and outreach.

Thaddeus Pham (he/him) served as the Western Region Director for the National Task Force on Hepatitis B from 2020 to 2024. He as also been the Viral Hepatitis Prevention Coordinator for the Hawaii State Department of Health in the Harm Reduction Services Branch since 2011 as well as the co-Founder and co-Director of the Hep Free Hawaii Coalition, a community-based program focused on increasing awareness and access to hepatitis services in Hawaii (www.hepfreehawaii.org). In 2018, he was recognized by the National Minority Quality Forum as a 40 Under 40 Leader in Minority Health. Health. He was a Bloomberg Fellow at Johns Hopkins School of Public Health where he earned his Masters degree in Public Health in 2024. He approaches public health from a social justice perspective and seeks to leverage community partnerships and systems-level policy changes to address health disparities, regardless of disease state.

Dr. Ponni Perumalswami served as the Northeast Regional Director for the National Task Force on Hepatitis B from 2023 to 2024. She is an Associate Professor of medicine at the University of Michigan and Director of the Liver Clinic at the VA Ann Arbor Healthcare System. She is a health services researcher focused on improving access to care for patients with liver disease. She has directed a community health worker lead model of viral hepatitis and liver cancer outreach for West African in New York City and is now adapting the model to Asian American communities in Michigan. Her research focuses on the development of integrated care models to improve viral hepatitis and alcohol-associated liver care within underserved and vulnerable communities. In 2020, Perumalswami joined the steering committee of the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services’ Hepatitis C Virus Elimination Plan and is co-leader of the We Treat Hep C Initiative in Michigan. She also works with the Michigan Opioid Collaborative on outreach and training initiatives aimed at increasing hepatitis C screening and treatment by primary care providers in rural areas of the state.

Dr. Tzu-Hao “Howard” Lee served as the South Central Regional Director for the National Task Force on Hepatitis B from 2022 to 2024. He is a gastroenterologist, transplant hepatologist, and assistant professor in medicine and surgery at Baylor College of Medicine, Houston Texas. He completed his internal medicine residency, gastroenterology, and transplant hepatology fellowship at Duke University Medical Center. Dr. Lee has a strong clinical and research interest in hepatitis B and has participated in several HBV studies and received a grant for an HBV-HIV research project. He also started the Texas HBV ECHO program and participated in many outreach activities with a focus on immigrants, LGBTQ, and other underserved populations.

Director of Public Health Research Hepatitis B Foundation Dr. Chari Cohen is the Director of Public Health Research for the Hepatitis B Foundation (HBF), in Doylestown, PA. For over 10 years, she has worked with the HBF public health team to plan, implement and evaluate community programs and research projects focusing on hepatitis B and liver cancer. Currently, her research focuses on reducing HBV and liver cancer health disparities, and developing models for improved health care access and management for chronic HBV infection, including the early detection and prevention of liver cancer. Dr. Cohen directs Hep B United Philadelphia, a campaign to increase testing and vaccination to fight hepatitis B and liver cancer. Dr. Cohen received her PhD in 2015 from Drexel University School of Public Health; and MPH in Community Health Education from Temple University in 2001.

Director Clinical Hepatology Professor of Clinical Medicine Medical Director UCSD Medical Center Robert G. Gish, MD, is a world-renowned hepatologist, an advisor of the National Task Force, Consultant Professor at Stanford University Hospitals, Medical Director of Hepatitis B Foundation, and Steering Committee member of the National Viral Hepatitis Routable. Gish has published more than 500 original articles, reviews, abstracts, and book chapters with great focus on hepatitis B. He has been at the forefront of hepatitis B advocacy/policy effort and clinical trials. He frequently attends monthly call and provides insightful and useful comments. Dr. Gish received his medical degree from the University of Kansas in Kansas City. After graduation, he went on to complete his internship and residency in internal medicine at the University of California, San Diego, School of Medicine and a fellowship in Gastroenterology and Hepatology at the University of California, Los Angeles. He is board certified in Internal Medicine and Gastroenterology and has the advance Certificate of Added Qualification (CAQ) in Liver Transplantation and is a UNOS certified Liver Transplant Physician. He is a member of the American Association for the Study of the Liver, the American Gastroenterological Association, the American Society of Transplant Physicians, and the International Liver Transplant Society, among others. He is fluent in Spanish and Vietnamese.

Director of Immigrant Health at North East Medical Services Amy Shen Tang, MD is a primary care internist and Director of Immigrant Health at North East Medical Services where she oversees hepatitis B and tuberculosis clinical programs. She served as the Co-Chair for the National Taskforce on Hepatitis B from 2017 to 2019 and currently leads a workgroup of hepatitis B experts from the American Association of Study of Liver Diseases, the Center for Disease Control, Project ECHO, and the University of Washington in developing a web-based hepatitis B guidance for primary care providers managing chronic hepatitis B. Dr. Tang previously served as the Hepatitis B Program Director at Charles B. Wang Community Health Center in New York City where she oversaw hepatitis B clinical care, research, community outreach and education. She has also served as a hepatitis B clinical advisor for the National Association of Community Health Centers, New York City Department of Health, and Perinatal HBV Project ECHO. She received her medical degree from the University of California San Francisco School of Medicine and completed her primary care internal medicine residency at NYU School of Medicine and Bellevue Hospital.

Professor and Associate Director of Population Research and Cancer Disparities UC Davis Comprehensive Cancer Center.

Moon S. Chen, PhD, MPH is a co-founder of the National Task Force with Dr. Gary Euler of CDC and a nationally renowned expert in cancer health disparities, particularly as they affect Asian-American populations. When Dr. Chen was professionally challenged with the task to “eliminate health disparities”, he could think of only one example where health disparities have ever been eliminated…and that was the historical example of smallpox eradication. Today because of smallpox eradication, there are no disparities between any people groups as smallpox has been eliminated from the face of the globe. At the 2008 NIH Conference on the Science of Health Disparities, he proposed that hepatitis B viral infections offers the world’s next best candidate for elimination…and that HBV could be eliminated through the same approach as smallpox. This would be through “case finding”, i.e., screening to identify any “positives” and referring them to appropriate treatment and for those who lack natural immunity, to vaccination. Concurrently, completing the birth-dose of HBV and the continuation of HBV vaccinations for youth could spare future generations from HBV. This vision drives his passion for the Task Force’s work and the potential for seeing a world free of HBV-linked infections. He directed the NIH-funded “Liver Cancer Control Interventions for Asian Americans” and continues to be engaged in community and clinically-based HBV control. Currently he is UC Davis Comprehensive Cancer Center’s Associate Director for Cancer Control and Professor in the Division of Hematology and Oncology at UC Davis, continuing to be engaged in HBV control and also leads a portfolio of research that addresses determinants of cancer risk and their mitigation in human populations.

Karen Jiobu has a broad background in clinical laboratory medicine and community service projects spanning over 30 years. She has been spending the last 10 years working to eliminate hepatitis B by working with Asian American Community Services, Asian Services in Action, Asian Festival Health and Wellness Pavilion, and the Ohio Asian American Health Coalition. She has collaborated on various research projects, including the data collection for Hep B Free database, New York University Center for the Study of Asian American Health for Ohio, as well as the Health through Action program funded by the Asian and Pacific Islander Health Forum and the Kellogg Foundation (2008-2012), which resulted in a Poster presentation at the American Public Health Association National Convention in October 2011 and a published article in the Journal of Investigative Medicine in 2013. She wrote the first draft of FOA for the CDC grant “Early identification and linkage to care among foreign-born persons with hepatitis B” for the Ohio Asian American Coalition, which was successfully funded. Mrs. Jiobu has previously served on the National Task Force on Hepatitis B’s Executive Board as well as a Regional Director. She is also a member of the Hep B United coalition and the National Viral Hepatitis Roundtable.

Dr. Richard Andrews, MD, MPH, is the Viral Hepatitis Program Director at HOPE Clinic in Houston, TX. He served as the South Midwest Regional Director for the Task Force in 2016 before serving as the Co-Chair later that year. Dr. Andrews sees uncomplicated hepatitis B and C patients at Hope Clinic in southwest Houston, Texas. Hope Clinic is the clinical arm of Houston’s Asian American Health Coalition, whose founding purpose was to ensure culturally and linguistically competent care to Asian patients. While at Hope Clinic he has overseen the development of an active hepatitis B/C screening, prevention and treatment program. Over 400 chronic hepatitis B patients have been seen at the clinic, with over 150 under active antiviral treatment presently. Roughly half of the clinic’s current population is Asian, with the affected hepatitis B population being primarily Vietnamese, Chinese, Burmese and others. Before moving to Texas Dr. Andrews worked in migrant farmworker and community health centers on Virginia’s Eastern Shore. He grew up bilingual in southern Spain, which sensitized him to cultural and linguistic differences. He speaks moderately mangled morsels of Mandarin, Vietnamese, Cantonese and Burmese – just enough to make the patients laugh. He received his MD at University of Connecticut Medical School, Family Medicine residency at Georgetown University. He did his MPH degree and Preventive Medicine residency at Johns Hopkins University. He is board certified in family medicine. Dr Andrews is a past board member of the Texas Association of Community Health Centers (TACHC) and of the Migrant Clinician’s Network (MCN). He has been participating in AAPCHO/CERC activities since 2014.

Dr. Lu-yu Hwang, MD, is a Professor at the Department of Epidemiology, Human Genetics and Environment Science Center for Infectious Diseases under the School of Public Health, University of Texas HSC at Houston, TX.  She is also the Director, Laboratory of Virology and STD Research, Center for Infectious Diseases at the University of Texas, School of Public Health at Houston.