The newly appointed Board of Trustees (BOT) for Alameda Health System (AHS) met today, December 16, 2020 to elect officers, form working committees and set the meeting calendar for 2021.
The Board of Trustees is appointed by the Alameda County Board of Supervisors and is charged with the governance of Alameda Health System. The board elected Dr. Taft Bhuket as president, Tracy Jensen – vice president and Jennifer Esteen as secretary/treasurer.
Meet the AHS Board of Trustees:
President Dr. Taft Bhuket is serving his second term as an AHS Trustee. Bhuket is the Chief of Gastroenterology & Hepatology and the Director of the Endoscopy Unit at AHS’s Highland Hospital. Since joining the AHS Medical Staff in 2008, Dr. Bhuket has served the organization in a variety of committee and leadership roles, including a 6-year service term as Vice Chief/Chief/Immediate Past Chief of the Medical Staff.
Vice President Tracy Jensen is serving her third term an as an AHS Trustee. She a director with the City of Alameda Health Care District Board, which oversees a $6 million parcel tax for Alameda Hospital’s operations and long-term investments, and co-chairs the District Board’s Community Relations and Outreach Committee. She is also a Senior Program Manager and Senior Service Administrator for the City of Oakland where she develops programs, policies and partnerships supporting seniors.
Secretary/Treasurer Jennifer Esteen is a psychiatric registered nurse working for the San Francisco Department of Public Health for more than a decade. She is the Vice President of Organizing for SEIU 1021, serves on the SEIU 1021 Executive Board and previously held a position as a board member of the Jewish Youth for Community Action. She was appointed by the San Francisco Board of Supervisors to serve as a member of the Housing Conservatorship Working group in San Francisco, she also serves on the Eden Area Municipal Advisory Council, and was appointed by Alameda County Board of Supervisor, Nate Miley.
Board members will serve on the following committees.
Audit and Compliance Committee
Dr. Taft Bhuket
Luisa Blue
Alan E. Fox
Sblend A. Sblendorio
Finance Committee
Kinkini Banerjee
Jennifer Esteen
Alan E. Fox
Sblend A. Sblendorio
Human Resources Committee
Luisa Blue
Jeanette Dong
Jennifer Esteen
Tracy Jensen
Quality and Patient Safety Committee (QPSC)
Kinkini Banerjee
Dr. Taft Bhuket
Jeanette Dong
Jennifer Esteen
Tracy Jensen
Sblend A. Sblendorio
Kinkini Banerjee is serving her second term as an AHS Trustee. Banerjee is the Director of Community and Network, in the Education Initiative of the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative (CZI). She leads CZI’s efforts to build a multi-sectoral network, representing academia, research, practice, policy advocacy, community partners and organizations to advance a broader, holistic approach to student learning and development.
Luisa Blue was elected Executive Vice President of SEIU in May 2016 and served on the SEIU International Executive Board from 2012- 2016. She has dedicated the last four decades of her life to organizing and advocating for workers’ rights through the union. As a union leader, she has been at the forefront of making racial and immigrant justice a priority for the union. Luísa Blue is one of the highest-ranking Asian Pacific Islander (API) union leaders in the nation.
Jeanette Dong is currently the Director of Recreation and Human Services for the City of San Leandro. Last year in 2016, her team received the “Community Champion Award” from Assemblymember Rob Bonta for their work with the San Leandro Homeless Compact. In 2017, the team received the prestigious Helen Putnam Award for Excellence and Innovation from the League of Cities for her work with the homeless community in San Leandro. Previously she was the chief of staff for Alameda County Supervisor Wilma Chan and led the staff in policy development and tactical field operations.
Alan E. Fox who is recently retired, as a career finance executive in the healthcare and health sciences industry. For 26 years he served as a hospital chief financial officer, first with Alta Bates-Summit Medical Center in Berkeley/Oakland, Sutter Health affiliates, and later with Saint Francis Memorial Hospital and St. Mary’s Medical Center in San Francisco, Dignity Health affiliates. Prior to that he was with Bio-Rad Laboratories in Hercules, California.
Sblend A. Sblendorio is an attorney at Hoge Fenton Jones & Appel. Sblendorio’s practice focuses exclusively on real estate, commercial, and finance matters. He assists his clients nationwide with real estate, land use, commercial negotiations, bankruptcy, and insolvency. He has negotiated land use entitlements in the Bay Area for a couple of decades with an emphasis in public assistance financing, development agreements, and specific plans.
Learn more about the new AHS Board of Trustees, see the meeting schedule, agendas and minutes on the Alameda Health System website.
You may also contact the Clerk of the Board at rogonsalves@alamedahealthsystem.org with any questions regarding any Board of Trustees related information.