University of California, Riverside
At UCR, the Health Impact Hub is a student-led, interdisciplinary community that spans undergraduate and graduate students, connecting health, policy, and practice through concrete advocacy, research, education, and community-impact work.
Graduate Team
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Paula Omokhomion is a Master of Public Policy student and Dean’s Ambassador at UC Riverside, as well as the School of Public Policy (SPP) Chair for Health Impact Hub. In this role, she supports the chair and leadership team in decision-making and event planning, and manages HIH’s podcast and social media. Paula holds a BS in Public Health Nutrition with double minors in Sociology and Creative Writing from the University of North Carolina at Chapel
Hill. She plans to pursue a doctorate in public health to start a career in academia. Her interests in improving health services in low-resource settings and in better integrating social protection programs with clinical services align with HIH’s mission to bridge the gap between clinical practitioners and the lived impact of policy on health outcomes. She’s also interested in evaluating health programming grants and is developing these skills as a Development and Operations Associate at the Government Accountability Project. Paula also writes fiction in her spare time and is a two-time published author. She contributes to the UCR Highlander Fiction column.
Website: www.paulaomokhomion.com
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Emmanuel Scaife is a medical student at the UC Riverside School of Medicine with a deep commitment to health equity, systems-level leadership, and community-centered care. He currently serves as Co-President of the Student National Medical Association (SNMA), Co-President of the Emergency Medicine Interest Group (EMIG), and Vice Chair of the Health Impact Hub, roles through which he engages policy, advocacy, and medical education to confront the structural forces that shape health disparities.
Emmanuel’s approach to leadership is rooted in lived experience and sustained community engagement. As a PRIME Scholar, he is trained to serve African, Black, and Caribbean communities in Inland Southern California and has contributed to initiative addressing maternal health, chronic disease education, and patient self-advocacy.
Across these spaces, he prioritizes culturally competent communication, relationship-building, and empowering patients to navigate complex healthcare systems with confidence and agency.
His academic interests reflect a commitment to translating lived realities into policy- relevant work. Emmanuel has contributed to national conversations in emergency medicine and health policy through writing featured in SAEM Pulse and participation in the EMRA PolicyRx Journal Club, where he has examined public health ethics, policy reform, and disparities in emergency care. His scholarly interests include health misinformation, prehospital policy, and the role of physician leadership in shaping more equitable systems of care.
Through the Healthcare Leadership Designated Emphasis, Emmanuel aims to further develop the skills necessary to lead within academic medicine, public health, and healthcare organizations. He is particularly interested in how physicians can influence policy, strengthen institutional accountability, and translate community-identified needs into sustainable, systems-level change.