Breena R. Taira, MD, MPH, CPH, FACEP is an associate professor of clinical emergency medicine at the David Geffen UCLA School of Medicine and the director of research for the Department of Emergency Medicine at Olive View- UCLA Medical Center. She is the director of the Section of International and Domestic Health Equity and Leadership (www.idheal.org) for the UCLA Department of Emergency Medicine whose mission is to define and promote the role that academic emergency medicine can play in the promotion of health equity and elimination of health disparities locally, nationally and globally In addition, she is the U.S. director of Project SEMILLA (www.projectsemilla.org) a non-profit organization that aims to improve emergency healthcare capacity in Latin America.