Board of Directors

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Co-Director of Primetime 2026-2027

Primary Lead of Clinical Skills Workshop Committee (2025-2027) 

Co-Lead of Mentorship Committee (2025-2026) & Advisor (2026-2027) 

Member of Research Committee (2025-2026) & Co-Lead (2026-2027) 

Ajmeet is the first-born daughter of Sikh immigrants from Punjab, India, who settled in Kingsburg, CA, a small agricultural town nestled in the central portion of the San Joaquin Valley. Witnessing her family seek care while experiencing acute pain and become discouraged by limited Punjabi interpreter services exposed her to the chronic language deficits in her community. Their recovery emphasized to her the dramatic impact of compassionate physicians on the outcome of their patients and the importance of such providers to our community. 

She began her academic journey at Kingsburg High School, spearheading multiple community/campus initiatives and conducting environmental research under NASA GLOBE to tend to the needs of her small town and school. Motivated to invoke positive change in healthcare accessibility, she was selected by the prestigious Smittcamp Family Honors College at Fresno State, where she completed her B.S. in Biology with honors. While there, she dedicated her time to research under Dr. Karine Gousset to develop a technique relying upon laser dissection to isolate tunneling nanotubes. This structure is implicated in the spread of viruses, cancers, and other pathologies, making delineating its structural blueprint essential to reveal potential drug targets. Outside of rigorous academia, she invested her time into her community by serving as a community health worker during the pandemic under Jakara Movement, as part of the COVID-19 Equity Project, to improve accessibility to COVID-19 testing/vaccines and interpreter services for the Punjabi community. She pursued the position of an ED scribe at Community Regional Medical Center, where she grasped the ripple effect of limited resources on long-term health in rural and urban settings. She continues to remain connected with Kingsburg by serving as a mentor for students interested in medicine. 

Through these experiences, she has become dedicated to weaving community outreach into her medical practice and developed a passion for health education, policy, and preventative medicine. Via UCSF SJV PRIME, she is excited to equip herself with the skills and knowledge needed to best serve the community, which has driven her toward becoming a physician.

[email protected] 

Co-Director of Primetime 2026-2027

Secondary Lead of Clinical Skills Workshop Committee (2025-2026) & Member (2026-2027) 

Co-Lead of Pre-Med Leadership Committee (2025-2026)  

Member of Research Committee (2025-2026) & Co-Lead (2026-2027) 

Avneet was born and raised in the rural parts of Punjab, India. Her immigrated to Fresno, California, when She was 15. She attended Clovis High School and later graduated from UC Merced with a Bachelor’s in Biological Sciences. As a first-generation immigrant, Avneet saw her family struggling to get proper healthcare due to the language and cultural barrier. As a result, she and her sister often acted as interpreters to facilitate communication between my family and their healthcare team.

Growing up in an underserved area and seeing my family struggle to access medical care motivated her interest in becoming a physician. While working as a scribe in the emergency department at Community Regional Medical Center and volunteering in hospice care, she witnessed the impact of physician shortage on the patient population of Central Valley and the healthcare barriers many minorities face, reaffirming her  decision to pursue medicine. As a part of SJV Prime, she hope to enhance the health literacy of  underserved communities and train to provide culturally competent and sensitive care to our diverse patient populations.

During her free time, she enjoy reading books, spending time with her friends and family, and trying new recipes

Amritpal was born in a rural region of Punjab, India and have lived in the San Joaquin valley ever since immigrating to the US. This is the region that provided a home and better living opportunities to him and his family which is why he wishes to give back and serve the valley population as a physician. His desire is to give back and serving others stems from the core principles of his faith in Sikh religion which also defines him as an individual, his personality, and identity that he will continue to embrace moving forward in his profession.

His interest in medicine developed over time coming from a family of farmers and immigrants. He has personally witnessed how people working hard manual labor jobs, outdoors, or in the fields compromise their personal health; often putting it at risk. Amritpal has met Punjabi-speaking members of family and some immigrants from other valley communities who have struggled to receive quality healthcare due to the language barrier.  Therefore, by returning to the valley as a physician, he wishes to help eliminate such healthcare barriers, improve access to and quality of healthcare for the San Joaquin population. This is also why he attended UC Merced for undergrad because it allowed him to understand the healthcare disparities of this region through different volunteering and clinical experiences.

Maria Denalene Tiu was born and raised in Fresno as the daughter of hard-working immigrant parents from the Philippines. She attended University High School and continued her education at UCSD. There, she earned a B.S. in human biology with a minor in psychology. She also did research on the gut microbiome and earned a M.S. in biology. She is passionate about working with children with disabilities and has frequently volunteered in special education classes in both Fresno and San Diego. In her free time, she loves to sing, crochet, and spend time with her loved ones and dogs.

Denalene was first exposed to the health field when she was volunteering in her mother's dental office in Reedley. She saw first-hand the health disparities that exist in the Central Valley, particularly the lack of primary care physicians that were able to refer young patients to dentists. While she was teaching patients how to brush their teeth, she realized the importance of connecting with the community to prevent negative health outcomes. As part of the SJV-PRIME program, she hopes to learn more about the health inequities that exist in the Central Valley to better advocate and care for local patients.

Seshaan was raised in Fresno, Ca for the majority of his life after his parents immigrated to the Central Valley from Sri Lanka. He attended Clovis North High School and began his college education at Clovis Community College. He later transferred to the University of California, Los Angeles where he received his bachelor's degree in Psychology.

Growing up, Seshaan witnessed the barriers affecting healthcare that disproportionately affected the Central Valley. From the lack of primary care physicians to the growing opioid crisis, Seshaan knew he wanted to return to the Valley that had done so much for him and his family. He utilized his experience as a yoga/mindfulness instructor, and training in Success Over Addiction and Relapse (S.O.A.R) to work with different community-based organizations in the Central Valley. He was able to provide mental health and addiction resources to marginalized communities lacking access to healthcare during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Seshaan is excited to be a part of the SJV PRIME Program where he hopes to gain valuable experiences and training from both his community and his fellow peers. He hopes to improve health equity, promote patient advocacy, and destigmatize mental health and substance use disorders within the Central Valley.