Luis Sandoval

Luis Sandoval grew up in the predominantly Hispanic neighborhood of Santa Ana, California. His parents emigrated from Mexico in the 1960’s with the hopes of providing a better a future for the family. They worked hard to make sure that education was a priority and dedication of all the children in the family.

Luis completed his undergraduate studies at the University of California, Irvine, where he earned a Bachelor of Science degree in the field of Biology. Luis was subsequently accepted into medical school at the University of California, Los Angeles. He graduated from the UCLA School of Medicine in June of 2005, and began a combined Family Medicine and Psychiatry residency program with the University of California, San Diego.

While pursing his studies in Public Health, along with colleague David Alvarado, he completed an internship with the Ministry of Public Health in Nicaragua, and both he and David focused their Master’s Thesis analysis on the economic impact Dengue has at the National level in Nicaragua. From this project, the need for a steady stream of funding devoted solely to the care and management of Dengue was evident. This aid and funding was thought up in the form of the Dengue Relief Foundation, a non-profit organization whose sole purpose is to provide monies and funding for education, abatement, and mosquito control in the hopes of alleviating the burden of Dengue in Latin American Third World counties.

Erika Copenhaver

Erika Copenhaver is an active board member and head of Treasury for the Dengue Relief Foundation. She received her BA in Political Science and Global Peace and Security from the University of California Santa Barbara in 2003. She is the successful business owner of a small, yet ever growing jewelry business called Alba Nikka. Erika is the sole designer of the gorgeous pieces and travels frequently to Nicaragua where each piece is uniquely and individually hand crafted. Her love for the Nicaraguan country has made this import business a possibility. Featured in 17 boutiques within the Bay Area she is well on her way to making Alba Nikka a flourishing enterprise. She is currently completing her second year of law school at Golden Gate University, earning her J.D. with a specialization in International Law. She resides in Windsor, Ca.

Amanda Copenhaver

Amanda Copenhaver is a 2003 graduate of University California Santa Barbara with a bachelor's degree in Literature of Spanish and International Studies. Her love for her Latin heritage is exemplified in her undergraduate field of study, her studies abroad in Spain and her desire to promote educational awareness for the Dengue disease. Following undergraduate studies Amanda proudly worked for one of the top multi-million dollar Senior Development Companies, Aegis Senior Living for a total of three years. In May of ’06 Amanda took the role of Marketing and Management for a **** star upscale lounge/restaurant called 3 Blocks Off in Petaluma, Ca. This transition provided her with the necessary flexibility to shift her role from Event Coordinator of the DRF to the role of Executive Director. Additionally, Amanda plans on assisting her sister, Erika Copenhaver, with the expansion of Alba Nikka Enterprises. She would like to pursue a Masters Degree in Public Health within the next two years. Amanda currently resides in the SoMa SBC Ball Park District of San Francisco, Ca.

David Alvarado-Copenhaver

From an early age David Alvarado-Copenhaver has dedicated himself to serving the medically underserved. As a college student at UC Davis, where he earned degrees in Neurophysiology and Spanish Literature, he developed the Nicaraguan Health Care Exchange program, a small organization that brought medical supplies to needy regions throughout Nicaragua.

Prior to entering medical school, David worked as a health correspondent in Nicaragua assisting local officials in a number of public health endeavors. While attending medical school in Los Angeles, David was a director of the Lennox Health Fairs, a public health initiative directed at serving the basic health care needs of the largely underserved Latino population surrounding the LAX airport. His determination to further assist the health care needs of the socioeconomically disenfranchised both at home and abroad propelled him to seek a Master’s in Public Health where he dedicated his efforts to improving access to care and health care delivery for a number of underserved areas. David is completing his anesthesia training at Columbia University New York Presbyterian Hospital and is reserving time to prepare grant proposals for the foundation.

Rajan Kulkarni

Rajan Kulkarni received undergraduate degrees in Chemistry and History from Stanford University. He subsequently enrolled in medical school at UCLA. While there, he became interested in infectious diseases and their etiologies and management, especially malaria and the flaviviruses. He subsequently decided to pursue more basic research into the cell biology of viral trafficking and is currently undertaking cell biology research at Caltech. Through this work, Rajan has examined transport mechanisms of viruses and viral-like objects through the cell, in the hopes of better understanding how these processes occur and designing treatments to prevent infection. He is also very interested in public health and disease issues in Latin America and has traveled to Nicaragua to examine some of these areas. Rajan begins in September of ’06 at Cambridge University as a Gates Scholar (via the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation) due greatly in part to his work with the Dengue Relief Foundation.