Mark Molitch- Founder
Mark Molitch and Susan Hou are the founders of the Daniels Hamant Foundation and the primary funders of the clinic. Mark is a Professor Emeritus of Endocrinology at Northwestern University in Chicago Illinois. After Susan’s passing, Mark continues as the primary funder and the president of the Daniels Hamant Foundation. Mark received his M.D. degree from the University of Pennsylvania. He did his internship and residency at The Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania and his endocrine fellowship at the UCLA-Harbor General Hospital
Douglas Villarroel- Founder
Douglas is an endocrinologist from Santa Cruz, Bolivia and since 2003 has served as President of the Bolivian Endocrine Society. He provides ongoing health care for the people that come to the clinic, as well as providing the clinic with on-site direction so that it can continue to serve the people. He helps to navigate the system of having a charitable organization in Bolivia primary funded by a U.S. Charity. Douglas studied at Universidad Mayor, Real y Pontificia de San Francisco Xavier de Chuguisaca in Sucre, Bolivia. He did his fellowships in Internal Medicine and Endocrinology at Centro Medico Nacional Siglo XXI in Mexico D.F., Mexico.
Carlos Vargas- Clinic Director
Carlos Vargas Moreira is one of the general physicians at CMSH. He went to primary school in his local community in Bolivia and then continued on to medical school at Mayor de San Simon in Cochabamba, Bolivia. In addition to working at CMSH, he also work in the public hospital in Portachuelo. His greatest desire is that people, especially those with little money, receive his help and his dedication to better their health conditions and that they always have balanced health that allows them to live longer. After several years, working as a part-time physician, he has taken over as the Clinic Director. He overseas the patient care at the clinic, supervises the residents and medical students and helps teach the Health Promoters
Ethan Molitch-Hou- Vice President, DHF
Ethan recently assumed the role of Vice President of the Daniels Hamant Foundation and is a regular volunteer physician at the clinic. He aids with organizational decisions and fundraising.
He was one of the first clinic coordinators back in 2003, setting up the dental suite and delivering vaccines to some of the smaller communities. He has returned regularly through his training towards becoming an Internal Medicine physician. He is currently a Hospitalist in Chicago and Assistant Professor of Medicine.
Jaqueline Sandoval
Jaqueline is the lead nurse at CMSH, working at checking in patients, taking vitals, administering medications and maintaining their medical records.
She was born in San Carlos and moved to Palacios when she turned 8. She studied nursing in Buena Vista and worked with CMSH initially volunteering as a Health Promoter in the community for 7 years.
After completing her nursing internship, she started working full time at CMSH in 2012. She worked as a nurse, but initially was mainly in the lab. She became our head nurse in 2017.
Gabriela Justiniano Abella
Gabriella was hired in 2019 as CMSH’s first Bolivian coordinator. Before beginning to work with the clinic, she spent 10 years working in Dr. Douglas’ Endocrinology office learning the ins and outs of healthcare in the city of Santa Cruz.
Her life changed dramatically when she was diagnosed with breast cancer. She battled the disease and came out cancer free.
Now, as a breast cancer survivor, Gabriella focuses on the clinic’s ongoing women’s health initiatives. She wants to help with prevention and early detection of breast and cervical cancer.
Teresa (Mumi) Oliva
Mumi works as our House Mom, preparing meals on clinic days for the staff and organizes the cleaning schedule of the clinic. She was born and raised in Palacios
In 2001 as president of the school, she met Dr. Douglas when dancing at the inauguration for the clinic. She began as a volunteer preparing lunch for the doctors and cleaning the clinic in 2002 and formally hired in 2005.
Mumi helped organize the communities with Maria and is the head of the grupo from Palacios. She was mayor of Palocios from 2003-2005. She continues to study cooking, interested in healthy cooking
Francisca Escobar Barrientos
Francisca Escobar Barrientos has been at Centro Medico Susan Hou since 2013. She lives in Palacios with her son and daughter.
She works in the clinic pharmacy, keeping track of and organizing the medications. She tracks what is dispensed.
She distributes prescriptions and provides education on how to take the medications. She enjoys interacting with the patients on a daily basis, and helping out in any way she can.
Juan Carlos Carmona Nina
Juan Carlos is the biochemist in charge of the laboratory at the Centro Medico.
He graduated high school at Porroguial San Jose and continued his training at Universidad UDABOL where he graduated with a degree in Biochemistry in 2012. He lives in Portachuelo and also works at Hospital Municipal N.D.A. while not at CMSH.
He has seemlessly integrated some of the modern equipment with standard practices to produce the myriad of labs needed each day
Rudy Javier Ledezma Fuentes
Dr. Ledezma has been coming to the clinic since the dentistry suite was set up in 2003. He serves a critical part to healthcare by helping kids and adults care for their mouths and their teeth.
He performs cleanings, extractions, fillings, and root canals. He has also diagnosed cases of oral cancer in the clinic.
Rudy works every Saturday and has had to care up to 25 patients in a day. He enjoys serving the communities surrounding the weekend.
Hormando “Choco” Oliva and Dardenia Rodriguez
Choco and Dardenia were hired in 2019 to care for the clinic and be at the clinic when the staff is not there to keep the medication and equipment safe.
They are both from Palacios, have lived together for the past year, They feel extremely happy and fortunate to be a part of the organization and to be able to collaborate with the people of this community to help improve the health and well-being of people throughout the greater Santa Cruz area.
Steven Scott
Steven Scott is our North American Coordinator preparing volunteers for their trip, organizing fundraisers and keeping an inventory of donated medications.
He hails from Georgia where he met Ethan Molitch-Hou at Emory. He joined Ethan on a trip to Bolivia in October of 2018 and subsequently returned as a coordinator for the 2019-2020 year. He started as NA coordinator in 2022
He is now completing nursing school and working as an RN in Georgia.