Staff

Elise graduated from UC Davis in 2023 with a B.S. in Human Development. During undergrad, Elise volunteered at a perinatal mental health clinic, vaccine clinic, and held the position of Public Relations Officer for UC Davis’ chapter of Friends of Doctors without Borders. After graduating, Elise worked as a certified medical scribe in the Emergency Department. She is a current student at the Master's Entry Program in Nursing (MEPN) at the Betty Irene Moore School of Nursing at UC Davis, set to graduate in 2025. In her free time, Elise loves spending time outdoors, cooking, reading, and catching up with her friends.

Sierra is a graduate of Sonoma State University, earning her Bachelor's degree in Business Administration with a concentration in Marketing. During her time in college, she played on the Napa Valley College Women's Golf team and was a member of the Sports Business Club at SSU. Sierra began her career in marketing working at a premier motorsports facility, focusing on marketing and events execution. In joining the HPA team, Sierra is excited to curate and host events to help students pursue their education goals and careers. Sierra loves to fill her time with golf, creative projects, and attempting sourdough recipes. Additionally, she serves on a board of a local organization that assists the community through wildfire education and mitigation projects.

Christian (he/him/his) is currently a first year veterinary student and graduated from UC Davis with a degree in Animal Biology in 2021. During undergrad he shadowed the soft-tissue surgery service at the UC Davis veterinary medical teaching hospital where he ended up doing research with one of the surgical professors. He continued to do more research in developmental biology with another faculty member at the veterinary school that looked at the conservation of neural crest cell signaling between peafowls and chickens. During his free time Christian is into gaming and also playing golf . Fun fact, he played for the men’s golf team at community college).

Kimberly graduated from UC Davis in 2022 with a B.S. in Animal Biology and a minor in Public Health Sciences. She is originally from Calexico, CA, an agricultural bordertown in Southern California. During undergrad, she was involved with student organizations such the Pre-vet Students Supporting Diversity club, EOP, and the Transfer Research Society. She was also employed part-time in UC Davis Undergraduate Admissions as a student outreach assistant and as a research assistant in the Pires Urban Agriculture & Food Safety Lab. While in undergrad, she participated in research involving food safety, microbiology and epidemiology. She is currently a first year veterinary student at UC Davis and hopes to pursue a career involving food animal medicine and public health. In her free time, Kimberly enjoys playing tennis, biking around the arboretum, watching horror movies, cooking, spending time with loved ones and shouting "squirrel!" whenever she sees a squirrel.

Jennie studied Intercultural Healing, an interdisciplinary degree in Anthropology, Public Health and Folklore at UNC Chapel Hill. Through this coursework, she explored how people make meaning of illness and healing in diverse cultures in her hometown and around the world. After graduation, she took her liberal arts education to practical application as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Togo, West Africa, where she worked towards the eradication of Guinea Worm disease. Add this intellectual and experiential background to 10 years of advising students and coordinating experiential education programs at UC Davis, and you can see why Jennie is excited to support your career and self-development. In her free time, Jennie can be found kayaking the rivers of the Central Valley.  Jennie looks forward to finding the right balance of challenge and support for you and to assisting you when you need help navigating.

Manisha is an alumna of UCD and has been with Health Professions Advising since October 2017. Prior to coming to HPA, she worked as an Academic Advisor for the College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences Dean’s Office and served as pre-health advisor and career counselor at another UC and a private school for a number of years. As a first-generation college student, Manisha is avid about supporting students and alumni reach their personal, academic and professional goals. She is currently in the PhD in Education Program at UC Davis. Outside of work, Manisha enjoys baking, reading and planning her next adventure.

Bryelle McRay is a staff advisor for all health professions. She graduated from UC Davis in 2016 with a B.S. in Neurobiology, Physiology & Behavior and she has a minor in African & African-American Studies. She also completed a post-baccalaureate program at CSU East Bay where she served as a pre-health advisor. She has recently completed her Master’s Degree (M.Ed.) in Enrollment Management & Policy from USC. Bryelle is currently in the PhD in Education Program at UC Davis. While she was a student at UC Davis, she co-founded the Black Community of Science organization (BCS) seeking to retain African-American students in the sciences. Bryelle worked with many patients and health care professionals as a dedicated member of Imani Clinic and served on the board as the Electronic Medical Records Specialist. She worked as a clinical research intern at the UC Davis Foods for Health Institute studying human breast milk oligosaccharide composition and beneficial gut bacteria in which she gained a great deal of exposure to the UC Davis Medical Center Departments of Obstetrics & Gynecology, Pediatrics and Neonatology. Bryelle is passionate about retention and seeing students thrive.