Dr. Steve Serrao, MD, MPH, PhD currently serves as the Chief of the Department of Gastroenterology & Hepatology at the Riverside University Health System. He leads the ongoing expansion of Gastroenterology services in the RUHS system. His guiding principle “Applying the Mamba Mentality to tackle GI disparities in our community”. With twenty years of experience in the medical and health management sector, Dr. Serrao has proven himself in the practice of Internal Medicine, Gastroenterology, and Health Management. As a gastroenterology hospitalist he is credited for overhauling the gastrointestinal bleed workflow at Providence Hospital, Spokane resulting in an annual savings of over half a million dollars and improvement in clinical outcomes. He has served in various organizations such as CAHME, Accreditation Council, Health Care Executives of Southern California, and Turning Technologies and is presently a member at both AGA Practice Management Committee and ASGE Fellows Caucus.Prior to his current role, Dr. Serrao served as a health care management consultant implementing funded contracts and grants for various healthcare consulting projects across several cities and organizations in California. A reputable professional in his field, he has made media appearances for KVCR and ABC7 on topics such as “Medical Tourism”, “The Threat of Pandemics in the US” and the “Importance of Colon Cancer screening and Disparities”. Dr Serrao holds an MBBS from Kasturba Medical College, Manipal, India with subsequent training in Internal Medicine and Gastroenterology from Loma Linda University Medical Center. He obtained an MPH in Health Administration in 2004 at Loma Linda University, School of Public Health, CA, and received his PhD in Epidemiology in 2018 with a focus on health operations and clinical outcomes associated with hospital admissions. As someone who is committed to giving back to his community, The Serrao Health Policy and Management fund that is being managed through the Loma Linda University Foundation continues to support faculty and students involved in community and research projects in the field of health care. He enjoys the quite solitude of his garden and developed his own California Haas Avocado farm in Temecula. His favorite dish – “my wife’s halibut biriyani”.