Leadership Philosophy
Leadership should form judgment, not just fill roles.
That means leadership is not treated as a resume line. It is meant to strengthen service orientation, cultural humility, teamwork, oral communication, ethical responsibility, reliability, adaptability, and systems-level thinking through real organizational work.
Executive Leadership
The team shaping direction, readiness, and competency-based growth.
Joseph Pham
Founder and President
Joseph Pham is a student at Rice University in Houston, majoring in Biosciences and Asian Studies with a minor in Politics, Law, and Social Thought, and serves as founder and president of SMSC, setting the coalition’s vision, public voice, and strategic direction across training, partnerships, outreach, research, and long-term growth.
He began building the coalition in October 2024 and launched it in May 2025 after years of volunteering with street medicine beginning in high school, recognizing the need for a more structured and ethically grounded pathway for student involvement in his hometown of New Orleans.
His leadership role especially reflects the kind of growth this work demands: a deep commitment to service, clear communication, strong teamwork, ethical judgment, reliability, resilience, and the humility to keep improving through reflection and feedback.
He also works to connect local credibility with broader strategic expansion, including Houston, which he now considers his second home, while making sure the coalition remains accountable to the communities and clinicians it serves.
Focus Area: mission setting, external relations, systems thinking, ethical leadership, strategic growth, and building a culture of accountable service.
Olivia Nguyen
Vice President
Olivia Nguyen is a student at Loyola University New Orleans, majoring in Public Health with a minor in Sociology, and serves as vice president of SMSC, helping keep the coalition steady, coordinated, and people-centered as it grows.
She often helps bridge the space between vision and follow-through, making sure conversations turn into actual plans and that the work stays organized without losing its human core.
She brings a calm presence to the executive team and helps create the kind of internal trust that allows people to work well, communicate honestly, and keep moving even when the work becomes complicated.
Her leadership style is grounded in dependability, thoughtful communication, and the belief that strong teams are built through consistency, listening, and shared responsibility over time.
Focus Area: executive coordination, cross-team communication, accountability systems, and strategic follow-through.
Maya Chen
Director of Operations and Training
Maya Chen is a student at Xavier University of Louisiana, majoring in Chemistry with a minor in Psychology, and helps build the structure that makes student involvement feel prepared, respectful, and dependable from the start.
She is especially attentive to the details that others can miss, from onboarding and scheduling to making sure students understand what is expected of them before stepping into higher-trust roles.
Her work reflects a practical kind of care: helping people feel ready, supported, and accountable so that training is not just informative, but genuinely formative.
She is particularly invested in building systems that reduce confusion, strengthen professionalism, and make students feel equipped to serve with stronger boundaries, better preparation, and more confidence in their role.
Focus Area: onboarding workflow, training sequence design, logistics, attendance expectations, and internal documentation.
Daniel Brooks
Director of Partnerships and Outreach
Daniel Brooks is a student at the University of New Orleans, majoring in Political Science with a minor in Urban Studies, and helps lead SMSC’s partnership and outreach efforts across clinicians, schools, and community organizations.
His role emphasizes relationship-centered competencies such as teamwork, oral communication, cultural humility, and systems awareness by making sure student involvement is shaped around real partner capacity rather than assumption.
He is particularly focused on helping SMSC build durable local relationships in New Orleans so that outreach support, school engagement, and community collaboration grow in a way that feels organized, trustworthy, and responsive.
Focus Area: partner communication, outreach coordination, collaboration planning, and feedback integration.
Sofia Patel
Director of Education and Pipeline
Sofia Patel is a student at Xavier University of Louisiana, majoring in Neuroscience with a minor in Education, and helps guide SMSC’s educational programming and long-term pipeline vision.
Her work builds competencies such as service orientation, mentorship, cultural awareness, and commitment to equity by connecting students to thoughtful entry points into medicine, nursing, public health, and community-based care.
She is especially interested in mentorship for younger students in New Orleans and in building clearer pathways for students from underserved backgrounds to imagine themselves in health professions.
Focus Area: speaker programming, school engagement, mentorship planning, and pipeline development.
Marcus LeBlanc
Director of Finance
Marcus LeBlanc is a student at Southern University at New Orleans, majoring in Business Administration with a minor in Public Policy, and helps oversee the financial planning that supports SMSC’s events, training efforts, supplies, and long-term organizational growth.
His work reinforces stewardship-oriented competencies such as dependability, transparency, sound judgment, and long-range planning so the coalition can grow without losing accountability to its mission or partners.
He is especially interested in making sure budgeting and resource planning support the practical needs of outreach, education, and partnership development rather than functioning as an afterthought.
Focus Area: budgeting, resource stewardship, funding planning, financial operations, and long-term sustainability.
Committees
High school and university committees help carry the work forward.
Under the executive board, SMSC also operates through committees made up of high school and university students who help run the organization, support programming, and contribute to how the model expands over time.
These committees help strengthen continuity, distribute leadership, and create structured ways for students to contribute to outreach, training, partnerships, communications, and future growth.
Outreach Committee
Training Committee
Partnerships Committee
Communications Committee
Research and Policy Committee
Pipeline and Mentorship Committee
Leadership Competencies
How leadership work translates into professional formation.
Service Orientation and Ethical Responsibility
Leadership should keep the coalition centered on dignity, boundaries, and the real needs of people experiencing homelessness, reinforcing the idea that service requires judgment as much as good intention.
Teamwork and Oral Communication
Executive planning, partner meetings, volunteer guidance, and public communication all require leaders to communicate clearly, listen well, and coordinate across different roles and settings.
Reliability and Resilience
Maintaining schedules, following through on commitments, and adapting when plans shift helps students build the dependability and resilience expected in serious service and clinical settings.
Systems Thinking and Capacity for Improvement
Leadership in SMSC means learning how outreach, education, partnerships, research, and policy fit together, then refining the model through feedback rather than treating growth as purely numerical.
Advisors
Clinical and community guidance that sharpens judgment.
Clinical Advisor
Michael Bank, MD
Dr. Michael Bank serves as Clinical Advisor to SMSC, helping ground the coalition’s work in clinical judgment, appropriate scope, and responsible partnership design.
His advisory role helps ensure that student activity supports care rather than creating avoidable risk, and that SMSC continues to develop with strong medical and ethical guardrails.
He also helps reinforce the idea that student participation must remain clinically appropriate, partner-aware, and centered on the long-term trust required for meaningful street medicine work.
Clinical Advisor
Kenya Knox-Lewis, FNP
Kenya Knox-Lewis serves as a clinical advisor to SMSC, helping strengthen the coalition’s perspective on community-based care, responsible student preparation, and interdisciplinary partnership building.
Her advisory role supports a model in which outreach, training, and volunteer expectations remain grounded in patient dignity, practical clinical realities, and long-term community trust.
She also helps shape how students think about continuity, communication, and the discipline required to serve in settings where clinical care and community realities are deeply connected.
Community Advisor
Ana Rivera, PhD
Dr. Ana Rivera is affiliated with the University of New Orleans and supports SMSC as a community-facing advisor focused on responsiveness, partnership awareness, and the broader social conditions shaping health.
Her advisory role helps ensure that coalition growth remains grounded in lived realities and partner feedback rather than becoming student-centered at the expense of community needs.
This lane is especially important for keeping SMSC attentive to trust, communication, and the long-term relationship work that ethical outreach depends on.
Advisor Opportunity
Clinical Advisor
SMSC is actively looking for an additional clinical advisor with expertise in behavioral health, especially someone who understands the overlap between homelessness, trauma, recovery, and community-based care.
We would welcome a conversation with clinicians who may be interested in helping strengthen this part of the coalition’s training, outreach, and long-term advisory structure.
Please reach out to smscoalition@gmail.com to set up a meeting with Joseph Pham and Dr. Michael Bank, MD.
Leadership Standard
Good leadership in this work means building trust before building visibility.
SMSC leadership should make the organization more dependable for patients, clinicians, schools, and community partners, not simply more visible on campus.