Justin Zaghi, Who Attended RYLA, is Now a Doctor at UCLA

Posted by Judy Corcoran 
 
 

Justin Zaghi, Who Attended RYLA, is Now a Doctor at UCLA

Justin Zaghi, who spoke to the Club on May 10, was a part of the RYLA Program when he attended Taft High School. From there he went to Harvard Medical School (2009 – 2014) where he became a MD. He also attended Harvard Business School from 2012 – 2014 and earned his MBA. Justin also attended UCLA where he earned a bachelor of science degree in in science and neuroscience with a minor in Spanish. He is currently working at the Ronald Regan Medical Center at UCLA.
 
Justin is founder and president of the Born Well Project beginning in May 2014, which focuses on incidents of spinal bifida Nicaragua, a debilitating birth defect, which is five time higher in Nicaragua than in the United States. While studying at UCLA he successfully led a formal investigation to address the cause of this disorder, the lack of folic acid in the diet. His team analyzed the potential solutions to this problem and recommended the fortification of rice with folic acid. Justin presented the findings to the Ministry of Health, which one month later, issued a countrywide mandate to fortify rice with folic acid.
 
He served as summer intern for PATH (Program of Appropriate Technology in Health) in Nicaragua in 2010 and assisted with the implementation of the rice fortification program. Born Well, a nonprofit organization, was established to specifically address folic acid deficiency and to prevent neural tube defects, which is related to this deficiency.
 
In August 2014, Justin applied for and was awarded with a $250,000 grant from USAID on behalf of the Institute of Nutrition of Central America to design and implement a rice fortification program in Nicaragua. He also applied for a grant for Saving Brains and was awarded another $250,000 grant.
 
Justin’s tips for writing a winning grant are:
  1. Choose a topic with significant human impact and offer a solution.
  2. Address the core of the problem.
  3. Is it scalable?
  4. Is it cost effective?
  5. Make it innovative.
  6. Have as many people as possible review the proposal before submitting it.
 
Lessons that he learned are that it always take long than expected, politics matter and change in leadership can affect the project’s dynamics, and develop good relationships, which helps to make the process easier. Justin (left) is in the above photo with President Jay Saltzman.