Cristobal Barrios Jr., M.D., FACS, is a longtime Med Access International volunteer who was appointed as president and CEO in January 2023, replacing Ines Allen, who co-founded IMAHelps with her husband, Tracey, in 2000. Dr. Barrios is Med Access International’s chief representative with hospitals and government officials.

Dr. Barrios is a board certified General Surgeon with added qualifications in Surgical Critical Care. He is a Health Sciences Associate Clinical Professor of Surgery at the UC Irvine School of Medicine and is a practicing trauma and general surgeon. Dr. Barrios completed his training in Surgical Critical Care at UCI in June of 2007 and subsequently joined UCI in July of the same year. Dr. Barrios is the Director of the Trauma Division Research Program and Director of the Critical Care Core Lecture Series. He also serves as a member of the UCI School of Medicine Admission Committee and is Chair of the Organ Donor Council.

Dr. Barrios’s clinical research in trauma and critical care issues include the utility of thoracic CT imaging in trauma patients, anemia, traumatic brain injury, end of life issues, organ donation among minorities, geriatrics, and alcohol/drug use among trauma patients. His work has been presented at numerous professional conferences and has been published in a number of peer-reviewed journals. Since 2011, Dr. Barrios has participated in Med Access Intl. missions to Nicaragua, Peru, El Salvador, Paraguay and Ecuador.

Jeff Crider provides Med Access Intl. with communication support in English and Spanish with news media and government officials. He frequently accompanies Med Access Intl. President and CEO Dr. Cristóbal Barrios, Jr. in meetings with foreign government officials. In addition to overseeing written communications between Med Access Intl. and foreign governments, Jeff develops and pitches Med Access Intl. news releases, writes articles about the group’s humanitarian efforts and serves as a media spokesman and Spanish language interpreter for Med Access Intl. volunteers. He also documents Med Access Intl. medical missions with his photography and develops content for the IMAHelps website. In 2021 he authored the 174-page book, A Vision of Hope: The First 20 Years of IMAHelps (Med Access Intl.), which documents the first two decades of Med Access Intl. history.

A self-employed public relations consultant and freelance writer in Palm Desert, California, Jeff previously worked as a reporter for several Southern California newspapers, including The Press-Enterprise in Riverside, The Desert Sun in Palm Springs, and the Imperial Valley Press in El Centro, where he covered economic, political, and social issues on both sides of the U.S.-Mexico border. Jeff has a double Master of Arts degree in Hispanic and International Policy Studies from the Monterey Institute of International Studies in Monterey, California, along with a double Bachelor of Arts degree in Spanish and European Studies from Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles.

Jeff previously served on the board of directors of Desert Friends of the Developmentally Disabled, the nonprofit organization that founded the We Care Dental Center in Rancho Mirage. He is also a member of the Noon Rotary Club of Cathedral City, California and was the club president for the term ending June 2014.

Ron Hollis was appointed Treasurer of Med Access Intl. in April 2024. Ron brings a wealth of experience in strategic business planning, along with a proven track record of success in driving growth across various industries.

With over 20 years of experience in developing and executing successful strategies, Ron possesses a strong understanding of financial operations and a keen eye for detail. Not only does Ron manage our receipts for donations and financial documents, but he also provides financial leadership to help develop and implement effective strategies to achieve our organizational goals. He is especially focused on communicating our financial information in a clear and concise manner to our donor community.

Yardena Treviño is Med Access International’s Secretary.

She has been volunteering with us since 2018 and was elected to the board in 2023.

Yardena is fluent in Spanish and has volunteered with a variety of nonprofit organizations since she was a child, including Alianza Coachella Valley’s food distribution for the hungry, as well as Líderes Campesinas and the UFW.

She has managed medical offices for nearly two decades, including Desert Med Aesthetics in Indian Wells from 2015 to 2024; Palm Desert Dermatology, from 2014 to 2015; and the Dermatology and Cosmetic Surgery Center in Rancho Mirage, from 2008 to 2013. She has also worked as a medical office consultant, handling operations and logistics, including staff training, billing audits, marketing and website development.

A Certified Medical Assistant, Yardena graduated with High Honors from Kaplan College in Palm Springs in 2008. She previously pursued International Studies with a Governor’s Grant at the University of California, Irvine, where she was on the Dean’s List. She grew up in Indio and built a track record of academic success, earning “High Honors” on the Dean’s List when she graduated from Indio High School in 2004.

Robert Openshaw is an Orthotics and Prosthetics Specialist who has volunteered with Med Access Intl. since 2007, when he joined the group on a medical mission to the Amazon jungle in Ecuador. Since then, Robert has fitted more than 350 indigent patients in Ecuador, Nicaragua, Peru, Mexico, Paraguay and in California’s Coachella Valley with artificial limbs. His board assignments include working with prosthetic suppliers to obtain material donations. Robert owns and operates San Bernardino, California-based Odyssey Prosthetics.

Todd Swenning, M.D., serves as the Medical Director for the Institute of Clinical Orthopedics and Neurosciences, as well as the Director of Orthopedic Trauma at Desert Regional Medical Center in Palm Springs, California. In addition to providing local leadership, Dr. Swenning is actively involved in policy making and advocacy with the Orthopedic Trauma Association, along with the American Academy of Orthopedic Surgeons. Through his ongoing focus on education, Dr. Swenning teaches the principles of trauma management and patient advocacy, both nationally and internationally. His passion for trauma and fracture prevention and preparedness have led to his participation in multiple research projects in fracture and trauma management.

As a member of the Med Access Intl. team, Dr. Swenning focuses on limb salvage, deformity correction, and complex musculoskeletal infection surgeries.

Gloria Soto-Reyes was born in Fresnillo, Zacatecas, Mexico, and was later raised in San Luis, Sonora until she relocated to South Central Los Angeles, California with her family when she was nine years old. “I’m one of nine children and the first to attend college,” she said. After earning a Bachelor of Arts degree in psychology and a Master of Science degree in Physical Therapy from the University of Southern California in 1983, Gloria began her professional career, providing inpatient and outpatient orthopedics in hospital settings. She also provided separate physical therapy for patients suffering from brain injuries and strokes. Gloria continued to receive training in both manual therapy and Pilates for several years, ultimately becoming a Pilates Method Alliance (PMA)—Certified Pilates Teacher, which enhanced her knowledge of how personal movement awareness and fitness can improve overall health. Gloria opened her private practice, Action in Motion, Inc., in Danville, Calif. in 2003, where she specializes in working with pre- and post-spine surgery patients, teaching them how to strengthen their body after spine injuries. Gloria says having her own practice has given her the freedom to travel and to donate her time and talents to non-profit organizations she feels passionate about. She has worked on Med Access Intl. medical missions with Robert Openshaw, IMAHelps’ prosthetic specialist, since 2012, using her fluency in Spanish both to interpret for Robert and to provide gait training to amputees who they fit with prosthetic legs so that they can walk again.

Dr. Khoi Minh Le has lectured and proctored internationally in the fields of interventional cardiology, coronary artery disease, and acute coronary syndromes. In 1997, he participated in the first coronary stent and mitral valvuloplasty procedures ever done in Vietnam. He has traveled on educational and humanitarian medical missions to Asia, Central America, and South America, and he holds the title of Visiting Professor at several universities in Vietnam. His research interests include device and drug development for complex coronary and peripheral vascular disease.

Dr. Le oversees Med Access International’s provision of medical and health education to foreign doctors and patients. Dr. Le is the director of the Eisenhower Medical Center Cardiac Catheterization Laboratory and is a practicing interventional cardiologist at the Eisenhower Desert Cardiology Center in Rancho Mirage, California.

Dr. Le earned his A.B. in molecular biology from Harvard University and his medical degree from Harvard Medical School in Boston, Massachusetts. He completed his internal medicine residency at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston. Dr. Le did his research and clinical cardiology fellowship at the Cardiovascular Research Institute at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) where he was honored as the best teaching fellow. Dr. Le also served as an associate in interventional cardiology at the Andreas Gruentzig Cardiovascular Center at Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia. He is a fellow of the American College of Cardiology and has been board certified in Interventional Cardiology, Cardiovascular Disease, and Internal Medicine.