Champions

Immunization Champion Award

The Immunization Champion Award is an annual award given jointly by the Association of Immunization Managers and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. This award recognizes individuals who make a significant contribution to promote immunizations in their communities.

Each state honors an Immunization Champion. Each year, nominations are sent to the Department of Health, where a group of health professionals from around Washington state reviewed and selected this year's immunization champion.

The Department of Health recognizes the amazing immunization work done by so many people in this state. As such, this page shows the nominees and provides a brief description of their exemplary actions.

2024 Immunization Champion Nominations

Abreese Ungard: Image

Abreese Ungard
Medical Assistant and Vaccine Coordinator
Kadlec Regional Medical Center – Residency Clinic
Richland, Washington

Abreese supports 24 resident physicians and 7 faculty physicians by providing education to all clinical staff around vaccines. She works side by side to ensure staff are meeting all standards and performing good patient care. Her work ensures that leaving residents have a strong educational background in vaccination.
Alyssa Richer: Alyssa Richer
School Nurse, MSN, RN
Mukilteo School District
Mukilteo, Washington

Alyssa hosted a vaccination clinic in partnership with the DOH Care-A-Van at the district’s back-to-school fair in August 2023. She used the Immunization Information System to send targeted messaging to families behind on immunization to encourage attending. After this successful event, Alyssa coordinated an additional five immunization clinics using easy to access locations for her community. Clinics vaccinated 40 to 176 people each time and helped both adults and children.

Alyssa also used her capstone project for her Master’s program to support the immunization of kindergarteners and other students, many of which lacked the required vaccines for school enrollment. This work was done across the entire school district.
Elizabeth Bowman Clark: Image

Elizabeth Bowman Clark
Vaccine Coordinator, LPN/Triage Nurse
Island Health Primary Care
Anacortes, Washington

Elizabeth coordinates childhood and adult vaccinations across two separate clinics. As the vaccine coordinator, she provides updates and educational quizzes to keep staff well informed on vaccination. Her work has doubled the amount of vaccinations given to children from 2022 to 2023.

Elizabeth has used her technical experience to make charting immunizations in their electronic medical record (EMR) system quicker and easier. She worked with their IT team to make sure patient records from the Immunization Information System (IIS) were accurate, making it easier for staff to identify those needing vaccination during visits.
Hardish Khinda: Hardish Khinda
Registered Nurse Infection Preventionist
Spokane Veterans Home
Spokane, Washington

Hardish has spent countless hours checking on the immunization status of residents and staff, and providing them immunizations. Hardish advocates for immunizations for both residents and staff of the Spokane Veterans Home by providing immunization information throughout the year. They also present about immunizations to community organizations once a month.

Hardish set a goal of having a 100% flu immunization rate in staff in 2024, and has documented everyone’s immunization status as part of this effort.
Jazel Jane M. Bautista: Image

Jazel Jane M. Bautista
Pharmacist and Owner
Acts Pharmacy and Healthcare Services
Tacoma, Washington

In 2023, Jazel and her five staff supported 51 community vaccination events in partnership with the Washington State Pharmacy Association (WSPA), the National Asian Pacific Center on Aging, and 34 other community-based organization. These collaborations allowed Jazel to reach diverse populations, many of whom have been historically marginalized within the healthcare system.

The Tacoma-Pierce County Health Department relies on Jazel and her pharmacy to support the vaccine management of adult family homes, senior centers, and schools.

As one of the few pharmacies to participate in the Vaccines For Children (VFC) Program, Jazel is working with the WSPA and the Washington Vaccine Association to tackle barriers and improve pharmacy enrollment in the VFC program. Jazel also emphasizes training her staff on vaccine eligibility, patient screening, patient insurance coverage options, and patient enrollment into appropriate programs to eliminate costs for patients.
Jessica Ray: Image

Jessica Ray
Lead Medical Assistant
Legacy Salmon Creek Family Medicine
Kalama, Washington

Jessica has implemented the Comfort, Ask, Relax, Distract (CARD) system at her clinic to ensure patients have the best experience with vaccination and the least amount of pain. She also developed the framework for the clinic’s COVID-19 children’s clinic. She participates in vaccination clinics for the community and has helped with Mpox and COVID-19 vaccination.
Maria Huang: Image

Maria Huang
Pediatrician
Orca Pediatrics
Olympia, Washington

Dr. Maria Huang is a strong advocate for immunizations. Her involvement in multiple Washington Chapter of the American Academy of Pediatrics (WCAAP) groups, including the Vaccine Committee, and the Champions for Youth Steering Committee, and the Power in Partnership Project, have given her the ability to work with multiple community partners across the state to increase childhood immunization rates. As the co-lead in the Power in Partnership Project, she conducted over 100 outreach meetings since 2023 with school nurses, medical providers, and local health staff across the state to discuss vaccination.

Maria has actively testified on WCAAP-supported legislative bills since 2018, with her most recent advocacy efforts contributing to the passage of Washington Senate Bill 5983/House Bill 2157, which updated the state’s definition of “vaccine” to include all FDA-approved immunizations recommended by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

Maria also acts as a vaccine consultant for the Bird’s Eye Medical Mobile Care-A-Van.
Mary Merida Montano: Image

Mary Merida Montano
Registered Nurse and Staff Development and Infection Preventionist
Bainbridge Island Health & Rehabilitation
Bainbridge Island, Washington

After noticing their facility was under national immunization rates for residents and staff, Mary came up with a plan to address the issue. She created a subcommittee to educate staff and residents on vaccinations and worked with pharmacy partners to make sure vaccinations were offered to everyone. This work increased their immunization rates to above the national average in all vaccination areas. The increased vaccination rates prevented any serious outbreaks of pneumonia and COVID within the facility.
Mary Willis: Image

Mary Willis
Pharmacist
Fred Meyer Pharmacy
Vancouver, Washington

Mary Willis goes above and beyond with her interactions with her patients. She spends time to educate patients about education benefits and exhibits empathy towards all her patients. Patients have had such good experiences they return just to get vaccinated by Mary again.

Mary’s dedication to vaccination has significantly increased vaccine numbers and has led their store pharmacy to one of the top in the district for vaccinations.
Patricia Sagadiev: Image

Patricia Sagadiev
Pharmacist in Charge
Jim’s Pharmacy
Port Angeles, Washington

Patricia created a new ‘travel consultation clinic’ at Jim’s Pharmacy, which gives patients personalized appointments for people planning for international travel. Patients are vaccinated and educated on particular health risks for those specific travel destinations.

Patricia uses her expertise as a pharmacist to discuss vaccination with those who are hesitant. She reminds patients that medical professionals want what’s best for everyone and that she truly cares about her patients’ health and wellbeing.

In her previous position at Safeway pharmacy, she trained hundreds of pharmacists across multiple states on administering flu vaccine when it first became available outside of doctors’ offices. From this experience, Patricia makes sure staff are educated on vaccine storage, administration, and correct vaccines for patients.
Rebecca Ann Droter: Image

Rebecca Ann Droter
School Nurse, MSN, RN
Colville School District
Colville, Washington

Rebecca has been a school nurse in a rural community for ten years. As a school nurse, she partnered with medical clinics to increase access to school required immunizations and partnered with a national pharmacy chain for flu shots and staff immunizations. These clinics are provided at times which reduce the need for families to take time off of work, which reduces barriers to vaccination for many families.

Earlier in her career, Rebecca’s passion for vaccination helped her earn a Johnson & Johnson School Nurse Fellowship for Spokane County based on her school-based immunization program work. From this experience, Rebecca continues to talk to schools about starting school-based immunization programs in their areas.
Rebecca Crandell: Rebecca Crandell
Clinical Trainer, MA-C
Healthpoint
Renton, Washington

Rebecca makes sure all 18 Healthpoint clinics remain in compliance for their immunization provider agreements. As part of her work, she also tracks vaccine stock and provides weekly reports to each site to reduce vaccine waste. She runs vaccine education and training for all new hires. She has developed workflows for back office staff to make sure patients are cared for, and works with their app team to make sure data from the Immunization Information System (IIS) interfaces well with their Electronic Health Record (EHR) system.
Shwetal Mehta: Shwetal Mehta
Pharmacist
Fred Meyer Pharmacy
Vancouver, Washington

As patients come to pick up medication, Shwetal checks to see if they are due for vaccinations. She will discuss this with her patients and takes the time to answer questions and concerns about vaccination. Shwetal has a reputation at the pharmacy for regularly getting the most successful recommendations for vaccines, which is partially due to her positive attitude and care for patient interaction. Community vaccination rates have increased thanks to Shwetal.
Tara Cullinan: Image

Tara Cullinan
Clinic Supervisor
Pediatrics For You
Kennewick, Washington

Tara has advocated for childhood immunizations at Pediatrics For You, a teaching practice, for almost two decades. As part of her work, Tara is a leader in training all students and new employees on vaccine administration best practices. She preaches ‘safety first’ and develops a safe environment for families. She works closely with the pediatrician to assist vaccine hesitant families to ensure they get needed vaccines without feeling pressured.

Tara communicates out to area schools to help promote vaccinations. Her participation in quality improvement with the Department of Health has led to the practice addressing immunization with children at every visit. These efforts have improved vaccination rates in the community, and only increase her passion to promote immunizations.
Titem Shakur: Image

Titem Shakur
Pharmacist
Bartell Drugs
Burien, Washington

As a clinical pharmacist, Titen strives to lead the pharmacy towards more vaccine outreach and administration, leading to three times as many vaccinations each week than before. As part of her work, she utilizes the Immunization Information System to make vaccine recommendations to patients. Titem uses her experience to collaborate with other pharmacies and help them scale their vaccination efforts.

Having lived in a rural area in East Africa with a lack of access to immunizations, Titem is eager to educate patients about preventable diseases. Her personal interaction and care has made a significant and long-lasting impression on patients.
Vijay Kaza: Image

Vijay Kaza
Pharmacy Manager
Fred Meyer Pharmacy
Lacey, Washington

Having witnessed a close friend dealing with shingles, Vijay has a strong desire to ensure everyone in his community has access to all life-saving immunizations. He acted as a trusted source of information during the COVID-19 pandemic when he saw fear and misinformation spread through his community. He continues to host educational workshops on COVID-19 vaccines, which have improved immunization rates with hesitant and underserved populations.

Vijay has partnered with local schools and long-term care facilities to offer vaccination clinics and increase accessibility to these populations. His work has substantially increased immunization rates within these vulnerable age groups.

In addition, Vijay offers vaccine consultations for potential travelers, and also acts as a spokesperson in local media, advocating for vaccination as a tool for community health.

Previous State Immunization Champions

2023 Immunization Champion - Mehr Grewal

Mehr Grewal
Founder and Executive Director
Worth A Shot Initiative
Bellevue, WA

Mehr Grewal is a Bellevue High School student who founded the “Worth A Shot” initiative, focused on education and advocacy for COVID-19 vaccines. As a response to vaccine messaging not resonating with members in her community, Mehr and her organization partnered with hospitals, local public health, school districts, and community organizations to host town hall conversations and community vaccination events. Leaning into her existing community relationships and built in trust, Mehr used her voice to advocate to other youth and their families about the importance of vaccination and create educational campaigns to combat vaccine misinformation and build vaccine confidence. Mehr’s efforts to inspire other youth to provide them with the skills to advocate for COVID-19 vaccination in their communities led to increased vaccine confidence across the county and immeasurable positive impacts in the community.

2022 Immunization Champion - Ahmed Ali

Ahmed Ali
Pharmacist
Owner of Othello Station Pharmacy
Seattle, WA

Dr. Ali is a trusted leader in the Somali community and has been the main face of the Somali Health Board. His Othello Station Pharmacy (OSP) staff serve a large, diverse population in King County. During the 2021-22 school year, Dr. Ali and OSP provided over 60 COVID and flu vaccination clinics for schools. The pharmacy improved the COVID-19 vaccination rates of school children in underserved populations. Dr. Ali invites nursing, pharmacy and medical students who need clinical placements to work with his team, helping many students of color gain diverse experiences in providing community care.