Larissa is a Product Analyst for Rally Health, a digital health company. She received her B.S. in Business Administration with concentrations in Health Policy & Management and Digital Studies from the University of Southern California. She discovered her passion for the future design of the healthcare experience during a college internship at Kaiser Permanente and has worked in health technology ever since. Her experiences in this area include working at an international startup, a design firm, and partaking in the Technology Development program at Optum (part of UnitedHealth Group). Her passion for helping people live healthier lives also seeps into how she uses her free time: DJing for a high intensity cardio hip-hop class called 305 Fitness, serving as an Emerging Leadership Ambassador for Boston Healthcare for Homeless, and advising a Spanish startup, Medvisit, focused on bringing patient care to ex-pat communities globally.
“Throughout middle school and high school, my father experienced tremendous pain, both physically and mentally, and had felt that he wasn’t being heard by his care team, who simply attributed his condition to his obesity. During my sophomore year, my family switched healthcare providers to Kaiser Permanente and his physician immediately recognized that he had been misdiagnosed and, in fact, had a genetic disorder that had contributed to his obesity and required immediate attention, including multiple surgeries and genetic testing for his immediate family.
Throughout this experience, particularly when he was facing the threatening surgical procedures, I felt helpless. Then, I began to realize that I could take action on trying to make an impact on the system that had prolonged his illness. I signed up for the USC Marathon Team as a way to commit myself to supporting my Dad through intensive training, since I couldn’t be right beside him during his surgeries and recovery. I took on a second minor in Health Policy and Management to learn about the healthcare system and the ways in which I could have an impact. I applied for an internship at Kaiser Permanente, as their care model was what helped save my dad and put our family’s trust back into the system. By the start of my junior year, I had discovered a field that I was passionate to grow a career in, completed my first marathon, and most importantly inspired my dad to start training in his recovery to run his own half-marathon (which he’ll be completing this December!).”
