Meet Our Ambassadors
Gail Koretz, Los Angeles
Gail Koretz serves as the Government and Community Relations Manager for the Kaiser Permanente Los Angles Medical Center. She is responsible for managing an effective community and government relations program. She has been with the organization for more than 10 years.
After graduating with a Bachelor of Science degree from MIT in Urban Studies and Planning, she went on to get a law degree from UCLA. She served as the Senior Legislative Deputy to former LA City Councilman Joel Wachs from 1989-1999.
Gail is on the board of Youth Alive, a nonprofit dedicated to preventing youth gun violence. She is also a past recipient of the Hollywood Chamber of Commerce Women of Distinction Award and currently serves as a board member of the East Hollywood Business Improvement District. As a certified labor doula (birth assistant/labor coach), Gail has volunteered her services to many women.
She is married to LA City Councilman Paul Koretz and has one daughter, Rachel who attends UCLA.
Cassia Soldano, Woodland Hills
Cassia has worked at Kaiser Permanente Woodland Hills Medical Center since 2002. She has worked in various departments; including Admitting, Business Services and Documentation & Coding. I started in Public Affairs in 2006.
Currently she is the Assistant Public Affairs Representative at Woodland Hills Medical Center. Among many other duties, she also maintains the internal website, contributes to employee and physician newsletter, promotes branding throughout the Medical Center and outlying areas, and creates collateral for internal and external initiatives.
She started working on the campaign back in 2007. It has evolved so greatly in the Medical Center area. It is a wonderful experience to watch how as the evolution happens, and to see more staff and physicians become engaged. She believes the movement towards an all web-based campaign has been a great service to the campaign itself, the staff and the ambassadors alike. This past year (2010) Woodland Hills medical center were able to engage two physicians to be part of the local ambassadors.
She is married to Jeff Soldano, have a beautiful and spirited daughter, Lily and 2 pugs, Jimmy and Peewee. She also does belly dancing in her free time.
Anita Rice, Burbank MSSA
Born and raised in Los Angeles, Anita has worked for Kaiser Permanente since 1998. She currently works in Burbank MSSA as an Administrative Specialist in the CA Medi-Cal and State Sponsored Programs department. Anita began volunteering with the Community Giving Campaign in 2009, and is proud to be part of the Kaiser Permanente Community Giving Campaign family.
Anita enjoys the California lifestyle of sun, fun and food. Her interests include floral designing and the hula.
Budd F. Rude, Parsons Annex, Pasadena
Budd joined Kaiser Permanente in December, 2004 as part of the Kaiser Permanente HealthConnect team, where he is a Principal Trainer with the Scheduling and Registration team. He has helped train or create training for Check-In, Scheduling, Master Scheduling, Fee-for-Service/Venture Accounts, Home Health and more.
In 2007, Budd received an SCPMG Award for Excellence for his work on the Sched/Reg team. In addition to supporting the Community Giving Campaign, he has been the facility lead for the Martin Luther King Day Food Drive, has helped with the BookEnds book drive and is a regular platelet donor.
A native Angeleno, Budd has his Bachelor’s degree in marketing and an MBA from California State University, Northridge. An Advanced Toastmaster, Budd has also served in a variety of communications and marketing positions with the Los Angeles chapter of the American Society for Training and Development, and has received numerous awards for service to the chapter.
Budd is married to musician Vivian Rude, has a musical son, Christopher, and is helping raise two grandsons, Jayden and Jessy. He loves to do things with his wife and family and, when he can, delves into local and family history.
