Jim Mangia is the CEO of St. John’s Well Child and Family Center, a network of a dozen health centers that is one of L.A. County’s largest nonprofit healthcare providers. Before participating in a panel on what Obamacare will mean for L.A.’s immigrants, he explained why he ditched politics for public health and what disease he’d eradicate from L.A. given the opportunity.
What word or phrase do you use most often?
Possible. Things are infinitely possible.
Who was the last person to make you laugh?
Probably Bill Maher. I watch that show [Real Time with Bill Maher] a lot for some reason.
Where do you come up with your best ideas?
I think I come up with my best ideas at work. Particularly when I’m walking through the clinic floor, with patients bustling around and doctors providing care.
How do you pass the time in a doctor’s waiting room?
Checking e-mails and looking at my iPhone.
As a child, what did you want to be when you grew up?
I wanted to be a politician. I was the school president. I got my master’s in political science and started to get involved in politics, but I thought it was really ugly. I wanted to do policy, not politics. So then I went back to school and got a master’s in public health.
What’s your go-to karaoke song?
I don’t do karaoke. I have a really bad singing voice.
What’s your guilty pleasure?
Wine. Red wine.
What is your most prized material possession?
Probably some paintings that my friends painted.
If you could eradicate one illness or disease from L.A. right now, which would you choose?
I would eradicate poverty. I just think it’s a moral outrage that with the kind of wealth generated in this country and the world, we still have folks who can’t afford to eat or access healthcare, who are living in slum housing conditions, and whose children are not getting what they need. Obviously, exposure to poverty creates diseases and chronic conditions that could be avoided. I think it all stems from poverty and lack of access.
What do you wish you had the nerve to do?
I feel like everything that I’ve wanted to do, I’ve done. I don’t have any lack of nerve.