Nurse Practitioners

Tara Abrams, NP

Tara grew up in Compton CA. She completed her Associate Degree in Nursing from Long Beach City college. In 2019, she graduated from California State Los Angeles with her Master’s of Science in Nursing. Prior to practicing as nurse practitioner, she enjoyed working as an ER trauma and critical care nurse in Level I and Level II hospitals. Her days off are spent enjoying her grandson, being active in her community and church.

Gina Harter ACNP-BC

Gina has been an RN since 2002 after she received her BSN from Azusa Pacific University. She initially worked at St. Joseph Hospital of Orange County then transferred to Hoag Hospital in Newport Beach to work in the emergency room in 2003. Five years later, she received a Master’s Degree at UCLA School of Nursing in Acute Care along with her Clinical Nurse Specialist.

Gina Has worked in the emergency room for 13 years. Her first job as a Nurse Practitioner was at Harbor General emergency room in 2008. She then moved on to Little Company of Mary Torrance Emergency Room in 2011 and continues to work there part time. She is nationally certified through the ANCC as an acute care nurse practitioner (ACNP-BC).

Amber Leonard Alibrio, NP-C

Amber joined the medical staff at Providence Little Company of Mary Medical Center, Torrance as an Emergency Nurse Practitioner in March 2016. She obtained her Bachelor of Arts Degree in Psychology from the University of California, Santa Barbara and then later obtained a second Bachelor of Science Degree in Nursing from Mount Saint Mary’s University, Los Angeles. Prior to becoming a Nurse Practitioner, she worked as a registered nurse for 8 years at Torrance Memorial Medical Center in the Progressive Care Cardiac Unit and in the Emergency Department. Amber obtained her Master of Science Degree in Nursing and Family Nurse Practitioner certificate from California State University, Long Beach. She is nationally certified as a Family Nurse Practitioner through the American Association of Nurse Practitioners. In her free time she enjoys baking, gardening, traveling, and spending time with her husband and cat.

Jesus Lizarraga, NP

Jesus has been with Little Company for the greater part of 13 years. Prior to serving our community as a nurse practitioner, he functioned as an ED charge nurse. When not working he is a dedicated father who also enjoys golf, fishing and Dodgers baseball.

Alexander Ngo, FNP-C

I’m a board-certified Family Nurse Practitioner with a focus in emergency medicine. I started my career in the ER as a registered nurse in 2013 and transitioned to working as an emergency nurse practitioner in 2021. I earned my Bachelor of Science in Nursing from West Coast University and my Master of Science in Nursing from Samuel Merritt University.

Over the years, Alex has worked in a variety of healthcare settings, including major academic centers like UCLA, UC Irvine, and Kaiser Permanente, as well as several community hospitals throughout Southern California. Since 2021, he has been part of the emergency department team at Providence Little Company of Mary. He is passionate about the fast-paced, high-energy environment of emergency medicine and enjoys working alongside a strong team, managing critical cases, and performing procedures. His approach to patient care is compassionate, efficient, and centered around delivering the best possible outcomes.

In addition to clinical care, Alex enjoys mentoring nurse practitioner students as a preceptor and contributing to the patient experience committee to help improve how we care for our community. When not in the ER, you can usually find Alex traveling, playing basketball, staying active, spending time with family, or hunting down the best food spots around town. He is always looking for ways to grow in emergency medicine, continue learning, and take on leadership and teaching roles.

Juliet Popovic, NP

Julieta Popovic is a dedicated Family Nurse Practitioner with an impressive academic background, holding a Master’s in Nursing and a Master’s in Public Health in Epidemiology from UCLA (in 2013 and 2003, respectively). She also earned a Bachelor’s in Nursing (UCLA, 2012), a Bachelor’s in Biology (Whittier College, 1999). She is Board-certified (ANCC) and bilingual in Spanish, and brings over a decade of specialized experience. Since 2020, she has optimized preoperative care for underserved patients at Harbor UCLA Medical Center’s Anesthesia Dept., collaborating with specialties like cardiology and neurosurgery. She is an experienced diagnostician, and prides herself in connecting with her patients and making them feel heard and cared for. She strongly believes in our shared humanity and that everyone deserves to be provided with the highest quality of care, in a compassionate and safe environment. She has worked in the ED at Providence Little Company of Mary from 2014 to present. Her earlier roles include emergency care nursing at Pomona Valley Hospital (2006-2019) and Harbor UCLA (2019-2020). She has volunteered abroad in groups like Floating Doctors in Panama and provided care to migrant populations at the US-Mexico border. She has enjoyed a longtime devotion to yoga and is very devoted to her family.

Sharlet Tabafunda, NP

Sharlet Tabafunda is originally from Peoria Illinois where she obtained a bachelor’s degree in nursing at SIUE (Southern Illinois university Edwardsville) in 2012 and worked in the emergency department at a level 1 trauma, stroke, and cardiac center for multiple years before she decided to move to the LA area in 2015 to advance her nursing career. She started at LCM in the emergency department after many years of travel emergency nursing throughout the US. Additionally, she has worked as a preoperative and postoperative RN at Kerlan Jobe, a surgery center that specializes in sports injuries for the LA area for a few years while completing a nurse practitioner degree from San Diego. She and her husband settled back in the area to return to LCM to work with the extraordinary team she had worked with previously. When she’s not working, she enjoys spending time with her family, reading and doing anything outdoors.