Mission Pediatrics medical director Timothy D. Watson, M.D. was the 2015 President of the Riverside County Medical Association (RCMA). Together, Dr. Tim Watson, Dr. Faize Mustafa-Infante, Dr. Alan Lee and Dr. Edilberto Agas provide pediatric care at the clinics and local hospitals. Certified physician assistants, Kaneez Ali, Britta Barton, and Erin Nash-Fairfax along with nurse practitioner, Lauren Hunt assist our physicians in providing compassionate clinical services at our offices. Our experienced office manager, Norma Lerma, facilitates efficient and pleasant office experiences. Our quality and experienced staff provide gentle and caring services to our precious patients. We provide 24-hour English and Spanish patient advice.
Our Providers
Tim Watson, M.D. Board Certified Pediatrician
Tim Watson is the CEO and Medical Director of Mission Pediatrics, Inc. He grew up in Northern California and graduated from San Jose State University with a Bachelor’s of Science in Molecular Biology. Prior to starting medical school at Loma Linda University, he was a high school Anatomy & Physiology teacher at Valley Christian High School. He completed medical school and entered postdoctoral training in the field of Pediatrics in 2000. A Board Certified Pediatrician, he has been working at Mission Pediatrics for twelve years. He was the 2015 President of the Riverside County Medical Association where he has actively participated since 2008. He is married and has two boys (who want to be pirate treasure hunter robot makers) and a girl (who likes Elsa more than Ana, but also has a soft spot for Olaf) all in elementary school.”
Faize Mustafa, pediatrician
Dr. Faize Mustafa spent six months looking for the perfect job for her. She always trained as a community doctor, and Mission Pediatrics is a community based private practice unlike any other. This is a place where she can assess and innovate, and where she can be her undaunted self pursuing a diagnosis others gave up on. This has ended years of pain for some, and has saved children’s lives. In fact, she is dogged in her approach to everything. “Nothing stops me,” she said. “If I need it, just go, do it.” With support from Dr. Watson, she has developed a clinic for patients with obesity and need for chronic care — one that disregards profit. “Lucky me, somebody says to my crazy ideas: yes,” she said. Dr. Mustafa speaks English and Spanish, and goes on medical missions to Peru, Cuba and Colombia “Helping worldwide is part of my passion.” She has been with Mission Pediatrics since 2010.
Ed Agas, pediatrician
Dr. Ed Agas will never forget the time a woman from church gave him an apple for Christmas. “I remember the smell,” he said. “I looked forward to Christmas because of her.” His upbringing, in a loving family and in poverty, shaped him into a doctor who serves the underserved with strength and heart. He and eight other children were raised by his grandparents in the Philippines. Though they did not have running water, and the sound of gunfights was common, he describes a happy home. “I could plant and fish. I have happy memories.” When he was in seventh grade, the woman who would later give him an apple for Christmas sponsored him to attend private school for a semester. His public school was 10 miles away — too far to walk. “I knew there was nowhere to go but up, and the way up was education,” he said. He got good grades and was able to stay in school for free. Ultimately he studied medicine and came to the United States. Around here, Dr. Agas is the Baby Whisperer. He said, “Dancing with them as they cry is like a miracle. Sway and sing — they stop crying.” Dr. Agas has been with Mission Pediatrics since 2012
Alan Lee, M.D., Pediatrician
Dr. Lee has been practicing as a pediatrician since 2008 after completing his Pediatric residency in Las Vegas and moving to the Inland Empire. He was raised in the San Francisco Bay Area, but fell in love with Hawaii (and surfing) as a teenager and made it his home after graduating from college. Before attending medical school at the University of Hawaii, he was an Orthopedic Physical Therapist, receiving his Bachelor of Science degree in Physical Therapy from the University of California San Francisco and later, his Master of Science degree in Orthopedic PT from the Institute of Graduate Health Sciences (now the University of St Augustine). After resettling in Hawaii, teaching graduate students, and caring for a variety of patients including young people in sports and musical arts (such as ballet), he continued to be driven towards furthering his education in the health care of children and young adults. This drive lead to medical school, then the subsequent move to Nevada for residency with his wife and child. During residency they added another child, their aspiring inventor. He is no longer surfing but still loves to travel, watch movies, sports and playing with babies. He is fluent in Baby-ese and still enjoys advising young athletes on sports safety and training strategies.
Jennifer Cobanov, pediatrician
Dr. Jennifer Cobanov knew one thing growing up: She wanted to work with children. The question was, did she want to be a teacher or a pediatrician? (Spoiler alert: You’re on the Mission Pediatrics website.) At UCLA, she was leaning toward teaching. She participated in a government funded program to partially pay tuition students who were able to teach struggling children to read above their grade level. Dr. Cobanov was great at this. She has had a heart for volunteering since she was 6 years old; and service and children have been prominent in the thread of her life. But when decision time came, she turned toward medicine, and off she went to Loma Linda University, and from there, to Riverside-San Bernardino Indian Health Inc., where she worked for several years. Still, she teaches. “I love to teach,” she said. “(I will teach) anyone who wants to learn about kids and care and service.” She is committed to supporting people’s success. She has an eye for assessing systems for efficiency, because she values a good patient care model. “Preventive care is so important for children. We have to give children the best care.” Dr. Cobanov is bilingual (Spanish) and is the newest member of the Mission Pediatrics team. She has been with the practice since May, 2020.
Staff MDs
Kaneez Ali, physician assistant
Kaneez Ali knows how to identify and help children who are in a dark place. She majored in child psychology, and that education is with her as she helps children in her daily work as a physician assistant. “Especially with covid, you see kids with anxiety, depression, ADHD,” she said. “We see a lot of foster kids and some troubled kids. Some kids have been through sad things, like child abuse.” Kaneez grew up in Southern India where she went to school in a convent. She loves cooking and nature and art. And she loves children. “I have a soft spot for kids, because I have seen so many who don’t have much. It can be heartbreaking.” She was eldest of four, and one her mom’s side, she was the eldest granddaughter, so she has been caring for children almost all of her life. “If something happened, I was there. I took care of people and that stayed with me. “It’s very rewarding when you see parents and you can make a difference for them. They have a look on their face, you can see the hope that you’re going to take care of their kids “We are able to make a difference for underserved families.” Kaneez has been with Mission Pediatrics since 1995.
Britta Barton, physician assistant
Physician assistant Britta Barton isn’t home very often. She loves hiking, biking and kayaking, and she likes to do these things with her 100-pound Rhodesian ridgeback puppy as a companion. “I wanted a dog that could run with me on my mountain bike for 10 or 15 miles,” she said. Britta shows the same kind of dedication to achievement in her career. “I work hard. I play hard,” she said. She is a Stanford graduate who met her husband when they were both working as paramedics. This history has given her skills she uses in her work at Mission Pediatrics, where she is assertive about resilience. “Emergency preparedness comes into play, especially during Covid, because we have to be aware of our county resources,” she said. Britta has been with Mission Pediatrics since the summer of 2015.
Erin Fairfax, physician assistant
Erin Fairfax can do almost all things — and she tends to them all at the same time. Most recently, she was a fire captain and a physician assistant concurrently. She left the fire department, because she and her husband were both with Cal Fire, and they had children at home. “After I had my youngest, I went back to work and got stuck on a fire for 10 days, and I was still breastfeeding,” she said. She also teaches college courses and works in an emergency room. And she has farm animals — two horses, a pig, two goats, chickens, peacocks, turkeys and six dogs. She is currently working on organizing programs to enhance safety and community services. In her down time, she likes to run and is an artist. All the time, she is caring, intuitive and helpful. Erin has been with Mission Pediatrics since 2015.
Lauren Hunt, nurse practitioner
Lauren Hunt’s uncle was a pediatrician, and Lauren used to go to his office and follow him around. She saw her future in him. And then he died when she was in high school. “It hit me pretty hard,” she said. “I no longer wanted to go into the medical profession.” Plan B: She got a business degree from San Diego. “I worked for two years and hated it.” Plan C: She decided to become a nurse practitioner and enrolled in courses in Loma Linda. Quickly, she found her heart in the NICU. And she discovered she had a knack for recognizing what sickness looks like, which is important, especially when working with small children. She also values empathy and warmth, enveloping the entire patient’s circumstance into her care. “When you see the kids in the office, you’re not just seeing the kids. You’re seeing the family. The parents need someone to listen. I try to pay attention to everybody’s needs.” Lauren has been with Mission Pediatrics since 2013.
Julie Swerdlow, nurse practitioner
When Julie Swerdlow was a girl, she dreamed of being an actress. Today she’s a big hit on the screen, but not quite how she had imagined — she’s doing telemedicine. With both of her parents working for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, working in the health field was inevitable for her. She says she finds it rewarding, especially when she can help the underserved. “My parents serving in public health passed on this value,” she said. But she didn’t let her career get in the way of her love for the arts. She helps with costumes, which everyone wears in the Redlands office, has acted in Mission Pediatric videos, and has painted a mural in the San Bernardino office, which has a Hawaii theme.“There’s a lot of avenues for creativity if you want to be involved in it,” she said. She has been with Mission Pediatrics since 2018.
Janet Li, physician assistant
When Janet Li had a stroke at the age of 7, it changed her life.
It was her interaction with her doctors that made her sure she wanted to grow up and work with kids. Janet spent her childhood in Honolulu, where she later studied medicine (before moving on to Yale), so she feels right at home in the San Bernardino Mission Pediatrics office, which has a Hawaii theme. But don’t box her in. She also enjoys wearing a Victorian costume when she works in the Redlands office. “It’s pretty fun,” she says. “A lot of parents don’t expect it.” Janet and her husband — a child neurologist in Loma Linda — have a young daughter, and her parents have moved to Redlands to help with child care. In her spare time she writes food reviews, (“I love eating. We are Yelp elite.”) and she loves watching Marvel and Disney movies. Janet has been with Mission Pediatrics since September of 2019.
Katy Porter, physician assistant
A man sitting next to Katy Porter on an airplane changed her life. She was en route to Guatemala on a mission with her father, who was a pastor. “I sat next to a physician assistant on the plan who was going to help children burn victims,” she said. “I knew that was what I wanted to do.” Katy grew up in a small town in Michigan, thinking she would grow up to do something in missions, or maybe in the arts. “I first wanted to act but I’m really bad at it,” she said. “It was a kindergarten dream.” Her heart for helping others is in good company. “Dr. Watson hires empathetic people,” she said. “People who feel so much for their patients. I love this company and am glad I was able to get hired here. My co-workers are role models for me.” In her free time, Katy loves camping, going to the mountains and hiking with Kona, her great Pyrenees. She has been with Mission Pediatrics since September, 2019
Administration Staff
Norma Lerma, regional manager
Family is the core of Norma Lerma’s life, and from that loving place, she brings an embracing spirit to her work. “We understand what the patients are going through,” she said. “We work to make their day just a little bit better and brighter. Giving that overall experience in our office not only is good for the patient, but it’s good for our staff.” Norma has been in the health field for 21 years, and other people’s smiles have always been her greatest reward. “When I was a young kid my parents taught me to give without expecting anything in return,” she said. What does she do for fun? That’s easy, she said: family. “I come from a big family, a family of six. There’re so many of us that there’s always something going on. Parties, vacation. Mom gets people together through her cooking.” She herself has four children and is happily married. “Nothing’s perfect but I think we’re pretty close to being great,” she said. Norma has been with Mission Pediatrics since 2013.
Kirsti Steiner-Norman, executive coordinator
Kirsti Steiner-Norman’s father used to sit under the swings when he was 5 years old in order to see the underpants of a certain 5-year-old girl — Kirsti’s mother. From this couple was born a woman who appreciates the fun and humor in life. As a child growing up in Orange County, she had thought she would grow up to race dirt bikes professionally, but she grew up to serve as the executive coordinator for Mission Pediatrics. “This is not your typical doctor’s office,” she said. “It’s fun, interactive, creative and quirky.” Kirsti works behind the scenes doing a little bit of everything. She assists doctors and students with whatever they need — schedules, projects, events. And if you see Christmas decor in the offices at the wrong time of year, she may be culpable for that. Her love of Yuletime knows no bounds. And when she’s not there, she’s sewing high-end custom bikinis as a side business. Her bathing suits have been worn on episodes of the Real Housewives of Orange County and Real World. By amazing coincidences, she attended high school with her husband, but did not meet him until years later, after she had moved to Murrieta. Not only were her parents friends with his mom and sister when they were in high school, but she had posted a concert photo on Facebook taken two years before they met where he’s standing directly in front of her. Kirsti has been with Mission Pediatrics since 2015.