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Jita Pandya Buño

Associate COO, UC Davis Health

Jita Pandya Buño recalls some advice she once received: “When you are comfortable, it’s time to get uncomfortable,” she says. “I had a commander in the military who would walk around and ask people, ‘How comfortable are you today?’ Because growth happens when you’re uncomfortable. It doesn’t happen in your comfort zone.”

Buño certainly knows a thing or two about stepping outside her comfort zone. At 16, she immigrated to the U.S. from India with her family and joined the Air Force just a year later. Overcoming language barriers and cultural challenges, she earned a degree in computer science, prepared soldiers for deployment during 9/11 and later transitioned to the Navy where she became an intelligence officer. “I feel very fortunate to have had people along the way that helped me see things that I may not have always seen in myself. I’ve had great mentors and a wonderful support system at home that’s allowed me to do more than I thought I could have.”

As associate chief operating officer of UC Davis Health, she gets to pay that forward by building teams and creating company cultures where people can thrive as their best, most authentic selves. “I really see my role as harnessing the power of the brilliance around me every day,” she shares. “I’m very proud of the teams I’ve built at UC Davis Health.” 

Starting her career as a senior budget analyst while still in the Navy reserves, Buño moved up the ranks to director of supply chain management and earned her MBA from Sacramento State University along the way. She took over her current role in September of 2020. The sacrifices her mother made so she and her siblings could have better opportunities were a constant motivator.

“My mother didn’t speak the language,” she says. “She was a housewife her whole life. They moved us across the world because she wanted my sister and me to have our own identity and a voice in how we lived our lives. When I think of the guts it took for them to do that — I carry that with me in everything I do. I want her sacrifices to have been worth it.”

With such a demanding schedule, one thing she’s learned to do is let go of wanting to be perfect. “I have a very structured life,” she shares. An extremely detailed calendar and a penchant for to-do lists help keep her on task. “As things go, I check them off, and oh my God, the gratification I get from completing things is amazing!” she laughs.

But being able to roll with the punches when things don’t go as planned is key. “I remember one day I was so excited to take my kid to school because I usually have early meetings,” she recalls. “But I had a late meeting that day, so we start driving to school, and he tells me, ‘Mommy, I don’t go to this school anymore.’ I was like, ‘Okay, kid, I knew that,’” she laughs. 

“I really see my role as harnessing the power of the brilliance around me every day. I’m very proud of the teams I’ve built at UC Davis Health.”

Buño is looking forward to the launch of a new project this summer. Health care in the region is very impacted, she explains, and most hospitals are full. Expected to open in July, the 48X Complex being built by UC Davis Health is a four-story, 260,000-plus square-foot space created to help address the shortage of ambulatory rooms in the main hospital. “This building will be state of the art,” she says. “It will have world class equipment and technology that will allow us to serve the region and the patients in a very unique way.”

Reflecting on her career, Buño says she’s proudest of those moments when she feared doing something and did it anyway. “It never occurred to me in the moment, but now when I reflect back, I go, man, that was pretty badass.”

So don’t let low confidence get in the way of not accepting that job or big promotion, she advises. “Just remember, the reason you’re there is because people value what you have to say. So, when you’re in that room or at that table, speak your mind.”  

View the list of honorees from 2015 through 2025.

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