Kaiser Permanente awarded mentoring scholarships to 12 medical students committed to providing quality and sensitive care to Southern California's uniquely diverse patient population. Each awardee will participate in a mentoring program with a Kaiser Permanente clinician, complete a 4-6 week clinical rotation at a Kaiser Permanente facility, and receive a $5,000 scholarship for their education.
The Kaiser Permanente Oliver Goldsmith, MD, Scholarship program is dedicated to the promotion and advancement of culturally responsive care, and it is named after Dr. Goldsmith, who championed this issue throughout his career at Kaiser Permanente before he retired in 2003 as the medical director of the Southern California Permanente Medical Group (SCPMG). With this year's awardees, the program, which was established in 2004, will have given out 41 awards and a total of $205,000 to assist medical students.
Jeffrey Weisz, MD, executive medical director of SCPMG, created this program, and said, "I am honored to bestow these awards on such an impressive group of young medical students. They have already demonstrated a commitment to serving all population groups, especially those that have traditionally been underserved. Hopefully, this program will nurture them even more before they start practicing in Southern California."
Kaiser Permanente continues Dr. Goldsmith's instrumental efforts in developing culturally responsive care by maintaining initiatives that ensure doctors are prepared to meet the clinical, cultural, and linguistic needs of patients, and that ensure physicians are aware of the varying epidemiologic incidence of disease among different racial, ethnic, and cultural groups. This year's awardees have demonstrated a commitment to diversity through community service, clinical volunteering, or research.
The mentoring scholarship recipients are a diverse group. Nearly all have roots in Southern California and most are attending local medical schools.
For example, one recipient is Jose Luis Ocampo. Jose is a student in the Drew/UCLA Medical Education Program, where he is a mentorship coordinator for the Latino Medical Student Association. Jose has served as planning coordinator for both the Lennox Health Fair and the Harbor-UCLA Summer Urban Fellowship Health Fair. At the Harbor-UCLA fair, he conducted research in community needs assessment and learned how to implement and evaluate programs that empower medically underserved communities.
Jose said he has a "desire to not only address many of the health issues and medical conditions that disproportionately affect minorities and the poor, but also a desire to advance the science and practice of medicine," a sentiment that is shared by his fellow mentoring scholarship recipients.
Attached is a sheet that gives brief profiles of the 12 Kaiser Permanente Oliver Goldsmith, MD, Scholarship program awardees.
Kaiser Permanente is one of the nation's leading integrated health plans. Founded in 1945, it is a nonprofit, group practice prepayment program with Southern California headquarters in Pasadena, California. Kaiser Permanente serves the health care needs of 3.3 million members in Southern California. Today it encompasses the nonprofit Kaiser Foundation Health Plan, Inc., Kaiser Foundation Hospitals and their subsidiaries, and the for-profit Southern California Permanente Medical Group. Kaiser Permanente's Southern California Region includes more than 55,800 technical, administrative and clerical employees and caregivers, and more than 6,400 physicians representing all specialties. More information about Kaiser Permanente can be found at www.kaiserpermanente.org.
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OLIVER GOLDSMITH, MD, SCHOLARSHIP BRIEF PROFILES |
OF THE 12 AWARDEES (listed alphabetically) |
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Ms. Negin Agange |
| UC Irvine School of Medicine |
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| A student at the University of California, Irvine School of Medicine, Negin Agange is coordinator and founding leader of a student-run free clinic project at UCI. She also helped establish a course elective for the medical school aimed at sustaining the clinic volunteer base and the principles behind the community clinic. In addition to her leadership and community work, Negin is a student in the Medical Education for the Latino Community program, a combined-degree program dedicated to providing the highest quality care to the medically underserved. |
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Ms. Paola Case |
| UC Irvine School of Medicine |
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A student at the University of California, Irvine School of Medicine, Paola Case is secretary of the Latino Medical Student Association and a volunteer for the UC Irvine student-run free clinic. She has a long history of community volunteerism and health education, which has been pivotal in shaping her understanding of culturally competent health care. Paola was also a community mentor at a women's clinic, which exposed her to the linguistic barriers encountered by patients. Having emigrated from Mexico, Paola uses her bicultural perspective to support culturally relevant, quality medical care, and hopes to enhance her linguistic and clinical skills while training with the Southern California population. |
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Mr. David Chao |
| Michigan State University College of Human Medicine |
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| David Chao is a student at Michigan State University, College of Human Medicine. He is the National Hepatitis B Director for the Asian Pacific American Medical Student Association (APAMSA), where he works to improve Hepatitis B awareness and research, and to encourage chapters to reach out to recent immigrant and refugee populations. David is also APAMSA's chapter president for his medical school, where he focuses on recruitment, diversity education, fundraising, and community-building. He is active on several community initiatives, including serving as a medical student volunteer at Friendship Clinic, where he helps provide basic health care services for low income individuals and families. |
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Mr. Edward Seung Lee |
| UCLA School of Medicine |
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| Edward Seung Lee is a student at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA. He is active in learning about community development in different cultures and settings: his pursuit has taken him around the world--from rural Dominican Republic to urban San Jose--working with Latino farmers and Vietnamese immigrants. Edward is a founding Board member and currently chairman of the Board of Directors of the Los Angeles Mission Community Clinic, which gives him an opportunity to use what he's gained from his unique experiences and to bring about positive health care changes for the underserved and disadvantaged. |
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Mr. Jose Luis Ocampo |
| Drew/UCLA Medical Education Program |
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| Jose Luis Ocampo is a student in the Drew/UCLA Medical Education Program, where he is a mentorship coordinator for the Latino Medical Student Association. Jose has served as planning coordinator for both the Lennox Health Fair and the Harbor-UCLA Summer Urban Fellowship Health Fair; at the latter fair, he conducted research in community needs assessment and learned how to implement and evaluate programs that empower medically underserved communities. Jose is co-president of the Family Medicine Interest Group and the Pediatrics Interest Group, where he organizes a lecture series on topics such as covering the uninsured. As a UCLA Mobile Clinic Volunteer, Jose continues to hone his clinical skills in culturally-sensitive medicine. |
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Mr. Chul-Kyun Park |
| UC Davis School of Medicine |
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| Chul-Kyun Park is pursuing his medical degree at the University of California at Davis Medical School. He is co-director of the Paul Hom Asian Clinic, a free student-run clinic where he organizes preceptors, medical students, and patient advocates to serve the underserved population in Sacramento County. Since 2005, he has been a Catholic Medical Volunteer, where he helps with the annual health fair, educates people about diabetes, hypertension, and hyperlipidemia, administers flu shots, and performs Dexa-scans for bone density. An immigrant, Chul-Kyun's commitment to caring for the underserved extends to other countries as well. He is scheduled to serve a small community in Nicaragua during his fourth year of medical school. |
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Mr. Ricardo Salas |
| Drew/UCLA Medical Education Program |
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| Ricardo Salas is a student of the Drew/UCLA Medical Education Program. He is a former class president for the UCLA School of Medicine and is currently a medical student representative of the Latino Medical Student Association. Ricardo, who also has a Master of Public Health degree, comes from a family of farm workers. He was an outreach advocate for the San Diego County Cancer Navigator, where he was responsible for advocating the treatment of individuals living with cancer. Many of these individuals were undocumented, and their cases required Ricardo to collaborate with various health care agencies, organizations, and hospitals to help get these individuals proper access to health care. |
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Mr. Luis Salazar |
| USC Keck School of Medicine |
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| Luis Salazar is a student at USC's Keck School of Medicine. He has served in numerous roles for the Latino Medical Student Association, including regional conference coordinator and co-president. He is currently one of only five medical students serving on the Keck School of Medicine Admissions Committee, where he is an advocate for underrepresented minority students. In the community, Luis has taught and mentored students of all ages, promoting science and the medical field for underrepresented groups. |
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Ms. Mariamawit Tamerat |
| USC Keck School of Medicine |
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| Mariamawit Tamerat is a student at USC's Keck School of Medicine. She is co-president of the Student National Medical Association Keck School of Medicine Chapter, where she organizes programs to educate students of color about the medical profession and raise awareness about health issues in underserved communities. Once a month, Mariamawit volunteers for the Tom Bradley Mini Medical School, where she facilitates discussions with fourth grade students about medical topics, such as nutrition and diabetes. Globally, she has worked as a medical volunteer in Ethiopia for Hiwot HIV/AIDS Prevention, where she designed a format for assessing the health of at-risk youth in Ethiopia and taught health education classes. |
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Mr. Christopher Tang |
| UCLA School of Medicine |
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| A student at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA, Christopher Tang is the former national vice president of the Asian Pacific American Medical Student Association (APAMSA). In that role, he worked on national media campaigns that helped build public awareness of Asian Americans' prevalence for diseases such as tuberculosis and Hepatitis B. Christopher also has established a long history of organizing health fairs, mentoring undergraduate minority students, and helping to start a school cultural diversity policy. Internationally, Christopher has traveled to Mexico on medical missions to provide care in poor regions. |
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Mr. Andres Turner |
| University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine |
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| Andres Turner is a student at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, where he is a peer advisor for medical students. He has held several leadership roles, including serving as student co-coordinator for Pittsburgh's only Spanish-speaking free clinic, where he designed and led the first interpreter training and screening program to improve patient safety and quality interpreting services. Andres also founded the "shadowing program" for future volunteer Spanish interpreters at the clinic. His commitment to eradicating health disparities and working with the underserved is also evidenced through his service as a volunteer Spanish medical interpreter in the U.S. and abroad. |
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Mr. Jesus Ulloa |
| UC Irvine School of Medicine |
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| A student at the University of California, Irvine School of Medicine, Jesus Ulloa is in the Medical Education for the Latino Community program, a combined-degree program dedicated to providing the highest quality care to the medically underserved. Jesus has worked to strengthen health awareness in disadvantaged communities by serving as a heath promoter, both through Latino Health Access in Santa Ana and with the "Support Team for Health and Community Education" in the Mexican State of Chiapas. In these programs, he recruited and trained people to be health advocates for their communities. Along with classmates, Jesus presented his experiences to the UC Irvine School of Medicine, inspiring fellow classmates to advocate for underserved communities. |
