Members of the campus community and the public are welcome to celebrate diversity in its many forms during a series of free events that begin at UCSF on October 8.

Chancellor Emeritus Philip Lee, MD, one of the original champions of diversity at UCSF, will present the keynote lecture titled “Diversity at UCSF: Revitalizing Efforts to Increase Diversity in a Changing Context,” on Thursday, Oct. 22 at noon in Health Sciences West, room 300, on the Parnassus campus. Lee, emeritus professor of social medicine, will share lessons learned from a seven-year study of diversity at UCSF and Stanford medical schools over the period from the 1960s through the early 2000s. He will discuss the new opportunities and challenges that UCSF faces in increasing diversity in the global health context and how diversity in the physician workforce is linked to health care reform in the US.

Every year, UCSF hosts informational and cultural events to showcase its commitment to nurturing diversity, one of seven strategic directions outlined in the UCSF Strategic Plan, a blueprint that is guiding the University over the next decade. That plan – the product of extensive input from throughout the campus community and community partners—specifically calls on UCSF to “continue to improve diversity of faculty, staff, students and trainees to effectively establish a culture of diversity on the UCSF campus.”

UCSF Chancellor Sue Desmond-Hellmann, MD, MPH, says she is committed to “furthering this vision to ensure that UCSF continues to excel at the highest levels.”

“UCSF has made important strides in diversifying the campus community,” she said. “Our successes bear out the belief that a diversity of perspectives and practices drives ingenuity, creativity and productivity in a world of increasing globalization. Under my leadership, UCSF will build upon its successes and strive to do even better.” Read her entire message on the Diversity website.

Desmond-Hellmann will recognize some of those successes at the upcoming diversity luncheon, where managers and supervisors will be honored for best practices to improve diversity on campus. This annual event is by invitation only, but all other events listed below are free and open to the campus community.

Diversity Celebration Events

Thursday, October 8

Diversity Celebration Concert at Mission Bay: The Chancellor’s Concert Series presents the Del Sol String Quartet, noon, Genentech Hall Atrium, UCSF Mission Bay, 600 16th St. The Del Sol String Quartet, a two-time national winner of the Chamber Music America/ASCAP First Place Award for Adventurous Programming, comes to UCSF Mission Bay to perform a diverse selection of pieces from composers Gabriela Ortiz, Pawel Szymanski and Paul Yeon Lee. Call 415/476-2675 for more information.

Film Screenings: The Diversity Celebration Planning Committee sponsors a showing of “Weirded Out and Blown Away” and “La Americana,” 6 p.m., Cole Hall, 513 Parnassus Ave. Free popcorn while supplies last. “Weirded Out and Blown Away” examines the general public’s attitudes and perceptions toward disabled persons. This screening is co-sponsored by the Chancellor’s Advisory Committee on Disability. “La Americana” is an award-winning documentary that deals with immigration amnesty. For more information, call 415/476-2675.

Tuesday, October 20

Film Screening: Campus Life Services Arts & Events presents “Medicine for Melancholy,” a film depicting a couple’s relationship beginning with plenty of awkward silences and building to conversations about race, class and relationships, Genentech Hall Auditorium, UCSF Mission Bay, 600 16th St. This screening is co-sponsored by the Graduate Division. 6:00p.m.

Dance Performance: AXIS Dance Company, a world-acclaimed ensemble featuring innovative performers with and without disabilities, performs, noon to 1 p.m., Garden Room, second floor, Laurel Heights, 3333 California St. This performance will be simulcast to the Parnassus campus, room C 701.
Sponsored by the Diversity Celebration Committee and Campus Life Services Arts & Events, this event is funded by the Orbit Series. A brief question-and-answer session with the dancers will follow their performance. For more information, call 476-2675 or visit the AXIS Dance Company website.

Wednesday, October 21

Visiting Scholar Lectureship: UCSF presents the Fifth Annual Dr. Evelyn Lee Visiting Scholar Lectureship in Cultural Competence and Diversity featuring Gail E. Wyatt, PhD, who will deliver a talk titled “The Challenges of Cultural Competence, the Relevance of Cultural Congruence and the Urgency of Developing HIV/AIDS Interventions for Ethnically Diverse People,” 1 to 2 p.m., Langley Porter Psychiatric Institute, auditorium room LP 190, 401 Parnassus Ave.

Wyatt is a professor of psychiatry and biobehavioral science, UCLA Semel Institute for Neuroscience and Human Behavior; director of the UCLA Sexual Health Program, director of the Center for Culture, Trauma and Mental Health Disparities and associate director, UCLA AIDS Institute. This lecture is sponsored by the UCSF Department of Psychiatry Diversity Committee. For more information on this event call 415/476-7755 or email.

Lecture on Cognitive Neuroenhancers: Margaret Talbot, staff writer of the New Yorker, presents the Pat Patterson Memorial Lecture titled “Designer Brains,” noon to 1 p.m., Health Sciences West, room 300, 513 Parnassus Ave. This lecture will be simulcast to UCSF Mission Bay, room S 271. 

Talbot will discuss the popular use and risks of cognitive neuroenhancers. Her insights can spur examination of the UCSF culture and how the University can improve the environment to support students from different backgrounds, with different learning styles and goals. Talbot published the popular New Yorker article “Brain Gain” in April 2009. 

Thursday, October 22

Diversity Celebration Keynote Lecture: Chancellor Emeritus Philip R. Lee, MD, one of the original champions of diversity at UCSF, will present “Diversity at UCSF: Revitalizing Efforts to Increase Diversity in a Changing Context,” noon, Health Sciences West, room 300, 513 Parnassus Ave. Lee will discuss lessons learned from a seven-year study of diversity at UCSF and Stanford medical schools over the period from the 1960s through the early 2000s.

Lee was UCSF Chancellor from 1969 to 1972. He is emeritus professor of social medicine in the UCSF School of Medicine and founder and director emeritus of the Philip R. Lee Institute for Health Policy Studies within the School of Medicine.  This lecture is co-sponsored by UCSF Faculty Retirees.

The study, which focuses on policies developed by UCSF and Stanford to increase racial and ethnic diversity among faculty, staff, students and trainees, also addresses changes in the policy context, over this nearly 50-year period, influencing diversity at the federal level of government, as well as within the State of California, the University of California and Stanford University.

Friday, October 23

LGBT Health Research Symposium: UCSF presents its first symposium on lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) health research, 1:30 to 3 p.m., Laurel Heights Auditorium, 3333 California St. This symposium will spotlight key LGBT health risks and disparities, LGBT-focused research at UCSF and challenges related to LGBT health research, including funding limitations and the inability of LGBT people to identify themselves as such in most health surveys.

Speakers will include Joanne Keatley, director, UCSF Center of Excellence in Transgender Health; Susan Kegeles, co-director, UCSF Center for AIDS Prevention Studies; Shane Snowdon, director, UCSF LGBT Resource Center; and Diane Sabin and Patty Robertson, executive director and founding co-director, UCSF Lesbian Health & Research Center.

Health Disparities Research Symposium: UCSF presents the Third Annual Health Disparities Research Symposium with keynote speaker Denise V. Rodgers, MD, 2009 Robert H. Crede Visiting Professor in Primary Care. The symposium begins with sign-ins at 8 a.m. and continues through 1 p.m., Laurel Heights Auditorium, 3333 California St.

Rodgers, executive vice president of Academic and Clinical Affairs at the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey, is widely recognized as an expert in health care disparities in health care delivery. She has published and lectured extensively about excess mortality in minorities, racism in medicine, cultural competency and medical education in settings that care for underserved populations.

This symposium will feature the work of UCSF researchers who have national and international reputations in disparities research. This symposium will provide a forum for them to showcase the breadth and depth of their work to their colleagues. A video of last year’s health disparities symposium is featured on the Diversity website.

The full schedule of the health disparities research symposium is as follows:

• 8 to 8:30 a.m. Sign-in Poster Viewing
• 8:30 to 9:30 a.m. Selected Presentations
• 9:45 to 10:45 a.m. Selected Presentations
• 10:45 to 11:30 a.m. Poster Viewing
• 11:30 to 11:35 a.m. Remarks by Eliseo Perez-Stable
• 11:35 a.m. to 1 p.m. Keynote speech by Denise Rodgers and discussion.  A box lunch will be available after Rodgers’ presentation. An RSVP in advance is required to attend. Read more here.

Monday, October 26

 

Film Screening: The San Francisco General Hospital (SFGH) Dean’s Office and the Diversity Celebration Committee present “Weirded Out and Blown Away,” 12:15 to 2 p.m., Carr Auditorium, SFGH.  This film examines the general public’s attitudes and perceptions toward the disabled persons. For more information, call 415/476-2675.

Diversity “Best Practices” Awards Luncheon: UCSF Chancellor Sue Desmond-Hellmann will recognize those units that will receive an award for “best practices” planning for or achieving faculty and staff diversity. This event is by invitation only. Millberry Union Gymnasium, 505 Parnassus Ave. Contact Anthea Lim at 415/476-8724 for more information.

Wednesday, October 28

2009 Annual Book Project: UCSF presents Stanton A. Glantz, PhD, a UCSF professor of medicine and leading tobacco control scholar and advocate of nonsmoker’s rights for more than 25 years. Glantz, author of “Tobacco Wars” and “The Cigarette Papers,” will talk about his life’s work, noon to 1 p.m., Health Sciences West, room 301, 513 Parnassus Ave. A book signing will follow his presentation. The campus bookstore will have books available for purchase prior to and at the presentation.

Glantz’s story is fascinating. In May 1994, a box containing 4,000 pages of internal tobacco industry documents arrived at his office at UCSF. The anonymous source of these “cigarette papers” was identified only as “Mr. Butts.” These documents provide a shocking inside account of the activities of one tobacco company, Brown & Williamson, over more than 30 years. Quoting extensively from the documents themselves and analyzing what they reveal, “The Cigarette Papers” shows what the tobacco companies have known and galvanizes us to take action.

“Tobacco War” charts the dramatic and complex history of tobacco politics in California over the past quarter century. Beginning with the activities of a small band of activists who, in the 1970s, put forward the radical notion that people should not have to breathe second-hand tobacco smoke, Glantz and Edith Balbach follow the movement through the 1980s, when activists created hundreds of city and county ordinances by working through their local officials, to the present—when tobacco is a highly visible issue in American politics and smoke-free restaurants and bars are a reality throughout the state. The authors show how these accomplishments rest on the groundwork laid over the past two decades by tobacco control activists who have worked across the nation to change how people view the tobacco industry and its behavior.

Visiting Professor Lecture: UCSF welcomes Alejandro Sánchez Alvarado, PhD, a Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) investigator and a professor of neurobiology and anatomy at the University of Utah, who will share his experiences as a scientist, with the speech, “The Right System for the Right Job: Stem Cells and the Developmental
Plasticity of Planarians,” 10 a.m., Genentech Hall Auditorium, UCSF Mission Bay, 600 16th St. Sánchez Alvarado, a native of Venezuela, came to the US with limited English skills to study molecular biology and chemistry at Vanderbilt University. He earned his PhD in pharmacology and cell biophysics at the University of Cincinnati’s College of Medicine and became an HHMI investigator in 2005. He has established a freshwater flatworm as a powerful new model system to study the molecular mechanics of regeneration. Sánchez Alvarado’s lab has developed the molecular tools needed to reveal how regeneration works in this flatworm. This lecture is co-sponsored by the Minority Graduate Student Group and the Graduate Division. 

Diversity Celebration Planning Committee

These activities are presented by the UCSF Diversity Celebration Planning Committee, which includes the following chairs and members who represent a cross-section of campus groups, offices and units:

• Victor I. Fujimoto, chair, Chancellor’s Advisory Committee on Diversity
• Martie Santos, chair, Chancellor’s Advisory Committee on Diversity
• Michael B. Adams, chair, Office of Affirmative Action, Equal Opportunity & Diversity
• Barbara Gerbert and Eliseo Perez-Stable, Chancellor’s Advisory Committee on Diversity
• Rene Salazar, Chancellor’s Advisory Committee on Diversity
• Sandra Avila and Anthea Lim, Office of Affirmative Action, Equal Opportunity & Diversity
• Shane Snowdon and Stacy Jackson, Chancellor’s Advisory Committee on Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, Transgender Issues
• Linda Centore, Chancellor’s Advisory Committee on Disability Issues
• Robert Frank, Chancellor’s Advisory Committee on Child Care
• Zina Mirsky, Chancellor’s Advisory Committee on Academic Diversity
• Misty Loetterle, Office of Academic Diversity
• Eric Koenig, Office of Student Life
• Mario Carmona, Campus Life Services
• Mijiza Sanchez, Center for Gender Equity
• Jennifer Cristobal, Human Resources
• Shilpa Patel, Academic Senate
• Robin McCartney, Chancellor’s Office
• Julia Martinez, Graduate Division
• Eunice Woo, School of Medicine Dean’s Office at SFGH
• Glenna Dowling, School of Nursing Diversity Action Committee
• Karen Newhouse, diversity celebration advisor/coordinator, Office of Affirmative Action, Equal Opportunity & Diversity