2013 Diversity Awards Honors Efforts to Build Inclusive Campus

UC San Francisco is kicking off Diversity Month by announcing this year’s honorees for the Chancellor Diversity Awards, which recognizes faculty members, staff and postdocs/students/trainees who are making the health sciences university a more inclusive place.

The awards ceremony, to be held on Wednesday, Oct. 16, will be the first time the University has honored all those working toward diversity in one celebration ceremony. The honorees include:

• Advancement of Women: Elizabeth Ozer, PhD, and Cynthia Lynch Leathers;
• Disability Service: Clarissa Kripke, MD;
• GLBT Leadership: Stephen M. Rosenthal, MD, Larry Lariosa, MA, MFT, and Maher Abdel-Sattar; and
• Martin Luther King Jr. Award for Diversity: Robert M. Rodriguez, MD, Eula Ramroop, MsHA and Tacara Soones, MD.

The Chancellor Diversity Awards will be broadcast in a live webcast beginning at 12 p.m. on Oct. 16. The event highlights a series of fun and informative events around campus throughout the month of October, starting with UCSF’s National Diversity Day Celebration on Monday, Oct. 4. 

Beyond just celebrating the many different cultures and perspectives at UCSF, Diversity Month events aim to bring people together under the theme of “Building Community at UCSF.”

“Hosting a combined celebration during Diversity Month truly speaks to building community at UCSF,” Renee Navarro, MD, PharmD, vice chancellor for Diversity and Outreach whose office is sponsoring many of the events. “We are thrilled to host this inaugural joint ceremony and look forward to celebrating the wonderful achievements of this year’s stellar list of awardees.”

Advancement of Women

Elizabeth Ozer, a professor of pediatrics and director of research and evaluation for the UCSF Office of Diversity and Outreach at UCSF, is a psychologist whose research has focused primarily on the health of adolescents, young adults and women.

Ozer currently serves as the faculty co-chair of the UCSF Committee on the Status of Women; as a member of the Campus Council on Climate, Culture and Inclusion; and as a member of the Campus Council on Faculty Life. Beyond the campus, she also is the UCSF faculty representative on the UC Committee on the Status of Women.

“My involvement with UCSF and the rest of the UC system on issues related to advancing women on our campus has been an extremely rewarding aspect of my career at UCSF,” Ozer says. “Through this work, I have benefited from working with exceptionally effective faculty, staff, students, post-docs and trainees, receiving support in these efforts from the UCSF leadership, and becoming a much more connected member of the UCSF community.”

Cynthia Lynch Leathers, assistant vice provost of Academic Affairs, is responsible for overall management of academic personnel activities for the campus as well as representing the campus on UC system-wide committees. She also coordinates activities for the Campus Council on Faculty Life in response to the UCSF Faculty Climate Surveys, with initiatives that include faculty welcoming, leadership, mentoring and development. Mentorship has played a key role in Leathers’ career, and she’s given back by co-chairing the Academic Business Officers’ Group’s mentorship program and informally mentoring many colleagues at UCSF and on other UC campuses.

“This award is really a tribute to the role models and mentors who have encouraged my development and advancement at UCSF,” Leathers says. “It is an honor to be recognized for contributing to the advancement of women because it means that I have been able to follow in my mentors’ footsteps.”

Disability Service

Clarissa Kripke is a family physician and director of the UCSF Office of Developmental Primary Care. The office’s mission supports a grassroots initiative called the CART collaborative, which is dedicated to building the capacity of the health care system to serve adults with developmental disabilities through clinical service, advocacy, research and training. She is past chair of the UCSF Committee on Disability Issues. Working to enhance disability access also is a personal mission for Kripke, who has an autistic son.

“I am deeply honored to be a part of UCSF’s effort to include people with disabilities in everything we do,” Kripke says. “At UCSF, we understand that diversity is critical to our mission and success.”

GLBT Leadership

Stephen M. Rosenthal, a pediatric endocrinologist, led an effort to create the Child and Adolescent Gender Center at the UCSF Benioff Children’s Hospital and currently serves as its medical director. The center, a collaboration between UCSF and community organizations, brings together experts from many disciplines to provide comprehensive medical and mental health care, as well as education, advocacy and legal services for gender non-conforming/transgender youth and adolescents. Rosenthal is also actively developing a research program focused on optimizing care for transgender youth and adolescents.  

“It has been a dream to see the Child and Adolescent Gender Center become a reality,” Rosenthal says. “I am deeply touched and inspired by the courage of our patients who want nothing more than to be themselves, and by their parents and other family and community members who support them.”

Larry Lariosa, director of the LGBT Resource Center and diversity manager for the UCSF Office of Diversity and Outreach, has spent his career focusing on mental health, community organizing, and advocacy for the underserved.

Before coming to UCSF, he worked at a number of LGBT nonprofit organizations as a clinician and consultant, including New Leaf Services for Our Community, Lavender Youth Recreation & Information Center and the San Francisco Unified School District. At UCSF, Lariosa has been awarded for work in his previous position at UCSF Student Health, where he developed a variety of outreach programs addressing the unique needs of culturally marginalized groups, particularly LGBT students.

"I am truly honored to accept this award and represent LGBT staff here at UCSF,” Lariosa says. “This award is particularly meaningful, as it acknowledges both my work as a clinician and the importance of mental health services to our diverse LGBT community."

Maher Abdel-Sattar, a fourth-year student in the School of Pharmacy, immigrated to the U.S. from Lebanon in 2003 and is the first in his family to attend college.

Whether through is leadership on the LGBTQ Student Association, his mentorship of underclassmen, or his involvement with the LGBT Resource Center, he is a vital part of the UCSF LGBT community. Within the pharmacy school, Maher has been a champion of LGBT inclusion at UCSF and advocated for the dean to include LGBT health topics in the school’s curriculum.

“As a proud member of the UCSF family, I consider myself very privileged to be at a university that is recognized as a true leader in the advancement of LGBT health care nationwide,” Abdel-Sattar says. “I have enjoyed playing my part in this movement, and I want to acknowledge the many other students with whom I would like to share this wonderful achievement.”

Martin Luther King, Jr. Award for Diversity

Robert M. Rodriguez, a professor and residency research director for the Department of Emergency Medicine, has served as a mentor for more than 60 resident physicians, medical students and undergraduates. Introducing them to clinical research and other vital aspects of academic medicine, he has sought to advance the careers of underrepresented groups at all levels of medical training. His research emphases include the development of trauma decision instruments and exploration of health access issues for immigrants, homeless persons and other disenfranchised populations.

“With a goal of improving diversity at UCSF and elsewhere, I look forward to continuing efforts toward the establishment of a chain of mentoring, linking faculty, resident physicians, medical students and undergraduates,” Rodriguez says.

Eula Ramroop, former director of the UCSF Medical Center’s Clinical Services Outreach Development, served as chair of the staff subcommittee of the UCSF Committee on Diversity beginning in October 2011. Under her leadership, the committee has successfully collaborated in diversity efforts in workforce planning through mentoring, internships and pipeline preparation. She’s also served on the UCSF Committee on the Status of Women, where she developed a personal financial workshop for trainees and junior faculty.  She recently left UCSF to become a regional associate vice president for Franciscan Health Services in Tacoma, Wash.

“This nomination to me is my duty to pay it forward, as generations before me have done the heavy lifting,” Ramroop says. “Dr. King and others opened doors for us; heavy doors that required them to endure physical, mental and emotional injustice.  Today I am grateful for the opportunity to use my free time to return the favor in my small way.”

Tacara Soones, a clinical fellow in the Division of Geriatrics, completed her internal medicine residency at UCSF, where she was also a chief resident in ambulatory medicine. Her work is motivated by a strong commitment to decreasing health disparities in the care of older adults, specifically through improving interdisciplinary communication and training a diverse physician workforce.

“I came to UCSF because of its reputation for supporting students and house staff of diverse backgrounds,” Soones says. “That it has exceeded my expectations is a testament to the energy and participation of the entire UCSF community.”