Stay ConnectedWe are Woke WOC Docs, a podcast about the lives of womxn of color in medicine/health justice, including their unique experiences, viewpoints, and struggles in education, research, and practice. We want to reveal the insights we as womxn of color uniquely have on how medicine can transform to end health injustices and be a better institution of health, well-being, and healing.
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It's been a minute since we published an episode! In this episode, we have an intimate conversation with Bernie about her decision to not go to residency after medical school to lead the Freedom Community Clinic. Facilitated by Nicole and questions from the audience, Bernie talks more about her journey of coming to that decision while in medical school, her thoughts on the limitations of the medical system and changing from within, and why we need to imagine and create new systems like the Freedom Community Clinic to provide the healing and care that our communities deserve. 4:00 An overview of Bernie's journey to not go to residency and lead Freedom Community Clinic in Oakland 20:00 On the emotional journey and hardship of deciding to not go to residency 24:00 On Bernie's thoughts and pushback on being our "ancestors' wildest dreams" 26:30 On what Bernie will use her MD for/how medical school was valuable for her life journey 28:50 On why we deserve to lead and create our own systems when the majority of hospital CEOs don't even have MDs lol 29:50 On why Bernie cannot be part of DEI recruitment efforts for medical school 35:00 Conversation between Nicole and Bernie on what is healing; influential books, people, habits; and why institutions don't wanna see you rested and healed 45:30 On building community relationships and Freedom Community Clinic while in medical school 50:20 On patient relationships at Freedom Community Clinic vs. the hospital 51:20 How leading Freedom Community Clinic has changed Bernie's perception of healing and community 53:40 Nicole and Bernie's advice on pursuing creativity while in medicine 56:30 Bernie's future plans and dreams 1:00:32 Bernie's thoughts on self-mentorship 1:05:00 Q&A on mentors outside of medicine, why we cannot let these institutions silence us, and tapping into our aliveness Recorded on Sept 30, 2021
2020 was a hot mess. Phew. Y'all didn't need us to say it. Together, we talk more together about the lessons we learned from our third year of medical school/research year and our wellness strategies in the midst of this crazy year while working in the hospital daily and doing research. We delve deeper into what surprised us about the field of medicine, how we've been able to take care of patients through drawing on our unique life experiences/backgrounds/strengths, and how we've maintained a sense of groundedness and community in the midst of so much individual and collective trauma. Lots to look forward to in 2021 and we're so thankful to y'all for being on this journey with us! Stay woke y'all.
We are so excited to interview beloved community healer and warrior Chanel Durley, founder of 33rd and RiSING, a wellness space that provides healing for Black, Indigenous, and POC communities in the Bay Area and beyond. In this episode, we talk about Chanel’s experiences with Crohn’s in which she experienced racism and deep injustice and inequity in multiple encounters and 11 hospitalizations in the medical system. We also converse more about the toxicity of grind mentality and its roots in trauma and how her experiences as an intuitive healer came into her founding of 33rd & RiSING. Takeaways we love: -Who told us to stop believing in the wisdom of our bodies? -Going into doctor’s visits as interviews and seeing yourself as deserving of building your healthcare team. “These are my goals; this is the life I want to live: Are you with me?” -“You don’t validate me. I validate me.” -How are you unwinding? How are you unplugging from the matrix? For more info about Chanel and 33rd & RiSING: https://www.33rising.com/ https://www.instagram.com/33rdandrising/
We are hellaaaaaa hype to talk with Black Organizing Project, the amazing Black member-led community organization working for racial, social, and economic justice through grassroots organizing and community-building in Oakland, California. The Black Organizing Project (BOP) led the victory for Oakland to implement police-free schools in June 2020, a resolution that calls for moving the safety program to the equity/behavioral health departments and investing more money in mental health and special education staff, plus restorative justice programs. Together, we talk about the mission of BOP and why policing in schools significantly affects the emotional, mental, and physical health of Black students. We hear more about their amazing nearly decade long advocacy for police-free schools in Oakland and their recent victories with The People’s Plan, Black Sanctuary Pledge, and the George Floyd Resolution. In addition, we talk more about how their visions for a police-free world is rooted in personal and collective transformation. We celebrate with BOP on dissolving an entire police department in Oakland public schools as an all Black organization! Support them y'all and uplift their work!!! Police do not equal safety and GRASSROOTS ORGANIZING WORKS! Black Organizing Project: http://blackorganizingproject.org/ KQED News “After Abolishing School Police, Oakland Wants to Reimagine Safety in Education”: https://www.kqed.org/news/11826192/after-abolishing-school-police-oakland-wants-to-reimagine-safety-in-education Jasmine Williams is the Development and Communication Manager at Black Organizing Project. She hopes to use her writing to shift the negative narrative of Black people repeated in mainstream media and to ensure that Black people have a platform to uplift their voices and experiences. She is excited about reaffirming and celebrating the beauty of Blackness with BOP through storytelling, community building and organizing. Des Mims is a Mother, Community Activist & Member of Black Organizing Projects Communication team, who has dedicated herself to the work of abolishing school police to disrupt the school to prison pipeline and provide students and community with transformative justice.
For this episode, we are hella excited to interview our beautiful friends Noor Chadha and Aminta Kouyate, medical and graduate students at the UC Berkeley-UCSF Joint Medical Program and founding team members of the Institute for Healing and Justice in Medicine. Together, we talk more with Noor and Aminta about their work demanding and advocating for an anti-racist medicine through their research and student activist efforts. We talk with Noor and Bernie about their recent public launch of their inaugural "Toward the Abolition of Biological Race in Medicine: Transforming Clinical Education, Research, and Practice" (co-authored by Noor, Bernie, Maddy Kane, and Brenly Rowland). We also talk with Aminta about leading a rally and protest through the White Coats 4 Black Lives (WC4BL) Berkeley chapter on demanding that racism be recognized as a public health issue. In addition, we learn more about their work being part of the founding team of the Institute for Healing and Justice in Medicine and their philosophy on being a student/community activist alongside the many responsibilities that come with being a student and human! Read the report at the Institute for Healing and Justice in Medicine website: www.instituteforhealingandjustice.org WC4BL Berkeley on Instagram: @wc4bl_berkeley Noor Chadha is a 2nd year med student at the UC Berkeley-UCSF Joint Medical Program who strives to integrate compassion, justice, and joy throughout her life and medical career. She is a co-author of Toward the Abolition of Biological Race in Medicine: Transforming Clinical Education, Research, and Practice. Her master's work focuses on youth civic engagement and health. Noor identifies as Sikh, as Punjabi American, as a daughter of Indian immigrants, as a sister, and as a dancer - she performed competitive Bhangra for several years, and who knows, maybe you'll see her make a comeback soon! Aminta Kouyate is a proud Bay native. Born in Oakland, she is dedicated to eradicating the systems of oppression that create the health disparities for marginalized communities. As a medical student in the UC Berkeley-UCSF Joint Medical program, her research is focused on building an anti-racist medical education curriculum for healthcare providers. She is a reader, a writer, a kitchen magic maker, and a deep believer in laughter and joy. Aminta is dedicated to working towards a fundamental change in the way we practice medicine. She envisions leaving behind a system that separates healing from health and cultivating a new practice learning from community wisdom to center healing, happiness, rest, and justice for all people. She is one of the founding members of the White Coats for Black Lives Chapter at UC Berkeley, a Freedom School for Intersectional Medicine and Health Justice collaborator, a student of the Program in Medical Education for the Urban Underserved (PRIME-US), and most importantly she is a daughter, a sister, a friend, and a co-conspirator to many beloved people.
Today, we have the pleasure of interviewing the organizing team of the Freedom Community Clinic. Founded in 2019, the Freedom Community Clinic provides community-centered, whole-person healing combining the strengths of Western medicine and ancestral and indigenous healing to the Bay Area. All services are for free and sliding scale. We are so excited to talk hear more about the origins of the Freedom Community Clinic and how Bernie, Tiffany, Sabrina, Krista, and Alexis have worked together as womxn of color healers to combine their professional/personal strengths, healing journeys, and work to bring community-centered, whole-person care directly to places and spaces where communities gather. Through this conversation, we will learn about how Western medicine must integrate its strengths with the wisdom of acupuncture, health education, Reiki, yoga, and herbal medicine. We are especially interested in hearing more about how their healing modalities provide a safe space for communities alongside the medical community. For more about the Freedom Community Clinic, visit their website at: freedomcommunityclinic.org.
In this episode, we have the pleasure of interviewing Dr. Vibha Gupta, an emergency medicine doc at Kaiser Oakland and Richmond, and the founder of the No Immigrants No spice non profit. Vibha is second-generation daughter of Indian immigrants, born, bred and raised in the Midwest, and is now firmly transplanted in the Bay Area. As an emergency room doctor by day, Vibha is inspired by the humanity she sees on a daily basis. Together, we talk about Vibha’s amazing non-profit No Immigrants No Spice (NINS), whose mission is to flip the narrative on immigration and also support pro immigrant NGOs through merch, storytelling, and their inaugural event BBQs without Borders. She started NINS as a way to positively channel her frustration and create something that combines her passion for food, culture and people. Her hope is that NINS can be something that is fun, transcendent, educational and above all helpful. More about NINS: https://noimmigrantsnospice.org/ https://www.sfchronicle.com/restaurants/article/Let-s-look-at-immigrants-contributions-to-14465127.php
We are wishing everyone lots of love during this time. If you're in the Bay Area, the Freedom Community Clinic created a community mass resource sheet with up-to-date health information on COVID-19 at tinyurl.com/bayareacovid19help. We have the enormous privilege and excitement to talk with Dr. Alicia Fernández, a professor of Medicine, general internist at San Francisco General Hospital and the Director of UCSF Latinx Center for Excellence. In addition, Alicia does research on increasing language concordance between patients and physicians to improve patient care and health outcomes among many other topics. In this episode, we talk with Alicia more about her journey into and through medicine, including her immigration journey from Argentina to the United States at age 15, transitioning from political activism to health justice in the heart of the HIV/AIDS epidemic, to where she is now-- a clinician, professor, mentor, and advocate for underrepresented and marginalized communities. All three of us have been incredibly grateful to Alicia for creating amazing programs for minority students here at UCSF (PROF-PATH and ALAS) that help us navigate academic medicine in ways that expand knowledge and mentorship on how to succeed and more fully show up as our true, authentic selves. Bio: Alicia Fernández, MD is a Professor of Medicine at UCSF in the Division of General Internal Medicine at Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital and Trauma Center. Dr. Fernández has expertise in health and health care disparities, with a strong focus on diabetes, Latinx health, immigrant health, and language barriers. In addition to being the Director of the LCOE, she is also the co-director of two LCOE programs: FUEGO and PROF-PATH. She also serves as a faculty mentor for the UCSF ALAS program.
Whaddup y’all! Happy 2020. We are excited to launch Season 3 and share more exciting episodes with womxn of color in medicine and health justice work. For this episode, we’re giving a personal update on our lives: what’s been going on with each of us in 2019, gratitude to everyone who came to our live show last September, and goals for ourselves and WWD moving forward in 2020. Think of this episode like The Girls Room type chat you have with your girlfriends 🙂 In this episode, we also talk more about what clerkship year in medical school is and how we are integrating self-care, self-love, and healing in the upcoming year, including our excitements/anxieties/hopes/dreams about medicine! In addition, Bernie and Ivie shares their thoughts beginning a Longitudinal Integrated Clerkship (LIC) program at UCSF and Kaiser SF. LICs are new, more radical, patient-centered methods of clerkship education in comparison to traditional block rotations! We’ll be having more of these reflective episodes each quarter in addition to our podcasts with featured guests. Stay tuned to see how we survive and thrive in clerkship year + what type of doctors/careers we’ll be imagining and refining for ourselves and our communities.
We are so grateful to the 100+ people who attended our live podcast recording at Red Bay Coffee in Oakland on September 27. We're hella excited for our listeners to hear the amazing wisdom and energy of the room when womxn of color healers from Oakland talk about the healing, movement, and social change in the beloved Town. The intro and Bernie's meditation goes until 4:00. This will be our last episode for 2019 as we cook up some amazing new initiatives for 2020! Keep in touch with us on our instagram @wokewocdocs. Thank you to all our listeners for the AMAZING support during our first year in existence! Y'all are real ones! Panelist Bios: Jasmine Stallworth aka: Honey Gold is a singer-songwriter, music producer, poet and ARTivist based in the Bay Area, known for her eclectic and innovative sound that combines experimental elements of hip-hop, R&B, and neo-soul. Her social entrepreneurship Honey Gold Presents is a multifaceted entity that uses events, workshops and art creation to produce holistic healing possibilities for people of the Afrikan diaspora. Her festival Increase the Piece hopes to erase the mental health stigma in Afrikan American communities and empower them to seek healing from within through music creation and therapy. Angela Aguilar is a doctoral student in the Ethnic Studies graduate program and a traditional birth attendant. Her dissertation project is Bay Area community-based and solution-oriented and focuses on ancestral, indigenous, and traditional healing and health/care, embodied methodologies, and radical social movements. She is a core organizing member of the Healing Clinic Collective. Dr. Aisha Mays is a core faculty member at the UC Berkeley-UCSF Joint Medical Program, clinical researcher at the UCSF Bixby Center for Reproductive Health, and founding Medical Director of Dream Youth Clinic in Oakland. Her current research centers on advocacy for girls who are at risk or engaged in sexual exploitation. Leah Kimble-Price is a third generation Oaklander rooted in the traditions of activism and Pan African theory. She earned her Master’s of Science in San Francisco State’s Clinical Psychology program and has been working with marginalized youth populations since 2004. Leah currently leads the anti-trafficking efforts at Catholic Charities of the East Bay including Day Star Mentoring & CSEC Education program and the much anticipated Claire’s House therapeutic living community for child survivors of sex trafficking. Frances Fu is a proud Oakland-native, daughter to Vietnamese refugees, a soul sister & sister friend to many, a healer, a creator, a scholar-activist, a public health practitioner, an aspiring social worker and therapist & a full-time cat mom. Her program and research focus in her MPH centered on mental health, intergenerational trauma in refugee communities and healing.
Join us, Woke WOC Docs, for a live podcast recording and community celebration with womxn of color healers rooted in Oakland! Together, we talk more about healing by and for womxn of color and communities in Oakland and how various healing practices, frameworks, and modalities can work together for community medicine and healing. As Woke WOC Docs has grown bigger with 500+ subscribers across our platforms and nearly 10k+ plays in less than a year since its infancy, this event will launch our third season and podcast tour to different cities across the US, starting in the Bay Area. We will be visiting different cities throughout fall 2019 and 2020 doing live podcast recordings and community gatherings in partnership with HBCUs, institutions, and cities that have a rich history for womxn and communities of color. Oakland-rooted Confirmed Panelists: Aisha Mays, teen doc and founder of Dream Youth Clinic Leah Kimble-Price, founder of Claire's House Frances Fu, activist, creator Angela Aguilar, full-spectrum doula/traditional birthworker and PhD student in Ethnic Studies Honey Gold Jasmine, artist, art therapist Light food and refreshments will be available. Friday, September 27 6:30-8:30pm Red Bay Coffee HQ 3098 E. 10th St. Oakland (near Fruitvale Station BART) RSVP at wokewocdocs.com
For our last episode of our Summer Series, we are talking with Dr. Paula Lum and Dr. Triveni DeFries, both physician activists of the UCSF Primary Care Addiction Medicine Fellowship. In this episode, we talk more about the historical and racial roots of the socially constructed phenomena of “the opioid epidemic”. In addition, we talk about how structural and social determinants have affected historical and current drug epidemics, including the rising methamphetamine epidemic going on now. We most importantly talk about how health professionals must de-stigmatize the culture of shame around drug use both in patient care and within our institutions through our words, actions, and activism. We also talk about how to expand resources in our hospitals and communities in order to address drug epidemics and their associated stigma and shame for people affected. We hope this episode serves as a call to action for many people to address personal and institutional biases about people and communities affected by the rise of current drug epidemics. Most of all, we hope this episode brings compassion and humanity to these very real issues of our communities. Also check out our brotha Max’s podcast “Flip the Script” episodes “Opioids in Black and White” Pt. 1 and 2 for further context on the current opioid epidemic! https://soundcloud.com/yaleuniversity/opioids-in-black-and-white-pt-ii-imani?in=yaleuniversity/sets/flip-the-script Bios: Paula J. Lum, MD MPH is Professor of Clinical Medicine and Program Director of the UCSF Primary Care Addiction Medicine Fellowship. She has been a faculty member in the Division of HIV, Infectious Diseases and Global Medicine at San Francisco General Hospital since 1999. Board certified in internal medicine and addiction medicine, Dr. Lum practices at the place where HIV, addiction, and poverty collide. Her research and clinical activities are grounded in evidence-based, patient-centered care to improve health outcomes and life quality of the urban poor. Her current areas of focus include: (1) HIV and viral hepatitis prevention and treatment in persons who inject drugs, (2) evidence-based interventions in primary care and non-traditional settings for substance use disorders and their complications, and (3) curricular interventions to provide health care professionals with the skills, knowledge, and confidence to offer effective patient-centered care to persons who use drugs. Triveni DeFries, MD, MPH was born and raised in Washington, DC. She studies Human Rights & Latin American Studies as an undergraduate at Columbia. After completing her MPH in Global Health at Columbia University, she moved to San Francisco where she attended UCSF for medical school and internal medicine residency. She worked for the Indian Health Service as a general internist in the Navajo Nation in Shiprock, NM for 2 years. Her professional interests are in transforming and teaching primary care to be trauma-informed and integrate the care of people with substance use disorder. She also spends time working on medical evaluations of people seeking asylum in the US. She enjoys spending time outdoors with daughters!
Hey y'all! Bernie here today with some exciting news for all of our listeners across the United States. As many of you know and have followed, Nicole and I are the founders of the Freedom School for Intersectional Medicine and Health Justice which has become an amazing community and healing space for people involved in medicine, public health, and health justice work. Since our start in January 2018, we’ve engaged over 200 people here in the Bay Area on what it means to bridge theory and community and center the histories, narratives, voices, and experiences of womxn and communities of color in health justice work. Today, we are excited to announce an opportunity: the Freedom School Healing & Health Justice National Fellowship. Through this fellowship, we believe we can most effectively cultivate and learn from leaders who embody our Freedom School philosophy which is that we must transform and heal ourselves in order to transform and heal our communities. Change starts with us. As a fellow, you will engage in fellowship healing circles, mentorship, and a year-long curriculum on health justice and healing centering womxn and communities of color. In addition, each fellow will implement their Vision for Social Change. You’ll also be part of a dope, fun, amazing nationwide community of health justice warriors and healers! If you’re interested in applying, head to our website: www.intersectionalmedicine.org/fellowship. Applications are due September 22. Please feel free to reach out with any questions!
“We cannot be generative if we are afraid.” We are so hype for you to hear and learn from the wisdom and electric energy of Dr. Monica McLemore, Assistant Professor of Family Health Care Nursing at UCSF. Together, we talk about health injustices faced by Black mothers and the amazing work of the Black Mamas Matter Alliance. In addition, we talk about the importance of Reproductive Justice frameworks and the brilliant work that Dr. McLemore has done and continues to imagine with love for the health and well-being of Black mothers. We hope that by the end of this episode, listeners are encouraged to create change within their institutions and communities for Black mothers, children, and families. #ThisCouldAllBeDifferent and it will be. Bio: At the University of California, San Francisco, Dr. Monica McLemore is an assistant professor in the Family Health Care Nursing Department, an affiliated scientist with Advancing New Standards in Reproductive Health, and a member of the Bixby Center for Global Reproductive Health. She maintains clinical practice as a public health and staff nurse at San Francisco General Hospital in the Women’s Options Center. McLemore’s research is geared toward understanding women’s health and wellness across the lifespan. She is an elected member of the governing council for Population Reproductive and Sexual Health section of the American Public Health Association and a recipient of the 2015 teaching award from the American College of Nurse Midwives. She received the 2018 Person of the Year Award from the Abortion Care Network. Her work embraces complex and intersectional problems associated with sexual and reproductive health, including health disparities, stigma, incarceration, unintended pregnancy, and difficulty accessing services.
Spotlight on the U.S. immigration border crisis has significantly increased in large part due to the hateful rhetoric of the Trump administration and global xenophobic sentiments. However, these issues have always existed. Our communities are standing strong in the fight for justice. In this episode, we’re talking with Dr. Eleanor Chung, a pediatrician at UCSF who started the Bridges Clinic, which provides health services for refugees, asylees, and victims of trafficking at San Francisco General Hospital. We talk more about how medicine intersects with the continuing fight for immigrant health and justice, especially with recent media coverage on horrific events occurring at the border. We briefly touch on why it is important to understand the deeply rooted history of the current immigration crisis and why collaborative, interdisciplinary wrap-around care is essential to address the needs of immigrant communities today. We hope this episode serves as an urgent call for justice, service, and love to all communities affected by these ongoing crises. We are fighting alongside you. Additional resources: ACLU "Know Your Rights" graphics and videos (in 10 languages): https://www.aclu.org/issues/immigrants-rights/know-your-rights-discrimination-against-immigrants-and-muslims?redirect=feature/know-your-rights-immigration#immigration Creating sanctuary spaces: toolkits & resources for health providers(Everyone Belongs Here): https://www.everyonebelongshere.net/toolkit Bio: Dr. Eleanor Chung, MD is an assistant professor of pediatrics at UCSF who has used her role as a healer to support the wellbeing of immigrant children and families in San Francisco. In addition to her work as a clinician and educator at Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital, Dr. Chung has led a number of impactful projects, including the Bridges Clinic at the ZSFG Children’s Health Center. The clinic addresses the unique medical, legal and mental health needs of new immigrant children and families, many of whom are asylum seekers, and provides vital connections to community resources. She has given expert testimony on the impact of trauma and parental separation on children’s health and helped preserve many immigrant families. Dr. Chung is also the co-coordinator of the Too Small to Fail initiative, in which pediatricians teach parents that talking, reading, and singing to their young children can boost early brain and language development. Over 80 percent of parents reported improvements in their child’s behavior through this program. She is the recipient of the UCSF Edison T. Uno Public Service Award.
Police violence and law enforcement violence is a pressing public health issue. Period. In particular, indigenous, Black, Latinx, disabled, mentally ill and poor people are disproportionately targeted by police violence. In this episode, we talk to Dr. Rupa Marya who co-leads the Justice Study, a community-based study that researches health outcomes in communities where there is police violence and no justice. We talk about what true community partnership means, how art & music blend with Rupa's justice work, and how we can use white coat privileges to join in the fight for the communities that continue to experience trauma related to law enforcement violence. For more about the Justice Study, visit: https://www.donoharmcoalition.org/the-justice-study-english.html Bio: Rupa Marya, MD is an Associate Professor of Medicine within the Division of Hospital Medicine. Her interests center around the intersection of society and illness, focusing research on how social structures may predispose different disadvantaged groups to certain illnesses. She is Faculty Director of the Do No Harm Coalition, a 450+ member strong group of health workers and students dedicated to ending racism and state violence. In partnership with Dr Sara Jumping Eagle, Dr Linda Black Elk and MASS Design Group, she is currently helping to set up the Mni Wiconi Health Clinic at Standing Rock, at the invitation of Lakota and Dakota health leaders to create a space for the practice of Decolonized Medicine. She is the co-investigator of The Justice Study, a national effort to understand the link between police violence and health outcomes in communities most affected by that violence. Since residency at UCSF, she has been the composer and front-woman for the international touring group Rupa & the April Fishes, a project that uses music as a way to explore the intersection of society and disease.
Happy Summer y'all! We are very excited to launch our first Summer Series which will highlight womxn of color experts and activists addressing critical health issues affecting underserved communities today. The topics we've chosen to highlight this summer are: Police Violence as a Public Health Issue, the Opioid Epidemic, Black Maternal Health Activism, and the Immigration/Border Crisis. In each episode, we hope to give listeners foundational knowledge as to why addressing these health issues is critical to the health, well-being, and healing of our communities. We also hope that these episodes are calls to action that emphasize why our visions for a more just world are not only urgent, but possible. Other announcements: (1) Thank you to everyone who has purchased a sticker! Y'all are the real ones! Stay tuned for exciting live events happening in the Fall. (2) Get yourself a FREE sticker by giving us a rating & review on Apple Podcasts! Check out the opportunity at wokewocdocs.com.
“Who could we become and who are we if we define ourselves in ways other than just being oppressed and under siege?” The wisdom of Margo Okazawa-Rey in this podcast radiates, y’all. We are so excited for you to hear it. In this episode, we talk more about Margo’s journey into and through activism as one that is a deeply personal endeavor, from being a founding member of the historic Black feminist Combahee River Collective to pursuing international peacemaking work and liberation efforts. Together, we discuss how local health injustices in the United States are connected to global struggles for liberation and freedom and why loving, authentic relationships are critical to defeating individualistic and othering mindsets that have plagued many of today’s societies. By the end of this episode we hope y’all note these wise words from Margo: Our future depends on freedom spaces. Our future depends on authentic, loving relationships. Our future depends on moving with joy. Our future depends on us. Bio: Margo Okazawa-Rey is an activist and educator working on issues of militarism, armed conflict and violence against women. Margo was a member of the historic Black feminist Combahee River Collective. She is a founding member of the Afro-Asian Relations Council, East Asia-U.S. Women’s Network Against Militarism, and the Institute for Multiracial Justice and the International Network of Women Against Militarism. She has a long standing relationship to social justice work in South Korea and with the Women’s Centre for Legal Aid and Counseling in Palestine. Margo is co-author of “A Black Feminist Statement” (1978) with the Combahee River Collective and co-editor of Activist Scholarship: Antiracism, Feminism and Social Change (2009), and of Women’s Lives, Multicultural Perspectives (1998) and author of Beyond Heroes and Holidays: A Practical Guide to Anti-Racist, Multicultural Curriculum and Staff Development (1998). Margo is currently Elihu Root Peace Fund Visiting Professor in Women’s Studies at the Fielding Graduate University in Santa Barbara, California. She is also professor Emrita at San Francisco State University and has held the Jane Watson Irwin Chair at Hamilton College.
We are especially excited to share this episode featuring Hamida Yusufzai, a community activist doing health justice work as the Program Manager of Banteay Srei, a community organization founded as a safe space for young Southeast Asian women who are engaged or at-risk of sexual exploitation in Oakland, California. As doctors, we believe it is important to step out of our ivory academic towers and uplift the work being done by community activists who intimately know issues of health equity on a daily, firsthand basis. Together, we talk more about Hamida’s journey into and through organizing and activism and why she calls her move to Oakland from the UK her homecoming. She drops gems on self-care as a daily practice and how future healthcare practitioners can avoid the quote “busyness” of everyday life to honor themselves and the patients they serve. Updates and news: (1) Woke WOC Docs Stickers! We are now selling Woke WOC Doc stickers! For only $5 you can get a 3x3 inch sticker of our logo. It’s perfect for your laptops, water bottles, guitar cases, skateboards, anything you want! Order at WokeWOCDocs.com. (2) Congrats to our co-host Bernie, the youngest ever recipient of National Minority Quality Forum’s 40 Under 40 Leaders in Minority Health! More about her award here: http://www.nmqf.org/40-under-40-awardees/2019/lim Bio: Experience at Rape Crisis, Eaves for Women and Liverpool University provide Hamida with a multi sector perspective. She has a degree in Development Studies and has worked as a grassroots community organizer in various countries; she has a global understanding of violence against women. Currently, she is the Program Manager of Banteay Srei, Oakland (www.banteaysrei.org). Hamida has over 20 years of experience working in youth development and youth organizing with system impacted youth of color. She is an advocate for comprehensive services for CSEC and contributes to the enhancement of the intensive case management component used to address the economic and emotional needs of young women oppressed by sexual violence. Hamida is developing Banteay Srei’s training resources and best practice for professionals.
Dr. Maisha Davis is about to get real with us in this episode y’all. Together, we talk about Maisha’s journey into and through medicine, including how living at the intersection of multiple identities has helped them connect deeply with their patients. In addition, Maisha tells us how they have been able to draw radical boundaries in their own career and life journey around what makes them feel alive: arts, culture, and therapy. As a healer and artist, Maisha tells us more about why therapy is so important for learners in medicine/healthcare, how healing in medicine is founded upon listening and bearing witness to patients’ lives, and how art is life-giving and spiritually fulfilling. Bio: Maisha Davis is a Family Medicine physician living in Oakland, CA whose educational path has led them through Stanford, Mills, UCSF, and UC Berkeley. They are dedicated to keeping the “art” in the “art of healing” by thinking outside the box and centering patients’ humanity. Maisha’s healing focus revolves around bringing Integrative medicine to Black and Brown communities, queer and trans folks, individuals living with HIV, and adolescents. They love music, sci-fi, culture, want to be a DJ, and can be found at innumerable concerts, theaters, museums, and dance parties throughout the Bay area.
Dr. Rhea Boyd has known ever since she was young that she wanted to be a pediatrician. Her grounding motivation? Making the world safer for children, especially Black kids and children who face various social and structural stressors and oppression. In this episode, we learn more about Rhea’s journey into and through medicine, including how she carved her own pathway to explore the intersection of racial justice and health equity from the creation of her own college major to her multi-faceted career today. This episode also highlights Rhea’s recent advocacy efforts that challenge medical institutions to go beyond current "diversity and inclusion” paradigms and “underrepresentation” rhetoric to naming the consequences of racial inequity and racism. Rhea advocates that institutions acknowledge and urgently act upon the violent racist exclusion of Black folks from institutions and stark racial health disparities in order to truly achieve equity and justice. Bio: Rhea W. Boyd, MD, MPH, FAAP is a pediatrician and child and community health advocate who lives and works in the San Francisco Bay Area. She works clinically at the Palo Alto Medical Foundation and serves as the Chief Medical Officer of San Diego 211 and the Director of Equity and Justice for, The Children's Trust, a campaign to expand behavioral health access to every child in California. She travels to teach students and trainees about the relationship between structural inequity and health and is active in the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP), serving on the board of her local chapter, California Chapter 1, and as a member of the AAP's national Executive Committee on Communications and Media. In addition to her clinical, policy, and teaching work, Dr. Boyd enjoys participating in community-based advocacy. Over the past 5 years, she helped organize a group of public health officials, clinicians community advocates, and funders to evaluate and address the impact of harmful police practices and policies on child and public health. She also worked with a San Francisco-based tech non-profit to increase access to social services across the Bay Area as a means to improving child and community health. Dr. Boyd is the author of the blog Rhea.MD (rheamd.wordpress.com), where she critically engages the intersections of health and justice. She is also active on twitter @RheaBoydMD. Dr. Boyd graduated cum laude with a B.A. in Africana Studies and Health from the University of Notre Dame. She earned a M.D. at Vanderbilt University School of Medicine and completed her pediatric residency at University of California, San Francisco, where she participated in the Pediatric Leadership for the Underserved Program. In 2017, Dr. Boyd graduated from the Commonwealth Fund Mongan Minority Health Policy Fellowship at Harvard University’s School of Public Health where she received an M.P.H.
During her first year of medical school, India has had a busy, yet fulfilling transition moving from the East Coast to the Bay Area. In this episode, India tells us more about the advocacy pursuits she’s continued in medical school and her new journey of exploring self-love. In particular, we learn more about how her upbringing and sociology background are foundations for her work on harm reduction as essential to the future of medicine, health justice, and healing. You’ll also hear India's reflections on how her Dominican family values are central to her practices of generosity, love, and self-care. At the end of this episode, you’ll hear a poem from her own e-mail subscription called Dulce, which she describes as "an act of resistance that believes in the power of self-infatuation; nourishes the acceptance of what is, what is not, and what could be; and honors womxn of color through prose collected from our own sisterly community." To subscribe to Dulce, go to: https://mailchi.mp/a0dcd6ed980e/dulce Bio: India Perez-Urbano is a first year medical student at UCSF. India graduated from Harvard University in 2016; after graduation she returned to her hometown of Rockland County, NY to found a harm reduction organization through which she successfully advocated for the first syringe exchange program in the county. She is a passionate advocate for the rights and health of people who use drugs and is excited to continue this work through the purview of medicine and community health.
Dr. Aisha Mays is a passionate advocate for the health and well-being of young people. While she wears many hats as a doctor, researcher, mentor, and advocate, what strikes us most is how she melds her advocacy work and career with her hobbies and strives for balance throughout her life journey. In this episode, Aisha describes her journey into and through medicine, including childhood experiences that affirmed the need for more Black womxn in medicine. In addition, she shares her adamant hopes to challenge and break down silos by blending art and creativity in her work, particularly as the founding Medical Director of Dream Youth Clinic, a youth-led and youth-centered clinic in Downtown Oakland. As she’s been able to meld her career with her own hobbies, she is a testament to her own guiding philosophies of being free-spirited, tenacious, and balanced in medicine. Bio: Dr. Aisha Mays is a core faculty member at the UC Berkeley-UCSF Joint Medical Program, clinical researcher at the UCSF Bixby Center for Reproductive Health, and founding Medical Director of Dream Youth Clinic in Oakland. Her current research centers on advocacy for girls who are at risk or engaged in sexual exploitation. Dr. Mays entered the world of research through her clinical practice at the Native American Health Center, where she began to have questions about the clinical care and outcomes of her adolescent patients. She believes in equitable reproductive health care access for all women regardless of age or socioeconomic status. Dr. Mays is a member of the Association of Reproductive Health Professionals Clinical Advisory Committee, and faculty in Physicians for Reproductive Health Adolescent and Reproductive Sexual Health Education Program.
Happy 2019 y’all. We’re so excited to launch Season 2 of Woke WOC Docs. In this episode, you’ll learn more about something y’all really should heard a long time ago: who we are as hosts and why this podcast matters to us in the first place. In spite of our diverse journeys coming into medicine (from community organizing to bioengineering to family hopes and dreams), we all came together to start Woke WOC Docs as a project to ground ourselves and transform medicine by the aspirations, hopes, and dreams of ourselves, ancestors, and communities we represent. You’ll hear more about what excites us, frustrates us, and gives us strength as we continue our journeys in medicine. Here’s to embarking on a new year of growth together. Check out Bernie’s article in The Tempest: Medicine won’t be able to progress until it surrounds itself with women of color (https://thetempest.co/2019/02/03/now-beyond/science/medicine-wont-be-able-to-progress-until-it-surrounds-itself-with-women-of-color/) #Medicine, #WokeWOCDocs, #MelaninInMedicine, #Health, #HealthJustice Bios: Bernadette (Bernie) Lim is a creator, healer, and warrior. She was born in Los Angeles and grew up in a family with a Filipino and Chinese immigrant heritage. She's an MD/MSc. student at the Joint Medical Program (JMP) at the UC San Francisco (UCSF) School of Medicine and UC Berkeley School of Public Health. She graduated from Harvard in 2016 in human biology, gender studies, and global health and pursued a Fulbright Scholarship to India after graduation. She is a founder and lead student organizer of the Freedom School for Intersectional Medicine and Health Justice and Freedom Community Clinic. Previously, she was also the founder and Executive Director of Women SPEAK. She is a plant mama and enjoys R&B/soul music, playing piano, yoga, and the occasional turn-up. Nicole Carvajal was born and raised in Van Nuys, CA. Living in a medically underserved community and the daughter of immigrants, she experienced health inequities first-hand. She attended community college and later transferred to UC Riverside to pursue her interests in bioengineering. Upon graduation, she moved to the East Coast to conduct research at the NIH – NIBIB, where she focused on biophysical research involving the biological applications of atomic force microscopy. She also found opportunities to interact with patients and physicians. It was through these interactions that she saw a necessity for physicians with her background and life experiences that helped reaffirm her interest in pursuing a medical degree. She moved to San Francisco to participate in the UCSF Post Baccalaureate Program where she learned more about issues affecting underserved communities. She later worked as a staff research associate in a UCSF Cancer Immunotherapy laboratory and volunteered as a mentor for community programs promoting higher education. Ivie Tokunboh was born and raised in Southern California. As the daughter of Nigerian immigrants, she has always felt a kinship with other first-generation Americans and exploring what it means to navigate the world with a multi-cultural perspective. During her four years at Harvard, Ivie studied Human Developmental and Regenerative Biology and Social Anthropology. While there, she invested time in groups that she held near and dear to her heart, namely the hip-hop dance community, the Catholic community, the Nigerian community, and the Harvard Square Homeless Clinic. After graduation, she worked as a clinical research coordinator and research assistant for UCLA Stroke Center. It was there that she was reminded of the value of the clinician-patient relationship first-hand as she often served as a liaison for communication between physicians and patients. She recently moved from Los Angeles to San Francisco to pursue medical school. When not in class or studying, Ivie enjoys listening to music, singing, dancing, writing and running.
Jess Valdez is only at the beginning of her journey in medicine, yet she has found motivation and grounding in her purpose by always remembering and honoring the people, communities, and experiences that have made her who she is today. In addition to being a medical student at UCSF and the daughter of Mexican immigrants, Jess embraces her identities as the compassionate sunshine friend and vulnerability queen. In this episode, we talk more about her windy journey into and through medicine and important topics such as pursuing a postbac program, reframing mental breakdowns as spiritual awakenings, and emphasizing why reproductive justice for womxn of color from immigrant and underserved communities matters. At the end of this episode (39:14), Jess shares a beautiful poem she wrote in response to the separation of families crisis among asylum-seeking families that continues to this day. This will be the last Woke WOC Docs episode of 2018. Thank you for helping us achieve 1,000+ plays in a little over a month since the release of our trailer! We're deeply grateful and are wishing all of you a joyous, restful next few weeks. In the meantime, please e-mail and comment us with any feedback and suggestions. We would love to hear from you. See y'all in 2019! Bio: Jessica Valdez is a rising MS3 from Calabasas, CA. She attended the University of San Diego and graduated in 2013 with a degree in Biology. Since joining the PRIME-US program at UCSF, she has served as the Community Service Co-Chair for LMSA, joined White Coats for Black Lives, and helped organize the Mental Illness Among Us student-led panel. While Jessica is still unsure of a medical specialty, her interests focus on women’s health and reproductive justice, especially for women of color.
Dr. Kim Chang is a family medicine physician at Asian Health Services (AHS) in Oakland, CA. In this episode, we learn how her experiences as a doctor and medical director at AHS has shaped her work according to their mission: to serve and advocate for the medically underserved. In this episode, Dr. Chang tells us more about her love for community health centers and health policy work in human trafficking and immigration health. We have a *special request* in this episode as well. The Trump administration has continued their anti-immigration sentiment through a policy called public charge, which seeks to have lawful permanent residence, also known as green-card status, to be denied to greater numbers of legal immigrants for having received public assistance (e.g. Section 8 Housing, Medicaid, Medicare Part D, food stamps). Asian Health Services has created a website to add your comments challenging the Trump administrations’s expansion of the public charge policy. Tune in from 40:42 to learn more. OPPOSE PUBLIC CHARGE! Please add your comments by December 10 here: https://aapiprogressiveaction.salsalabs.org/publiccharge-ahs/index.html. Bio: Kimberly Chang, M.D., M.P.H., is a family physician at Asian Health Services (AHS) in Oakland, California. Previously, Dr. Chang was a Commonwealth Fund Mongan Fellow in Minority Health Policy at Harvard Medical School and Clinic Director at the Frank Kiang Medical Center (FKMC) of AHS. Her health systems experience includes directing the start-up of the FKMC, expanding patients' language access to 10 Asian languages, and directing the implementation of policies, procedures, and protocols into clinical operations. In addition, she provided care for many commercially sexually exploited children and is a co-founder and executive committee member of Health, Education, Advocacy, Linkages (HEAL) Trafficking. Dr. Chang has trained thousands of frontline multidisciplinary professionals on the health care intersect with human trafficking across the United States and internationally to the Compact of Free Association nations in the Western Pacific with the National District Attorneys Association. She served on a technical working group for the Administration for Children and Families, developing a pilot training for health care professionals on human trafficking. Her presentations and publications have focused on cultural competency, human trafficking issues, underserved populations, and global health issues. Most recently, Dr. Chang was elected as the Vice Speaker of the House on the Executive Board of the National Association of Community Health Centers, as well as selected to serve on the National Advisory Committee on the Sex Trafficking of Children and Youth in the United States.
Dr. Zoë Julian is currently finishing up her OB/GYN residency at UCSF. Yet, in spite of her busy clinical schedule, she finds time to pause, telling us about the importance of empathy and unraveling existing imbalances of power and privilege in not only institutions of power like medicine, but in her own personal life and relationships. In this episode, Zoë shares her wisdom and experiences on naming privilege while fighting oppression, addressing imposter syndrome, and self-care. Bio: Zoë is currently finishing up her last year of residency in Obstetrics and Gynecology at University of California, San Francisco. She’s benefited from some incredible mentorship, and been able to conduct research on climate of equity and inclusion across residency programs, design justice-oriented curriculum in sexual and reproductive health, and pursue a Certificate in Health Equity Studies. She’s really looking forward to additional training in health equity research while continuing a clinical practice in general obstetrics and gynecology in service of the communities she’s most committed to. She’s a Black queer woman looking to continually decolonize herself and medicine in the process.
Dr. Monica Hahn first and foremost describes herself as radical, yet this description is no surprise considering her work as an Assistant Clinical Professor at UCSF in the Department of Family & Community Medicine, ethnic studies scholar activist, and salsa and capoeira extraordinaire. Together, we explore her journey into and through medicine alongside remarking on topics such as her own activism work before medical school, issues of race-based medicine, Afro-Cuban salsa dancing, why pre-medical education is problematic, how students are critical mentors to professors/teachers, why doctors who aren’t mothers can only give so much breastfeeding advice, and her own memorable clinical experiences. Please note: At 45:40, Dr. Hahn would like listeners to know that the appropriate language referring to her patient she was caring for is as a transgender man, not as a transgender male. Links to some acronyms we mention in the podcast: UCSF PRIME-US (Program in Medical Education for the Urban Underserved) Program: https://meded.ucsf.edu/prime-us-program UC Berkeley-UCSF Joint Medical Program (JMP):http://sph.berkeley.edu/jmp/home The Freedom School for Intersectional Medicine and Health Justice: https://www.intersectionalmedicine.org Bio: Dr. Monica Hahn is an Assistant Clinical Professor at UCSF in the Department of Family & Community Medicine. As a family physician, HIV specialist, and Clinical Director of the Pacific AIDS Education and Training Center (PAETC), Monica’s work centers around promoting health and wellness for HIV-affected families with an emphasis on integrating HIV prevention and treatment, as well as sexual and reproductive wellness, into primary care. Her clinical experience includes co-directing the Family HIV Clinic, a family-oriented HIV primary care clinic at San Francisco General Hospital’s Family Health Center, and providing perinatal HIV care to people living with or affected by HIV as the lead clinician at HIVE Clinic, also based at San Francisco General Hospital. Monica co-directs an HIV specialty concentration training program for the UCSF Family & Community Medicine Residency Program. She serves as a research and career mentor to UCSF medical students as the Director of Inquiry and Evaluation for the PRIME Urban-Underserved program. Monica’s inspiration for becoming a physician-advocate is rooted in her personal experiences and work experiences in public health and social justice activism. Her work has focused on addressing health inequities in sexual and reproductive health for communities of color, with the goals of developing strategies for dismantling systemic oppression and structural violence to improve health and wellness for all. She completed her undergraduate degree at UC Berkeley with a major in Molecular & Cell Biology and a minor in Ethnic Studies. She earned her MPH at UC Berkeley’s School of Public Health, and earned her MD/MS at UCSF School of Medicine, where she was a participant in the UCSF PRIME Urban-Underserved program. She completed residency training in Family & Community Medicine at UCSF/San Francisco General Hospital. Her interests include STI/HIV prevention and treatment, reproductive justice, community-based participatory research, health and social justice policy/advocacy, and advancing diversity, equity and inclusion in medical education.
Join us, Bernie and Nicole, every other week for a candid conversation with dope womxn of color in medicine. Together we'll learn more about their journeys in medicine and converse on how to challenge and transform medicine to be a better institution dedicated to health, social justice, and well-being.
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