Center for Vulnerable Populations

California's Homeless Crisis: Uncovering the Truth

On a recent podcast appearance, ARC Director, Dr. Margot Kushel, Professor of Medicine at UCSF, Division Chief of the Division of Health Equity and Society, and Director of the Benioff Homelessness and Housing Initiative, breaks down the findings of the California Statewide Study of People Experiencing Homelessness (CASPEH).

In a recent essay for Vital City, Cyrus Ahalt and Dr. Brie Williams detail Amend's public health and human rights-focused work to transform broken carceral systems.

Amend’s Washington Department of Corrections partner, Courtney Grubb, Washington Way Program Administrator has received the Governor’s Award for Leadership. Courtney’s work with Washington Way, partnering with Amend to bring Norwegian correctional principles into our correctional culture, has directly established Washington’s DOC as a correctional leader in the nation.

With the help of Amend, Washington State is making progress towards a more humane and effective prison system.

A recent Seattle Times article explores the efforts of Washington State to reform its prison system, working with Amend to introduce a more humane and rehabilitative approach to incarceration. Amend program manager Kelsey Engstrom plays a crucial role in driving these changes, helping make strides in reducing recidivism through reforms in education, vocational training, and addiction support.

We are thrilled to share that we have changed our name, to one that better aligns with our dedication to promoting health equity through actionable research.

Since we founded CVP nearly 20 years ago, the language regarding health equity has evolved. The field has replaced adjectives like “vulnerable” and “high-risk” that signal individual and community deficits with language that focuses on the role that structural issues play in determining health outcomes.     

ARC for Health Equity Mentored Faculty Member, Melanie Molina, MD, MAS, is the recipient of a Harold Amos Medical Faculty Development Program (AMFDP) Award.

The four-year award will support Dr. Molina’s project, “Developing EHR-Enabled Interventions to Overcome Social Risk Limitations in the Emergency Department (ED).” Through this project, Dr. Molina aims to develop ED-based, electronic health record-enabled tools to address patient social risks with minimal impact on clinician workflow.

After a comprehensive national search, ARC for Health Equity Associated Faculty member Maria Chao, DrPH, MPA, has been appointed Director of Research at the UCSF Osher Center for Integrative Health and Osher Foundation Endowed Chair in Research in Integrative Health.

Dr. Chao was chosen to lead the Center’s robust research program, which rigorously tests the effectiveness of integrative health approaches, how they work, and how they can be optimized to improve health and well-being.

Dr. Oanh Nguyen, a hospital medicine physician deeply committed to advancing care in safety-net settings and serving historically marginalized communities, will soon step into the role of chief of the Division of Hospital Medicine at ZSFG!

Our biggest congratulations to Dr. Alicia Fernandez on her recent election to the National Academy of Medicine! Membership in the Academy is considered one of the highest honors in the fields of health and medicine, and recognizes Dr. Fernandez's outstanding professional achievement and commitment to service.

"Black men are more than twice as likely to die from prostate cancer," says Nynikka Palmer, DrPH, MPH in a recent interview with UCSF News. 

Dr. Palmer is a Core Faculty member if the Action Research Center for Health Equity and currently has a National Cancer Institute-funded career development award to bridge the divide between low-income African American men and equal prostate cancer (PCa) treatment.