News Archive
The Palo Alto Tall Tree Awards Return to Celebrate Outstanding Civic Service
Emerging from a two-year, pandemic-forced hiatus, the Palo Alto Tall Tree Awards are back this year. The co-recipients of the 2022 Global Impact Award will be Santa Clara County Health Officer Dr. Sara Cody and Stanford University Professor Dr. Yvonne "Bonnie" Maldonado, who specializes in pediatrics and epidemiology. Both are being recognized for their unparalleled frontline work during the extended coronavirus pandemic.
ABFM and Stanford Support CDC to Monitor COVID-19 Incidence, Prevalence and Long-term Symptoms
The American Board of Family Medicine (ABFM) and the Stanford Center for Population Health Sciences (PHS) have entered into a contract with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to apply a new initiative to monitor social inequalities in COVID-19 and assess the prevalence and severity of long-term symptoms of COVID-19.
Stanford faculty lead project to support COVID-19 vaccine outreach in the Latinx community
Lisa Goldman Rosas and Patricia Rodriguez Espinosa, in collaboration with the ¡Sí Se Puede! Collective, work to promote COVID-19 vaccine awareness and public health guidelines in the area’s Latinx community.
Stanford’s Peter Pollous in the Huffington Post on issues with supporting disabled doctors
Peter Poullos is a clinical associate professor of radiology and of medicine. He's the founder and executive director of the Stanford Medicine Abilities Coalition (SMAC), a group composed of people with disabilities and their allies.
Stanford Medicine's Carolyn Rodriguez on NASEM Health and Medicine Division Panel
Carolyn Rodriguez, MD, PhD, Associate Professor of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, participated on a panel focusing on the need for broader inclusion & diversity in Neuroscience training as part of a workshop series hosted by the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine.
Medscape at 25: Recognizing Medicine's Rising Stars
Ripal Shah, MD, MPH, Clinical Assistant Professor of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences is recognized as one of Medscape’s top 25 rising stars in medicine for her leadership in promoting diversity and inclusion in mental health research.
Stanford led study shows more than half of in-hospital deaths from COVID-19 among Black, Hispanic patients.
Fatima Rodriguez, MD, assistant professor of cardiovascular medicine at Stanford, is the lead author of the study, which was published Nov. 17 in Circulation.
Stanford physician-programmer creates Coders Against COVID
Jorge Caballero, MD, co-founded a volunteer organization that maps COVID-19 testing locations and displays updated data about the pandemic
The site features a dashboard that collects data from government sources. It shows case and death-rate data in many dimensions: by state and county, according to age and ethnicity, over time.
Race and wellness – Part I
Examining health disparities
N. Kenji Taylor, MD, MSc, AAHIVS — an instructor of medicine at Stanford Medicine, a physician with Stanford Health Care and Roots Community Health Center (Oakland, CA) and a member of the Stanford-Intermountain Delivery Science Fellowship is featured as a source in this three-part series by Stanford BeWell.
Not the “I” word: A conversation with a doctor with a disability
You could say Peter Poullos, MD, was living a charmed life until January, 2003.
At the time, he was a gastroenterology fellow at the University of California, San Francisco. On a break from patient rounds and after performing an intricate medical procedure overnight, Poullos, a cycling enthusiast, decided to take a quick bike ride before returning to the hospital.
While riding in San Francisco's Aquatic Park, he tumbled down a flight of stairs, over his handlebars and landed face-first on the ground.
Choices, trade-offs and accomplishments at the Women in Medicine and Science event
The path was rarely straight. The steps were neither easy nor obvious. Nonetheless Persis Drell, PhD, navigated the mostly male landscape of academic sciences to become Stanford's thirteenth provost. As the chief academic and chief budgetary officer, she holds a key position in setting university priorities and allocating funds to support them.
Department of Medicine Launches Faculty Diversity LENS
Increased diversity in faculty recruitment is a cornerstone goal for the Department of Medicine. As a result, the DOM's Faculty Diversity LENS was launched on January 1, 2019 (Looking to Effectively Navigate Searches using a diversity LENS). The Committee’s goal is simple: to partner, assist, and collaborate with the Divisions and Search Committees to improve the Department’s faculty searches, candidate evaluations, and outreach efforts.
Stanford Medicine faculty member, Mitch Lunn featured in the All of Us research program newsletter
For Dr. Lunn, part of what makes All of Us so special is its commitment to diversity and inclusion. He and his team at Stanford University’s PRIDEnet are one of All of Us’s community engagement partners—groups that work to help make sure All of Us is truly a program for everyone. PRIDEnet’s focus is on working with LGBTQ communities.
Hematologist (and a mom, singer, actress and much more) stands up for diversity
When you first meet Tamara Dunn, MD, she'll tell you that she was always going to be a physician. Well, a physician or a singer. Or an actress. Or a financial trader.
She'll tell you about growing up in Kansas City surrounded by a bevy of black professionals (her dad was a dentist and his best friend was her pediatrician), and how that inspired her commitment to fostering inclusive, diverse communities in medicine. She'll tell you how her mother's untimely death (Dunn was only 15), imbued her with a carpe diem attitude and a sense that nothing can be taken for granted.
Diversity, science leadership grants awarded to student-faculty pairs
Two graduate students at the School of Medicine and their faculty advisers have been awarded fellowship grants by the Howard Hughes Medical Institute.
The Stanford student-adviser awardees are:
Matias Kaplan, a bioengineering graduate student whose work focuses on understanding the relationship between sequence and structure of certain RNA switches for use in metabolic engineering and medical applications. His adviser is Christina Smolke, professor of bioengineering.
Abel Ferrel, a microbiology and immunology graduate student whose work focuses on how the single-celled Toxoplasma parasite interacts with the host cell in the chronic stage of infection. His adviser is John Boothroyd, the Burt and Marion Avery Professor and professor of microbiology and immunology.
Pediatric researcher celebrated for her perseverance, accomplishments
The forces that hold some people back don’t seem to apply to Yvonne Maldonado, MD, senior associate dean for faculty development and diversity at the School of Medicine, who goes by "Bonnie."
A professor of pediatrics and of health research and policy, Maldonado grew up outside of Los Angeles and earned her medical degree at Stanford. Her research has taken her around the world and focused on the polio virus in Mexico, gender-based violence in Kenya, diarrheal diseases in Bangladesh and childhood HIV in California and in sub-Saharan Africa.
Diversity Leadership Program Aims to Improve Medicine’s Culture
Carmin Powell and Lehia Yemane, clinical associate professors of pediatrics and members of BFAM (Black Faculty Affinity Meetings), discuss their role in LEAD (Leadership Education in Advancing Diversity Program) and the barriers that underrepresented groups face when trying to enter the medical profession.
Early Gender-Affirming Hormone Therapy for Transgender Teens Leads to Better Mental Health
Jack Turban MD MHS, is a researcher, medical journalist, and chief fellow in child and adolescent psychiatry at Stanford University School of Medicine, is the lead author of this study. For transgender people, starting gender-affirming hormone treatment in adolescence is linked to better mental health than waiting until adulthood, according to new research led by the Stanford University School of Medicine.
Stanford University's new long COVID study
Dr. Yvonne "Bonnie" Maldonado, Senior Associate Dean for Faculty Development and Diversity, is one of the principal investigators in a federally funded long-COVID study to understand the long-lasting symptoms some people experience after a COVID-19 infection.
Odette Harris on her journey to becoming America’s second Black female neurosurgery professor
Stanford's Odette Harris, MD, MPH, professor of neurosurgery, is profiled in The Stanford Daily on her work to to expand equity and inclusion in medicine.
Girl in Bloom: The Story of a Teen’s Transition
A patient's story about obtaining gender-affirming care at the Pediatric and Adolescent Gender Clinic at Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital Stanford started by Tandy Aye, MD, Associate Professor of Pediatrics (Endocrinology) at Stanford.
‘I’ve trained my whole life for this’
Senior Associate Dean for Faculty Development and Diversity and infectious disease epidemiologist Bonnie Maldonado's leadership in shaping Stanford Medicine's pandemic response and explaining COVID-19 to the public is the culmination of a lifetime of learning.
It’s time to stop using skin color and race in medicine and see patients for who they really are
Megan R. Mahoney, family medicine physician, chief of staff for Stanford Health Care, principal investigator for Stanford’s Humanwide Project, and clinical professor of medicine at Stanford University School of Medicine has opionion piece featured in STAT.
Bonnie Maldonado: The science is clear. Vaccinations save lives.
Stanford professor and Senior Associate Dean for Faculty Development and Diversity Yvonne “Bonnie” Maldonado is a medical doctor and an expert in pediatric infectious diseases.
She has been fighting and preventing disease her entire career. She says that vaccinations have made remarkable progress in recent years and yet, despite well-known programs that have virtually wiped out once-dreaded diseases like measles, smallpox and polio, a more insidious foe than these diseases has appeared — misinformation that sows confusion, fear and distrust of vaccines in the general public.
At Department of Medicine’s diversity and inclusion week, challenging conventional wisdom
“Great minds think differently.” If there was a unifying idea expressed by speakers at the Department of Medicine’s first diversity and inclusion week, it was probably that.
Scientists find potential diagnostic tool, treatment for Parkinson’s disease
In human cell cultures, countering a defect that appears to be nearly universal among patients with Parkinson’s disease prevents death in the cells whose loss causes the disease.
Xinnan Wang, MD, PhD, associate professor of neurosurgery, and one of OFDD's 2018 McCormick and Gabilan Faculty Fellows is the study's senior author.
“We’ve identified a molecular marker that could allow doctors to diagnose Parkinson’s accurately, early and in a clinically practical way,” said Wang.
Stanford Surgery Commits to Photo-less Applications
Stanford University's Department of Surgery has committed to reviewing all fellowship and residency applications sans the customary photo.
"All of our fellowship and ACGME residency programs have agreed to forgo printing the candidate photo as part of their racket for evaluation for invitation for interview," said Dr. Sherry Wren, Stanford Surgery's Vice Chair of Diversity. "Research shows that photos can influence selection in positive and negative ways."
In the Spotlight: Physician-scientist, innovator and #lifeboss
Learn more about Rebecca Saenz, MD, PhD, who graduates in June from a clinical fellowship in allergy and immunology.
Faculty Senate focuses on diversity and inclusion practices across the university
Leaders from the School of Engineering, School of Medicine, Physics and Chemical Engineering departments share case studies and invite discussion.
Stanford Medicine Assistant Professor in Psychiatry and OFDD Liaison Carolyn Rodriguez has co-authored HBR article: What’s Holding Women in Medicine Back from Leadership
For over 25 years, women have made up at least 40% of U.S. medical students. This past year, more women than men were enrolled in U.S. medical schools. Yet overall women make up only 34% of physicians in the U.S., and gender parity is still not reflected in medical leadership.
Women of Stanford Neurosurgery: A conversation on gender, race and mentors
Over the summer I spoke with numerous female faculty members in Stanford’s neurosurgery department about their backgrounds and experience working in a traditionally male-dominated field. Below is a portion of my conversation with Odette Harris, MD, an associate professor.
LGBTQ town hall aimed to spur creation of stronger community at Stanford Medicine
From across Stanford Medicine, members of the LGBTQ community gathered on January 22, 2018 to share their concerns and to strengthen their presence on campus.
The standing room-only crowd of about 100 people included Dean Lloyd Minor, MD, and other school leaders, medical and graduate students and everyone in between.
Achievement, focus despite discrimination: Stanford surgeon featured in The Mercury News
Dr. Leah Backhus is an esteemed member of a relatively tiny club in U.S. medicine she sometimes refers to as “two-fers:” female African-American doctors. They represent about 2 percent of the nation’s 877,616 active physicians but are among a growing trend in the country
Stanford Researchers Testing Ways to Improve Clinical Trial Diversity
The American Heart Association has provided funding to Stanford Medicine professors and BFAM Members Hannah Valantine, MD and Eldrin Lewis, MD. The funding will be used to develop ways to diversify enrollment in heart disease clinical trials.
Faculty Women’s Forum Celebrates 2022 Award Winners
Peter Poullos and Others Awarded the 2022 President’s Awards for Excellence Through Diversity
SMADIE director Peter Poullos and others were honored at the 2022 President’s Awards for Excellence Through Diversity, for their exceptional contributions to enhancing and supporting diversity within the university community.
Awards for Promoting Diversity in Medicine
Stanford Medicine featured our Diversity Awards and Networking Reception in their news center.
Dr. Tina Hernandez-Boussard: Data Science as a Path to Inclusivity and Diversity in Medicine
Dr. Tina Hernandez-Boussard is featured in Ms. Magazine. For Dr. Hernandez-Boussard, solving inequities in healthcare is only possible when the people who collect, analyze and interpret data to make decisions, are as diverse as those affected by those decisions.
PORTRAITS OF STANFORD MEDICINE PODCAST SERIES: DIVERSITY EDITIONS
This special 1:2:1 series will introduce you to the many faces of Stanford Medicine, with a focus on the wide array of diversity in academic medicine.
Identity and medicine: A med student’s reflection on what makes us who we are
I realized at a young age that I’m not a very “cool” person. As my elementary school entomology club’s founding member, my high-school marching band’s woodwind captain, and a 24-year-old who still plays Pokémon, I’ve known for a while now that I’m a bit of a dork.
Stanford surgery chair Mary Hawn and the changing face of the OR
Surgery has been largely a male-dominated specialty in medicine, with many female physicians not believing that the demands of surgery and the testosterone-filled environment would be welcoming. Yet, that picture is changing: More women are now entering the field, and more female surgeons are mentoring aspiring female physicians and encouraging them.
Stanford pediatric resident Mehreen Iqbal: Her passion for healing
Born in Pakistan, third-year pediatric resident Mehreen Iqbal, came to the U.S. at the age of three. In this podcast, she discusses medicine, Islam and her passion for healing. Paul Costello, chief communications officer at the medical school, is host.