Diversity Hub

The UCSF Action Research Center for Health Equity (formerly the Center for Vulnerable Populations) carries out innovative research to prevent and treat chronic disease in populations for whom social conditions often conspire to both promote various chronic diseases and make their management more challenging. Founded in 2006, the ARC is based within the UCSF Department of Medicine, Division of General Internal Medicine and is located on the campus of San Francisco General Hospital. Beyond the local communities it serves, ARC is nationally and internationally known for its research in health communication and health policy to reduce health disparities, with special expertise in the social determinants of health, including literacy, food policy, poverty, and minority status, with a focus on the clinical conditions of pre-diabetes, diabetes, and cardiovascular disease.

SF BUILD is a program based at San Francisco State (SFSU) in partnership with UCSF. The overall goal of SF BUILD is to enhance diversity of the biomedical research workforce by transforming teaching and research environments at SFSU. This is done through activities at the institutional, faculty and student levels - at both institutions. SF BUILD activities are designed to reduce and even eliminate stereotype threat, which occurs when individuals experience worry about the possibility of confirming a negative stereotype about their gender and/or ethnicity. These concerns have been documented to lead to underperformance in the classroom, and even to early exist from the biomedical research field. Our approach is to create changes at the institutional level (also at UCSF), so that all students perform to their true potential and feel engaged, supported and that they belong. SF BUILD works across both institutions and involves faculty from different schools, departments and divisions. This project is funded by the NIH.

The Pediatric Diversity Committee is committed to recruiting and supporting pediatric residents, fellows, and faculty underrepresented in medicine, as well as fostering a culture that promotes and values diversity through community, education, training, and research.

The UCSF Research in Implementation Science for Equity (RISE) program is part of the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institutes Program to Increase Diversity among Individuals Engaged in Health-Related Research (PRIDE). The goal of the PRIDE program is to enhance the diversity of the biomedical research workforce for junior faculty and transitioning post-doctorates from diverse backgrounds to enable them to become competitive independent scientists. The UCSF RISE program is an all-expenses paid training opportunity for junior faculty who are underrepresented in the biomedical sciences. The program involves a two-week RISE Summer Institute, focused on implementation science (ImS) and career mentoring and is hosted by UCSF's Action Research Center for Health Equity (formerly the Center for Vulnerable Populations) in July in San Francisco. RISE Scholars also complete a second summer institute the following summer and take part in year-round distance mentoring activities. The objectives of the program include (1) prioritizing research addressing health disparities; (2) learning how to produce high-quality funding proposals; (3) building research skills in implementation science; (4) gaining access to a larger national network of mentors and mentees through NHLBI and other NIH national initiatives; and (5) preparing trainees for independent research careers. RISE is funded through an NHLBI grant R25HL126146.