Comprised of 10 public service advocates from the San Francisco community and 10 from UCSF, the newly appointed UCSF University-Community Partnerships Council will provide direction for the current partnerships program.

"If UCSF is to remain a leading university, it is essential that we succeed in our ultimate mission of promoting health and preventing disease," said Eugene Washington, MD, UCSF executive vice chancellor and provost who was instrumental in formation of the program. "To achieve this goal, we have formed a Council to help us identify needs and develop initiatives to create a more robust, institutionalized community partnership program at UCSF."

The Council is charged with assisting the community in partnering with UCSF to address community needs and with enabling faculty, staff and students to expand the University's presence and participation in partnerships.

Kevin Grumbach, MD, professor and chair of the UCSF Department of Family and Community Medicine and chief of the Family and Community Medicine Service at San Francisco General Hospital Medical Center, serves as Council co-chair. A co-chair from the community will be named at the Council's June meeting.

"I am tremendously excited to see this program in civic engagement taking shape at UCSF," Grumbach said. "Already, from just the first few meetings of the Council, it is apparent how valuable it is to have community members as meaningful, empowered partners. It is clear to me that this program is not about window dressing, but about challenging UCSF and the community to find ways to work together more effectively to their mutual benefit."

Council members were selected after a comprehensive review process, and all have extensive track records serving the community. Members from the community include representatives from existing UCSF partn
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Contact: Corinna Kaarlela
ckaarlela@pubaff.ucsf.edu
415-476-2557
University of California - San Francisco
31-May-2006