Increasing the pipeline of under-represented in medicine (URM) students at the UCSF School of Medicine is critical to our mission to serve our communities and advance health worldwide.
We are passionate about the undergraduate research internship (URI) in anesthesia at UCSF. Odi Ehie, MD, the Vice Chair for Diversity, Equity and Inclusion in the Department of Anesthesia and Perioperative Care and Chair of the California Society of Anesthesiologists' (CSA) Committee on Diversity, Equity and Inclusion, has been appointed as Associate Director of the URI Program for UC Berkeley. Part of a broader, joint program with Kaiser Permanente that the Department of Obstetrics, Gynecology and Reproductive Sciences initiated, the URI offers undergraduate students from UC Berkeley mentorship, shadowing opportunities, research experience, and a virtual handbook for how they can make it to and through medical school.
This year, we will host two UC Berkeley students in the lab of Helen Kim, MPH, PhD, Director of the Center for Cerebrovascular Research and a Professor in Residence in the Department of Anesthesia and Perioperative Care. Dr. Kim’s research focuses on identifying risk factors that predispose younger individuals to stroke and cardiovascular disease. She is the principal investigator for two NIH / NINDS R01 funded studies, “Long-term Outcomes in Unruptured Brain Arteriovenous Malformation Patients” and “TLR4 and the Microbiome in CCM Disease.” She is also a principal investigator on a multi-project NIH / NINDS funded U54 study, “Brain Vascular Malformation Consortium: Predictor's of Clinical Course.”
Odmara Barreto Chang, MD, PhD, Assistant Professor in Residence in the Department of Anesthesia and Perioperative Care and member of the American Society of Anesthesiologists' (ASA) Committee on Professional Diversity, will lead didactic sessions for the URI in anesthesia students.