Manuel Tapia

Mentor, John O'Connell High School

"Dr. Tapia demonstrates incredible commitment to encouraging youth from underrepresented backgrounds to learn about and pursue careers in the health professions. His mentorship programs have given youth both skills and confidence in these areas. A physician at UCSF in the Department of Family and Community Medicine, Dr. Tapia co-founded and is the director of the Summer Urban Health & Leadership Academy (SUHLA) at John O'Connell High School in San Francisco's Mission District. SUHLA is a summer program which since 2015 has provided a multi-week opportunity for students from John O'Connell to learn about health professions (medicine, nursing, physical therapy, etc.) through workshops and shadowing opportunities at San Francisco General Hospital. The SUHLA mission is to: inspire youth from diverse backgrounds to invest in the health of their community; engage and empower Mission neighborhood youth through mentorship and advocacy; strengthen and sustain relationships between SFGH and community partners; increase diversity in the health workforce pipeline; grow leaders from within the residency and our neighboring communities. Dr. Tapia also started a FACES for the Future program for students to have additional opportunities and exposures to health professions during the school year."

Manuel Tapia, MD, MPH is an Assistant Clinical Professor in Family & Community Medicine at UCSF School of Medicine. His area of expertise is in Community engagement and in the Development, Sustainability, and Evaluation of Pipeline, Outreach and Pathway programs for underrepresented groups in medicine. Dr. Tapia serves as the Founding Director of the Summer Urban Health & Leadership Academy (SUHLA) in collaboration with community partner FACES for the Future. In addition, he has been integral in starting the New Generations Clinic Youth Advisory Council to best inform clinics on best practices for adolescent and TAYE health care delivery. He also serves as Medical Director/Faculty Advisor for student-run clinic Clínica Martín Baró. His clinical practice is based in primary care at Southeast Health Center, Bayview/Hunter's Point SF, CA and he performs his teaching duties at San Francisco General with the Family & Community Medicine Residency Program.

"I have worked in health care long enough to identify many structural power dynamics that negatively impact my patient's experiences when engaging in health care delivery. This motivates me to always incorporate community, and specifically youth, as much as possible into the process of creating a more just environment. I am committed to fight for health equity through increasing representation of underrepresented students in medicine (UIM). I have carved out an expertise in creating spaces where youth have a sense of belonging in the health care setting and can uncover their true potential as future members of the health care team. Our youth are constantly measured in traditional manners that overemphasize achievement tests, fail to capture the value of lived experience and deny true potential of our less-connected students. The talent, intelligence and love embodied by our UIM youth is exactly what we need to infuse into health care. Not just to simply diversify our health care teams but more deeply to sustainably care for our patients in a more equitable and just fashion. I vow to continue to affirm the value of our next generations health care leaders who will more closely reflect the populations we serve. The youth will always lead and we in health care are beginning to take notice."

Manuel Tapia