Three dedicated leaders in health education will be honored by The California Wellness Foundation (TCWF) as the 2012 Champions of Health Professions Diversity for their successful efforts to improve the health and wellness of California’s most underserved communities.
Santa Monica resident Lawrence “Hy” Doyle of the David Geffen School of Medicine at University of California, Los Angeles, provides skills and opportunities for disadvantaged students to enter and succeed in medical school.
Peter Manoleas is an educator at the School of Social Welfare at the University of California, Berkeley, mental health clinician in Oakland and health policy leader with a focus on ensuring access to mental health services.
Angela Minniefield recently became vice president of strategic advancement at Charles R. Drew University of Medicine and Science in Los Angeles and previously directed programs to increase the diversity of the health professions at the Office of Statewide Health Planning and Development in Sacramento.
On June 12, 2012, TCWF will honor these three leaders at its tenth annual “Champions of Health Professions Diversity Award” ceremony in San Francisco. In recognition of their efforts to mentor and inspire students, increase access to higher education and better serve the health and well-being of California’s underserved and disadvantaged communities, each honoree will each receive a cash award of $25,000.
For more than three decades, Lawrence “Hy” Doyle has used his expertise in developing student test-taking abilities and learning skills to improve opportunities for underrepresented minority students to succeed in higher education. He is currently the executive director of the Program in Medical Education (PRIME) at the David Geffen School of Medicine at University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA). UCLA PRIME is a five-year dual-degree program which works to develop the leadership skills of medical students committed to improving healthcare in medically underserved communities. Doyle also provides guidance to disadvantaged students through UCLA’s Summer Medical and Dental Program and the UCLA Hispanic Center of Excellence.
“Remarkably often, students whose numbers weren’t that good, but have personal significant experience are the ones who truly relate to patients,” Doyle said. “That’s the goal of the PRIME program, to develop leaders for underserved and disadvantaged communities in California.”
The California Wellness Foundation is a private independent foundation created in 1992 with a mission to improve the health of the people of California by making grants for health promotion, wellness education and disease prevention.
The Foundation prioritizes eight issues for funding: diversity in the health professions, environmental health, healthy aging, mental health, teenage pregnancy prevention, violence prevention, women’s health and work and health. It also responds to timely issues and special projects outside the funding priorities.
