Year 4. January 27. Meet Some of Our Women Leaders Impacting Our Communities.
Diversity is a beautiful thing. The department of medicine (DoM) is committed to fostering, encouraging and supporting an inclusive environment in which all our members have the opportunity and space to thrive and excel. This week we celebrate our commitment to equity by highlighting the accomplishments of women in the DoM by showcasing examples of their leadership!
Cristina Punzalan, MPH Awarded Chancellor’s Scholarship for Women’s Leadership Institute
I am thrilled to share that Cristina Punzalan, MPH, program manager for the DoM Office of Equity, Diversity and Inclusion, was recently awarded the Chancellor’s Scholarship to attend the Women’s Leadership Institute at UCLA Anderson School of Business. This competitive program helps women leaders acquire the skills they need to take their careers to the next level.
“These kinds of programs can be really hard to find,” Punzalan said. “This one is a gem not only in terms of being accepted and having it fully paid for, but also to have the support of the department and the leadership of my projects including Carol Mangione, MD, Keith Norris, MD, PhD, and Norma Vaquerano.”
The Women’s Leadership Institute program runs twice a year, once during the spring and again in the fall. It’s open to women within and outside of UCLA and attended by executives from finance, media, and many other industries, providing plentiful opportunities for networking. Attendees take courses on team decision making, navigating an organization for upward mobility, managing change and more.
Punzalan is motivated to take part in the Women’s Leadership Institute not only for her own career growth, but because she hopes to share what she learns and to grow her mentoring skills. She also wants to better understand the issues that affect women leaders and how to ameliorate them.
“I’d like to know more about what those issues are and contribute to solutions from the Office of EDI.” She also hopes the things she learns will help her contribute more to the execution of the DoM’s strategic plan.
“It’s such an honor to be selected to do the program and also to get the Chancellor’s Scholarship,” Punzalan said. “I want to make the most of it and give back to UCLA and our department.”
Please join me in congratulating Cristina on her scholarship! I look forward to watching her career flourish.
Women LEADERS Learn From and Lean On Each Other at AAMC Leadership Development Seminar
The annual Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC) Mid-Career Women Faculty Leadership Development Seminar brings together accomplished women physicians from all over the country who aim to become leaders in academic medicine and science. The DoM was well-represented at this year’s conference in early December, with six attendees who hailed from infectious diseases, general internal medicine and health services research, pulmonary, hospital medicine, clinical nutrition and gastroenterology.
“I really appreciate that the department nominated and supported me in being able to attend,” Kara Chew, MD, MS, an infectious diseases physician and clinical investigator at the UCLA CARE Center, said. “It was an experience I haven't had before, and a very rich one.”
Attendees took part in a packed two-and-a-half days of seminars and panels — all led by women — that covered business intelligence, team building, communication, sponsorship, negotiation, navigating the world of academic medicine and much more. Linda Czypinski, MD, associate section chief of hospital medicine in the division of general internal medicine & health services research, and Vijaya Surampudi, MD, MS, clinical chief of the division of clinical nutrition, both enjoyed an interactive session involving the PACE Palette, a tool to teach participants their communication “color” so they can optimize their teams and relationships at work.
“You can also use those skills to being able to learn how to optimize persuasive communication for different personalities in instances when you’re trying to work with them towards a goal,” Dr. Czypinski explained. Dr. Surampudi noted that she is already putting what she learned into action.
“I definitely feel like I’ve already adjusted how I write some of my emails and how I speak to people,” she said.
For Thanh Neville, MD, some of the most important takeaways included advice on negotiation and ideas around the ongoing gender gap in leadership roles. She learned that men consider themselves qualified for jobs when they have 60% of the qualifications; women feel they need 90%. The popular concept of “imposter syndrome” may be flawed as well: Dr. Neville learned that in many ways it is a construct that points fingers at the individuals who suffer from it, when in fact social factors that lead to imposter syndrome are the bigger culprit in holding women back.
Dr. Neville said she planned to use what she learned from the seminar “to be more assertive in acknowledging my own achievements to others and asking for promotions/opportunities that women often don’t.”
Dr. Chew was especially impressed by a session leader with a finance background who led a seminar on how academic medicine enterprises are structured and financed. She explained that academic medicine can be likened to a stool with three legs that represent clinical care, research and education. All three are necessary to keep the stool standing strong.
“Everyone is really essential to the institution,” Dr. Chew said. “I loved the idea of being mission-driven and remembering your values while understanding your role and others’ in the organization and building community around a shared mission.”
I was also happy to hear that the DoM is ahead of the curve in some ways compared to other institutions with regards to helping our faculty build their careers. For example, one of the speakers in a session Dr. Surampudi attended, spoke about the importance professional coaching programs. Thanks to the outstanding work of the DoM Wellness Office and the Department of Medicine Professional Group, professional coaching is one of many benefits of working in our department.
“There were many things like that, which people wished they had at their institution that we already have at UCLA,” Dr. Surampudi noted.
When asked how the conference impacted them, our cohort of attendees from the DoM frequently said they left feeling “inspired” and “empowered.” They will carry with them not only the tactical and practical advice they learned, but also the strength that comes from community. The seminar’s organizers asked attendees to schedule a follow-up with someone they met at the conference before they left, and our group from the DoM — along with UCLA attendees from other departments —aims to organize their own reunion as well.
“The seminar reinforced to me the importance of having connections with other women in medicine and building a support system to be able to lean on each other,” Dr. Czypinski said. “This leadership conference was a great example of putting that into action.”
In addition to Drs. Czypinski, Surampudi, Chew and Neville, Lauren Wisk, PhD, assistant professor in the Division of GIMHSR and Jenny Sauk, MD, director of clinical care at the UCLA Center for Inflammatory Bowel Diseases, also attended the conference. I would also like to note that Niloofar Nobakht, MD, associate clinical professor of nephrology and director of the Music & Kidney Program, was selected to attend the seminar but was not able to do so because of scheduling conflicts. Congratulations to all of you — I look forward to seeing how you use what you learned to move medicine forward!
Welcome New DoM Faculty
I am pleased to introduce you to the faculty who have joined us as of January 8, 2025. Please join me in welcoming them to the department. Look out for our next batch of new faculty in July.
UCLA Iris Cantor Women’s Health Center Conference Unites Promotoras
Community investment and engagement is a key pillar of the DoM’s strategic plan. One outstanding example of this is the work of the UCLA Iris Cantor Women’s Health Center (ICWHC), which this past December joined forces with Worksite Wellness LA to host its annual Community Summit, a daylong event that brings together local nonprofits. For the second year in a row, the conference centered on nonprofits that work with promotoras, Latinx lay health workers who educate their communities on health issues. More than 150 promotoras from 21 different organizations were in attendance.
“This conference was really to bring together promotoras,” said Janet Pregler, MD, director of the UCLA ICWHC. She co-hosted the event alongside Luis Pardo, CEO and executive director of Worksite Wellness LA.
Like last year’s conference, this year’s event was conducted entirely in Spanish. Attendees took part in a packed day of sessions that ranged from practical advice on reducing exposure to pollutants at home to mobilizing communities for political advocacy around public health issues that affect urban communities, such as environmental toxins from freeways. An all-women mariachi band serenaded the attendees during lunch, which was followed by a special interactive session in which participants created their own green tea facial scrubs.
“Women in particular are so exposed to toxins through cosmetics,” Dr. Pregler said. “So, during this session, we talked about making natural cosmetic products.”
One key item on the conference agenda was a presentation on breast cancer and the environment. With breast cancer rates on the rise in younger women, researchers are trying to home in on a potential cause, and some worry that heightened exposure to environmental toxins may be part of the story. As community health educators, promotoras play an important role not only in helping people learn how to reduce potential risk, but in advocating on behalf of their communities to improve the broader systemic conditions that lead to exposure.
“We really want to get the word out about what people can do right away, but then there’s a bigger picture where we want to build a consensus on what needs to change,” Dr. Pregler said.
From a broader perspective, Dr. Pregler views academic medical centers like UCLA as playing three roles in helping nonprofits educate and improve the lives of those in their communities. First, they look to UCLA to give decipher and provide actionable health information that they can disseminate to others. Second, they support research that comes from the community, such as the health effects of living atop an oil well.
“Rather than the researchers coming up with questions, the community comes to us and says, ‘We need this information so we can advocate and talk about what needs to be done,’” Dr. Pregler explained. “It’s really the community driving the agenda.”
The third component is providing work opportunities for community members who are pursuing careers in public health. For example, the ICWHC has an internship program where students from across LA — including UCLA, Cal State institutions and USC — come to the center to learn more about what is going on in their communities. They work on projects with ICWHC so they that when they are professionals, they will be able to advocate as well.
“If we didn't have this program, there would be a lot of really talented folks in LA who are future public health leaders who really couldn't access UCLA, who couldn't be here in our environment,” Dr. Pregler said. “We're only able to do this because of the support of the department of medicine and the support of the philanthropists who help us do this.”
This year’s conference was sponsored by Planned Parenthood LA, Anthem, the California Breast Cancer Research Program, LA Care, the Mexican American Opportunity Foundation and the community advocacy organization Rising Communities. A full list of community partners is below.
Thank you to Dr. Pregler, Mr. Pardo, all our community partners and attendees for making this year’s Community Summit such a success. Events like this are essential to our commitment to advancing health equity in greater Los Angeles.
CORE Kidney Program Rose Parade Float Tells the World “It Takes 2” For Kidney Health
As some of you may know, I kicked off 2025 dancing atop a special float in Pasadena’s world-famous Rose Parade. But not just any float — I was honored to be part of a float organized by the UCLA Health CORE Kidney Program, an initiative that educates patients about kidney disease to help them become their own advocates. The float’s important message, “It Takes 2,” broadcast a reminder of the two simple tests that can be used to diagnose kidney disease to about 70 million people worldwide.
“It’s about raising awareness, of course, but the most important thing is impacting even just one life,” said CORE Kidney Program Director Anjay Rastogi, MD, PhD. Dr. Rastogi led the effort to build the float alongside Christina Lopez, manager of the CORE Kidney Program. I must add a personal shout out to Christina's enthusiasm and tireless effort in coordinating many of the activities before, during and after the event.
This is the second year in a row that CORE Kidney has had a float in the Rose Parade. The selection process for floats is highly competitive —just 30 to 35 are chosen each year — and applicants must make the case that their float adds value to the parade. CORE Kidney’s float serves as a reminder of the vast impact of kidney disease and, for this year’s theme, of the blood test and urine tests that can be used to diagnose kidney disease while it’s still in its early stages.
“The biggest fear a kidney patient has is that they end up on dialysis, but there is a higher chance of them dying than there is of them making it to dialysis,” Dr. Rastogi explained. “So they die in the middle stages, and the prime driver of death in these stages is cardiovascular disease.”
Organizing, designing and building a float is quite an investment. Dr. Rastogi estimated that it took more than 300 hours total from start to finish between the many volunteers who were involved. The rules for Rose Parade floats are also quite stringent — floats can be made of organic materials only, requiring designers and builders to get creative. The “It Takes 2” float included many roses, daisies and marigolds as well as oatmeal, leaves, bark, seeds and even hair.
“They were blending the oatmeal in a blender to use for the hands,” Lopez recalled. “The way they do things is pretty amazing.”
The float was covered in symbols, from the décor to the riders to the walkers who waved to crowds from the road. Lotus flowers — which blossom in muddy conditions — were chosen to represent resilience to adversity. The hummingbird that “pulled” last year’s float, a Native American spiritual symbol and are seen as spiritual guides who bring healing to the suffering, was present again on this year’s, where it drank from a lotus flower held in a pair of hands. The hands represented gratitude. A remix of the 80s song “It Takes 2” blared from a giant “bloom box” covered in flowers and seeds.
Every float participant wore a green ribbon to symbolize kidney health — a callback to the green ribbon campaign started at UCLA Health in 2016.
There were sixteen riders on the CORE Kidney Float. My wife, Jennifer, and I stood beneath a pair of kidney-shaped trees that symbolize knowledge and life. On the “bridge of life” stood one of Dr. Rastogi’s patients, Ivy Liu, and her husband Kean, who donated the kidney she needed to save her life. Dr. Rastogi stood next to Ivy in a white coat, and beside him stood former NFL football player for Philadelphia Eagles and Hall of Famer Brian Dawkins, an advocate for kidney disease testing. Rick and Nanette Zumwalt, one of Dr. Rastogi’s patients, were on the float as well (for the record, Rick Zumwalt originally proposed the idea for a CORE Kidney float to Dr. Rastogi!), along with several kidney donors and recipients. Twenty walkers joined the float too, among them patients, kidney recipients, kidney donors, healthcare providers and advocates. Lopez led them, dancing for the entire five-and-a-half-mile route!
“Even though people look at the float itself, the most important part was the people who are riding and walking with the float,” Dr. Rastogi said. “Everyone has a story.”
I am very grateful to have had the opportunity to join Dr. Rastogi, Christina and the many patients, donors, and advocates on the CORE Kidney Rose Parade float, representing our department and health system. Endeavors like this are a wonderful way for us to connect with the greater Los Angeles community and even to save lives by promoting awareness of critical health issues. Thank you to Anjay, Christina and the many other volunteers for your fantastic work!
Dale
P.S.
I have been preoccupied with a lot recently. Among them, salary negotiations and budget planning.
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