WRNAMME Speaks

Volume 3, Issue 2 Summer 2005

WRNAMME scholarship awards at Annual Meeting $1,500 to be awarded to a health professions students! The Western Region of the National Association of Medical Minority Education (WRNAMME) awarded two (2) $750 scholarships to Ms. Constanza Montejo-Kadera and Ms. Margaret Abass in recognition for their dedicated work in communities in need of culturally competent practitioners and their commitment to increasing the number of underrepresented minorities in the health professions. Both students are participants in UCSF’s Dental Post-Baccalaureate Program. Costanza Montejo-Kadera is a fourth year dental student who was nominated for her outstanding work in organizing or participating in a number of outreach activities, targeting Latino and underrepresented minority children. She is also active with the Community Dental Clinic which serves the homeless population of San Francisco. The other scholarship recipient is Margaret Abass, a sophomore who has volunteered at the Community Dental Clinic. She also works actively with the undergraduate Mentorship Program at UCSF to recruit students from underrepresented minorities to enter health professions. These two students have devoted endless hours to assist in improving dental care delivery in medically underserved communities and populations. “Hats off” for a wonderful job!

Inside This Issue
1	WRNAMME Regional Conference in San Francisco, CA
1	WRNAMME Awards Scholarship
2	WRNAMME Recognizes Two Outstanding Members
2	The Case for Diversity in the Health Professions
3	2005 NAAME National Meeting & Upcoming Events
4	2005-06 WRNAMME Regional Officers

continued on page 2

	“The Case for Diversity in the Health Professions”: Comments by Dr. Eugene Washington & Dr. Kevin Grumbach Both Dr. Washington and Dr. Grumbach shared their thoughts and findings on the compelling topic of increasing diversity in the workforce with conference participants. Dr. Washington stated that certain factors must be in place for diversity to occur: 1) institutional commitment and leadership in academic institutions, 2) a clearly articulated vision with goals and outcomes to achieve, 3) a strategic plan driven by global vision, 4) needed resources to achieve the goals, and 5) a culture that supports the idea of diversity and one that is held accountable for this. Dr. Grumbach shared finding from studies which support diversity in the health professions. He stated that ethnicity is a strong predictor of underserved communities and that a more diverse workforce is a critical component in meeting the health needs of diverse populations. He also shared the finding of a study that examined the relationship between physicians’ cultural competency, language ability, and their impact on the patient experience. A third study deal with the perceptions of health care disparities among the medical student, physician and the public. The findings indicated the importance of diversity in the health care workforce in delivering excellent care to patients and how one’s ethnicity plays a role in providing fair treatment to patients. The participants concurred with the speakers about the importance of diversity and how this could be addressed more effectively in the educational setting and in the health professions. Dr. Kevin Grumbach Dr. Eugene Washington

--------------------------------------------------------------------- NAMME National Meeting to be Held in Washington, D.C. The NAMME National Meeting will be held in Washington, D.C. from September 8 – 12, 2005. The meeting will be held at the Renaissance Hotel and NAMME will be celebrating its 30^th anniversary. Please help to celebrate this special occasion. Membership has its privileges…. Don’t forget to renew your membership for the 2005-06 academic year. A membership application can be downloaded from the web. Renew your membership today!

2005-06 Regional Officers Regional Director: Charles Alexander, Ph.D., UCSF Associate Regional Director Barbara Huntington, SDSU Treasurer: Denise Robinson, UCSF Secretary: Millie Russell, Ed.D., U. of Wash. Chairs of Standing Committees Budget and Finance: Denise Robinson, UCSF Membership: Katherine Fitzgerald, Ph.D., Stanford Univ. Legal Affairs: Estella Anderson, Univ. of Montana Nominations: Nanette Judd, Ph.D., U. of Hawaii Communications: Karen Sakamoto, M.S, U. of Hawaii Chairs of Appointed Committees Legislative Affairs: Larry Broussard, JD, Sate of CA Scholarship: Charles Alexander, Ph.D., UCSF Awards: Millie Russell, Univ. of Wash. Elections: Barbara Huntington, SDSU Program Chair: Millie Russell, Ed.D., Univ. of Wash. Insert Symbol It is a good idea to place a small symbol at the end of each article to let the reader know that the article is finished and will not continue onto another page. Position your cursor at the end of the article, click Symbol on the Insert menu, choose the symbol you want, and then click Insert. Borders You can use page borders and text box borders to change the appearance of your newsletter. Borders on text boxes help keep different articles separate, and can set off sidebar articles from the rest of the page. To change a text box border, select it, double click its edge and choose the Colors and Lines tab in the Format Auto Shape dialog box.

Send us your News WRNAMME Speaks is published quarterly and designed to inform members of what is happening in the region. If you have information you would like published please send it to WRNAMME Speaks at kren@hawaii.edu. Download the HCOP and COE logo You can now down the Health Careers Opportunity Program and Center of Excellence Logos. If you receive funding from either of these programs, you can use these logos on stationery, t-shirts and mugs. Visit the following URL to down load the logos. http://bhpr.hrsa.gov/dhpd/resources.htm