The Latino Medical Student Association is a national organization that traces its roots back to the 1970s. The Stanford Medicine chapter is one of more than a dozen chapters in California. .
New leadership and visibility for Latino/a and Latinx physicians has come from Stanford Medicine students, faculty, and staff who have pioneered new forms of education, research, and clinical care for their communities. Building organizations to support one another has been an important part of that work. For faculty, there are the Latino Faculty Advocacy Meetings as well as the Stanford-wide La Raza Staff Association. For students, there is the Stanford chapter of the Latino Medical Student Association and services provided by Stanford Medicine’s Office of Diversity in Medical Education.
Faces of leadership at Stanford Medicine (left to right): Dr. Felipe De Jesus Perez (Assistant Dean for Diversity in Medical Student Education) with then-students Margarita Ramirez Silva, Lizette Grajales, Elisa Padron, Samuel Castro, Omar Núñez, and Trevor Hollinger; joined by Mark Gutierrez (Director and Leadership Educator, Office of Diversity in Medical Education) and Dr. Cesar Padilla (Clinical Associate Professor, Anesthesiology, Perioperative and Pain Medicine, and Co-Chair of the inaugural Council of Anesthesiology for the National Hispanic Medical Association).
La Clínica Latina in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences and the Latinx Family Advisory Council are examples of programs designed to improve clinical care for Latino/a and Latinx patients.
Stanford MD student Margarita Ramirez Silva (left) with Dr. Diana Ramos, the first Latina Surgeon General of California, in the Diversity Center of Representation and Empowerment (D-CORE) in Lane Library, 2023.
Stanford anesthesiologist and echocardiographist Dr. Cesar Padilla and others have done advocacy work through the annual Día Nacional de los Médicos Latinos / National Latino Physicians Day, held every October 1.
Latina student leadership at Stanford Medicine (left to right, back row): Leslie Ramos Carndenas, Jannely Villareal, Bianca Martin, Mary Lopez Isidro, Natalia Zamora, and Ana Montalvo Landivar; (left to right, front row): Maria Valentina Suarez Nieto, Kelly Tellez, Athenna Menjivar,
Nataly Montaño, and Karyna Bravo. National Latino Physicians Day, 2023.
Inside Lane Medical Library, the Diversity Center of Representation and Empowerment (D-CORE) is a community space for events and programming. The library itself - including the Medical History Center - provides resources and services for students, faculty and staff interested in Latino/a and Latinx healthcare.