This story is part of a series celebrating the 2024 Founders Day Awards recipients, which are given to faculty, staff and learners for their exemplary service to the University and to our community at large.
Pediatrician Dayna Long, MD, has been learning about social justice since she was a child.
“It was my responsibility to do good in the world,” said Long, a professor in the Department of Clinical Pediatrics at UCSF Benioff Children’s Hospital Oakland.
With a mission to rid children’s care of disparities serving as a personal and professional backdrop, Long has managed to match medicine and public service for more than 20 years, building experience spearheading public health initiatives that enhance the health of individuals, families and communities.
“It just comes so naturally and I feel like that is what inspires me,” she said.
That commitment is why Long was honored with the 2024 Edison T. Uno Award for Public Service, which recognizes involvement public service activities with social, political or civic groups that promote human rights and bring about social change. The award is named for Uno, the assistant dean of students at UCSF from 1969 to 1974 who was involved in a number of social and political causes, including efforts to repeal the law that permitted the incarceration of Japanese Americans in detention camps.
Long is widely recognized as a trustworthy and accountable leader working to improve the health of under-resourced communities. Her research and advocacy have examined ways to make communities healthier, such as shifting traditional health care practices to team-based models focused on prevention.
As a co-founder of the BLOOM Clinic (Black Love Opportunity and Outcome Improvement in Medicine), Long has done just that in allowing Black patients to see themselves represented in the physicians who care for them. “It’s so powerful because often times as Black people we don’t see ourselves represented,” she said. “When families come to BLOOM, they have Black doctors.”
BLOOM’s diverse and multidisciplinary staff provides primary care to Black families with children up to three years old, including access to a range of services like Black pediatricians, health educators, therapists, navigators, family support specialists and breastfeeding coaches in one location. “There is trust and authenticity and a love that is so palpable,” Long said. “When families walk in, they feel safe. It is that safety that is caused by racially concordant care that will really help us to improve health outcomes.”
People making a difference.
Every Founders Day, UCSF salutes the exemplary service of faculty, staff and learners to the University and the community at large.