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.
Work is important to some people. It’s personal for Manuel Tapia, MD, MPH.
Tapia, an associate professor in the UCSF School of Medicine’s Department of Family and Community Medicine, has been passionate about public service, social justice and health equity throughout his career.
He’s also a staunch advocate for and mentor of underrepresented learners in medicine, from pre-health to medical school – one of the many reasons he works with a cohort of 30 self-identified Latinx students as medical director and faculty advisor at Clínica Martín-Baró in San Francisco.
“It’s extremely personal because of how important my time in student-run clinics in my past institutions were,” Tapia said. “It’s foundationally what exposed me to what a career in medicine could look like. It’s where I met the mentors who changed my life by just stating that it’s possible for you to be a doctor.”
At Clínica Martín-Baró, Tapia and his team promote wellness and address the health needs of the underserved and economically disadvantaged Spanish-speaking community in the Mission district.
Patients are given culturally sensitive access to free health care, psychotherapy and health education in Spanish.
“So many of us who serve in this clinic are either children of immigrants or immigrants ourselves, and that is a very personal giving back that is critical to be in solidarity with these folks,” he said.
Tapia has been at Clínica Martín-Baró since 2017, 10 years after the clinic itself was established.
“Health care can really embrace taking service beyond our clinic walls and into the community in the benefit of providing more excellent care,” he said.
Beyond the Mission district, Tapia’s collaborations with various organizations have had a transformative impact in the Latinx community, part of the fabric that binds his career and lifts up the disadvantaged.
That’s why colleagues across UCSF nominated and selected him to receive the 2024 Thomas N. Burbidge Award for Public Service during the 2024 Founders Day celebration.
“For me, public service is standing outside in the community, getting outside the brick and mortar, and tapping into the wisdom that can be found in the community,” Tapia said. “There are beautiful things that can be created in partnership.”
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.