Stanford Report, October 3, 2007

Students' community work in the limelight at campus forum

BY TRACIE WHITE

From AIDS activism in Africa to the mental health of high school students in San Jose, the School of Medicine will showcase a variety of community outreach by students over the past year at the annual Fall Forum on Community Health and Public Service on Oct. 9.

"This is a great opportunity to learn about some of the amazing work students are doing around Stanford and internationally," said medical student Sarah Juul, co-coordinator of the event. "It's amazing how many cool things are going on."

The free event is open to the public and will feature several service and partnership projects by Stanford medical students, undergraduates and physicianassistant students in underserved communities both at home and around the world. It takes place at 5 p.m. at McCaw Hall in the Arrillaga Alumni Center.

Coordinated by medical students, the forum is sponsored by the medical school's Office of Community Health. The 2-year-old community health office has recently hired a new executive director in an ongoing effort to bolster exactly this type of student presence in the community, said Ann Banchoff, program director of the Office of Community Health.

"My goal is to continue to increase Stanford students' exposure to community health," said Rhonda McClinton-Brown, the new executive director starting Nov. 1. For the past 10 years, she has been executive director of the Community Health Partnership of Santa Clara County, a nonprofit organization that works with community health centers to expand access to health services for the medically underserved. "I'm proud of the commitment Stanford has made to community health."

Presentations at the forum will range from a discussion of students' work fighting AIDS in South Africa to spearheading a hepatitis prevention campaign within the Asian community locally.

"I think at Stanford there is a lot of encouragement of basic science research," Juul said. "The forum is a place where students doing community-based research can get some of this same recognition."

The presentations will conclude with keynote speaker Mimi Doohan, MD. A medical school alumna, Doohan is co-founder of Doctors Without Walls, a Santa Barbara nonprofit dedicated to providing volunteer medical care to the homeless.