My name is Molly Tavella and I would like to introduce myself as the 2010-2011 John Shearer Student Fellow. The fellowship was recently renamed to honor longtime PNHP California activist, John Shearer and was broadened to include public health and public policy students as well as medical students. I recently received my MPH from UC Davis.
The California Health Professional Student Alliance (CaHPSA) is proud to announce that it is now an autonomous student program of PNHP California. This change was made because of the staff support, financial support and legal support that PNHP California offers to CaHPSA each year.
Our statewide CaHPSA student leadership team is doing their best to advocate for single payer, grow our membership base, raise awareness and educate their fellow students. If any PNHP members are faculty at a college or university and would like to get more involved with CaHPSA, or get connected to a CaHPSA chapter near you, or if you would like me to come make a presentation to your students, please email me at molly@pnhpcalifornia.org.
CaHPSA is also looking forward to the Northern California CaHPSA Conference: SB810: the Future of Health Care Reform, coming up on October 23rd at UCSF. Several PNHP physicians will present including, Dr. Jim Kahn, Dr. Bill Skeen, and Dr. Claudia Chaufan. We are also planning our Southern California CaHPSA Conference, taking place on November 14th at UCLA. The Southern Conference will feature Dr. Matt Hendrickson, Dr. Paul Song, and Dr. Jeoffry B. Gordon. We are also looking forward to our annual CaHPSA Lobby Day, taking place in Sacramento on January 9th and 10th, 2011.
As the Shearer Student Fellow, I have made several presentations at schools both in Northern California and Southern California, and am planning a trip in late October to make more presentations down South. I have also gone to two AMSA conferences in Las Vegas, NV, and Davis, CA, where I made contact with premed students from several California Schools who were interested in starting a chapter.
Schools where CaHPSA chapters are currently active include USC, UCLA, and Western University. There are also active student groups at UC Davis, UC Berkeley, UC San Diego, CSU Sacramento, Stanford, and several other schools that work under another organization name. We also have the beginnings of a chapter at Samuel Merritt University, UC Irvine, and UC Santa Cruz. I will work hard this coming year to help our campus chapters continue to grow.