Population health seeks to understand how biological, behavioral, environmental, social, and structural factors affect health. This knowledge is used to design interventions to improve health for individuals, communities, and populations, and eliminate inequities in health. As Vice Dean for Population Health and Health Equity in the UCSF School of Medicine, Kirsten Bibbins-Domingo, PhD, MD, MAS supports the strong community of investigators, educators, and clinicians in the many disciplines involved in population health to come together, learn from each other, and accelerate the impact UCSF can have in improving the health of communities and populations.
In addition to the work across the usual academic missions, advancing population health and health equity can only be accomplished with a strong alliance with our clinical partners, including UCSF Health, ZSFGH, and the VAMC, as well as community organizations and public health stakeholders. This series will introduce you to those doing vital work in health equity across UCSF.
Our first guest is Dr. Hilary Seligman, MD, MAS is Professor at the University of California San Francisco with appointments in the Departments of Medicine and of Epidemiology and Biostatistics.
Dr. Seligman directs the National Clinician Scholars Program at UCSF, School of Medicine. NCSP aims to offer unparalleled training for clinicians as change agents driving policy-relevant research and partnerships to improve health and health care. The goal of the program is to cultivate health equity, eliminate health disparities, invent new models of care, and achieve higher quality health care at lower cost by training nurse and physician-researchers who work as leaders and collaborators embedded in communities, healthcare systems, government, foundations, and think tanks in the United States and around the world (https://nationalcsp.org/).
Dr. Seligman is an expert in food insecurity and its health implications across the life course. Her policy and advocacy expertise focus on federal nutrition programs (particularly SNAP), food banking and the charitable food network, hunger policy, food affordability and access, and income-related drivers of food choice. She directs the Food Policy, Health, and Hunger Research Program at UCSF’s Center for Vulnerable Populations at Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital and the CDC’s Nutrition and Obesity Policy, Research and Evaluation Network. She also serves as Senior Medical Advisor for Feeding America.
Dr. Seligman founded EatSF, a healthy foods voucher program for low-income residents of San Francisco. Dr. Seligman serves on the Board of Directors for California Food Policy Advocates and the San Francisco-Marin Food Bank. She also serves on the Food Security Task Force for the City and County of San Francisco. She is a Fellow of the American College of Physicians.