Education
Education Projects
We’ve invested deeply in educating the public and health professionals on our issues—health, racial, and social inequities, climate crisis, toxics, and nuclear weapons abolition—through dozens of presentations at medical schools, hospitals, and community events. We’ve also launched a new student internship to mentor and train young health professionals in leadership and policy advocacy.
To learn more about how to join our education efforts, please visit our Volunteer page.
For more information about our public Events Series, including our Racial Equity Reading Group and links to recorded events, please visit our Events page.
MEDICAL SCHOOL CURRICULUM
Our members spearheaded the initial environmental health curriculum at the University of California, San Francisco and Stanford medical schools which has now grown to include many more faculty and students nationwide. These efforts include environmental health electives, student projects, and the ultimate goal of interweaving environmental health throughout the entire national medical school curriculum. Toward that goal, SF Bay PSR members mentored several of the students who launched the Planetary Health Report Card, a tool designed to encourage medical schools to include environmental health in their curriculum.
PUBLIC EDUCATION
SF Bay PSR members are dedicated to providing educational opportunities for health professionals and the general public such as courses, webinars, and panel discussions.
2020 HIGHLIGHTS
In addition to launching our own events series, SF Bay PSR members developed, implemented, and participated in dozens of educational opportunities. Some highlights include:
- SF Bay PSR public Events Series with a special focus on the connections between climate change, systemic racism, and health inequities. Our events page includes a calendar of our live, online events and recordings of past events.
- Mini-Medical School for the Public at UCSF, now available online, The Health Emergency of Climate Change, and The Health Emergency of Our Changing Climate Part 2: Evolving Public Health Strategies in the 21st Century
- NorCal Symposium on Climate Change and Pandemic Resilience in Health Care
- American Public Health Association’s Annual Conference
- Collaborative on Health and the Environment’s (CHE) webinar series, Generation Chemical: How Environmental Exposures are Affecting Reproductive Health and Development
- Environmental Health curriculum continues to be developed and integrated into the greater M.D. curriculum with the help of enthusiastic medical students at Stanford and UCSF medical schools.
- SF Bay PSR Board member Dr. Tom Newman received a 2019-2020 Outstanding Lecture Award from the UCSF School of Medicine for his lecture “The Health Emergency of our Changing Climate.”
- In addition SF Bay PSR members are working within the American Academy of Pediatrics to develop climate change health education for board recertification, and a climate-focused break out session at an upcoming AAP conference; leading efforts within the American Academy of Dermatology to create webinars and a special issue of the International Journal of Women’s Dermatology dedicated to the topic of climate change and dermatology; and working within the Sierra Club, to develop a climate and health literacy curriculum within the Oakland school district.
INTERNSHIPS
Our internship program is designed to teach the next generation of healthcare professionals activism, leadership, and advocacy skills in our areas of concentration: nuclear weapons abolition, climate change, environmental health, and intersecting social and racial justice issues.
APPLICATION
Application deadline for Summer-Fall internships: May 1, 2021
Who can apply? Primarily public health, pre-med, medical, nursing, or other students (enrolled or in between degrees) who are interested in incorporating activism into their professional health career.
Student interns are directly supervised by SF Bay PSR’s communications specialist and will be afforded mentorship opportunities by the chapter president, SF Bay PSR’s board of directors, and other members.
Internships are usually six months long. Interns are paid an hourly rate of $15 and classified as a non-exempt employee. Work hours fluctuate from 5-7 hours per week with some evening meetings and events.
In addition to a special project, mentorship, and educational activities, interns will learn how activists collaborate and nonprofits function via assisting with taking minutes at committee meetings, tracking and researching policies, helping with events and/or newsletters, and some assistance with scheduling, among other duties.
Please send a resume and cover letter with two references to tara@sfbaypsr.org.
REMEMBERING DR. TOM HALL
The internship program is made possible by a generous gift from the late Dr. Thomas Livingston Hall and his family. A dedicated PSR member, Tom received his MD and MPH from Harvard and was subsequently awarded a Doctor of Public Health in International Health from Johns Hopkins University, where he was on the faculty until 1971. Tom was also on the faculty of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where his health-related career involved providing clinical services in rural Puerto Rico, national health workforce planning studies via the World Health Organization, directing a population studies center at UNC, directing a health care planning office in Seattle, and several years of health planning in New Zealand. In 1986, Dr. Hall came to San Francisco, and from 1988 to 1996 he directed a postdoctoral training program in HIV/AIDS prevention research at UC San Francisco. After retirement, he volunteered to teach and mentor in global health, and until his death, he worked with the Consortium of Universities for Global Health.