Joint Medical Program alumna & student named 40 Under 40 Leaders in Minority Health
- 3 min. read ▪ Published
Joint Medical Program student Vishalli Loomba and alumna Monica Ulhee Hahn, MD, MPH, MS, were both named 2021 “40 Under 40 Leaders in Minority Health” by the National Minority Quality Forum.
Published annually since 2016, the list honors 40 minority health leaders under the age of 40 who have been leading the charge to better patient outcomes and build sustainable healthy communities. These leaders are clinicians, patient advocates, researchers, and policy makers.
Despite the unexpected trials in health care in 2021, the 40 leaders chosen in 2021 persevered in strengthening their communities and reducing health disparities.
Monica U. Hahn earned her MPH through the UC Berkeley-UCSF Joint Medical Program in 2006 and her MD from UCSF in 2011. She is currently an associate clinical professor at UCSF in the Departments of Family & Community Medicine and OBGYN and the director of inquiry and evaluation for the UCSF Programs in Medical Education-Urban Underserved Program (PRIME-US). In her role at PRIME-US program and the UCSF Family & Community Medicine Residency Program, Hahn’s work centers on advancing anti-oppression and Critical Race Theory frameworks in medical education and training programs. She is a co-founder of the Institute for Healing and Justice in Medicine, a hub that re-imagines the health and medicine landscape as one that centers healing, justice, and community, where national advocacy working groups, research, and resources are housed.
“I am grateful to be in community with other inspiring past and present NMQF 40 under 40 honorees who are phenomenal leaders in actualizing health equity,” said Hahn. “I am honored to be recognized alongside these many health equity leaders whose critically important work all too often is under-appreciated, as much work to advance racial equity is often invisible and is not traditionally valued in our healthcare institutions the way it should be.”
Vishalli Loomba is a first-year MD/MS student in the Joint Medical Program and is also one of four students in the JMP who are in the PRIME-US Program for students specifically interested in working with underserved communities. Prior to starting the JMP, her research focus was on trauma-informed primary care and addressing Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) in healthcare. Her current focus is on developing and implementing trauma-informed mental health interventions for pediatric populations and she is part of an interdisciplinary working group, led by students in the School of Social Work and the School of Public Policy at UC Berkeley, that is supporting the work of the Anti-Police Terror Project (APTP) to reimagine public safety in Oakland.
“I am so grateful and humbled to be included in a group of such inspiring leaders committed to bold action to achieve health equity and racial justice,” said Loomba.
The National Minority Quality Forum was founded in 1998 to address the critical need for strengthening national and local efforts to use evidence-based, data-driven initiatives to guide programs to eliminate the disproportionate burden of premature death and preventable illness for racial and ethnic minorities and other special populations.