FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
January 28, 2003
 

HARVARD PROFESSOR ENCOURAGES STUDENTS AT SUNNYSIDE HIGH DOCTOR’S ACADEMY TO PURSUE HEALTH SCIENCE PROFESSIONS

Joseph Betancourt, MD, MPH, and program director for Multicultural Education and Affairs at Harvard University, will address Sunnyside High School Doctor’s Academy Students in Fresno on Wednesday, January 29, at 10am as a part of the visiting professorship series provided by the University of California, San Francisco, Fresno Latino Center for Medical Education and Research (LACMER). Betancourt hopes to encourage area high school students to pursue careers in the health science professions.

“We are thrilled to have Dr. Betancourt talk to the Doctor’s Academy students,” said Katherine Flores, MD and director of LACMER. “Hearing about how successful he has been with health care as it relates to multicultural issues might influence these culturally diverse students to seek a profession in the health science arena—that is our goal.”

Betancourt will provide a second lecture to UCSF Fresno faculty and medical residents at University Medical Center’s north auditorium at 12:30 pm. Betancourt will discuss the importance of training culturally competent health care providers in our Valley.

“Dr. Betancourt will discuss how a community benefits when it trains its future doctors to serve its ethnically diverse population,” said Flores. “This echoes what we are trying to accomplish with our pipeline of training programs.”

For more information about Joseph R. Betancourt, MD, MPH, LACMER, or UCSF Fresno visiting professors, please contact Cara Peracchi Douglas at 559.288.3257, or Bertha Dominguez at 559.241.7677