The California Wellness Foundation is proud to honor its 2009 Champions of Health Professions Diversity awardees. Each will receive a $25,000 grant acknowledging his commitment to increasing diversity in the health professions.

Guillermo J. Camacho
As a beneficiary of college programs that encouraged diversity in the health professions, Dr. Guillermo J. Camacho makes it a priority to give back to the community that helped him achieve his goal of becoming a dentist. Camacho provides pro bono dental services to students in need and reaches out to students of color who are interested in health careers at California State Polytechnic University, Pomona. He is currently a neuromuscular cosmetic dentist with his own practice, Sunset Dental Professionals, in West Covina.

Shirley Flores-Muñoz
Dr. Shirley Flores-Muñoz founded and serves as program director of Pathways to Health Careers, a program at Cabrillo College organized to recruit and support underrepresented and first-generation college students who pursue health careers. In the last five years alone, Pathways to Health Careers has encouraged more than 3,000 students to engage in health-related subjects and activities. She is also a professor of women’s studies and history at Cabrillo College.

Tomás A. Magaña
A passionate advocate for health workforce diversity, Dr. Tomás A. Magaña has dedicated himself to helping youth empower themselves to pursue careers in health care. Magaña was deeply affected by the lack of diversity he experienced throughout his medical training. In an effort to correct that, he co-founded the FACES for the Future program at Children’s Hospital & Research Center Oakland (CHRCO) in 2000. FACES for the Future is a comprehensive program that prepares high school students from disadvantaged areas for entry into health careers through services such as internships, mentorship and psycho-social support. Magaña is also an attending physician of adolescent medicine at CHRCO and medical director of Alameda County’s Juvenile Justice Center.