Questions and Answers

2009 Champions of Health Professions Diversity Award Honorees

Guillermo J. Camacho

Q: When did you decide to become a dentist?

A: When I was a student at Cal Poly Pomona, I benefited from the services provided by the SEES (Science Educational Enhancement Services) program. They had a mentorship program where students met with doctors on a quarterly basis to see what they were doing and if we wanted to pursue a similar career. I was fortunate that there was a dentist who had volunteered to participate in the program. I was able to team up with that dentist, which helped me out a lot in making sure that this was the career for me. Now I’m able to give back. I attend their events and speak to students about health careers, my experiences in dentistry and about winning in life.

Q: What is your experience as a Latino practicing in this field?

A: When I attend dental conferences, I rarely see Latinos—even though we are the majority in the state’s population. I don't feel awkward about that; I feel privileged that I’m actually one of the few. Hopefully, programs like SEES will encourage more Latinos to go into health fields. I think it is important to increase the number of Latinos in the health care professions, especially in communities where a lot of patients speak Spanish. It’s about providing better patient care. It’s important to communicate in the patient’s language as much as possible.

Q: How can we increase diversity in the health professions?

A: In order to significantly increase the number of underrepresented health professionals, we have to plant the idea in students early on in their school years. The SEES program helps increase the number of underrepresented students entering these fields by networking with high school students through conferences or science clubs that incorporate a pre-med, pre-dent [pre-dental] component. High school career counselors need to be involved in this effort too.

Q: What do you like most about being a dentist?

A: Our hands can literally heal patients. Patients come to us in pain and we can control that. Within an hour or so, we can get somebody out of pain. We don't prescribe medicine like our partners in the medical field do. I find it rewarding to do something quickly to help people when they have pain and other dental health issues.

Shirley Flores-Muñoz

Q: How can we encourage more Latino students to enter health professions?

A: Many of our students do not have parents at home who’ve gone to college. Many of them don’t have access to computers. They don’t have a parent who can tell them what courses they need to take to transfer or to help them write papers. I had three years to put together a program that would make a difference. I decided to go off the charts and not limit the program to just recruitment. The Pathways to Health Careers program has four parts to it—recruitment, student success, leadership and mentorship.

Q: What motivated you to establish the Pathways to Health Careers program?

A: About eight years before I started this project, I remember going to a college-organized “Senior Day” event at a local high school. It was supposed to have community-based groups there to give resources to students. The only groups present were Cabrillo College and the Army, both recruiting equally. I went home and I almost cried because I thought there are 600 students who are the neediest and get the least. I created Pathways to Health Careers to present more and more positive career options for disadvantaged students.

Q: What role do you believe the community colleges play for low-income and underrepresented minority students?

A: Well, if we don’t give them what they need, no one else will. I’ve been teaching for 30 years and I know that my students will transform me as a teacher. I have a curriculum that I follow in history and in women’s studies, but I also hear things from students like, “I don’t know how to write a paper,” or “I don’t know how to conduct research.” I listen and teach what the students need to learn. Sometimes I have to give incompletes. Sometimes I have to make them take tests over again. Sometimes I have to sit down with them and hold their hands to get them through what they need to learn. But I will not send them away.

Q: How do community college students benefit from choosing a career in health?

A: There are very few jobs at Target or through local employment agencies. The community college is a place of opportunity and hope for students. It’s a place where all students can get some skills and improve their chances in life. Opportunities in health care are expanding, and it is a solid career option for our students.

Tomás A. Magaña

Q: What drives you to promote diversity in the health workforce?

A: I first became interested in the idea of a pipeline program when I was a young person. I was the first in my family to go to college and I didn’t really have any role models that could have helped me to understand all the possibilities in terms of career options. My interest in the program evolved when I was in medical school. I saw the disparities that existed in the diverse communities that we serve. I was also kind of taking a look around me and saw there was a huge disparity in terms of representation—because there were relatively few people of color in my medical school class. Being Latino, I was called upon much more than my peers to work with some patients who presented to our clinics.

The opportunity arose when I graduated from medical school to have some time off, and I really wanted to commit myself to a project working with young people whose backgrounds were similar to mine. That’s when the idea of the FACES (Forum for Adolescent Advocacy, Community Education and Support) program came to mind. I decided to find young people from the inner cities who normally would not have an opportunity to explore health careers and take them to the hospital to give them some career insights.

Q: Talk more about the communities you work in.

A: When we talk about my peers and our community, the statistics speak for themselves. You can look at the health and educational statistics of communities like East Los Angeles, East Oakland, Richmond and East Palo Alto—folks from these communities don’t generally do well because the opportunities and the resources aren't there. Poverty is a hard thing. You can’t simply just provide something; you have to give them the pathway to get there. You can’t just tell a young person that they can become a doctor or a nurse. They see that on television or in the media, but they don't really understand how to get there. There are so many obstacles in their lives that can distract them. You have to provide them with some pathway and support so that they can ultimately get there. As educational resources are suffering, as after-school resources are being taken away, more and more young people are feeling lost and disconnected.

Q: What are some of the health challenges that face at-risk youth?

A: As a pediatrician, and particularly a physician who primarily serves adolescents, I’m made aware daily of the realities of what's happening to our young people. Nationally, the three leading causes of death among adolescents are accidental trauma, homicide and suicide. So, on a daily basis, I'm not thinking about cancer, tuberculosis or asthma as things that could threaten the young people I work with. The reality and the common theme through all of that is that these causes of death are all preventable. With appropriate programs and strategies, we can reduce the health threats to our most at-risk youth.