By Nicholas Roznovsky
UCSF Psychiatry Vice Chair for Diversity Christina Mangurian, MD, MAS, accepts her 2017 Chancellor Award for Advancement of Women during an awards banquet on October 5. [Photo courtesy UCSF Office of Diversity and Outreach]
UCSF Psychiatry Vice Chair for Diversity Christina Mangurian, MD, MAS, was among the 13 individuals honored at UC San Francisco’s 2017 Chancellor Diversity Awards on October 5. The annual awards recognize campus members who are leaders, activists, and pioneers in the fields and communities that they serve for their work in advancing equity and inclusion. She was selected as one of this year's recipients of the Chancellor Award for Advancement of Women, bestowed annually on three individuals at UCSF – one faculty, one staff, one student/resident/postdoctoral scholar – who have demonstrated outstanding commitment and service to the advancement of women beyond the scope of their job, area of research, or training.
Mangurian is an associate professor of clinical psychiatry and director of the UCSF Public Psychiatry Fellowship at Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital and Trauma Center, as well as the UCSF Program of Research on Mental Health Integration Among Underserved and Minority Populations (PReMIUM) based at the UCSF Center for Vulnerable Populations (CVP). She joined the department's faculty in 2009 and has been a core faculty member at CVP since 2014.
During her time at UCSF, Mangurian has been an outspoken champion of diversity, equity, and inclusion within the department and across the university. In 2010, she founded the Women's Advancement and Recognition in Medicine (WARM) Hearts Group at Zuckerberg San Francisco General. Five years later, she was named as the department's inaugural vice chair for diversity and became chair of the UCSF Psychiatry Diversity Committee, which seeks to further understanding of the impact culture has on psychiatry and assist department leadership in the recruitment and retention of students and faculty from underrepresented populations in order to better serve its diverse patient populations. Under her leadership, the committee has continued its sponsorship of the annual Dr. Evelyn Lee Visiting Scholar Lectureship in Cultural Competence and Diversity, and undertaken a number of new initiatives such as an annual series of diversity celebrations for faculty, staff, and trainees.
“Increasing diversity in the workforce is not only a potential solution for narrowing the gap in health care disparities experienced by racial and ethnic minorities, but also a crucial component for achieving academic excellence,” Mangurian noted in a 2015 interview. “Studies have shown that diversity increases productivity and creativity. Additionally, the more complex a problem, the more necessary diversity of thought is required. Training future leaders from diverse backgrounds in research, education, and clinical work is necessary to make UCSF a leader in the new era of health care reform. My goal is to create an environment in the UCSF Department of Psychiatry where women and minorities thrive.”
Mangurian (center) celebrating with her parents at the awards luncheon. [Photo courtesy UCSF Office of Diversity and Outreach]
As a Latina NIH-funded clinician researcher, the majority of Mangurian’s work has focused on improving medical services for diverse and underserved populations with severe mental illnesses, such as a National Institute of Mental Health-funded Career Development Award focused on improving metabolic screening among diverse populations with severe mental illnesses and a National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases-funded study on the cost-effectiveness of expanding the scope of community psychiatrists to include initial treatment of diabetes and pre-diabetes. She has a successful track record in implementation in the public sector, most notably as a special coordinator for the medical director of the New York State Office of Mental Health, where she worked to implement health screening for 15,000 outpatients served by the New York State public mental health system.
In addition to her research experience, Mangurian co-founded and directs the aforementioned UCSF Public Psychiatry Fellowship at Zuckerberg San Francisco General, the first public psychiatry fellowship in California and the only one in the nation to have a formal mental health services research component. She also serves as the chair of the American Psychiatric Association’s Council on Minority Mental Health and Health Disparities. In 2015, she took part in the White House’s Forum on Excellence and Innovation through Diversity in the STEM Workforce and was also named a UCSF John A. Watson Faculty Scholar.
"Christina is a remarkable person, and she has been really a tireless advocate for the mission of diversity," said department chair Matthew W. State, MD, PhD. "She gets up every day and she thinks about how she's going to try to make things better; better for mothers, better for women. To have someone with her intelligence, her energy, her commitment, and her personal experience helping really to shape concrete efforts in this area has been tremendously helpful."
Mangurian's recognition marks the third year in a row that a department member has been selected to receive a Chancellor Diversity Award, following the 2016 Chancellor Award for Advancement of Women bestowed on Lauren Weiss, PhD, and the 2015 Chancellor Award for Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Leadership bestowed on Markita Mays, LCSW.
About UCSF Psychiatry
The UCSF Department of Psychiatry and the Langley Porter Psychiatric Institute are among the nation's foremost resources in the fields of child, adolescent, adult, and geriatric mental health. Together they constitute one of the largest departments in the UCSF School of Medicine and the UCSF Weill Institute for Neurosciences, with a mission focused on research (basic, translational, clinical), teaching, patient care and public service.
UCSF Psychiatry conducts its clinical, educational and research efforts at a variety of locations in Northern California, including UCSF campuses at Parnassus Heights, Mission Bay and Laurel Heights, UCSF Medical Center, UCSF Benioff Children's Hospitals, Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital and Trauma Center, the San Francisco VA Health Care System and UCSF Fresno.
About the UCSF Weill Institute for Neurosciences
The UCSF Weill Institute for Neurosciences, established by the extraordinary generosity of Joan and Sanford I. "Sandy" Weill, brings together world-class researchers with top-ranked physicians to solve some of the most complex challenges in the human brain.
The UCSF Weill Institute leverages UCSF’s unrivaled bench-to-bedside excellence in the neurosciences. It unites three UCSF departments—Neurology, Psychiatry, and Neurological Surgery—that are highly esteemed for both patient care and research, as well as the Neuroscience Graduate Program, a cross-disciplinary alliance of nearly 100 UCSF faculty members from 15 basic-science departments, as well as the UCSF Institute for Neurodegenerative Diseases, a multidisciplinary research center focused on finding effective treatments for Alzheimer’s disease, frontotemporal dementia, Parkinson’s disease, and other neurodegenerative disorders.
About UCSF
UC San Francisco (UCSF) is a leading university dedicated to promoting health worldwide through advanced biomedical research, graduate-level education in the life sciences and health professions, and excellence in patient care. It includes top-ranked graduate schools of dentistry, medicine, nursing and pharmacy; a graduate division with nationally renowned programs in basic, biomedical, translational and population sciences; and a preeminent biomedical research enterprise. It also includes UCSF Health, which comprises top-ranked hospitals – UCSF Medical Center and UCSF Benioff Children’s Hospitals in San Francisco and Oakland – and other partner and affiliated hospitals and healthcare providers throughout the Bay Area.
