By Eric Brooks
To lead one mentee is plenty of work in itself.
To have dozens at UC San Francisco and beyond is something else entirely. That’s the mark Christina Mangurian, MD, MAS, has left on countless lives – and no one knows that better than Lucy Ogbu-Nwobodo, MD, MS, MAS.
”Christina is beyond amazing,” said Ogbu-Nwobodo, assistant clinical professor of psychiatry in the UCSF Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, associate program director of the UCSF Adult Psychiatry Residency Training Program, director of the UCSF Post Baccalaureate and Outreach Programs, and medical director of the UCSF Alliance Health Project.
Ogbu-Nwobodo first joined UCSF two years ago as both a full-time faculty member and part of the Public Psychiatry Fellowship, which Mangurian herself co-founded. While she had “known about Christina for many years” before coming to UCSF, Ogbu-Nwobodo’s experience working up close and personal with her exceeded those expectations.
“She makes you feel like she has all the time in the world for you,” Ogbu-Nwobodo said. “It’s a really special gift that she has.”
When she completed the fellowship, Mangurian recruited Ogbu-Nwobodo to join the core faculty, where she’s now associate program director. Today, the two continue their work together, including publishing a new perspective in the New England Journal of Medicine about the impact of a recent U.S. Supreme Court ruling on the Constitution’s protections for abortion on marginalized groups with mental illness. They’re also working to expand mental health services for disadvantaged communities through partnerships with leadership in several Bay Area counties and a new partnership with the California Department of State Hospitals.
Christina Mangurian, MD, MAS, center, honored with the 2024 Harold S. Luft Award for Mentoring in Health Services and Health Policy Research, joined by nominators Marilyn Thomas, PhD, MPH, left, and Lucy Ogbu-Nwobodo, MD, MS, MAS, right, at the UCSF Mission Bay campus. Photo by Susan Merrell
Building relationships
Ogbu-Nwobodo’s story is one of many just like it.
That’s why Mangurian was recently recognized with the Harold S. Luft Award for Mentoring in Health Services and Health Policy Research.
“It’s about your relationship with someone, and that you’re standing with them to help guide them to achieve their goals,” Mangurian said. “I’ve had a lot of different kinds of mentees. Some want to do research. Some want to be clinician leaders. Some want to be educators. It’s my job to help them find out what fills their cup and help them get there.”
Mangurian, a native of Maryland, first came to UCSF in 1997 shortly after graduating with a degree in biology from Reed College in Portland, Oregon. She started as a research assistant at the Institute for Health Policy Studies, hired by Lisa Bero, PhD – ironically the first person to ever receive the Harold S. Luft Award in 2009. In 1999, Mangurian started medical school at UCSF.
“I’m somebody that likes to keep my doors open,” she said of the choice to enroll at UCSF. “I felt like I could do a lot of different things as a physician, taking care of patients, doing research, teach, and even making a film if I wanted to.”
While she’s not yet made that film (her husband is actually a documentary filmmaker), she’s produced a career worthy of the big screen.
From left to right: Lucy Ogbu-Nwobodo, MD, MS, MAS, Christina Mangurian, MD, MAS, Marilyn Thomas, PhD, MPH, Brittany Bryant, DSW, LCSW, and Paul Wesson, PhD, at the UCSF Nancy Friend Pritzker Psychiatry Building. Photo by Susan Merrell
Mangurian has grown into a national leader in health services research focusing on improving medical care for people with serious mental illness. As a Latina physician scientist, she has also mobilized first-hand experience to understand opportunity gaps in academic medicine for historically excluded faculty. In fact, she has become nationally recognized for her research and leadership in promoting equity among faculty in academic medicine.
Mangurian is currently vice dean for Faculty and Academic Affairs in the UCSF School of Medicine, professor in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences and holds the Lynne and Marc Benioff Endowed Chair in Psychiatry. She’s also core faculty at the UCSF Center for Vulnerable Populations and affiliate faculty in the Philip R. Lee Institute for Health Policy Studies.
‘Means the world to me’
It’s not just titles that have made Mangurian who she is.
She’s also the founder of multiple programs at UCSF.
That extensive list at UCSF includes WARM Hearts, the Public Psychiatry Fellowship and the Mid-Career Faculty Development Program.
“She’s someone who’s really good at developing and sustaining impactful programs,” Ogbu-Nwobodo said. “I’ve never met someone who’s as prolific as she is in thinking things through and creating ways to keep those things going. She starts them and she also sustains them for the long run.”
