Diversity and Inclusion

Since its inception in 2019, the D&I Committee has gained a foothold within KP San Diego’s Emergency Medicine Department. The founding residents were Drs. Charles Grant III, Chad Correa, and Maria De Lourdes Sturchler. As an intern, Dr. Charles Grant III had a desire to further diversity recruitment efforts as well as nurture cultural competency education implemented throughout the formal curriculum. After discussing these interests with the residency leadership, Charles organized and led the residents that were interested along with faculty advisors, Drs. Quetzalsol Chacon-Lopez, Jenny Chua-Tuan, and Matthew Silver. After forming the mission statement and goals the committee was formalized with support from residency and faculty leadership. Partnerships were formed with the KP Family Medicine Residency Program and KP's regional Equity, Inclusion & Diversity efforts.

At Kaiser Permanente, we value the collaboration and respect between individuals that make us stronger, and we cherish the differences that make us richer. Diversity, inclusion, and culturally competent medical care are defining characteristics of Kaiser Permanente's past, present, and future. Our Diversity and Inclusion Committee is dedicated in recruiting, developing, and retaining emergency medicine residents who are committed to eagerly serving our diverse patient population of Southern California.

Scholarships are available for medical students interested in making an impact in diverse communities. Check out our EMpowerED Scholarship and the Oliver Goldsmith, M.D. Scholarship. The Empowered Scholarship is our KPEM specific scholarship that opens mid January to early February yearly and provides a $1000 towards room, board, and expenses, mentorship, and a rotation opportunity at KP San Diego Emergency Medicine Residency Program. The Oliver Goldsmith, M.D. Scholarship application is open November to January yearly. Awardees receive a $5,000 scholarship funded by KPSC Community Benefit, mentoring from a Kaiser Permanente clinician, and a clinical rotation at a Kaiser Permanente facility.

Matriculating residents can take advantage of the KP Southern California Global Health Program. It is a resident scholarship that aims to support your passion for underserved care whether locally or internationally.

KPEM DEI Committee Leadership

Current DEI Committee Leadership: Co-Chairs

• Edgar Vega, MD

• Kevin Cabrera, DO

Previous Committee Leadership

• 2023/2024: Co-Chairs: Arpita Gupta MD and Marlene Alfaro, MD

• 2022/2023: Chair: Jawad Arshad MD, Co-Chair - Marlene Alfaro, MD

• 2021/2022 Chair: Kayla Conover, MD

• 2018-2021: Charles Grant III, MD (Founding Resident and Committee Chair)

Faculty Sponsors

• Quetzalsol “Sol” Chacón-López, MD, MPH, KPEM Faculty Director of D&I

• Chad Correa, MD, Faculty Advisor

• Matthew Silver, MD, Program Director

Resident Diversity Initiatives, Volunteerism, and Community Outreach

• “Doc-4-A-Day, KP Emergency Medicine Academy ”. Chula Vista middle school students are hosted for a hands-on event based out of our simulation lab. Activities are organized by our Toxicology, Ultrasound, and Sim Faculty.

  • 2025 event organizer: Edgar Vega, MD

  • 2024 event organizer: Marlene Alfaro, MD

  • 2023 event organizer / founder: Kimberly Allen, MD

• EMpowerED Scholarship. Cofounded by Kevin Cabrera DO and Edgar Vega MD (2024).  The scholarship aims to support and promote diversity in medical students interesting in pursuing a career in Emergency Medicine.

• Legislative Advocacy Panel. Featuring Paul Hegyi (CEO of the San Diego County Medical Society), Dr. Tanya Spirtos (California Medical Association- President), and Dr. Will Tseng (KP San Diego Government Relations Lead), Alexandra Kursinskis MD (2023/2024 Kaiser Permanente Southern California Government Relations Resident Leader, 2023/2024 San Diego County Medical Society Resident Director)

• Unity for Orphans Tijuana Toy Drive: Led by Marlene Alfaro MD 2023/2022. 

• 2022 Podcast Book Club Chat “The 1619 Project.”. Arpita Gupta MD and Marlene Alfaro MD

• 2021 Bonfire Book Club Chat. Uncovering the Hidden Prejudice That Shapes What We See, Think, and Do. -Kayla Conover MD

• Student National Medical Association (SNMA) National Leadership Institute at KP San Diego- January 2020. Charles G. Grant III MD

Partnering with SNMA to host and coordinate a quarterly Leadership Institute at KP San Diego for approximately 80-100 students. Meeting are held in various parts of the nation focused on training national physician leaders of tomorrow in multiple areas such as advocacy, leadership skills, and effective communication.

• Kaiser Permanente Women in Medicine Board Member and Conference Organizer- 2019. Maria De Lourdes Sturchler MD (Chief Resident)

KP WIM in an organization that aspires to empower women as physicians and men as their allies, to provide education surrounding relevant issues of WIM, and to promote networking opportunities and skill development events to facilitate the leadership promotion of WIM.

Health Disparities Lecture Series

founded by the 2020 DEI Committee

Institute a wide range of monthly, short, interactive lectures touching on topics such as health disparities, implicit bias, non traditional healthcare and gender and leadership. Topics have included:

• “Why We Protest?” - Edgar Vega MD

• “Si se puede!- Presentation on Latino Health.” - Marlene Alfaro MD, 2024 Senior Grand Rounds presentation

• “2023 LMSA National Conference”- Recruitment trip update and a discussion regarding underrepresented minorities in medicine. - Drs. Kevin Cabrera and Edgar Vega

• “Shared Identities- How do you identify?” - Arpita Gupta MD

• “Promoting Diversity and Inclusion in Medicine: Piloting a Doc-4-A-Day program and Lessons Learned.” - Kim Allen MD

• “Microaggressions- Subtle interactions with Huge Effects.” Quetzalsol F. Chacon-Lopez MD, MPH

• “The Do’s and Don’ts of Treating Muslim Patients.” Sari Lahham MD

• “Black Health Disparities” Sari Lahham MD

• "Equity, Inclusion and Diversity in Medicine"- Lisa Moreno Walton MD, President of AAEM

• "Minority Health Disparities"- Charles Grant III MD, Senior Grand Rounds presentation

• “Understanding the Rise in Anti-Asian Violence and Ways to be an Effective Advocate”- Michael Nguyen JD

• “Racism in Medicine”- Charles Grant III MD

• "Mass Incarceration and Its Impact on Health Equity in the US"- Olga Diaz MD Ultrasound Fellow

• "Substance Legislation and Racism"- Jeff Lapoint MD

• "Toxicology of Riot Control Agents"- Jeff Lapoint MD

• “Covid's Magnifying Effect On Health Disparities” - Quetzalsol F. Chacon-Lopez MD, MPH

• "Caring for Transgender Patients in the ED"- Kayla Conover MD

• “Latino Patients in the ED”- Chad Correa MD

• “Implicit Bias in Healthcare”- Maria De Lourdes Sturchler MD

4) Faculty/Resident Projects

• Examining the Relationship Between Early Positive Exposure and Underrepresented Minority (URM) Adolescent Attitudes Towards Medicine- 2022-2023. Kimberly Allen MD

  A group of local 7th grade students are invited to SIM lab for a fun day of empowering, hands-on medical learning taught by faculty and residents. Using principles of the Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB), two clinically proven variables for improving URM attitudes and participation in the pre-medical pipeline are utilized: 1) early positive exposure to the field of medicine (2) adult encouragement, in hopes of increasing students’ self-perceived potential of entering the medical field.

• Applicant Recruitment Project- Quetzalsol F. Chacon-Lopez MD, MPH & Jenny Chua-Tuan MD, MBA

  • In conjunction with the core resident faculty and applicant interviewers, we aim to provide a more diverse voice in the recruitment and retention strategy for our program. Our overarching goal is to recruit and train emergency medicine residents who come from diverse backgrounds.

• Kaiser Permanente's Hippocrates Circle Program- Edward Serna MD

  • Program providing 7th and 8th graders from Southern Californian under-represented communities and diverse backgrounds with awareness that a career as a physician is possible.