Summer 2017, Dr. Ferrer was new on the job as Director of LA County Public Health, and lit up the NML West Conference room with her vision of what LA County healthcare could, can, and will be on her watch.
So we are delighted that she returns this year to share her progress over the past year with us.
Here’s what she said in an interview in May:
“Our 35,000-member workforce across the Health Agency are deeply committed and skilled professionals, with a passion for caring for our most vulnerable residents. As we acknowledge our need to focus on preventing disease (and not only healing), we will all need to embark on a learning journey to acquire or strengthen the skills to do health equity work. For example, we all need to build our skills around respecting and honoring diversity, including cultural humility and linguistic competency. We need to know how to confidently speak about racism and its generational impact on health, while simultaneously elevating the voices and experiences of the people we serve. We need to figure out how to defer to and embrace community leadership. People have the inherent capacity to understand themselves, their circumstances, and the solutions to address their challenges and we must be prepared to create spaces for meaningful ongoing interaction and problem solving.
“As our academic and workforce training partners help prepare the next generation of healthcare workers, our hope is that increased opportunities will be available for under-represented youth and residents to participate in health career training and academic programming, so that the health care workforce represents the diversity of the residents we serve. We would ask that an emphasis is placed on creating career paths that honor lived experience and reflect team learning through a culture of continuous improvement.”
Q & A WITH COMMISSIONER FERRER, California Future Health Workforce Commission, May 15, 2018
Places at the luncheon are dwindling, so please don’t delay registering for the July 19, 2018 event at HSC. Registration closes at noon on July 16.
Dr. Barbar Ferrer
Thursday, July 19, 2018, Noon to 1:30, Norris Library West Conference Room.
Click here to Register
