Biographies

2006 Champions of Health Professions Diversity Award Honorees

José A. Arévalo, MD

An ardent advocate for diversity in health professions, Dr. José A. Arévalo has founded many programs designed to recruit, retain and support Latino doctors and health professionals. Currently medical director for Sutter Independent Physicians in the Sacramento region, Arévalo is a board-certified family physician who has practiced medicine in a variety of settings, including several community clinics.

When Arévalo served as director of the Medical Student Education Program within the UC Davis Medical School’s Department of Family Practice, he established the Minority Initiative Program, which offered peer mentoring and workshops to minority students in medical school. He was also the lead administrative physician for Clinica Tepati, a student-run health care clinic serving primarily Spanish-speaking Latinos in Sacramento County. He has received numerous awards, including a Lifetime Achievement Award from Clinica Tepati and Teacher of the Year Award from the UC Davis School of Medicine. While in medical school, he helped form California La Raza Medical Association (La RaMA), an organization that encourages Latinos to apply to medical school.

Raised in San Antonio, Texas, Arévalo graduated from UC Berkeley and Stanford Medical School. He completed his residency at UC San Francisco (UCSF) and has served on admissions committees at the Stanford, UCSF and UC Davis Medical Schools. His first experience in the medical field was during the Vietnam War when he trained as a U.S. Navy hospital corpsman. He is a member of the Strategic Planning Committee for the Network of Ethnic Physician Organizations and currently serves as the president of the Sacramento Chapter of the California Latino Medical Association. He has seven children and three grandchildren, and resides with his wife in Rocklin, California.

Rolland C. Lowe, MD

Dr. Rolland C. Lowe is dedicated to encouraging physicians to work within their communities to become advocates for patients. In his own Chinatown-based private practice in San Francisco, Lowe provides high-quality health care to low-income residents and mentors young doctors. He also promotes cultural competency and workforce diversity through public health policy, planning and advocacy both within organized medicine and through his foundation work.

Lowe aided in the formation of the Chinese Community Health Care Association, which helped create a culturally and linguistically appropriate health education center. At the Chinese Hospital, he has held many key positions, including chief of staff and chairman of the board. Lowe was involved in forming the Asian Pacific Islander American Health Forum, a recognized national voice of the Asian Pacific Islander community on health issues. As the first Asian-American president of the California Medical Association (CMA), he advocated for and helped create a voting section for ethnic physicians in the House of Delegates within the CMA. As president of the CMA Foundation, he founded the Network of Ethnic Physician Organizations. Lowe was honored by President and Mrs. Clinton for his philanthropic contributions at the White House Conference on Philanthropy.

A native of San Francisco, Lowe graduated from UC Berkeley and UC San Francisco Medical School. He has held board seats at numerous health, education and community organizations, including the Chinese Cultural Foundation, the United Way of America, the CMA Foundation and the Council on Foundations. Lowe founded and currently serves as chairman of the Lawrence Choy Lowe Memorial Fund, which is named for his father. He has three children and three grandchildren, and lives with his wife in the East Bay.

Patricia Pratt

For more than 25 years, Patricia Pratt has worked with students in programs to increase the number of minority physicians. She is currently the director of academic enrichment and outreach at the David Geffen School of Medicine at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA). She previously directed UCLA’s federally funded Health Career Opportunity Program, during which time she institutionalized its services and personnel.

Pratt was the creator of UCLA PREP, a comprehensive premedical enrichment program for minority and disadvantaged students. The program has become a national model and has produced physicians, researchers and academicians for California and the nation. She also established the UCLA Re-Application Program for disadvantaged students. Each year, Pratt brings the theatrical production of “A Slice of Rice, Frijoles and Greens” to UCLA as a platform for the medical school’s cultural-competence curriculum. Pratt is co-founder and director of C.I.R.C.L.E., a Saturday academy for elementary-school children and their parents. She has received countless awards from such organizations as the Minority Health Conference Council, the Latino Medical Student Association, the Association of American Medical Colleges, the Association of Black Women Physicians, and the Magic Johnson Foundation, Inc.

Born in Chicago, Pratt is the descendant of an abolitionist and an unyielding great-grandmother, who was emancipated from slavery and who defied Jim Crow laws to ensure that her family could read, write and participate in society. Pratt received her undergraduate degree from UCLA. She lives with her daughter in Los Angeles.