UCSF Family & Community Medicine welcomes two new faculty members this month. Drs. Cindy Saenz and Cazandra Zaragoza have joined FCM's core faculty as Assistant Clinical Professors. Both are graduates and former chief residents of FCM's residency program at UCSF-San Francisco General Hospital and have demonstrated leadership in the recruitment and retention of Latine residents and the development of FCM residency partnerships with local communities.
About Dr. Cindy Saenz
Dr. Saenz will be a core faculty member in the residency program and will serve as Assistant Medical Director of the Family Medicine Inpatient Service. As Assistant Medical Director, Dr. Saenz will be working closely with Medical Director Margaret Stafford and with the residency program leadership to lead the next iteration of the inpatient curriculum. She will also work in ambulatory care and home care, contribute to care improvement projects, attend and supervise care on the inpatient service, and work across disciplines at San Francisco General Hospital to represent our department.
Established in 1979, the Inpatient Service was at the time one of just a handful of family-medicine-led inpatient services in the nation. Dr. Ron Goldschmidt, founding medical director, worked closely with community clinic physicians, behavioral scientists, pharmacists, and nurses to create an environment in which learners could apply a systems-conscious, context-driven, and relationship-centered philosophy to the care of hospitalized patients – one that valued and supported the care of clinicians in the community. To this day, the Inpatient Service is a unique and admired model of outstanding patient care and unmatched interdisciplinary collaboration.
Dr. Saenz graduated from the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, where she was a Primary Care Scholar and a member of the Gold Humanism Honor Society. She completed her Family Medicine Residency at UCSF-San Francisco General Hospital this summer. She was selected from among her peers to serve as a third-year chief resident and worked closely with residency program faculty on improving support structures and curricula to advance trainee experiences and help them best meet their educational goals.
During residency, Dr. Saenz was a key organizer for the NeighborHealth Initiative, helping to build longitudinal relationships between Family Medicine residents and community leaders in Visitacion Valley and Bayview Hunters Point, recruiting neighborhood advisory board members, facilitating quarterly board meetings, and gathering feedback from participants to guide future program development.
She also contributed to the recruitment and retention of residents from communities that have been historically excluded from medicine and is co-founder of a Latinx Affinity group that serves to build community and that facilitates informal mentorship and support for Latine faculty and residents in the Department.
Dr. Saenz has also taken the lead in facilitating a key interface between clinicians and our electronic health record. "You are far from finding joy in clinical care if you haven’t used at least one of her numerous and now-famous Epic dot-phrases," wrote Dr. Teresa Villela, in announcing the appointment. Villela is Chief of Family and Community Medicine at San Francisco General Hospital and Professor and Vice Chair at the UCSF Department of Family and Community Medicine
"I am filled with pride and happiness to have recruited Dr. Saenz to continue her work with us as a colleague," Dr. Villela added. "I have full confidence that the inpatient service project started by visionaries decades ago will continue to be in good hands.
About Dr. Cazandra Zaragoza
Dr. Cazanda Zaragoza will be a core faculty member in the residency program and will serve as faculty team lead for the Red Team in the Family Health Center.
Dr. Zaragoza graduated from the University of Arizona College of Medicine, in the beautiful town of Tucson, where she also received a master’s degree in Public Health, Policy, and Management. She completed her Family Medicine Residency at UCSF-San Francisco General Hospital this summer. Many of us have been fortunate to learn from her, and in recognition of her mentoring and teaching skills, she was selected from among her peers to serve as a third-year chief resident. In this capacity, Dr. Zaragoza worked closely with residency program faculty to improve curricular and support structures and to modify individual resident trainee experiences to help them best meet their educational goals.
Prior to her medical training, Dr. Zaragoza served as the coordinator for the Undergraduate Research Program at the University of Arizona, where she supervised and mentored junior and senior-level scholars from underrepresented-in-health-science backgrounds. She helped promote diversity and inclusion as a critical medical school priority by developing processes and programs to expand the selection process to identify diverse candidates. These experiences allowed her unique perspective and insights and cemented her skills in mentorship and advocacy, and she has continued to emphasize this area of her work.
More recently, she has served as a key mentor at John O'Connell High School, co-creating a high school residency elective to support the High School’s Wellness Center and Health Professions track, advocating for continued support from the school administration. Young people, educators, and the high school community family have developed deep trust in her. In a relationship that has been building over the years, Dr. Zaragoza's constant presence was key to building the bridges that have made this community partnership successful.
As a family medicine resident, Dr. Zaragoza has contributed to the recruitment and retention of residents from communities that have been historically excluded from medicine. She is co-founder of a Latinx Affinity group that serves to build community and that facilitates informal mentorship and support for Latine faculty and residents in the Department.
"In truth, I could not be happier, or more proud, to count Dr. Zaragoza among our colleagues," wrote Dr. Villela in the announcement about the appointment.
Dr. Zaragoza was also recently announced as a 2023 FCM Health Justice Scholar.
The Health Justice Scholars (HJS) program was established in the Department of Family and Community Medicine through a generous gift from the Hellman Foundation. The program’s goal is to enhance recruitment, retention, and career development of faculty members whose presence in the department advances equity and health justice, with an emphasis on individuals who are being recruited to new assistant professor rank faculty appointments or who have been an assistant professor in UCSF FCM for less than two years. Scholars receive $150,000 in funding over 2 years, to support a portion of their effort as well as project expenses.
"Dr. Zaragoza thoroughly impressed the committee with her vision for the Youth & Young Adult Elective and future advancement of our high school partnership with local SFUSD high schools," wrote Dr. Manuel Tapia, Vice-Chair of Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Anti-Oppression (DEIA) and Associate Clinical Professor at FCM, in the announcement about her award. "Dr. Zaragoza has a long track record of mentorship and providing academic support to students from historically excluded backgrounds. She is the ideal ambassador to ensure these pathway programs flourish and the HJS committee is proud to sponsor her work in increasing access to the health careers for those from the local community."
