Health Workforce Diversity

There is an alarming shortage of diverse health professionals in California. Specifically:

3.2% of California physicians are African American though they comprise 7% of California's population)
5.2% are Latino (despite comprising 36% of California's population)
26% are Asian American (who comprise 12% of California's population)

Clearly, African Americans, and especially Latinos, are underrepresented among California doctors.

Given the growth of California's communities of color and their corresponding need for culturally and linguistically appropriate health care, this shortage signals a serious threat to the health of communities of color. The Greenlining Institute works to increase diversity with current efforts that include:

Examining diversity at the University of California medical schools in a four part study.
Advocating for legislation that develops and sustains programs that encourage people of color to enter the health professions and serve disadvantaged communities.
Organizing the leadership of pipeline programs in California that help underserved communities enter the health field.

Bay Area Coalition to Increase Diversity in the Health Workforce (BACIDHW)

Created in 2004 by the Greenlining Institute, the University of California, Berkeley Center for Public Health Practice, San Francisco State University Department of Health Education and the California Pan Ethnic Health Network, amongst others, BACIDHW is as a network of advocates that work together to address the issue of lack of diversity among California's health workforce.

Due to the increase in the proportion of Californians who are of color, and the need for an adequately trained workforce, the mission of BACIDHW is: To achieve a culturally competent health workforce representative of the linguistic and cultural diversity of California in order to better ensure that all individuals and communities, can attain optimal health via a Bay Area coalition dedicated to strengthening research, policy, and programs within all health careers and educational levels.

Coalition efforts also serve to promote and support programs that provide educational, financial and psychosocial support for diverse individuals to enter, develop and succeed in health professions.