
Founded in 2007 thanks to a generous start-up grant from Kaiser Permanente of Southern California, the Los Angeles Schweitzer Fellows Program is dedicated to developing a corps of emerging professionals who enter the workforce with the skills and commitment necessary to address unmet health needs.
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To be able to call myself a Fellow for Life is a distinct honor, for it signifies a lifelong commitment to community service. Though completing the Fellowship has bestowed this honor upon me, I know that for the rest of my life, I shall devote myself to earning it.
– Daniel Karlin, 2008-2009 Fellow
Since 2007, more than 100 Schweitzer Fellows have provided over 20,000 hours of service to Los Angeles’s most vulnerable communities. Partnering with area community-based organizations, these Fellows have addressed a wide variety of unmet health needs by creating and carrying out yearlong projects with direct service at their core. Examples include the following initiatives:
Please see Fellows and Projects for a complete listing of Fellows’ service projects, which are made possible by our generous sponsors. When Fellows’ initial year of service ends, they carry their commitment to meeting the health needs of underserved people forward as members of the Schweitzer Fellows for Life alumni network, now more than 2,000 strong.
December 7, 2017
“Medical Clowning Is Serious Business”
June 13, 2017
“New UCLA doctors embody the American dream”
March 26, 2017
“Four Resident Physicians to Train in Hilo”
January 25, 2017
“Warner Bros.’ Sue Kroll to Be Honored at Venice Family Clinic’s Silver Circle Gala”
November 10, 2016
ASF blog post: “Providing regular care for people who are homeless”
July 14, 2016
“Outstanding Medical Students Tackle the Next Frontier in Medicine”
June 3, 2016
“Students who have conquered huge odds to become doctors”
May 6, 2016
“Althea Alexander recognized for work with Schweitzer Fellowship chapter”
February 18, 2016
“USC health professions students work to bring LGBTQ patient care issues to the fore”
January 7, 2016
“Bridging the gap between dentistry and LGBTQ community members”
December 29, 2015
“7 Albert Schweitzer Fellows Launch HIV-Related Health Programs”
December 17, 2015
“Teaching tech skills to Latino patients to help them better manage their health”
September 23, 2015
UC Irvine Paul Merage School of Business announces selection of Fellow Tiffany Cho
“Before the fellowship, I largely focused my academic pursuits and service efforts towards global health issues and patient communities in the developing world. However, serving one of Los Angeles’s most neglected and vulnerable patient populations and growing up in a city with the country’s largest homeless population, I realized that many of the sociopolitical, economic, cultural, and historical inequities that arise in impoverished countries also are realities in my very own backyard.” –Schweitzer Fellow Sonya Soni, Los Angeles
“The Schweitzer Fellowship is an excellent way for students in professional school to really explore ways in which they can work with the community. It allows students to build skills needed to plan projects because it is good to have a lot of passion, but even better to be able to put that passion into work that can be beneficial to others.” – Schweitzer Fellow Henry Guan, Los Angeles
Our fiscal sponsor is Physicians for Social Responsibility Los Angeles, a 501c(3) tax exempt organization. Donations to the LA Schweitzer Fellowship can be made here and should be clearly specified in the notes.