The director of the California Department of Public Health will deliver the keynote address this month at UC Davis Health's Spanish Mini Medical School.
Tomás Aragón, the state's top public health officer since 2021, is among nearly a dozen notable speakers who will present important and timely information on health topics relevant for a Spanish-speaking audience.
The Mini Medical School, a daylong event Oct. 12, is free and open to the public and conducted entirely in Spanish.
Although in-person attendance is sold out, registration is open for the live, online simulcast. The program begins at 8:30 a.m. and ends at 3 p.m.
Now in its 14th year, the Spanish Mini Medical School is an educational program that features experts from UC Davis Health and elsewhere. They focus on topics such as chronic conditions, the importance of physical activity and how to live a healthy lifestyle.
"The purpose of this event is to enhance the public trust in science and translate it into practical, easy-to-understand information that can be incorporated into everyday life," said Sergio Aguilar-Gaxiola, founding director of the UC Davis Center for Reducing Health Disparities.
The presenters include:
- Aguilar-Gaxiola, whose center leads groundbreaking studies to advance health equity
- Ana Bolaños, who oversees health equity at the California Department of Public Health
- David Copenhaver, an anesthesiologist and chief of the UC Davis Health Division of Pain Medicine, who will speak about healthy lifestyle and pain medicine
- Francisco Prieto, a family medicine physician with Sutter Health who will talk about diabetes
- Helen Kales, chair of the UC Davis Health Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences. Kales, along with clinical psychologists Joanna Servín, Karina Muro and Olivia B. Contreras will address what UC Davis is doing to improve mental health among the Latino population
The Spanish Mini Medical School is presented by the UC Davis Center for Reducing Health Disparities, Alzheimer's Disease Research Center and the Clinical and Translational Science Center.
