We are honored to be joined by Dr. Maria Raven for a virtual conversation and Q&A on the current state of the pandemic in San Francisco.
With the ever evolving nature of the pandemic, advisories continue to change on how best to protect ourselves, our loved ones, and community public health. What should we do if we, or a family member, get sick? How do we handle a known exposure? What should we know about local hospital capacity?
Dr. Maria Raven will join us in a virtual conversation to help us navigate these challenging and confusing times. Please bring your questions and support for Dr. Raven as a local leader in the front lines of the pandemic response. We'll discuss the current state of the pandemic locally, advice for keeping yourself and your loved ones safe, and how this pandemic has impacted marginalized and vulnerable communities.
We will begin with a conversation between Dr. Raven and Ruby member, Rita Bullwinkel, followed by a Q&A.
About Dr. Maria Raven, MD, MPH
Dr. Raven is a practicing Emergency Medicine physician and health services researcher, is the Chief of Emergency Medicine at UCSF and a Vice Chair in the UCSF Department of Emergency Medicine. Prior to joining the UCSF faculty in 2011, Dr. Raven completed her residency and a research fellowship at NYU/Bellevue Hospital Center and oversaw one of six New York State Department of Health-funded Chronic Illness Demonstration Projects for the New York City Health and Hospitals Corporation and New York State Medicaid. In addition to working clinically in the ED at UCSF, Maria speaks locally and nationally about caring for complex populations, frequent emergency department users, and the link between homelessness and health. She has published and peer-reviewed extensively on these and other topics. Maria is co-PI for the San Francisco Whole Person Care Pilot evaluation, focused on improving care for chronically homeless high users of health and social care services, leads the EDIE (emergency department information exchange) program in the UCSF ED, and is the lead evaluator for a Santa Clara County Pay for Success program providing permanent supportive housing for chronically homeless frequents users of the County health system and jail. She is co-editor of a forthcoming Social Emergency Medicine textbook and is currently working on multiple initiatives to improve care for individuals with substance use disorders in emergency departments. Since March 2020, her main focus has been on UCSF emergency department operations and preparedness in the face of COVID-19, and related research.
About Rita Bullwinkel
Rita Bullwinkel is the author of the story collection Belly Up, which won the 2018 Believer Book Award. Bullwinkel’s writing has been published in Tin House, The White Review, Conjunctions, BOMB, Vice, NOON, and Guernica. She is a recipient of grants and fellowships from MacDowell, Brown University, Vanderbilt University, Hawthornden Castle, and The Helene Wurlitzer Foundation. Both her fiction and translation have been nominated for Pushcart Prizes. She is an Editor at Large for McSweeney’s and a Contributing Editor for NOON. She lives in San Francisco and teaches at the California College of the Arts.