Articles
Stay up-to-date with the latest developments in student health, education, and our organization's updates and events.
California school-based health convention builds bridges
Dr. Janine Jones discussed the “silent struggle” experienced by many students of color at the California School Health Conference November 3.
Equity was topic one as more than 350 healthcare providers, educators and policymakers met online November 2-4, 2021, at the California School Health Conference hosted by the California School-Based Health Alliance, co-hosted by REL West and sponsored by The L.A. Trust and others.
Keynotes and workshops focused on the theme “Building Bridges to Healthy and Resilient Communities.” Esther Yepez, program manager for The L.A. Trust, appeared on the “Bite Back” panel, examining oral health challenges and solutions.
CSHA Board President Sergio Morales opened the virtual event, saying the past months “have tested our resilience” and contributed to a mental health crisis among students. He cited reports showing a 58% decrease in pediatrician visits, a 25% increase in suicidal ideation and the loss of five months of learning by students.
Morales said school-based healthcare can play a crucial role in building bridges to community, and he thanked healthcare providers and educators for helping children and youth by facilitating vaccinations, mental and oral healthcare, hot meals and PPE during the pandemic.
Healing communities
“We are sitting between trauma and transformation,” said opening keynote speaker Dr. Shawn Ginwright, professor of education at San Francisco State. He challenged the concept of PTSD as it is often applied, saying that people of color are experiencing “a persistent traumatic environment”; he said calling it a disorder places the onus on the person rather than the system.
“People can’t be well if the community is not.” He called for “healing-centered engagement, a nonclinical, strength-based approach that advances a holistic view of healing and recenters culture and identity as a central feature in well-being.”
Dr. Janine Jones, Wednesday’s keynote speaker, said “culture is key” to understanding Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs). Jones, who is professor and associate dean for academic affairs in the College of Education at the University of Washington, said that in addition to the previously recognized Adverse Childhood Experiences, educators and healthcare providers must also be aware of Adverse Community Experiences driven by implicit bias, cultural blind spots and microaggressions.
She said microaggressions are often subtle and unintentional but “they are like tiny cuts” that make the subject feel powerless. Jones said microaggressions are fueled by stereotypes. “It’s a silent struggle” and students may respond with isolation, avoidance, apathy or anxiety. When they do, they are sending out an SOS that adults should respond by listening to the student and examining unconscious, implicit bias in the environment and the system.
Community trauma
Closing keynote speaker Dr. Howard Pinderhughes, professor and chair of the Department of Social and Behavioral Sciences at the University of California San Francisco, recounted his personal experience growing up in the Roxbury section of Boston.
“Roxbury was a mixed-raced, mixed income neighborhood until the early ’60s,” Pinderhughes said. Real-estate “blockbusting” and racial uprisings in 1967 and 1968 accelerated the exit of white and middle-income residents and “the community became almost entirely poor.” He experienced the trauma of seeing a neighbor’s body in a black plastic bag lying in the street. Later, a young Black girl killed in a nearby park. “It became clear the neighborhood was not safe.” By the early ’90s, Roxbury had become the youth murder capital of the world.
Similar trauma — defunded infrastructure, capital flight, concentrated poverty and violence — were experienced in neighborhoods across the country. When Pinderhughes moved to the Bay Area, he witnessed community trauma in East and West Oakland, Richmond and the Western Addition of San Francisco.
The killing of 23-month old Baby Hiram in West Oakland caused the community to be “wracked with despair, worry and trauma,” Pinderhughes said. “I remember thinking about the impact – not just on the family but on the community.”
He said Black and Hispanic youth have developed rituals to deal with the violent death around them. “As soon as there is a shooting death the altars and the (memorial) T-shirts come out.” Kids wear their prom suits to funerals “because they aren’t sure they’ll live to go to prom.”
“How did we get here?”
Pinderhughes listed root causes (poverty, inequality, racism, sexism, oppression and heteronormativity), structural factors (economic, political, social and institutional) and environmental factors (neighborhood, family and peer group).
Pinderhughes advocated a two-track approach to address and prevent community trauma. He said root causes must be faced, but communities must strengthen resilience at the same time.
“Let’s change the conditions but let’s be real,” he said. “Let’s develop safer public spaces, reclaim our communities and develop bridge housing during replacement of public housing.” He called for strategies including restorative justice, healing circles, workforce development and strategies that resist the forces of gentrifications, which he called a “form of structural violence.”
He also said communities should change the narrative about themselves and the place they live: First by organizing regular positive activities and second by giving voice and power to community members in changing structural and environmental factors. He cited one example where a school district enrolled students to help in redesigning and restructuring schools. Another example was building a skate park on Lakota land that not only became a gathering place for youth but a sacred space for the community. The most successful programs were intergenerational and some were multicultural, like a group that brought Black and Hispanic men together.
State of the Alliance
Tracy Mendez, executive director of the CSHA, wrapped up the event by thanking the hundreds of attendees from across California and beyond and reviewing key conference takeaways.
Mendez wore a “Black Lives Matter” tee and said those words could just be a slogan but served to remind her and others that she is accountable. “We need as many reminders as possible.”
“School-based health centers are a great model of care,” Mendez said. “We should have one in every school” and CSHA is pushing for 500 SBHCs in California by the end of the decade.
Mendez announced the Student Health Index, California’s first comprehensive statewide analysis to identify the counties, districts and schools where new SBHCs will have the greatest impact on student health and healthcare equity. She also cited the California Student Mental Health Implementation Guide, which CSHA helped develop.
Grant from W.M. Keck Foundation accelerates Data xChange
A grant from the W.M. Keck Foundation will expand The L.A. Trust Data xChange, connecting health and academic achievement data.
A two-year, $300,000 grant from the W.M. Keck Foundation is supporting the full build-out of The L.A. Trust Data xChange, a first-in-the-nation data analytics platform that joins confidential and anonymized student health and academic data to advance wellness and success.
The investment will help The Los Angeles Trust for Children’s Health identify health equity deficits and emerging public health concerns; leverage data to pioneer performance and quality improvement practices; direct local-control funding; and design prevention and education programs to meet student and community needs.
“This generous grant helps us address two critical issues,” said Maryjane Puffer, executive director of The L.A. Trust. “The first is healthcare inequities. The second is the mental well-being of our students. Both of these issues are especially urgent as we recover from the pandemic.”
Expanding scope
During the next two years, The L.A. Trust will incorporate primary care and mental health records from additional providers as well as students’ academic, attendance and other health services data from Los Angeles Unified. Community and expert opinion will be integrated into the technological build-out, and communication protocols will be established.
The grant will support the work of newly hired senior data and research analyst Alex Zepeda and continue the work of Data xChange business lead Patty Anton (principal at Anton Consulting) and her database architect team.
The new funding will help the Data xChange incorporate clinical records from four newly opened Wellness Centers, community-based mental health providers serving school campuses, and care provided directly by Los Angeles Unified. The Data xChange will also work with specialists to help standardize data elements for mental health records and provide reports to decision-makers.
“We are grateful to the W.M. Keck Foundation for taking The L.A. Trust Data xChange to the next level,” said Anna Baum, director of development and communications. “Their decision to invest in this important platform demonstrates real vision and commitment to the health of our students and communities.”
Q&A with Joe Sanberg: A journey from Wall Street to activism
Joe Sanberg, co-founder of Aspiration, went from Wall Street to activism and funded The L.A. Trust COVID-19 Youth Task Force this summer.
Joe Sanberg is an entrepreneur, philanthropist and activist. After graduating from Harvard, he became a Wall Street analyst but left because he disliked working in an industry that “totally divorced service from profit.” He invested in start-ups like the meal delivery service Blue Apron. In 2013 he co-founded Aspiration, Inc., a socially conscious financial services company. Sanberg was instrumental in establishing the California Earned Income Tax Credit in 2015 and founded CalEITC4Me, one of the state’s largest anti-poverty programs. Introduced to The L.A. Trust by Emily Kane of Ethos Giving, he funded the COVID-19 Youth Task Force, implemented by The L.A. Trust, L.A. Unified, and the UCLA Department of Community Health Science, Fielding School of Public Health.
Q. You grew up in Southern California, attended Harvard and worked as a Wall Street analyst. What prompted you to become a socially conscious investor and anti-poverty activist?
A. The values that my mom instilled in me as a young person. And my brother telling me, when I was 29, that my 18-year-old self wouldn’t like the person that I had become. The fact that I had become disconnected from my core values sparked me to reconnect with the person my mom raised me to be and with what I believe my purpose in this world is.
Q. COVID-19 struck communities of color especially hard. How do healthcare, education, income inequality and racism contribute to poor health outcomes?
A. Most of all, what the Covid-19 pandemic showed us is that the lie we’ve been told that we, as a nation, can’t afford to do transformational things has always been a lie. We can afford to do all the things we need to do to end poverty, provide healthcare and root out systemic racism from our institutions, we just lack the political will to do so. We saw that when it came to rescuing corporations, there was no scarcity of trillions of dollars worth of bailouts for them, which is yet another reminder that the United States has what it needs to create financial security, justice and fairness for all its citizens. This is the fourth major instance within a century through which we’ve been reminded that there’s no scarcity of resources in this country. We were reminded when the economy was bailed out after the market crash in the early part of the 20th century. We were reminded when we spent trillions of dollars on wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. We were reminded when the government bailed out Wall Street banks during the 2008 financial crisis. And we were reminded yet again during the Covid-19 pandemic that the reason we are not providing justice, fairness and economic security for all is not because we can’t afford to do so, it’s because the government has chosen not to do so.
Q. We mentioned Harvard and Wall Street, but you were raised by a single mom in very modest circumstances. Why are so many Americans trapped in intergenerational poverty?
A. So many Americans are trapped in intergenerational poverty because of our system. Our system is designed to trap people in poverty, not help them get out of it. Our system and our tax code are designed to ensconce wealth in the hands of those who already have it, which definitionally, also ensconces the legacies of racism, misogyny and slavery that go back to our nation’s founding. Our country was founded with slavery encoded into its laws; with the inability of women to vote and own property. Our tax code is prejudiced in favor of legacy wealth. Our system makes concrete the very injustices that go back to our nation’s founding.
Q. You’ve said you quit Wall Street because it “divorced service from profit.” How have you managed to link service and profit as an investor?
A. I don’t think of myself as an investor; I think of myself as an entrepreneur and business builder. And as an entrepreneur, I create organizations whose success is connected to the value they deliver to their stakeholders, their customers, their employees and their communities. How do we remarry profit and purpose? There’s nothing wrong with making money as long as you’re delivering value to people. What’s gone wrong on Wall Street is that profit has become its own purpose.
Q. In addition to income inequality, you’re passionate about the environment. This is really a social justice issue, since people of color live in communities subjected to the worst pollution. How do we work for environmental justice?
A. We work for environmental justice by innovating in both the public and private sectors and by applying pressure on businesses and government to radically reduce carbon emissions here in the United States and around the world. Solving the climate crisis is going to require innovation -- the creation of new things that perform in new ways. But it’s also going to require changing behaviors we are accustomed to, like reducing how much we drive gasoline-powered vehicles and how much fossil fuels we burn to create energy. We need the next generation to create new companies and organizations that do not plunder the planet for profit but utilize sustainable resources. We need you! And remember, there is no environmental justice without racial and economic justice, and there’s no racial and economic justice without environmental justice. The communities that are hardest hit by injustices are those that have the least power. Injustice is about a power imbalance, and so we must empower young people to join together and use their voices and their resources to demand change.
Q. If you could flip a switch and just change one big thing, what would it be?
A. That every person would have free healthcare.
Q. You’re only 42. What do you want to do with the rest of your life? What would you like your legacy to be?
A. I’d like my legacy to be that I did everything I possibly could, as sincerely and effectively as I could, with my God-given time and abilities, to end poverty. I want to be able to look back on my life and know that there was nothing I could have done that I didn't do.
Student health community addresses ‘the new normal’ under COVID
Participants weighed in on what strategies might be most effective in connecting students to healthcare services in the coming year.
More than 60 members of the Los Angeles student health community — including healthcare providers, Healthy Start coordinators, Los Angeles Unified organization facilitators and board members and staff from The L.A. Trust — discussed student health in “the new normal” of COVID-19 at the Wellness Network Learning Collaborative October 14, 2021 online.
Maryjane Puffer, executive director of The Los Angeles Trust for Children’s Health, opened the meeting with a definition of health equity adapted by from a paper from Paula Braveman of UC San Francisco: “Health equity means everyone has a fair and just opportunity to be as healthy as possible.”
Victor Luna, organization facilitator for L.A. Unified Student Health and Human Services, conducted the meeting’s ice-breaking exercise and introduced Dr. Ron Tanimura, LAUSD director of Student Medical Services & Medi-Cal Programs.
Tanimura said the district’s goal in during the ongoing pandemic was “to keep schools as open as normal as possible.” He announced new vaccination and testing deadlines for “all those crossing our threshold more than once a week,” including students. He noted that current protocols had resulted in a “very low” positivity rate of less than 0.12% among the 100,000 tested by the district each week. Tanimura also announced that all L.A. Unified Student Medical Services and Medi-Cal Programs would be overseen by Los Angeles Medical Director Smita Malhotra, a well-known pediatrician and author.
Tested new tool
Luna and Alex Zepeda, senior data and research analyst for The L.A. Trust, shared new results from the School-Based Health Center Integration Tool developed by Dr. Kenny Farenchak in conjunction with The L.A. Trust, L.A. Unified and other partners. It examines areas like outreach, collaboration and integration, rating factors such as,“SBHC conducts active outreach” and “SBHC successfully enrolls students (identified in screenings) in services.” Zepeda and Luna showed pilot test results from several SBHCs, and participants discussed how to use the tool in breakout rooms. Puffer said, “This tool is tested and validated and will support all our work together.”
Gloria Velasquez, organization facilitator for L.A. Unified, said the great challenge facing the district’s student healthcare system was getting students referred to the right provider. She referenced a Student Health and Human Services Resource Guide with comprehensive listings, including hotlines and direct contacts for site leaders.
Results from The L.A. Trust Data xChange showed that L.A. Unified’s Wellness Centers conducted 57,406 encounters with 22,018 patients during 2020-2021, just 2% fewer than the previous academic year, even though many clinics were closed and most students were not on campus. The Data xChange numbers included detailed data by Wellness Center, though direct comparisons between sites are difficult due to different pandemic schedules, reporting methods and populations. “These numbers demonstrate the vital resource that Wellness Centers represent to students and families during this time of crisis,” Puffer said.
Student mental health
The mental health and well-being of students has gained greater urgency during the COVID-19 pandemic. The Data xChange reported a total of 13,256 student and 2,218 non-student mental health encounters during 2020-2021 at the seven Wellness Centers providing data to LAUSD School Mental Health. “The need to collect comprehensive mental health data is critical,” Puffer noted. “This is just a start.”
Los Angeles Unified is spending $170 million to provide more mental health counselors at schools to help students process the anxiety and trauma of the past year, the district has announced. Students with learning differences and disabilities will benefit from a separate $140 million investment, which will allow staff to quickly update Individualized Education Programs and provide more direct services to students.
Youth are actively participating as mental health advocates. Student Advisory Board members and Adult Allies are collaborating with staff from The L.A. Trust, Department of Mental Health Community Ambassador Network (CAN), and L.A. Unified on monthly social media events focused on mental health topics, including suicide prevention (September) and healthy relationships (October).
Building bridges at CSHA
Maryjane Puffer provided an overview of The L.A. Trust, including a new organization chart showing eight new staff members, an update on The L.A. Student Mental Health Initiative and several major new grants.
She announced this year’s School Health Conference sponsored by the California School-Based Health Alliance — “Building Bridges to Healthy and Resilient Communities” — which will be held online November 2-4. Members of The L.A. Trust community can email info@thelatrust.org for a promotion code reducing the cost of registration.
Puffer ended her update by reminding participants that CVS had donated a large quantity of hand sanitizers and wipes to L.A. Unified for use by Wellness Centers and others. Complete this form to obtain needed supplies.
The L.A. Trust adds eight new staff for engagement, data and policy
New team members (back row from left): Ifrah Moalin, Gabby Tilley, Taylour Johnson, Noe Rivera, Jasmine Cisneros and Alex Zepeda. Front: Casey Balverde and Katie Melara.
The Los Angeles Trust for Children’s Health has onboarded eight new team members, expanding its scope and nearly doubling its full-time staff to 20.
“This is the biggest growth initiative in The L.A. Trust's 20-year history,” noted Board President Will Grice of Kaiser Permanente. “These new team members will allow The L.A. Trust to expand policy development, advocacy, prevention education and student engagement.”
The new team members are Casey Balverde, data and research analyst; Jasmine Cisneros, program associate; Taylour Johnson, program associate; Katie Melara, program coordinator; Ifrah Moalin, health educator; Noe Rivera, senior program manager, mental health; Gabby Tilley, senior policy manager; and Alex Zepeda, senior data and research analyst (previously announced).
“This is a trained and talented team,” noted Executive Director Maryjane Puffer. Balverde is pursuing her doctorate in public health and worked as a health educator for L.A. County Department of Public Health. Rivera has a master’s degree in applied psychology and more than eight years of experience in behavioral health services. Moalin is an experienced health educator with a degree in public health from Cal State Northridge. Tilley is a former policy advocate for Nourish California with a master’s degree in public policy from USC.
Half of the new team members will serve on The L.A. Trust’s student engagement team: Cisneros will serve as an Adult Ally for Student Advisory Boards at Jordan and Locke High Schools; Johnson will assist SABs at Santee and Carson; Melara will serve the SABs at Elizabeth Learning Center and Garfield High; and Ifrah Moalin will assist student health advocates on the Monroe High campus. They join Program Manager Mackenzie Scott, Adult Ally serving Crenshaw and Washington Prep; Robert Renteria, senior program manager for student engagement and physical health; and Program Manager Esther Yepez, Adult Ally serving Belmont High, on the student engagement team.
“These investments in student engagement, research and policy mean The L.A. Trust will impact more students, implement more programs and impact policy in new and powerful ways,” Puffer said. “I have never been more excited about the future of The L.A. Trust and the prospects for improving student healthcare in Los Angeles.”
Salute to Student Health moves audience, raises awareness
Former L.A. Trust Student Advisory Board member Irma Rosa Viera brought many to tears as she shared, “broken bits and all,” at The L.A. Trust Salute to Student Health.
More than 200 healthcare providers, educators and civic leaders met at Vibiana in downtown Los Angeles and online September 30 at The L.A. Trust Salute to Student Health. The gala raised awareness and funds for student health and honored former L.A. Unified Superintendent Austin Beutner and Community Health Director Dr. Margaret Lynn Yonekura of Dignity Health-California Hospital Medical Center (see story).
Will Grice of Kaiser Permanente, board president of The Los Angeles Trust for Children’s Health, noted that “we meet at a difficult time. But as hard as this pandemic has been on our healthcare workers and educators, it has been even tougher on our children.” Grice said, “The L.A. Trust is the backbone organization that brings all the pieces and all the players together” for student health, and introduced Executive Director Maryjane Puffer, whom he called “the backbone of The L.A. Trust.”
Puffer acknowledged the pandemic’s toll. “Schools were closed, clinics were shuttered, hospitals were overwhelmed and there were long lines at food banks. Twenty-five thousand of our fellow Angelenos died.” She said many nonprofits, including The L.A. Trust, “faced an existential crisis.”
“We persevered,” she said, “knowing the kids needed us more than ever.” She said The L.A. Trust was “stronger than before the pandemic hit,” and noted The L.A. Trust had just welcomed eight new employees. “In the comings months we will impact more students and families, and deliver more policy and programs, than ever before.”
Moving remarks
Rosario Rico, health analyst for L.A. County Public Health and former associate program director at The L.A. Trust, introduced the night’s featured guest speaker, Irma Rosa Viera, an undergraduate at Cal State Northridge and a former member of The L.A. Trust Student Advisory Board at Elizabeth Learning Center.
Rosa Viera said she had “wanted to seem cool, calm and collected” in her remarks, but her work as a Student Advisory Board member had taught her something more important — how to “feel unapologetically me, broken bits and all.”
Rosa Viera then held the audience rapt when she discussed the personal toll COVID-19 had taken on her community, her family and herself.
“On June 15, 2020, I saw my older brother Oscar for the last time as he gasped for air while forcing his body to go to the hospital,” she said. “I just knew he wasn’t coming back.” She said the months that followed his death from COVID have been hard.
“The version of me that finds herself feeling lonely and endlessly crying knows that I have a support system,” she said. “Through learning about the services offered at our Wellness Center in high school, I have been able to use that knowledge and seek therapy, join support groups and understand my grieving process. I have learned that even when times are tough, we are tougher.”
Her emotional remarks brought some to tears and prompted a standing ovation.
Bidding for good
Sponsors for the event included Presenting Sponsor, John and Louise Bryson; Platinum Sponsors, The Anthony & Jeanne Pritkzer Family Foundation and the Eli and Edythe Broad Foundation; and Gold Sponsors, Kaiser Permanente, Goldman Sachs, and Dr. Margaret Lynn Yonekura.
Silver Sponsors were the California Community Foundation, Delta Dental, William Grice, Jimmy Iovine, L.A. Care, Tangram Interiors, and The Winebaum Family Foundation; and Bronze Sponsors, Anthem Blue Cross, Big Smiles, Jordan B. Keville of Davis Wright Tremain, Drew Hodgson, Health Net and Liberty Dental.
The evening included a Silent Auction and an entertaining Live Auction featuring trips to Africa, Hawaii and Mexico. “Fund-a-need” pledges helped raise thousands of dollars for The L.A. Trust’s student engagement programs. Moved by the evening’s program, Dr. Robert Ross of the California Endowment pledged $10,000.
“We are very grateful for all who came and all who gave,” said Anna Baum, director of development and communications for The L.A. Trust. “Thanks to our sponsors, attendees and bidders, we raised more than $200,000 to fund our programs in the coming year. More important, we brought attention to the need for student healthcare.
“I am especially proud of Irma and the former Student Advisory Board members in our video, who showed everyone what The L.A. Trust mission is all about.”
The L.A. Trust honors Beutner and Dr. Yonekura at gala
Austin Beutner received The L.A. Trust Visionary Award from Dr. Robert K. Ross of the California Endowment (left) and Maryjane Puffer of The L.A. Trust at the Salute to Student Health. Photo by Rinzi Ruiz.
The Los Angeles Trust for Children’s Health honored former Los Angeles Unified Superintendent Austin Beutner and Dr. Margaret Lynn Yonekura of Dignity Health-California Hospital Medical Center at its first-ever Salute to Student Health September 30, 2021. More than 200 educators, healthcare professionals, civic leaders and donors attended the gala online and in person at Vibiana in downtown Los Angeles.
“This pandemic has made the need for student health more apparent — and more urgent — than ever,” said Maryjane Puffer, executive director of The L.A. Trust. “Our mission is to bridge health and education to achieve student wellness,” she said. “I cannot think of two individuals who have done more to achieve this than our two honorees.”
Beutner received The L.A. Trust Visionary Award from Dr. Robert K. Ross, CEO and president of The California Endowment. Ross said, “If you wanted to pick a three-year period to be superintendent, you would not have picked the past three years.” He said, “Austin brought clear-eyed vision — and steely leadership — to one of the most extraordinary moments in our nation’s history.”
Bringing the help to schools
Beutner accepted his award “on behalf of the 86,000 L.A. Unified teachers and staff who work tirelessly every day.” He thanked Puffer, The L.A. Trust Board and staff, and gave “a special shout out” to the evening’s sponsors, including John and Louise Bryson, Shari Davis and Michael Dubin.
Beutner said, “COVID, if nothing else, has proven the importance of serving children and families, no questions asked.” He pointed to the district’s food program, which served 140 million meals, its computer and internet assistance, and massive COVID testing and vaccination operations, among the largest in the nation.
“If there is a theme here, it’s maybe The L.A. Trust was born a little bit before its time,” Beutner said. “The brave pioneers, Maryjane Puffer, your board and staff, were probably shouting into the wilderness 20 years ago, because people weren’t with you yet. I think we’ve shown in COVID that the best place to provide help to those who need it – the children who are the future of Los Angeles, who are in our public schools every day – is at their local neighborhood schools.”
Broadening the definition
Maryjane Puffer presented The L.A. Trust Champion Award to Dr. Margaret Lynn Yonekura, director of community health at Dignity Health-CHMC, a board-certified obstetrician-gynecologist and “the architect of critically needed community health programs, the L.A. Best Babies Network at CMHC, the L.A. County Perinatal and Early Childhood Home Visiting Consortium, the Hope Street Margolis Family Center, the Preconception Health Care Council and Options for Recovery and numerous initiatives at The L.A. Trust.
“I have spent the majority of my working life in Los Angeles providing OB care for high-risk, impoverished and often marginalized women – both mother and fetus,” she said. “When I joined California Hospital Medical Center in 1992 my work began to broaden.
“I asked my patients what they needed; they said they wanted to learn to English, the language of success in America. So we added ESL to prenatal class. Fast forward and Hope Street now provides a wide range of family services,” including Early Head Start, childcare, family literacy, afterschool activities, mentoring, homework help, college prep, family preservation and behavioral health at nearby L.A. Unified sites.
Yonekura said, “I have lived a truly blessed life.” She said her parents left American internment camps at the end of WWII with just a hundred dollars and a train ticket. Her mother and father took jobs as domestics and worked tirelessly to get her the college education they never got. As a child, she told a nurse she wanted to be a nurse too, “but the nurse said, ‘No, be a doctor because doctors give the orders.’”
An interest-free loan from her father’s employer enabled her family to move into the middle class and get her into private school, college and eventually become a doctor. “That is why I try to pay it forward,” she said. “That is why I dedicate this award to those students who dare to dream.”
“The L.A. Trust was proud to be part of the coalition encouraging voluntary vaccinations this summer” said Maryjane Puffer, executive director of The Los Angeles Trust for Children’s Health. “But now our effort to protect our students and families enters a new phase as Los Angeles Unified mandates vaccinations for all students 12 and older by January 10, 2022, unless they have a medical or other exemption.”
Vaccination efforts slow Delta wave of coronavirus in Southland
The L.A. Trust visited St. John’s busy vaccination operation in South L.A. Shown: CMO Dr. Anitha Mullangi (center) and Regional Medical Directors Dr. Sushant Bandarpalle and Dr. Matthew Welzenbach.
Los Angeles County appears to be turning the corner on the Delta wave of COVID-19, thanks to increased vaccinations, greater testing and a return to physical distancing and mask wearing.
“The L.A. Trust was proud to be part of the coalition encouraging voluntary vaccinations this summer” said Maryjane Puffer, executive director of The Los Angeles Trust for Children’s Health. “But now our effort to protect our students and families enters a new phase as Los Angeles Unified mandates vaccinations for all students 12 and older by January 10, 2022, unless they have a medical or other exemption.”
Puffer said vaccine awareness will be more important now than ever. Those opposed or reluctant to getting the COVID-19 vaccine include the one of three L.A. County residents ages 12-17 who remain completely unvaccinated (L.A. County Department of Public Health, 9/9/2021).
Listening to youth
The L.A. Trust COVID-19 Youth Task Force, comprised of students from 16 Los Angeles Unified Hight Schools, has been working since March to educate themselves, their peers and their communities about the dangers of COVID-19 and the importance of getting vaccinated.
The task force, funded by Aspiration co-founder Joe Sanberg, hit all its goals, educating hundreds of peers and community members and making thousands of impressions online.
“These young people were true health activists,” said Esther Yepez, program manager for The L.A. Trust. “They not only became knowledgeable about the complex issues involved, they also learned how to effectively present this information and advocate for vaccination with their peers and communities.”
Task force members were positive about the experience. One said they “gained confidence and skills in public data analysis, researching and community outreach.” Another said they had learned “patience by getting in debates and struggling to get my point across.”
Universal vaccination
The L.A. Trust joined the L.A. County Department of Public Health, the Public Health Institute and 12 clinics and agencies to increase vaccinations and vaccine awareness as part of the We Vaccinate L.A. County campaign this summer.
“Our school- and community-based clinics have been doing heroic work,” Puffer said. “St. John’s Well Child & Family Centers have administered more than 300,000 COVID shots alone — that’s just incredible.”
Other participating providers are Eisner Pediatric and Family Center, LAUSD Wellness Programs, Northeast Valley Health Corporation, South Bay Family Center, Social Model Recovery Systems, South Central Family Health Center, T.H.E. Clinic, UMMA Community Clinic, Valley Community Healthcare, ViaCare and Watts Healthcare Corporation.
The L.A. Trust supported the community campaign with its own multilingual social media effort, reaching tens of thousands of L.A. County residents.
L.A. Unified mandate
“Getting to universal vaccination is going to require a lot of hard work, education, understanding and love,” Puffer said. “Teamwork, like we’ve seen in this effort, is critical.”
School board member Dr. George J. McKenna III noted tha vaccine mandates are nothing new. “Mandatory immunizations for eligible students protect the entire Los Angeles Unified family. I’m old enough to remember when polio crippled some of my classmates. In fact, school children received the first, life-saving polio vaccination in 1954. Keep in mind that nationwide, more than 250,000 children (about half the population of Wyoming) were diagnosed with COVID-19 last week.”
“The science is clear – vaccinations are an essential part of protection against COVID-19,” Interim Superintendent Megan K. Reilly said. “The COVID-19 vaccines are safe and effective, and requiring eligible students to be vaccinated is the strongest way to protect our school community.”
To learn more, find a vaccination site near you and make an appointment, visit VaccinateLACounty.com (English) or VacunateLosAngeles.com (Spanish). You can also call 833-540-0473 for help finding an appointment, connecting to free transportation or scheduling a home visit if you are homebound. Vaccinations are free and open to eligible residents and workers regardless of immigration status.
The L.A. Trust, students and allies join suicide prevention campaign
Belmont SAB members asked their peers, “What makes life worth living?” at the first in-person campus campaign in nearly two years. Esther Yepez (center) distributed L.A. Trust hoodies to the health activists.
The Los Angeles Trust for Children’s Health continued its education and outreach on student mental health during Suicide Prevention Awareness Week in September.
“Every week should be suicide prevention week,” said Senior Program Manager Robert Renteria of The L.A. Trust. “These are stressful times and our teens, especially, are going through a stressful time of life,” he said. “It is up to all of us to listen when youth talk about hurting themselves or feeling depressed.”
The L.A. Trust and its student-run Student Advisory Boards held a tabling event at Belmont Hight and posted extensively on social media during the week, culminating in a one-hour online workshop marking World Suicide Prevention Day, September 10.
The workshop was hosted by Renteria and Francisco Dussan of L.A. Unified Student and was attended by members of The L.A. Trust, L.A. Unified and other organizations.
“Guy with a story”
It featured and guest speaker Greg Elsasser, an author, English teacher and three-time suicide survivor. Elsasser prefaced his remarks by saying, “I’m not an expert, just a guy with a story.”
He said he had suffered from depression since childhood and had seen more than 30 therapists, counselors and clergy. “I was never honest with them when I was young,” he said.
He said his big secret was being gay. “I never dealt with my sexuality,” he said. “I did not want to be shunned by my family, my God and my church.” Elsasser’s first suicide attempt was when he was 15 and his last was 7 years ago.
The equation changed when he started asking himself how his suicide would harm him. He made lists of things he wanted to do. “They were small things at first, like watching the next season of Game of Thrones.” As his lists got longer and his dreams got bigger the desire to escape life lessened. “I don’t wait till things are spiraling out of control,” Elsasser said. “I realize that there’s nothing that can’t be fixed.”
Dussan said LGBTQ+ youth more vulnerable to suicide. He provided several resources available 24/7 for those seeking help, including the Trevor Project (866 488-7386), focused on LGBTQ+ youth but open to all, and the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline (800 273 8255 in English and Spanish). You can also text HELLO TO 741741 anytime.
Vaccinating everyone, including youth, is the key to stopping Delta
Vaccinating everyone — including youth 12 and above — is key to stopping the fast-spreading Delta variant.
By Maryjane Puffer, Executive Director
The Los Angeles Trust for Children’s Health
Los Angeles is at a turning point. We must defeat the pandemic now or let a new wave of coronavirus cases sweep through our communities in the next several months.
Forty-five percent of county residents are still not fully vaccinated, and some of the communities hit hardest by COVID-19 have the lowest vaccination rates. Vaccinations are also lagging among the young, who may be more susceptible to the Delta variant than they were to previous strains.
No vaccine offers 100% protection against infection, but current vaccines have proven safe and effective against all strains of COVID-19, including the Delta variant. More than 99.99% of people fully vaccinated people have not had a breakthrough case resulting in hospitalization or death, according to the CDC.
We must get this message to the millions of Angelenos who remain unvaccinated, including our youth 12 and above. This is critical as the virulent and dangerous Delta variant spreads.
Vaccination push
The Los Angeles Trust for Children’s Health is teaming with the L.A. County Department of Public Health, the Public Health Institute and 12 clinics and agencies to increase vaccinations and vaccine awareness as part of WeVa + LA. We are also supporting The L.A. Trust COVID-19 Youth Task Force, which is building vaccine awareness across Los Angeles. The task force is funded by a grant from Aspiration founder Joe Sanberg facilitated by Ethos Giving.
RESOURCES
The L.A. Trust
The L.A. Trust is conducting a social media campaign to support our partners using the hashtag #WeVaxLACounty. Get photos, videos, posts, blogs and account handles at https://bit.ly/3lcbnGe
CCALAC
The Community Clinic Association of Los Angeles County has produced a robust COVID-19 toolkit with customizable texts, social media posts and website pages for use by clinics and other agencies.
DPH
The Los Angeles County Department of Public Health Services offers vaccine scheduling and a communications and information dashboard on vaccines and vaccination rates. Get social media posts in English, Spanish, Chinese, Korean and Armenian at https://thesocialpresskit.com/countyofla
To learn more, find a vaccination site near you and make an appointment, visit VaccinateLACounty.com (English) or VacunateLosAngeles.com (Spanish). You can also call 833-540-0473 for help finding an appointment, connecting to free transportation or scheduling a home visit if you are homebound. Vaccinations are free and open to eligible residents and workers regardless of immigration status.
Student health advocates prepare for a healthy year
Members of The L.A. Trust’s Student Advisory Boards prepared for the new school year at The L.A. Trust Student Health Summer Learning Academy online.
Student Advisory Board members from LAUSD Wellness Center campuses prepared for a healthy — and challenging — new school year at The L.A. Trust’s annual Summer Learning Academy on student health online July 27–30.
“The turnout and level of engagement was impressive,” said Senior Program Manager Robert Renteria. “These student health advocates are highly motivated — it is an honor to work with them.” Students from six LAUSD campuses — Belmont, Carson, Crenshaw, Jordan, Locke and Washington — attended. The students were joined by staff members from The L.A. Trust’s student engagement team, LAUSD Adult Allies and several special guests.
Students were given an orientation on the Wellness Centers and The L.A. Trust, minor consent and confidentiality and an overview of youth mental health.
Carla Lavelle and Frank Dussan, psychiatric social workers from LAUSD, helped lead a discussion on mental health and resources. Attendees watched and discussed More than Sad, a video on depression. Stigma was identified a leading barrier to youth seeking treatment.
“As students go back to school after more than a year of pandemic isolation and stress, it’s important that these peer educators have all the information and resources possible,” Renteria said.
Other topics included data and public health, including The L.A. Trust Data xChange, selfcare, sexuality and identity, healthy relationship and how to create and conduct health campaigns.
The L.A. Trust will salute Dr. Yonekura at Sept. 30 gala
Children’s health leader Margaret Lynn Yonekura, M.D., will receive The L.A. Trust Champion award September 30 at our Salute to Student Health gala.
The Los Angeles Trust for Children’s Health will present its Champion Award to Margaret Lynn Yonekura, M.D., September 30 at its Salute to Student Health event at Vibiana in downtown Los Angeles.
Dr. Yonekura, Director of Community Health at Dignity Health-California Hospital Medical Center, will be honored alongside former L.A. Unified School District Superintendent Austin Beutner, previously announced.
The gala event will be attended by members of The L.A. Trust community, including educators, healthcare providers and donors. Registration is now open.
”The L.A. Trust is honored to recognize my friend Dr. Yonekura for her leadership and service to our community’s children and families,” said Maryjane Puffer, executive director of The L.A. Trust. “Her work on behalf of our students and families has had a significant impact,” Puffer said. “We are particularly grateful for her leadership on the Cultural Trauma and Mental Health Resiliency Project, her past support of our Oral Health Initiative and her service on The L.A. Trust Data xChange Expert Advisory Council, guiding the use of data to advance equity.”
L.A.’s Best Babies Network
Throughout her career Dr. Yonekura has developed comprehensive care programs to address her patients’ complex needs.
These innovative programs include: Options for Recovery at Harbor-UCLA Medical Center, a comprehensive treatment program for pregnant and parenting women with a substance use disorder and their young children; the Hope Street Family Center at CHMC, which promotes the health and welfare of children and families through a variety of private and locally funded initiatives; and the Los Angeles Best Babies Network at CHMC, which oversees and supports perinatal and early childhood home visiting services throughout Los Angeles County.
The L.A. Best Babies Network provides training and technical assistance for over 700 home visitors, data management, facilitation of cross-site peer learning, and coordination and support of communication and messaging efforts. It also runs the L.A. County Perinatal and Early Childhood Home Visiting Consortium.
Years of service
Dr. Yonekura is a board-certified obstetrician-gynecologist with subspecialty certification in maternal-fetal medicine and a recognized expert in infectious diseases in OB-GYN and perinatal substance abuse. She served on the OB-GYN faculty at LAC-USC Medical Center from 1980-86 and was the chief of obstetrics and maternal-fetal medicine at Harbor-UCLA Medical Center from 1986-1992.
Since 1992, she has been based at Dignity Health-California Hospital Medical Center, a nonprofit public benefit hospital serving Central and South Central Los Angeles. She was director of perinatal services at CHMC until 2000, when she became director of community health. She is also an associate professor at both USC and UCLA Schools of Medicine.
Dr. Yonekura is a member of the Women’s Health Policy Council of L.A. County’s Office of Women’s Health, L.A. County Reproductive Health and the Environment Advisory Committee, L.A. County Diabetes Prevention Program Community Advisory Committee and the Preconception Health Council of California.
The L.A. Trust Salute to Student Health
A magical night, a critical mission
Thursday, September 29 | 6 to 9 pm
Vibiana | 214 S. Main Street | Downtown Los Angeles
Join civic, education and healthcare leaders at The L.A. Trust’s first annual Salute to Student Health, honoring former Superintendent Austin Beutner of Los Angeles Unified and Dr. Margaret Lynn Yonekura of Dignity-California Hospital Medical Center.
Meet your colleagues and support our vision of a world where every student is healthy and successful. Entertainment, a hosted bar and small bites from Michelin-recommended Redbird included. Join us in saluting our two honorees and make a difference in student health.
All sponsors and ticket purchasers will have the option to attend the event virtually through our livestream.
$150 PER PERSON
RSVP NOW
Sponsorship opportunities | Contact Julie Edens for more information.
Silent Auction Preview and Bidding | Silent Auction donations
Honoring
Sponsors
Collage photos by Vibiana and The L.A. Trust.
Kids can’t take the COVID vaccine — which is why everyone else should
The L.A. Trust is teaming with the L.A. County Department of Public Health, the Public Health Institute and community clinics to increase vaccinations as COVID cases rise.
By Maryjane Puffer, Executive Director
The Los Angeles Trust for Children’s Health
When it comes to COVID-19, most of the focus has been on those at greatest risk: older people, essential workers and those with compromised immune systems. But there’s another group at risk: children under 12. They can’t get the vaccine yet, which is why every eligible person should do so now, before school starts and the highly transmissible delta variant spreads further.
While 69% of Los Angeles County residents have received at least one dose of the lifesaving COVID-19 vaccine, 4 out of 10 Angelenos are not fully vaccinated, making them susceptible to the delta variant. Nearly half the residents of some communities have yet to be vaccinated at all. This is especially true in many underserved communities, where infection rates and hospitalizations are rising.
Public health officials are concerned about the spread of coronavirus across the board, according to the Los Angeles Times, and the virus has hit Angelenos who can least afford to fall ill. We’re concerned, too. The COVID-19 vaccine is safe and effective — and essential to protect our communities, schools and children. We cannot return to normal until everyone is safe.
Clinics (and youth) take the lead
School and community-based health centers are essential to helping to take the COVID-19 vaccination effort the final mile. The L.A. County Department of Public Health, through the Public Health Institute, has funded a $300,000 vaccination awareness effort — WeVax + LA — supported by The L.A. Trust.
A dozen school- and community-based health centers are stepping up vaccination awareness and access at 35 sites in areas hardest hit by COVID-19. The healthcare providers are Eisner Pediatric and Family Center, LAUSD Wellness Programs, Northeast Valley Health Corporation, South Bay Family Center, St. John’s Well Child and Family Center, Social Model Recovery Systems, South Central Family Health Center, T.H.E. Clinic, UMMA Community Clinic, Valley Community Healthcare, ViaCare and Watts Healthcare Corporation. Vaccination sites range from Banning to Wilmington, South Los Angeles to East L.A.
Increasing public awareness is essential to Increasing vaccination rates, and the funds will promote awareness about vaccination using multilingual materials, social media and other outreach. The initiative will also include an assessment of vaccine awareness and attitudes by Watts Healthcare, workflow and text reminder systems by Valley Community Healthcare, and a Skid Row Health Fair by Social Model Recovery. The L.A. Trust is launching its own social media and communications campaign and volunteering at local clinics to help the WeVAX + LA effort. The L.A. Trust has also distributed PPE to WeVax + LA partners, including USC’s School of Dentistry mobile program.
Youth have a big stake in protecting themselves, their family members and their communities from COVID. High school students from 16 campuses have joined The L.A. Trust COVID-19 Youth Task Force to educate their communities about the dangers of the coronavirus and the importance of vaccination. The task force is funded by a grant from Aspiration co-founder Joe Sanberg (the grant was facilitated by Ethos Giving).
What you can do
We can eliminate the pandemic and prevent another outbreak — if we work together.
If you are eligible and not vaccinated already, get vaccinated now. It’s free, easy and safe.
Volunteer at a COVID clinic or other support agency.
Stay informed and urge your friends and relatives to get vaccinated. Your word will carry more weight than that of a celebrity or politician. Información en español.
If your child is over 2 and not vaccinated, they should wear a mask in all indoor public spaces and crowded outside public spaces. Even if they are less likely to suffer the worst effects of COVID-19, they are vulnerable to MIS-C (multisystem inflammatory syndrome in children), a dangerous disease linked to COVID infection.
Wear a mask when asked or indoors — especially in schools, healthcare facilities and public transportation. Unfortunately, the risk of transmission is not over and there are still millions of unvaccinated individuals in Los Angeles County.
Cedars grant to The L.A. Trust will grow healthcare access and advocacy
Cedars-Sinai is growing its community outreach with a new grant to The L.A. Trust. Photo courtesy Cedars-Sinai.
Cedars-Sinai has awarded $800,000 to The Los Angeles Trust for Children’s Health to expand advocacy, equity and effectiveness of school-based healthcare in Los Angeles County.
The goals of the two-year initiative include expanding student agency and healthcare access and increasing visits at 19 L.A. Unified Wellness Centers in high-need neighborhoods.
“This grant is a game changer,” said Maryjane Puffer, executive director of The L.A. Trust. “It will enable us and our partners to make long-needed improvements in school-based healthcare and prevention programs and support our students and communities as they recover from the COVID-19 pandemic and address the ongoing effects of systemic racism.”
“Cedars-Sinai recognizes the significance of The L.A. Trust’s approach to ensuring access to care,” said Jonathan Schreiber, vice president of Community Engagement. “We are proud to support The L.A. Trust in the launch of this timely effort to meet the increased wellness needs of students in our communities.”
The Cedars-Sinai grant will fund a School Health and Wellness Initiative that will develop best practices, expand student engagement and foster research and innovation:
Policy Roundtable
The initiative will help re-establish The L.A. Trust Student Health Policy Roundtable and develop it into a robust cohort of Los Angeles-based partners that will advocate for funding and policies that improve the well-being of Los Angeles County public school students. The roundtable will address pressing student health concerns, including anti-racism priorities.
Student engagement
The grant will also help The L.A. Trust expand student engagement by adding Student Advisory Boards at new or recently established Wellness Centers on Los Angeles Unified campuses. Student engagement is a key driver of campus change, enlisting hundreds of students each year to develop health campaigns that reach tens of thousands of students. Student Advisory Board members will also be consulted by the Policy Roundtable for input and participation.
Research and resources
The initiative will also help increase access and improve services across the Wellness Network. This will be accomplished through The L.A. Trust Data xChange, a first-in-the-nation initiative that links student health metrics with academic and attendance data to identify concerns and find solutions. Other research and best practices funded by the Cedar-Sinai grant will include a verified school-health integration measurement tool, community events such as clinic open houses, and The L.A. Trust’s long-running Wellness Network Learning Collaboratives.
“Cedars-Sinai is a generous and forward-thinking community partner,” said Anna Baum, director of development and communications for The L.A. Trust. “They are deeply concerned about student and community health, and their expertise and funding have supported our work in mental health, oral health and prevention education for five years,” Baum said. “We are grateful for their partnership and for making this important new initiative possible.”
The L.A. Trust expands team to meet its missions
New additions to The L.A. Trust team will enable us to expand research, best practices and services affecting hundreds of thousands of students and their families.
The Los Angeles Trust for Children’s Health is expanding its team to meet new challenges and fulfill new grants.
Alex Zepeda has joined The L.A. Trust as a full-time senior data and research analyst. Zepeda will oversee The L.A. Trust Data xChange, a multimillion-dollar initiative that links student health metrics with academic and attendance data to identify concerns and find solutions. She will also support other research projects, programs funded by the Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute (PCORI), and the Operations Committee of The L.A. Trust board of directors.
The Pasadena resident has served as a research analyst at Child360 and worked at the UCLA Center for Healthier Children, Families and Communities. Zepeda has a bachelor’s degree from UC Berkeley and master’s in public health from UCLA.
“We are excited to have Alex on board,” said Marsha Ellis, director of programs for The L.A. Trust. “The L.A. Trust believes in data-driven solutions and Alex is the perfect person to help us find them.”
More development
Summer intern Erick Escalante, health connections intern, will promote The L.A. Trust’s school-based health census; align policy and legislative work to support LAUSD Wellness Centers; collect, organize and communicate SBIRT data; and help prepare reports on the overall Wellness Initiative.
Julie Edens has joined The L.A. Trust as a fundraising and events consultant reporting to Development and Communications Director Anna Baum. Edens will work part-time managing fundraising events, including the upcoming Salute to Student Health event and individual giving campaigns.
Also reporting to Baum is Hailey Jures, who will continue to serve The L.A. Trust as development consultant and grant writer. Jures is completing her master’s degree in public affairs at the University of Michigan’s Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy.
University of San Francisco undergraduate Erin Brown, who joined The L.A. Trust as an intern in March, will become a part-time communications assistant in August, reporting to Rob Wray, associate director of communications and media.
“Hailey has been an important part of our team for years,” Baum said. “I have worked closely with Julie Edens at the CLARE Foundation and seen her skills in action. And in just a few short months, Erin has proven herself in a key communications function,” Baum said. “Together, they will help The L.A. Trust raise its profile in the community and raise the funds we need to accomplish our missions.”
The L.A. Trust will honor Austin Beutner at Sept. 30 gala
Los Angeles Unified Superintendent Austin Beutner will be honored by The L.A. Trust at its Salute to Student Health event. LAUSD photo.
The Los Angeles Trust for Children’s Health will present its first-ever Visionary Award to L.A. Unified Superintendent Austin Beutner, September 30 at its Salute to Student Health event at Vibiana in downtown Los Angeles.
The gala will be attended by members of The L.A. Trust community, including educators, healthcare providers and donors. Registration for the event will open soon.
Learn more, become a sponsor
“We are proud to present this award to Superintendent Beutner,” said Maryjane Puffer, executive director of The L.A. Trust. “We honor his innovation, his hard work and his leadership in seeing the school community through the COVID-19 crisis.”
Beutner said, “I am a product of public schools, and I wouldn’t be here today but for my great public education. I have committed myself to making sure children in our community have the same opportunities I was provided with, including quality healthcare.”
Record of achievement
Austin Beutner is a civic leader and public servant who has worked for the last decade to make Los Angeles a stronger community. He was appointed superintendent of Los Angeles Unified School District, the nation’s second largest, in May 2018.
Under Beutner’s leadership Los Angeles Unified has led the nation in responding to the crisis in public schools created by COVID-19. The school district has provided more than 135 million meals along with 40 million items of needed supplies to the communities it serves, made sure all students have a computer and free internet access to remain connected with their school and to continue learning, and has provided COVID-19 tests and vaccinations to students, staff and community members at schools.
During his tenure, Los Angeles Unified was transformed from a top-down, one-size-fits-all bureaucracy into an organization led by 44 nimble, local teams dedicated to each of the communities it serves. Students, in particular students of color, have made significant progress in early literary and math. High school graduates are provided with jobs while they attend local colleges, and students have the opportunity to participate in an extraordinary set of new classes and programs. One example is a program created with Fender Guitar, where 5,000 middle-school students received a free guitar to participate in teacher-led music classes.
Civic leadership
Beutner has served as first deputy mayor of Los Angeles, publisher and CEO of the Los Angeles Times and San Diego Union Tribune, and co-chair of the LA 2020 Commission and the L.A. Unified Advisory Task Force.
At age 29, Beutner became the youngest partner at The Blackstone Group. He left Blackstone to serve in the U.S. government, where he led a portion of U.S. efforts to help Russia transition to a market economy after the collapse of the Soviet Union. He went on to found Evercore Partners and as president and co-CEO helped build it into one of the leading independent investment firms in the world.
Beutner holds a degree in economics from Dartmouth College and has taught courses in ethics, leadership and effective government at Harvard Business School, the University of Southern California Price School of Public Policy, the UCLA Anderson School of Management, and California State University Northridge.
Beutner currently serves on the board of the National Park Foundation, is a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations. He founded Vision To Learn, a non-profit organization that has provided free eye exams and glasses to more than 250,000 children at schools in low-income communities across the country.
Distance-learning physical education taught surprising lessons
A year of distance-learning PE taught school leaders and teachers valuable lessons, according to a new report from The L.A. Trust, L.A. Unified and UCLA.
Physical education was even more critical to students’ physical and emotional engagement during the COVID-19 pandemic, according to a new report funded by the L.A. Dodgers Foundation and published in the Journal of School Health.
The report — Teachers’ and School Leaders’ Perspective on Distance Learning Physical Education During the COVID-19 Pandemic — was a collaboration between UCLA, The Los Angeles Trust for Children’s Health and Los Angeles Unified. It was written by Dr. Rebecca Dudovitz, board member of The L.A. Trust and associate professor, David Geffen School of Medicine Department of Pediatrics at UCLA; Jocelyn Vilchez, Physical Education K-12 Specialist, Los Angeles Unified Division of Instruction; Maryjane Puffer, executive director of The L.A. Trust; and John Kruse, director of physical education at LAUSD.
Dudovitz said, “Many of the lessons learned during distance learning will enhance physical education moving forward, including a deeper focus on educational standards, emphasizing the integration of physical education into students’ daily lives, use of technology to enhance learning, and the importance of social-emotional learning as a core component of physical education.”
Maryjane Puffer of The L.A. Trust said, “This report recognizes the creativity and hard work our students and physical education teachers put in during the pandemic. We know that PE is good for students — we must devote more time and invest more resources to this, especially in our under-served schools.”
Speaking to experts
Using purposive and snowball sampling, the authors conducted semi-structured interviews with 19 physical education teachers and school health experts across 21 California school districts on best practices for physical education via distance learning.
Four major themes emerged, the report stated: Participants felt high-quality physical education via distance learning was both critical and possible; strategies for creating a successful distance learning environment included personalization, creativity and inclusiveness; and resources necessary for success included professional development, administrative support and equipment.
“I was surprised that overwhelmingly, our participants felt that high-quality physical education was possible during distance learning, and (by) the real enthusiasm for creativity and new learning approaches the pandemic motivated,” Dudovitz said. But “many participants also described the unequal access to physical fitness many low-income students faced and the high need for social-emotional support. They also described feeling the physical education was often under-valued, relative to core academic subjects,” she added.
The report’s bottom line: “Participants identified effective strategies, challenges, and recommendations for the future; felt optimistic about their ability to provide quality physical education via distance learning given the necessary supports; and perceived that they played a critical role in supporting student health during the COVID-19 pandemic.”
Board and staff of The L.A. Trust examine equity issues
Dr. Nooshin Valizadeh is facilitating The L.A. Trust’s equity, diversity and inclusion effort.
Officers, board members and staff of The Los Angeles Trust for Children’s Health unpacked issues of equity, diversity and inclusion at a special online meeting May 24.
Intersectionality expert, educator and “Artivist” Dr. Nooshin Valizadeh led the discussion, which was designed to foster thought exchange; define racism and understand its history and impact; and to name, challenge and change racial biases.
In one exercise, the 28 participants filled in the statement, “As a [blank person] I do not know what it is to navigate our society as [a minoritized identity].” The workshop explained the difference between equality (everyone getting the same thing) and equity (everyone getting what they need to reach fair outcomes and opportunities).
Dr. Valizadeh shared a chart demonstrating that overt white supremacy like hate crimes is only the tip of a large foundation of more subtle forms of racism, from cultural appropriation to so-called color-blindness.
The roots of racism
The participants filled in a “racism tree” that showed the seeds and roots of racism (slavery, colonialism and biased laws, policies and practices) to the sustaining trunk of racism (from the criminal justice system to underfunded schools and healthcare).
Participants then named the branches (results) that have grown from the tree that’s been sustained over hundreds of years, including shorter life spans, mass incarceration and disparities in healthcare and education. Dr. Valizadeh cited Ibram Kendi’s book, Stamped from the Beginning, to share that the actual foundation of racism was self-interest.
Several participants said they left the two-hour event feeling both inspired and challenged. The session was part of a larger equity exploration by The L.A. Trust, included a series of staff trainings.
Dr. Valizadeh has a background in equity and education, and has been teaching race and gender equity courses for USC and UCLA since 2015. She works with local schools and districts to facilitate professional development and address structural barriers that disproportionately impact students of color and their success.
She also helps school leaders impact change through her innovative and trauma-informed approaches to restorative justice and serves on the Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Committee for the Long Beach PTA Council and is the DEI Chair at Fremont Elementary School.
Health educators from The L.A. Trust go back to school
The L.A. Trust and Beyond the Bell have distributed more than 100,000 toothbrushes and other donated oral healthcare items to students and family members as part of Operation Tooth Fairy.
Los Angeles Unified School students are back on campus — and so are oral healthcare educators from The L.A. Trust.
Program Manager Esther Yepez and her kid-friendly puppet Billy visited Logan Street Elementary School in the Echo Park section of Los Angeles May 5. It’s the first of nine such trainings sponsored by a grant from QueensCare.
“Students were extremely excited to learn about the importance of why we brush our teeth and how cavities are formed,” Yepez said. “They learned about the germ called plaque that causes cavities.”
Good to be back
Yepez and Billy addressed four classes — one transitional kindergarten class, two kindergarten classes and one first-grade class. A total of 78 students received the instruction along with oral healthcare kits containing toothbrushes and Sesame Street brochures.
Executive Director Maryjane Puffer of The L.A. Trust said, “It’s good to be back in the classroom, teaching good oral healthcare habits to our kids.”
The L.A. Trust’s oral healthcare mission has continued during the pandemic, Puffer noted. Operation Tooth Fairy distributed more than $455,000 in supplies; The L.A. Trust’s kid-friendly oral health campaign on KLCS and social media reached an audience of more than 1.5 million.
The campaign has made celebrities out of Yepez and Billy. One student in the hallway recognized the pair from their appearances on KLCS. They appeared on the L.A. Unified TV station 150 times during the pandemic.