Healthcare is Education | Fortaleciendo la Salud a Través de la Educación

Dear Neighbors and Colleagues,

I’m delighted to connect with you through this month’s newsletter. My name is Litsa Tanner. I am the interim coordinator of the University of San Francisco Counseling Psychology Program at our Santa Rosa campus, a licensed Marriage and Family Therapist, and long-time Sonoma County resident.

I started my career in the county over 20 years ago at a community mental health agency serving predominantly underserved and marginalized populations. Despite having 10+ clinicians on staff, we rarely had truly bilingual clinicians. As a result, I often provided services to Latine families I was ill-equipped to fully support. While one might assume the language barrier was the biggest challenge, the larger hurdle was actually at another level of communication: there’s no substitute for firsthand understanding of someone’s cultural experiences and clients being able to see themselves in the person sitting across from them.

When I joined USF, I was excited to learn about our partnership with the Healthcare Foundation and the Mental Health Talent Pipeline (MHTP) scholarship, as it actively works to correct this service imbalance for our most vulnerable community members. This collaboration has given me the privilege of teaching and learning from MHTP and other Latine students drawn to our school because of this program and our strong social justice mission.

When I reflect on the impact the MHTP scholarship has had on our local community of clinicians, I am reminded of two recent experiences. 

Last month, I attended an open house for the counseling center at Alliance Medical Center in Windsor where five bilingual/bicultural graduates and current students from our program excitedly led me on tours of their offices. As they shared stories about their clients that week—all people of color, many Spanish-speaking—I couldn’t help thinking how different my clients’ experiences at that community clinic so many years ago would have been if the Healthcare Foundation and the MHTP scholarship had existed then.

In July, I was tasked with calling three of our new students to share the news that they’d been selected for the MHTP scholarship— an award that will cover the full tuition for all three years of their graduate education. When I shared the news with the first student, who was overcome with joy, saying, “I can’t tell you how much this is going to change my life,” I felt like I was delivering truly life-changing news—which I was.

Litsa R. Tanner, MS, MFT 
Interim MFT Program Coordinator (Santa Rosa Campus)
Assistant Professor (Hilltop Campus)
Dept. of Counseling Psychology, School of Education
University of San Francisco

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Mental Health Talent Pipeline Spotlight: Meet Oscar Villalobos Campos

This fall, Oscar Villalobos Campos became one of three new students to enter the University of San Francisco’s master’s program in counseling psychology with the support of a Healthcare Foundation Mental Health Talent Pipeline (MHTP) scholarship.

Now in its sixth year, following a successful 2018 pilot, the MHTP scholarship program is helping close the gap in access to culturally responsive mental health services in northern Sonoma County by strengthening pathways to education and career development for exceptional local students like Oscar.

Like many in the program, Oscar is a working student — something USF is structured to accommodate. He serves as a victim advocate in the Sonoma County District Attorney’s Office, assisting survivors of domestic violence — most from rural, Spanish-speaking backgrounds — with resource navigation, counseling, crisis intervention, and more. “Overall, I act as a guide for victims to give them a voice in the criminal justice system,” he explains.

A Windsor resident born and raised in Santa Rosa, Oscar began his undergraduate study at Santa Rosa Junior College before transferring to UC Riverside, where he earned a sociology degree. Unlike many peers, he returned home. 

“Sonoma County is where I grew up, where my family has built its roots, and where I’ve worked in service for the community — whether as a victim advocate or in public health outreach. I feel deeply connected to this community, its stories and struggles. That makes me want to continue my work here.”

Read More About Oscar (2 min read)

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Join Our Team!

We are looking for a new Community and Donor Engagement Specialist.

As a Community and Donor Engagement Specialist you will be the heart and soul of our foundation’s outreach and fundraising efforts. You will work closely with our small team, our board and our network of community partners to create a positive social impact in northern Sonoma County. You will be critical to ensuring that our mission resonates with the community we serve and dedicated to sharing our mission with donors. This is a fantastic opportunity for a creative, organized and motivated individual who wants to make a difference in their community while building their own development and program management skillset.

Click Here for more details or to apply.