Alumna Leads Fil-Am History Month Panel
Students Across 3 Colleges Share Their Stories as Filipino Americans
A doctor who graduated from and teaches at Touro University California led a panel discussion among students Oct. 1 on campus and came away from the session with high hopes for the future of medicine.
The topic of the panel was “Celebrating Voices from Our Filipino Community.”
Dr. Maricel Dela Cruz, a 2012 alumna of the Doctor of Osteopathic Medicine/Master of Public Health program in the College of Osteopathic Medicine who serves as an Adjunct Professor with TUCOM, was the moderator.
Dela Cruz has spoken about the importance of representation across healthcare professions.
Her interest in medicine was encouraged when she was a child – her mother was a nurse at the VA in San Francisco. Then, while working toward her bachelor’s degree at the University of California, Berkeley, she took part in a recruitment event for those interested in becoming doctors.
“I met a DO and she looked just like me, and I said, ‘I want to be her.’ And so that’s what led me to looking at osteopathic schools,” Dela Cruz said.
She said representation across the profession gives others permission to follow a similar path, something she encourages where possible.
“I see that when I take care of young children ... specifically when I do see a young girl and I come to their room, and they say, ‘That’s the doctor?’ I say, ‘Yes, I am, and if you want to do this you can be a doctor, too,’ and they leave saying, ‘I want to be a doctor. Me, too.’ That’s so uplifting,” Dela Cruz said.
Dela Cruz serves as an emergency room doctor with Kaiser Permanente in Vacaville and Vallejo. She is board-certified in both Emergency Medicine and Medical Toxicology from the American Osteopathic Board of Emergency Medicine and is board-certified in Family Medicine and OMT from the American Osteopathic Board of Family Physicians.
Panelists Offer Insights Into Community
Student panelists included Riana Mesias, a DO 2030 candidate and 2026 alumna of TUCOM’s Master of Science in Medical Health Sciences program; Richmond Fandino, a DO/MPH 2029 candidate and 2023 alum of the MSMHS program; Jaime Calilung, a PharmD 2028 candidate in the College of Pharmacy; Adrien Luis Uriarte, a MSMHS 2027 candidate; Danica Vicente, a Dual Physician Assistant/Master of Public Health 2028 candidate in the College of Health Sciences; and Janelle Shara Nieva, a PA/MPH 2029 candidate in the CHS.
Members of the panel spoke about their interest in healthcare, the importance of representation in healthcare, and health issues within the Filipino community. They also offered advice to current students and spoke of how they hope to make an impact as healthcare professionals.
Dela Cruz said her interactions with the panelists give her hope for the future.
“Seeing this bright, young, professional panel here with their hopes and their dreams and looking at the deficit – seeing where there are holes in our healthcare field and where we need to fill them – your passion: I think medicine is in good hands,” she said. “One day I will need you as well as this population gets older – I’m already there – and I’m so glad to see that you’re here to take care us when that time comes.”
Filipino American History Month is celebrated each October. This year’s theme is “Beyond the Margins: Centering Intersectional Filipino American Histories.”
Speaker Set for Late-Month Campus Talk
The celebration of cultural heritage continues from noon to 1 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 22 when Marisela Barbosa-Cortez comes to campus to share her story during a talk loosely tied to Hispanic Heritage Month, which was Sept. 15 to Oct. 15.
Barbosa-Cortez is an entrepreneur, educator, and author as well a founder of The Time is YA! Consulting firm that strives to advance education, entrepreneurship, and civic leadership within Latino communities. She also founded the companion The Time is YA Network, a nonprofit that’s dedicated to building community power through education, advocacy, and economic wellness.
The Filipino American History Month student panel discussion and upcoming Hispanic Heritage Month speaker are organized through TUC’s Office of Campus Engagement and Community Affairs.