Gold Humanism Honor Society

The mission of the GHHS is to recognize individuals who are exemplars of humanistic patient care and who can serve as role models, mentors, and leaders in medicine.

In 2015 the DGSOM established their chapter of the Gold Humanism Honor Society (GHHS) to recognize, support and promote the values of humanism and professionalism in medicine.

The mission of the Gold Humanism Honor Society chapter of the DGSOM is to advocate for the compassionate care of the individual and family. Inspired by enthusiasm for lifelong learning, our chapter members strive to be models for patient-centered medical care and to find creative ways to share humanism in medicine with our hospitals and the greater community. Through this endeavor, we hope to become leaders in the humanistic service of patients as well as the promotion of health and well-being.

I pledge by all I hold dear as a Physician:

• I will Care for my patients with Compassion, Respect, Empathy, Integrity and Clinical Excellence;
• I will Listen to my patients with my whole being;
• I will Advocate for each patient as a unique individual;
• I will Serve as a role model and mentor to promote humanism in health care;
• I will Remember always the healing power of acts of caring;
• I will Dedicate myself to joining with others to make health care optimal for all.

Annually, each member of the third-year class is encouraged to complete a peer nomination survey designed to identify those students most recognized by their colleagues for their humanistic character. Peer nominations are then forwarded to medical school administration and GHHS members (students, faculty, and staff) for review. Nominated students in good academic standing are then invited to submit a CV and clerkship evaluations for consideration to the GHHS membership committee (consisting of DGSOM leadership and faculty and staff who are members of the GHHS themselves). The membership committee makes final membership determinations and invites up to 15% of the class to join the GHHS

Similar to Alpha Omega Alpha, no more than 15 percent of the student body will be invited to join the Gold Humanism Honor Society annually. Those who accept this invitation will plan and perform a service project during their fourth year of medical school. Members of GHHS are also recognized on their residency applications and are eligible to join graduate medical education (GME) chapters.

GHHS created a peer support program to support you through your medical school journey. We are here to offer a listening ear and chat with you about anything you might want to discuss.

Schedule a time to meet with a peer support counselor:

• Arya Aliabadi: calendly.com/aryaaliabadi
• Daniel Carrera: calendly.com/danielcarrera
• Tanya Datta: calendly.com/tanyadatta
• Janeet Dhauna: calendly.com/jdhauna
• Elizabeth Flores: calendly.com/elizaflores
• Andie Gong: calendly.com/ajgong
• Leilani Gutierrez-Palominos: calendly.com/leilanigp
• Julia Hafer: calendly.com/jhafer2022
• Brandon Hankerson: calendly.com/bhanky
• Chinonyelum (Nonye) Ikeanyi: calendly.com/nonyeikeanyi
• Angelica Johnsen: calendly.com/amfjohnsen
• Aishwarya Karlapudi: calendly.com/akarlapudi
• Mariam Khan: calendly.com/khanmariam
• Nancy Quintanilla: calendly.com/nancyquintanilla
• Melvin Rico: calendly.com/mwrico_ghhs
• Rintu Saju: calendly.com/rsaju/psp
• Abhishek Sharma: calendly.com/abhisheksharma-calendar
• Brittany Wong: calendly.com/bmwong-1

A Night of Storytelling 2024

"Honoring Our Shared Humanity"

Date: Friday, March 8

Time: 6p-8p

Location: Geffen Hall, 2nd Floor Student Lounge

Please RSVP

The Gold Humanism Honor Society (GHHS) Chapter of the David Geffen School of Medicine (DGSOM) invites you to attend an intimate evening of stories & fellowship at a Night of Storytelling. This year's theme is "Honoring Our Shared Humanity".  This annual event is focused on storytelling around experiences of those in the healthcare field to emphasize humanity, community, and vulnerability.  Submissions include essays, poems, spoken word, dance, visual art, or any other related form of creative expression. 

Please RSVP by March 1st.   Food is provided.  Feel free to contact the GHHS Night of Storytelling team with any questions at jagrawal@mednet.ucla.edu. 

The Humanism Grand Rounds is a space for exemplary physicians to share stories and examples of how they uphold humanism in their practice with residents, medical students, attendings, and other healthcare professionals.

GHHS Humanism Grand Rounds 2024

The David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA Gold Humanism Honor Society and The UCLA Department of Medicine Grand Rounds  present the annual Humanism Grand Rounds: 

“BioSocial Futures: Toward a Symbiotic, Community Ecology of Health.”

Date/Time: April 4, 2024, at 12p-1p

Location: Tamkin Auditorium
Speaker: Helena Hansen, MD, PhD

Our 2024 Humanism Grand Rounds speaker, Dr. Helena Hansen, an M.D., Ph.D. psychiatrist-anthropologist, is professor and Interim Chair of Psychiatry and Biobehavioral Sciences at the David Geffen School of Medicine and Interim Director of the Semel Institute of Neuroscience and Human Behavior.  She is an international leader in the field of social medicine bringing the integration of rigorous social science into academic medicine as well as into research on social determinants of health and health equity.

The David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA Gold Humanism Honor Society, The UCLA Department of Medicine Grand Rounds in conjunction with The Department of Surgery Grand Rounds present the annual Humanism Grand Rounds.  This is a space for exemplary physicians to share stories and examples of how they uphold humanism in their practice with residents, medical students, attendings, and other health care professionals.  We are proud of our past Gold Humanism Grand Rounds presenters:

GHHS Humanism Grand Rounds 2023

Milk Chocolate or Dark Chocolate? Decision Fatigue and our Capacity to Provide Equitable, Compassionate Care

Tara Vijayan, MD

Date/Time: January 25, 2023 
Speaker: Tara Vijayan, MD, Assistant Clinical Professor in the Department of Medicine, Division of Infectious Diseases.

Zoom and In-person Webinar

Our 2023 Grand Rounds speaker, was Dr. Tara Vijayan. She works in the division of infectious diseases at the David Geffen School of Medicine. Her clinical interests include general infectious diseases, HIV medicine, global health, infectious diseases in underserved populations, medical education and antimicrobial stewardship. She serves the medical director of antimicrobial stewardship and as the associate director for the scientific foundations of medicine for the school of medicine.

GHHS Humanism Grand Rounds 2022

To Comfort Always: Unlearning and Language Barriers to Care

Gerardo Moreno, MD, MS

Date/Time: January 5, 2022
Speaker: Gerardo Moreno, MD, MS, Associate Professor and Interim Chair of the Department of Family Medicine
Zoom Webinar

Our 2022 Grand Rounds speaker was Dr. Gerardo Moreno. He is an Associate Professor and Chair of the Department of Family Medicine.  He is also Director of UCLA PRIME-LA (Program in Medical Education) at the David Geffen School of Medicine which focuses on Leadership and Advocacy for underserved communities. He is a clinician investigator and his current research focuses on studying effective healthcare delivery in communities for uninsured vulnerable populations including undocumented residents and older adults. 

2021 Humanism Grand Rounds

Pressing Forward with Passion and Purpose

Nuriya Robinson, MD, FACOG

Date/Time: February 10, 2021 at 8 a.m.
Speaker: Nuriya Robinson, MD, FACOG, Department of Obstetrics & Gynecology, UCLA
Zoom Webinar

The 2020-2021 DGSOM at UCLA chapter defines humanism as “the intersectionality between justice, advocacy, and service to uphold human dignity.” Our 2021 speaker was Dr. Nuriya Robinson, an Assistant Professor of Obstetrics and Gynecology at UCLA and the Vice-Chair for Equity, Diversity and Inclusion for the Harbor-UCLA Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology. Over the past decade, Dr. Robinson has worked throughout sub-Saharan Africa, most recently collaborating with the American College of Obstetrics and Gynecology and JHPIEGO on the development of a Complicated Labor Module, intended to decrease maternal and infant morbidity and mortality. She also serves as the Medical Director for MAMAs--an innovative program throughout Los Angeles County which augments traditional prenatal care with patient-centered, community-based psychosocial support for those at highest risk of preterm birth, as well as other adverse perinatal outcomes.

2019-2020 Chapter Projects

MS3 Burn Out Prevention (MBOP)

The third year of medical school is an exciting, yet challenging, rite of passage for all medical students. For many medical students, third year may be the first time they face issues surrounding death, dying, and suffering, sometimes on a daily occurrence. These deeply personal situations come with a cost, which requires developing ways of exploring our feelings and learning to cope with them. Some people are lucky to have close mentors, friends, and/or family who are available to speak with about these feelings, but third year can also be an isolating time. As upperclassmen and "near peers," we recognize this unique situation that third-year medical students are placed in, and thus the MBOP project was created. Throughout the year, upperclassmen host lunch time meetings at the rotation sites where all third year medical students are located. Lunch is covered, and students are given a safe space for peer support.

Night of Storytelling: Humanism in Medicine

"Night of Storytelling: Humanism in Medicine" will take place on Thursday March 1, 2020, 6:30 PM at UCLA Geffen Hall Student Lounge. This event will allow medical professionals ranging from medical students to practicing physicians, and patients to share their stories related to the theme of "Humanism in Medicine." The definition of "Humanism" is open for interpretation. GHHS at UCLA is a society of medical students who are passionate about ensuring patients are more than a "one-liner" and/or another "case vignette" where we need to find as many differential diagnoses as possible. We, as GHHS, believe in justice, service, advocacy for our patients and it is imperative to ensure we address the patient's needs holistically and simply, to uphold humanism.

If you are interested in sharing your story, please fill out the form below as soon as possible.

Form to share your story

We are looking for people to come and share their stories through whatever means they feel comfortable, whether it be through spoken word, pictures, choreography. We hope this event will remind the UCLA community the utmost importance of humanism in delivering healthcare and receiving healthcare. If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact Phillip at PHChen@mednet.ucla.edu. We will finalize the set-list of the performances and confirm with you prior to the event. 

Taking Care of Undocumented Patients Curriculum

This year's 2019-2020 cohort of GHHS is working in collaboration with Campaign Against Racism and the UCLA organization UndocuMed Students and Allies (with additional support from the Boyle Heights Immigrants Rights Network and California Immigrant Policy Center) to develop additional curricular material on taking care of undocumented patients. Our mission is to improve medical treatment and outcomes for undocumented patients through curricular change that centers the narratives of immigrant patients that have been historically disenfranchised within medical institutions. Our learning objectives are to 1) Discuss strucutral racism, how it contributes to anti-immigrant rhetoric, and how this impacts patient's lives and health, 2) Share historic examples of how medicine has disenfranchised immigrant communities, and 3) Empower medical students to advocate for their patients. We have also developed and are printing badge buddies which will include Know Your Rights information as well as income requirements to participate in the MyHealth LA program, a no-cost health care program for low-income residents of Los Angeles County (including undocumented residents).

Health Equity Forum

The Health Equity Forum is an umbrella network to bring together student organizations at DGSOM and across the health professional schools to share ideas, collaborate on projects and events, work together to build our campus culture of equity, social justice, and anti-oppression, and enhance our impact for collective action and community engagement. The Forum will be organized into working groups focused on Education and Curriculum, UCLA Equity and Campus Culture, and Community Organizing and Advocacy. These are intended to streamline and facilitate the work we already do rather than recreate the wheel. GHHS is proud to be an official member of this new space and support the incredible work of other UCLA students.

2024 Medical Student Inductees

Alexis Ivan Aleman
Corinne Allas
Marilyn Bravo
Stephanie Real Bueno
Brett Segura Cervantes
Geena Conde
Em Dickey
Irvin Garcia Real
Denise Guzman Naranjo
Katherine Nicev Holland
Alberto G. Juarez
Alejandra Lopez Macha
Mikayla Mefford
Shami-Iyabo Mitchell
Clara Do Tran Nguyen
Tira Oskoui
Matthew Rios
Anael Shaddai Rizzo
Abhinav Suri
Elizza Elaine Villarruel
Nafisa Wara
Christian Wooten
Grace Yi

Faculty Inductee

Enrico G. Castillo, MD, MS

2023 Medical Student Inductees

Justin Abbasi
Babapelumi Adejuyigbe
Juhee Agrawal
Enat Addisu Arega
Tucker Avra
Lizeth Carrillo
Samantha Garcia
Holly Huang
Christopher Ethan Huerta
Zina Jawadi
Alexandra Johnson
Guneet Kaur
Jahmil Rahshad Lacey
Monica Bang Le
Bethlehem Simon Michael
Karla Murillo
Rohini Nott
Joy Ohiomoba
Dailyn Rodriguez Reyes
Bronwyn Stone
Jared Michael Taitt
Dominique Marie Taylor
Bryan Tamtri Vuong

Faculty Inductee

Jane Yanagawa, MD

2022 Inductees

Arya Rod Aliabadi
Angela Bi
Daniel Carrera
Kate Corry-Saavedra
Tanya Datta
Janeet Dhauna
Elizabeth Flores
Andie Jiang Gong
Leilani Gutierrez-Palominos
Julia Hafer
Brandon Hankerson
Ami Hayashi
Nonye Ikeanyi
Angelica Michelle Francisco Johnsen
Aishwarya Karlapudi
Mariam Khan
Leslie Ojeaburu
Rose Paneno
Nancy Evelin Quintanilla
Ziad Rifi
Rintu Panakkal Saju
Abhishek Sharma
Brittany Michelle Wong

Faculty Inductee

Christina Harris, MD

2021 Inductees

Carlee Ann Blakemore
Inanna Leilani Carter
Janae Chatmon
Carly Chiwiwi
Nardeen Dawood
Parris Antonio Diaz
Fitz Gerald I. Diala
Peter Fink
Kaylin Gonzalez
Andrew Hong
Lane Kantor
Danny Quy Le
Yadira Bribiesca Leon
Yesenia Calderon Leon
Heng-Yi Liu
Russyan Mark Mabeza
Lauren Kieva Matsuno
Vanessa Nunez
Felipe Ocampo
Sumana Rallapalli
Melvin Wosbeli Giron Rico
Vivek Shah
Micaela Torres
Jennifer Wang
Keith Wong
Justin Cenming Zhang
Mayra Lucas Ramirez

Faculty Inductee

Amar U. Kishan, MD

2020 Inductees

Sebiha Mohammed Abdullahi
Rachel Acree
Usman Alam
Sarah Andebrhan
Nikhil Bellamkonda
Christos Haveles
Elyse Conley
Emmanuel Cordova
"Mona" Xiaomeng Deng
Kara Faktor
Gillian Foley
Andreé Franco-Vásquez
Anthony Mena Gobran
Grant Howell
Simon Levinson
Patty Liu
Gabriela Lopez
Diana Lopez
Jose Angel Negrete Manriquez
Alexandra Mardock
Lydia Fekadu Messele
David Okikawa
Roberta Palau
Sasha Parra
Miriam Ramos
Sarah Rudasill
Mercedes M. Scott
Alexander Soto
Ayman Teeham Ullah
Anabel Alcaraz Vargas
Olivia Ho Wu
Oscar G. Echeverria
Simone Renault

2019 Inductees

Esteban Aguayo
Marisela Aguilar
Emmanuel Aguilar-Posada
Amrita Ayer
Orly Bell
Elaine Chan
Angela Chen
Phillip Chen
Varina Clark
Stephanie Clavijo
Mutya Mithi del Rosario
Cassandra DeWitt
Oscar G. Echeverría
Kenneth Ferenchak
Roberto Gonzalez Huerta
Regina Husman
Betelhem Kifle
Abhinaya Narayanan
Mariela Nevárez
Adam Peña

2018 Inductees

Sara Arastoo
Yosselin Arroyo-Galvan
Yvorn "Doc" Aswad
Saul Barajas Nuno
Anthony Bui
Alessandra Chen
Jennifer Cohenmehr
Marquell Craddock
Kara Faktor
Jeremy Flores
Alexandra (AJ) Greene
Cynthia He
Cher Huang
Peter Konyn
Leonel Martinez
Subha Mohan
Damond Ng
Collin Price
Lisa Quach
Jose Sanchez-Cruz
Marina "Molly" Sprague
Tajah Tubbs
Casey Weiser
Alexis Woods
Marcela Zhou Huang

2017 Inductees

Beza Abebe
Lao-Tzu Allan-Blitz
Kaitlin Arena
Kian Asanad
John (Jonji) Barber
Adam Braun
Alice Brown
Nate Coggins
Allison Coleman
Edgar Corona
Allison Estrada
Alex Garrett
Anju Goyal
John Horton
Sarah Jensen
Grace Kim
Richard Leuchter
Gabriel Lopez
Jessica Lucier
O. Agatha Offorjebe
Rachel Ohman
Harman Rahal
Allen Rodriguez
Eric Tam
Joe Torres
Maxine Velazquez
Mignote Yilma

2016 Inductees

Lao-Tzu Allan-Blitz
Emily Avis
Mariel Bailey
Cat Beni
Thomas Buretta
Carlos (Tony) Casillas
Jeff Fujimoto
Amelia Goodfellow
Hannah Hughes
Maryanne Ibrahim
Sam Jackson
Emily Ka Yi Tam
Mohammad M. Karimzada
Clement Lee
Andrew Lees
Gabriel Lopez
Jessica Lucier
Rithika Mathias
Imani McElroy
Roya Moheimani
Sara Mottahedan
Laura Obler
MacLean Sellars
Evan Shih
Joe Torres
Erica Tukiainen
Nicholas Villano

2015 Inductees

Shilpa Agrawal
Lutfi Al-Khouja
Kourosh Beroukhim
Sarathi Bhattacharyya
Thomas Buretta
Carlos (Tony) Casillas
Margaret Chen
Luz Corona Gomez
Juliet Edgcomb
John Flores
Peter Hsiue
Liliy Kornbluth
Cary Kraft
Talia Lester
Devery Mitchell
Bismarck Odei
Jasmin-Ann Reyes
Maya Smolarek
William Toppen
Erica Tukiainen
Caleb Wilson