Biographies

2007 Champions of Health Professions Diversity Award Honorees

Michael V. Drake, MD

A nationally recognized academic and administrator, Dr. Michael Drake is passionate about medicine, public service and education. He is the current chancellor of UC Irvine. His efforts to increase diversity in the UC system’s health-profession schools have elevated him as an expert and leader in recruiting and retaining minority students.

Drake has a long and accomplished association with the UC system that spans more than 30 years. Previously, he was the UC vice president of the Office of Health Affairs, where he oversaw education and research activities in 15 health-science schools, including schools of medicine, dentistry, nursing, pharmacy and public health. He also supervised UC Special Research Programs, which studies health issues ranging from tobacco-related diseases to breast cancer to HIV/AIDS. Drake was Steven P. Shearing Professor of Ophthalmology at UC San Francisco (UCSF). He also served as senior associate dean for admissions and extramural academic programs at the UCSF School of Medicine where he was responsible for the school’s admissions process and educational-outreach programs. He was involved in the establishment of the faculty-student Committee on Recruitment and Retention and served as its chair for 10 years.

Born in New York City, Drake graduated from UCSF Medical School. He is chair of the board of directors of the Association of Academic Health Centers and is a member of the Institute of Medicine’s Committee on Strategies to Enhance Diversity of the Health Sciences. He is the immediate past national president of the Alpha Omega Alpha Honor Medical Society. Drake has received numerous awards, including the Herbert W. Nickens Award from the American Association of Medical Colleges and UCSF School of Medicine’s Gold Headed Cane Faculty Award. He lives with his wife in Irvine and has two sons, Chris and Sean.

Hector Flores, MD

Dr. Hector Flores is a career-long advocate for the medically underserved, with particular focus on increasing accountability and performance in the health system, greater distribution and diversity in the health care workforce, and redesign of the health care system. He co-founded and currently serves as the medical director of the Family Care Specialists Medical Group in East Los Angeles, which has four offices strategically located in health-professions shortage areas.

Flores also serves as co-director of the White Memorial Medical Center (WMMC) Family Medicine Residency Program, which he established with five other Latino family physicians. The program provides young physicians with the training and skills to become excellent clinicians in shortage-area practices, to provide culturally responsive health services, and to achieve leadership positions in the medical community. Most of the program participants go on to practice family medicine in underserved communities statewide, and 100 percent are Board Certified Family Physicians.

Born in Mexico, Flores graduated from Stanford University and the UC Davis School of Medicine. He was a founding member of the California Latino Medical Association and is currently a member of the Latino Medical Student Association Leadership Advisory Board. Flores served on the Clinton Health Care Task Force and the California Task Force on Culturally and Linguistically Competent Physicians and Dentists. He was also a member of the UC Medical Student Diversity Task Force. He is an active member of the California Medical Association and the Blue Cross of California Statewide Physician Relations Committee. Flores was recently appointed to the WellPoint/Anthem National Physician Advisory Committee. He lives with his wife, Rachel, and daughter, Tahlia, in La Habra Heights, California.

Ernest C. Levister, Jr., MD, FACP

Dr. Ernest C. Levister is a highly regarded advocate for the underrepresented and for dismantling health care disparities. He practices internal and occupational medicine in San Bernardino and has personally mentored students pursuing careers in medicine, engineering and education. He is a long-time health columnist for the Inland Empire Black Voice News.

His desire to level the playing field propelled him to lead the Vines Medical Society, an affiliate of the National Medical Association. In 2002, the California Legislature mandated changes in the undergraduate science and engineering programs at UC Riverside (UCR), which resulted in the restructuring of the Thomas Haider Biomedical Sciences program and the creation of a four-year medical school at UCR. These changes increased the number of transfers of junior-college students to the university and diversified underrepresented health care professionals. Levister assisted in the creation of programs designed to ensure faculty diversity and the retention and graduation of people of color. He was instrumental in and supported the establishment of the student organization African-Americans United in Science. The Vines Society provided these students with lectures, shadowing and mentoring, a summer medical enrichment program, and funding for MCAT preparation courses.

Raised in Harlem, Levister graduated from Lincoln University, Pennsylvania, Lafayette College, and the Howard University College of Medicine. He is a trustee of Lincoln University. He is the recipient of awards from the California Medical Association Foundation, the San Bernardino County Medical Society, the San Bernardino Black Culture Foundation, and the California Society of Industrial Medicine and Surgery. He lives with his wife, Chris, in Arrowhead, California, and has two children, Michelle and Clay.