Obstetrics and Gynecology

Faustina Nevarez

Kaiser Permanente Medical Center

Faustina Nevarez knows she was lucky to be a healthy child. If not, it would have taken all day to get to the nearest hospital in the area of northern Mexico where she grew up.

“The stories were that people were dying and we couldn’t get them to a hospital in time,” recalls Nevarez, one of six children.

Such extreme inaccessibility to medical care fueled Nevarez’s desire to become a doctor and help those in need.

As chief obstetrician and gynecologist at Kaiser Permanente Medical Center in Los Angeles, the 46-year-old Nevarez has delivered her share of babies and provided prenatal care for women. But she was also instrumental in initiating female-friendlier services by creating a walk-in center where women can receive pregnancy tests, counseling and emergency contraception without having to wait for an appointment.

In addition, she has assembled a bilingual staff of 16 physicians, 16 residents and eight nurse practitioners to reflect the diverse community served by the hospital.

“We wanted to take the barriers down and create a safe environment where women are treated with respect,” she says. “Certainly, speaking the same language is the first step in receiving proper medical information.”

Nevarez is also trying to apply that philosophy to classrooms. She is co-founder of the Chicanos for Creative Medicine Scholarship program at East Los Angeles College, which has raised thousands of dollars for Latino students interested in pursuing careers in medicine.

Recently, she was asked to join a new task force put together through the California Department of Health Services to target unlicensed pharmacies in many Latino communities. The group also will look at ways to increase community awareness about the problem.

Lia Margolis, who worked with Nevarez in helping to form the California Latino Medical Association, says Nevarez is a welcome presence on such panels.

“She’s willing to roll up her sleeves and schlep in the coffee and doughnuts to the meeting,” says Margolis, co-chair of the policy board for the Latino Coalition for Healthy California. “She’s not a prima donna, but one who is accessible and willing to help out on issues in any way possible.”

Nevarez traces that involvement back to her college days.

In 1975, while pursuing her pre-med studies at UC Davis, she helped create Clinica Tepati, a free clinic in the Sacramento area that offered health screenings every Saturday. Along the way, she also met her husband Frank Tussa.

Both take pride in the fact that the program is now part of the UC Davis medical school curriculum and has a waiting list of students who want to participate.

“It’s gotten so competitive that the first time my son interviewed for the program, they rejected him,” Nevarez says. “He told me he didn’t want to name-drop and all, so he waited until the next year before he got in.”

Nola L. Sarkisian