February 2, 2007

(SACRAMENTO, Calif.) — Shagufta Yasmeen, a UC Davis assistant professor of obstetrics and gynecology and internal medicine, has been selected to receive a 2007 American Medical Association Foundation Leadership Award.

Yasmeen is the founder and director of the Shifa Clinic, a free clinic of UC Davis Health System run by UC Davis medical students that provides free health-care services to the uninsured population of Sacramento. The clinic specializes in serving Middle Eastern and East Indian communities, and provides interpretation in Urdu, Punjabi, Arabic, Hindi and Farsi.

Yasmeen will receive the Leadership Award on Monday, Feb. 12, in Washington, D.C., during the AMA National Advocacy Conference.

The Leadership Awards are presented annually to medical students, residents/fellows, young physicians and international medical graduate physicians who have exhibited outstanding leadership in organized medicine and/or community affairs. The awards provide leadership development training for these “emerging leaders” to further strengthen their efforts toward advancing health care in America.

The Shifa Clinic provides strong training experiences for medical students and UC Davis undergraduate volunteers interested in careers in medicine. Yasmeen routinely provides one-on-one care to the clinic's patients. She also is the principal investigator on several grants awarded to the clinic. The grant funding has enabled the clinic to implement broader preventive care programs and stronger diabetic nutrition education programs, and to develop more culturally sensitive and linguistically appropriate materials.