Professor of Clinical Psychiatry
Director of Cultural Psychiatry
Associate Chair for Medical Student Education
Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences
2230 Stockton Blvd.
Sacramento, CA 95817
E-mail:  francis.lu@ucdmc.ucdavis.edu

Dr. Lu's curriculum vitae (PDF)

Dr. Lu is the Luke and Grace Kim Endowed Professor in Cultural Psychiatry,
director of cultural psychiatry, and associate chair for medical student education. His career has focused on cultural competence and diversity, mental health disparities, psychiatric education with an emphasis on recruitment and mentorship, and the interface of psychiatry and religion/spirituality especially through film. He currently works with both the Asian American Center on Disparities Research and the Center for Reducing Health Disparities at UC Davis and has served on the California State Department of Mental Health Cultural Competence Advisory Committee since 1996. The American Psychiatric Association (APA) awarded him the 2001 Kun-Po Soo Award for his work in integrating Asian issues into psychiatry; in 2002, he received a Special APA Presidential Commendation for his work in cross-cultural psychiatry. In 2008, the American Psychiatric Foundation awarded him one of its Advancing Minority Mental Health Awards and the Association for Academic Psychiatry honored him with its Lifetime Achievement in Education Award.  He currently serves as an issues representative on the National Steering Committee of the Association of American Medical Colleges Group on Diversity and Inclusion and as chair of the University of California Committee on Affirmative Action and Diversity of the Academic Senate.

As director of cultural psychiatry for the Department, Dr. Lu's duties include:

1. Develop a nationally prominent program in cultural psychiatry.
2. Publish papers in prominent journals in the area of cultural psychiatry.
3. Present results of research at national and international meetings.
4. Encourage faculty in the department with an interest in cultural psychiatry to publish papers and present their findings at professional society meetings.
5. Member, Diversity Advisory Committee, (DAC)
6. Mentor junior faculty members interested in cultural psychiatry.
7. Periodically attend meetings of the Training and Educational Committee (TEC).
8. Provide consultation and guidance to the department’s research manager when research issues arise that affect faculty investigators.
9. Interview general psychiatry resident applicants who express an interest in cultural psychiatry.
10. Serve as a member of the Department Executive Committee (DEC).

B.A., Columbia College, New York, 1971
M.D., Dartmouth Medical School, 1974

Click here to view Dr. Lu’s academic activities from July 2011 to June 2012.