Touro University California

Touro University California (TUC), located in Vallejo on the historic Mare Island, was founded to provide outstanding educational programs in healthcare, education and public health that are in concert with the Judaic values of social justice, pursuit of knowledge and service to humanity. These values bind our current 1,500 students together as a caring community and constitute the foundation of our school.

The University’s professional programs in osteopathic medicine, pharmacy, physician assistant studies, public health, nursing and education are all fully accredited. Faculty, staff and students have a powerful commitment to academic excellence, evidence-based professional practice, interdisciplinary collaboration and active engagement with both local and global communities.

COLLEGE OF OSTEOPATHIC MEDICINE Our Doctor of Osteopathic Medicine (DO) students include a diverse group of highly motivated individuals who are dedicated to becoming leaders in healthcare. In 2021, their commitment to meeting physician shortages resulted in over 61 percent of the graduating class being matched to choices in primary care medicine—our largest group of family medicine graduates ever. For ten consecutive years, Touro University College of Osteopathic Medicine (TUCOM)—California has been ranked among the top 10-15 universities by U.S. News & World Report for graduates matching in primary care residencies. And in 2019, the National Center for the Analysis of Healthcare Data (NCAHD) reported that among California medical school graduates, TUCOM alumni were ranked number one for percentage of graduates pursuing primary care (58%), rural care (6%) and care in underserved areas (22%). COLLEGE OF PHARMACY The College of Pharmacy (COP) program is studentcentered, technologically advanced and interactive. It is the first Pharm.D. program in the U.S. that is modeled on medical school education, offering full two years of classroom instruction followed by two years of clinical experience.

Each spring, first- and second-year COP students leave for the California state capitol to participate in Legislative Day, where they learn to represent and advocate for their profession by meeting their representatives face-to-face. The program offers a 2,800 square foot pharmacy practice center, consisting of a patient care skills area, multipurpose classroom and webcast studio, sterile products training center and a community practice training center was built to enhance our students’ educational experience.

COLLEGE OF EDUCATION AND HEALTH SCIENCES In the College of Education and Health Sciences (CEHS), students pursue careers as public health experts, nurses, educators and physician assistants.

GRADUATE SCHOOL OF EDUCATION In the Graduate School of Education (GSOE), students learn teaching strategies for at-risk pupils and become agents for change in social justice, equity and inclusion. Educators throughout the region are prepared to be pioneers in education through master’s programs in innovative learning or education leadership. The GSOE program has a 97 percent master’s degree completion rate, with 95 percent of graduates working in educational organizations. The GSOE has obtained more than $1.8 million in grants to improve education. By partnering

with non-profit groups like NapaLearns, which has an expressed mission to be a catalyst to accelerate innovation in teaching and learning, GSOE can reach out to a great pool of teaching candidates in a way that keeps tuition low and access to higher education as attainable as possible.

MASTER OF PUBLIC HEALTH TUC’s Master of Public Health (MPH) program is dedicated to reducing health disparities in local and global communities with an unwavering focus on social justice. Its mission is to promote the health and wellbeing of various communities through education, service and research with a focus on underserved populations. Students gain depth through coursework in a chosen specialized public health track in either community health or global health. The MPH program has established strong partnerships in some of the poorest countries across the world: Bolivia, Ethiopia and Cambodia. This program also partners with COM and COP to offer fulfilling dual degree options for our students. JOINT MSPAS/MPH PROGRAM As the only physician assistant (PA) program in the country where all students receive both PA and MPH degrees, the PA program prepares healthcare providers to work with underserved populations while increasing access to healthcare. The first-time pass rate for the PA National Certifying Exam was 96 percent for the Class of 2020, and 97, 98 and 93 percent for the years 2017-2019. The mission of this program is to increase access to quality healthcare through its graduates. In pursuit of that, over half the training hours of students in the program are at clinical sites that serve medically underserved populations.

SCHOOL OF NURSING The Master of Science in Nursing (MSN) is an accelerated program designed to prepare licensed nurses to become nurse leaders. Students become a clinical nurse leader through the Associate Degree Nurse (ADN) to MSN or the Bachelor of Science in Nursing (BSN) to MSN programs. TUC’s nursing program also added the Doctor of Nursing Practice/Family Nurse Practitioner program in January of 2017. This program prepares graduates for the highest level of advanced nursing practice and builds on existing curricula found in TUC’s master’s nursing programs.

MOBILE DIABETES EDUCATION CENTER Mobile Diabetes Education Center (MOBEC), a state-of-theart mobile trailer, was funded by a gift from Sutter Health System and additional support offered from Solano County Public Health. Since opening MOBEC, the program has served more than 7,000 people—including free diabetes screenings (finger stick glucose and A1c), free diabetes education and Dia-BEAT-it exercise classes. The program also offers the Diabetes Prevention Program (DPP) and the Diabetes Education and Empowerment Program (DEEP).

MOBEC provides diabetes screening for members of the community who may not otherwise have adequate access to healthcare and educates the public about their risk factors, thus aiming to prevent diabetes and prediabetes in their lives.

DRUG SAFE SOLANO The Drug Safe Solano was founded in fall of 2018 with a generous grant for start-up funding and continued support from MedMark Treatment Centers in Fairfield. The program brings together a motivated multidisciplinary team to address opioid addiction issues in the community. Strategies were developed to improve opioid addiction, prevention, safety and treatment efforts. The coalition is a member of the Expanding Medication-Assisted Treatment in the Jails Learning Collaborative that started in August 2018. Members of the collaborative include the Sheriff’s office, the courts, probation, Drug Safe Solano and the County Administrator’s office.

SOLANOCONNEX The Solano County Mental Health Access Grant (20202023), otherwise known as SolanoConnex, is led by Touro University California and funded by the County of Solano. This project was created in response to a recent Human Services Needs Assessment (2019) that showed many residents and providers do not know how to access existing mental and emotional health services in the county. The goal of SolanoConnex is to enhance access to mental and emotional health services in Solano County through the development of a web app that will connect residents to resources that best meet their mental and emotional health needs.

STUDENT-RUN FREE CLINIC The Student-Run Free Clinic (SRFC) is organized and staffed by students from Touro University California. A licensed clinician provides direct, on-site supervision. The SRFC was developed to foster a relationship between the city of Vallejo and Touro University by providing a valuable resource for low-income residents of Vallejo, completely free of charge. Students benefit by practicing their clinical skills through increased patient contact, developing interprofessional leadership and teamwork skills and gaining direct experience in dealing with the social, economic and cultural challenges that impact healthcare.

Fatima Hernandez, Pharm.D.

Principal Pharmacist, Touro CARES Mobile Vaccination

For Dr. Fatima Hernandez, Touro University California College of Pharmacy not only prepared her for the real world, but literally saved her life once she entered it.

In October 2020, after graduating from the school, Hernandez was living in El Paso when she contracted COVID-19, probably while renewing her CPR license. Back and forth from the emergency room she went, given ridiculous diagnoses, including, “If you’d not be so anxious, you could breathe.” “If I wasn’t struggling to breathe,” says the 39-year-old with asthma, “I wouldn’t be anxious.” Finally, seriously ill, Hernandez was placed on oxygen and admitted. She refused to go on a ventilator, knowing the statistics of ever getting off it alive were abysmal. “Because my mother speaks no English, she couldn’t help me and no one would give her any information about my health,” says the Nicaraguan-born Hernandez, who spent her childhood in her late-father’s village pharmacy. “And worse, no one actually believed I was a pharmacist.”

Two of her Touro professors, Dr. Shadi Doroudgar and Dr. Lucinda Chan, had no trouble believing everything she texted them from her hospital bed. “I was saying good-bye to everyone I loved,” she says, adding that her former professors agreed on the spot to be her medical powers of attorney—by the napkin Hernandez scribbled on and texted them before losing consciousness. “They immediately called the hospital, told them I was a pharmacist and that they were in charge to make medical decisions on my behalf,” she says. “Whatever they did, it worked.”

When she was well again and recuperating at home weeks later, she was offered to work at Touro, as a project manager and principal clinical pharmacist on duty for the Touro CARES Mobile Vaccination Program, back on the school’s Vallejo, California campus. “A great job with people who were like family,” says Hernandez, one of only 4% of Hispanic female pharmacists in the United States. “It was always more than a school,” she says. “These were people who truly cared that you became the best in your field.”

She has exceeded their soaring expectations: “There is not a person I encounter in my job, particularly a Hispanic person, who I don’t persuade to get the COVID-19 vaccine, including my own mother,” she says proudly. “My record is 100%. “