Public health professor recognized for student mentorship

The USC Mentoring Awards honored Lourdes Baezconde-Garbanati, professor of preventive medicine, April 6 for her mentorship of graduate students.

The annual awards applaud faculty members who help to build a supportive academic environment through faculty-to-student mentoring and faculty-to-faculty mentoring. Recipients are considered to have had significant and lasting impact on their mentees’ professional development through guidance and support. 

Since 2005, more than 300 faculty across USC have been awarded—10 from the USC Department of Population and Public Health Sciences.

This year, Baezconde-Garbanati was chosen from a pool of 152 multidisciplinary faculty nominations, of which 14 percent were selected for the three categories of mentoring awards. She was honored in the Faculty Mentoring Graduate Students category, nominated by Robert Garcia, a doctoral student in health behavior research.

Working at the intersection of culture and community health, with an emphasis on Hispanic/Latino health, Baezconde-Garbanati is a co-director and project leader of the Patient Education and Community Outreach Center at Norris Comprehensive Cancer Center at the Keck School of Medicine of USC, and director of community outreach and education at the Institute for Health Promotion and Disease Prevention Research. She is a co-director of the Office of Community Engagement of the Southern California Clinical Translation Institute and  director of the collaborative Immigrant Health Initiative. In addition, she is a founding director of the Center for Health Equity in the Americas and co-director of the Global Health Leadership Track in the Master of Public Health Program.

USC faculty mentoring for academic and professional success occurs through formal and informal channels, and varies in style and substance from discipline to discipline, according to the USC Mentoring Awards. The program looks to recognize faculty who generously offer valuable information, insight, counsel, time and expertise to advance and develop their mentees’ path to personal and professional success. Other considerations include involving peers and students in publications, grants and presentations and serving as a role model by maintaining high standards for excellence in their disciplines and within the University.

The 2017 awardees accepted their awards from Vice Provost for Academic and Faculty Affairs Elizabeth Graddy at the University Club’s Scriptorium Room.

— By Larissa Puro