Harold S. Luft Mentoring Award

"Dr. Walters is remarkable for fostering a culture of mentorship in Geriatrics as Division Chief. She prioritizes the success of fellows and early-career faculty, ensuring that mentorship remains at the heart of the division’s mission. She regularly meets with senior faculty to discuss the needs of mentees and helps others become more effective mentors. Her leadership is grounded in integrity, emphasizing the importance of doing the right thing and treating one another with respect and kindness. As such, Dr. Walters champions a culture that values well-being and work-life balance. She recognizes that professional success is deeply connected to personal fulfillment and actively supports faculty and trainees to balance their careers and personal responsibilities. She ensures that those in need receive the necessary support and accommodations to thrive both professionally and personally." - nominating letter

Louise Walter, MD is a Professor of Medicine and Chief of the Division of Geriatrics across UCSF, San Francisco VA and ZSFG. Dr. Walter is a national leader in evaluating the real-world benefits and harms of cancer screening in older persons. Her research has been translated into national cancer screening guidelines to take a person-centered approach that considers the effect of life-expectancy and patient preferences on the benefits and harms of screening rather than focusing only on chronologic age. Her 2001 JAMA article that transformed the approach to cancer screening in older persons was selected in a 2014 national survey of Geriatricians as one of 27 landmark articles that have advanced the field of Geriatrics. 

Dr. Walter views mentoring as one of her most important academic activities and she has mentored students, fellows and faculty in her roles as Leader of the Research Education Component (REC) of the UCSF Claude D. Pepper Older Americans Independence Center, Associate Director of the UCSF Clinical & Translational Science Institute (CTSI) Career Development (K Scholars) Program, and Director of Geriatrics Health Services Research & Development at San Francisco VA. Developing and mentoring future leaders in health services and policy research in aging are very important to her, including those whose research interests align closely with hers as well as those who have chosen content areas within aging research that are different from hers. In addition, Dr. Walter is a practicing Geriatrician who provides Geriatric Primary Care for older Veterans at the San Francisco VA, which inspires her research to continually improve preventive care for older persons. 

Previous Winners

2024: Christina Mangurian, MD, MAS, Vice Dean for Faculty and Academic Affairs in the UCSF School of Medicine and Professor in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences and Lynne and Marc Benioff Endowed Chair in Psychiatry 

2023: Renee Hsia, MD, MSc, Professor of Medicine and Health Policy, UCSF, Department of Emergency Medicine, Associate Chaire of Health Services Research in the Department of Emergency Medicine.

2022: Urmimala Sarkar, MD, MPH, Professor of Medicine, UCSF, DIvision of General Internal Medicine, Associate Director, UCSF Center for Vulnerable Populations

2021: Pamela Ling, MD, Professor of Medicine and Director, Center for Tobacco Control Research and Education, UCSF

2020: Mary Whooley, MD Professor of Medicine, Epidemiology & Biostatistics, and Director of the Center for Healthcare Improvement and Medical Effectiveness (CHIME) at the San Francisco VA and UCSF

2019: Kirsten Bibbins-Domingo, PhD, MD, MAS Professor and Vice Dean for Population Health and Health Equity, UCSF School of Medicine

2018: Margot Kushel, MD Professor and Director of UCSF's Center for Vulnerable Populations

2017: Mary-Margaret (Meg) Chren, MD, Professor, Department of Dermatology at UCSF

2016: Andrew Bindman, MD, Professor, Medicine, Epidemiology and Biostatistics, and Philip R. Lee Institute for Health Policy Studies, UCSF School of Medicine

2016: Dean Schillinger, MD, Professor of Medicine and Chief of the UCSF Division of General Internal Medicine at Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital

2015: Ken Covinsky, MD, Clinician-Researcher, Division of Geriatrics, UCSF School of Medicine

2014: Wendy Max, PhD, Professor and Director, Institute for Health & Aging, Department of Social and Behavioral Sciences, UCSF School of Nursing

2013: Edward H. Yelin, PhD, Professor, UCSF Department of Medicine’s Division of Rheumatology and the Philip R. Lee Institute for Health Policy Studies

2011: Ruth E. Malone, PhD, MS, RN, Professor and Chair, Department of Social & Behavioral Sciences, UCSF School of Nursing

2010:  Michael D. Cabana, MD, MPH, Professor and Director, Division of General Pediatrics, UCSF School of Medicine

2009: Lisa A. Bero, PhD, Professor and Vice Chair for Research, Department of Clinical Pharmacy, UCSF School of Pharmacy (currently Professor in Pharmacy and the Charles Perkins Center at the University of Sydney, Australia)

Nominations will open in Fall 2025

Health services and health policy research covers a range of topics, including how social factors, financing processes, health technologies, laws and regulations, and personal behaviors, among other factors, affect access to health care, the quality and cost of health care, and ultimately, our health and well-being. The main goals of this research are to identify the most effective ways to organize, finance, and deliver high-quality care; reduce medical errors; and improve patient safety.

Eligibility

UCSF senior faculty, at Associate or Full Professor rank, with research/teaching interests in health policy and/or health services research (HP/HSR). Nomination letters should demonstrate that nominees have made significant or sustained impact on the professional development of individuals they have mentored.

Criteria

1. Inspire and stimulate mentees to do their best and most creative work in HP/HSR.
2. Expand mentees’ ways of thinking by fostering appreciation of different points of view.
3. Develop career opportunities for mentees.
4. Create communities of learners and maintain life-long contact with mentees.
5. Serve as a role model in leadership, professionalism, integrity and life balance that goes beyond the scope of their individual job responsibilities.

Nominator must be a current or past mentee of nominee and be involved in health policy and/or health services research.

Nominations 

Nomination should include one primary and two supporting letters (no longer than 2 pages each) describing how the nominee meets the above criteria.  Specific, but brief examples or anecdotes are helpful.  Please include the nominee's recent CV with a list of the nominee’s mentees (noting, if possible, their current positions).

Award Selection Committee includes representatives from the four UCSF schools. 

Award – a framed certificate will be presented to the award recipient. The individual's name will appear on a permanent plaque at the Philip R. Lee Institute for Health Policy Studies, and the individual’s profile will be posted on the Institute’s website.

About Hal Luft

Harold (Hal) Luft, PhD, joined the Philip R. Lee Institute for Health Policy Studies and UCSF in 1978 after five years at Stanford University as a faculty member and Associate Director of the Robert Wood Johnson Clinical Scholars Program. He became Associate Director of the Institute in 1986, became Acting Director in 1993, and was named Director in 1995. Since its inception in 1972, the Institute has been extremely fortunate to have leaders with broad vision, exceptional standards of excellence, and clarity of purpose. As the Institute's second director, Dr. Luft contributed to and exemplified the Institute’s legacy of leadership and service.

That legacy includes the training and mentoring of future health services research and health policy leaders. Dr. Luft often refers to himself as a 40+ years' postdoc because he has been involved in teaching and mentoring graduate students, postdoctoral scholars, and interns for more than 30 years and has also advised junior faculty. He himself has been an exemplary teacher, mentor, and role model, and under Dr. Luft's directorship, the Institute, which is an organized research unit, continued and enhanced its leadership role in interdisciplinary training.

Dr. Luft was named Director of the Palo Alto Medical Foundation Research Institute (PAMFRI) in July 2008, but he maintains an Emeritus Professor title at UCSF. He continues his dedication to training future leaders in health services research and health policy, and he continues to serve as a mentor to postdoctoral fellows and junior faculty.