Public Health & Vulnerable Populations

The San Francisco Bay Area is rapidly becoming one of the most inequitable places to live in the nation. Taking a casual BART ride can reveal the environmental disparities that exist between places like the affluent suburb of Pleasanton and an industrialized community like West Oakland. The lack of income and environmental equality is obvious, but the disparities run much deeper. A short ride between BART stations can mean an 11-year difference in life expectancy. Folks getting off the train and living in neighborhoods near BART’s Walnut Creek station live on average 84 years, while folks that exit at and live near the Oakland City Center station live on average only 73 years. In other words, living just 16 miles apart can mean the difference between living more than a decade longer. Why does such a health disparity exist? This course will dissect the factors that influence this social gradient of health.

There will be three face-to-face sessions and at least one off-campus face-to-face meeting with a teammate. During one of the first Saturdays in September, we will do a neighborhood health assessment of the Bayview-Hunters Point neighborhood in San Francisco. In mid-October, we will volunteer in the native plant nursery at the Literacy for Environmental Justice in the Candlestick Point State Park Recreational Area. Our final face-to-face trip will be to the Social Emergency Medicine Department at Highland Hospital in Oakland during the first week of December. Students will also be expected to attend one virtual meeting roughly every other week, outside of school hours.

Don Rizzi – Lick-Wilmerding High School
Don Rizzi has been teaching Biology and Chemistry at Lick-Wilmerding High School since 2007. He also coaches wrestling, is an advisor, and mentors independent study students in electronic music production. Prior to coming to Lick, Don taught Physics, Math, Chemistry, and Media Production at High Tech High, which is a charter school that emphasizes project based learning and the cultivation of 21st century skills. He also received his MA in Instructional Technologies from San Francisco State University.