
Better Together: How Can Health Equity Partnerships Improve Communities?
Wednesday July 9th 2025
6 – 7:30 PM PT
With UCSF Osher Center for Integrative Health researchers Ariana Thompson-Lastad, Chloe Atreya, Maria Chao and EBMC Core Teacher Mushim Ikeda
Moderated by EBMC Community Teacher Margarita Loinaz, MD
HYBRID in person and on Zoom
Open to all
The center is fragrance-free and wheelchair accessible
N95/KN95 masks required
Buddhism and the field of public health try to address the same question:
Why and how are we suffering?
For the first time ever, please join us for a special panel discussion about community well-being with researchers representing the UCSF Osher Center for Integrative Health, Ariana Thompson-Lastad, PhD; Chloe Atreya, MD, PhD; and Maria Chao, DrPH, MPH; along with our very own EBMC Core Teacher Mushim Ikeda! We’re also grateful to have EBMC Community Teacher Margarita Loinaz, MD as our moderator for the evening.
Did you know that EBMC has been involved with academic research on health equity, neuroscience, and how meditation can impact social justice? What is the significance of Buddhism and meditation in academic health research? How can we improve our communities by integrating these fields?
Learn about recent and potential partnerships between EBMC and UCSF that connect mindfulness practices with health justice and equity. These topics are part of the exciting, emerging field of integrative health equity, which addresses issues of inclusion, social justice, multiculturalism, and healthcare accessibility in our communities. Together let’s explore how wisdom traditions from Buddhism and other lineages can meet modern medicine to support collective healing.
There will be time for audience Q&A, so please bring your questions!
All are welcome to attend.
Cost
The teachings are regarded as priceless. So they are offered without a fee. You are invited to support the teachings and our efforts by contributing voluntary donations (the practice of “Dana”) for the expenses of the meditation center and the support of the teachers.
The ticket prices are listed as different tiers with suggested donations based on income ranges. For those who wish to give more, you may choose an “add-on” to your ticket. For those unable to give, there is an option for that.
Note that all financial gifts received here go directly to EBMC, and we invite you to give separately to our teachers, using the information below.
Please also consider giving a financial gift to our teacher Mushim as well, who does not receive a salary for her work, and gives her teachings freely to all.
Venmo: @MushimPatricia-Ikeda
PayPal: info@mushimikeda.com
Other ways to give:
To make a gift to sustain the work of East Bay Meditation Center, you may do so via Paypal: paypal.me/eastbaymeditation or our website: eastbaymeditation.org/dana 100% of our programming is sliding scale and no one will ever be turned away for lack of funds.
For in-person participation:
For those wishing to practice in person, space will be limited to 60 people to allow ample space for social distancing. Participants will be asked to wear N95 or KN95 face masks. (N95 face masks will be available at EBMC.) Please note: The teacher may be unmasked while teaching.
To attend in person, you need to be completely free of fragranced body and clothing products — more information and a list of fragrance free products, including those that are especially good for people of color, appears on our website: https://eastbaymeditation.org/resources/fragrance-free-at-ebmc/
East Bay Meditation Center is a scent free / fragrance free space and is wheelchair accessible.
Universal Access Requests on Zoom to help with sound and video quality. If possible…
1. When speaking, introduce your name, pronouns, and (optionally) a brief physical description of yourself.
2. If using virtual backgrounds, please use static, simple, high-contrast backgrounds.
3. Please keep your camera still while your camera is on.
4. Please repeat your name when you speak to help those with visual impairment.
5. The host/volunteer will attempt to read any comments that appear in the chat out loud.
6. Please strive for clear audio and mute when you are not speaking. Phone access is also available.
7. If you have unmet access needs, please send a message to the volunteer or host in the chat. If the chat is not accessible to you, please offer them briefly in one minute or less via voice. Please do not send access requests directly to other participants.
Panelists
Ariana Thompson-Lastad, PhD is Assistant Professor of Family and Community Medicine and core faculty at the UCSF Osher Center for Integrative Health. Dr. Thompson-Lastad conducts research on the role of integrative healthcare in advancing health equity, using qualitative and community-engaged methods. Her work primarily examines innovative approaches to primary care, including integrative group medical visits implemented in US community health centers and the community midwifery model of postpartum care. Trained as a medical sociologist, she joined the Osher Center as a TRIM postdoctoral fellow in 2018. Dr. Thompson-Lastad served as a board member of Integrative Medicine for the Underserved and is a leadership team member of the Bay Area Structural Competency Working Group. Prior to becoming a researcher, she worked in a community health center as a diabetes care coordinator and group medical visit facilitator.
Chloe Atreya, MD, PhD is a medical oncologist specializing in gastrointestinal cancers at the UCSF Helen Diller Comprehensive Cancer Center (HDFCCC). She co-directs the Integrative Oncology Research Hub and is affiliated with the UCSF Osher Center for Integrative Health (OCIH). A physician scientist, she has expertise in bridging clinical practice and research. Her grant-funded research focuses on the interplay of tumor biology, the gut microbiome, lifestyle factors, and response to therapies for colorectal cancer. She is dedicated to practicing personalized medicine, with an emphasis on health equity and treating the whole person. Her integrative oncology concentration is on evidence informed mind-body practices. She serves on the Society for Integrative Oncology Research Committee and the National Comprehensive Cancer Network Distress Management Guidelines panel. She also serves on San Francisco Zen Center’s City Center Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Access Committee and co-coordinates the East Bay Meditation Center’s Multiracial Deep Refuge Group.
Maria Chao, DrPH, MPA, is Professor of Medicine at the University of California San Francisco, and the Director of Research and Associate Director for Health Equity and Diversity at the UCSF Osher Center for Integrative Health. Dr. Chao’s overarching research goal is to investigate how complementary and integrative medicine can advance health equity. Her current studies focus on nonpharmacologic approaches to improve quality of life among diverse and historically underserved populations living with chronic conditions. Dr. Chao co-directs two NIH-funded training fellowships on integrative health research, with the goal of building pipelines to improve diversity in the scientific workforce.
Mushim Patricia Ikeda is an internationally-known secular mindfulness and Buddhist teacher working primarily with justice activists and Black, Indigenous and People of Color (BIPOC) meditation practitioners and with people with disabilities and chronic illnesses. A core teacher at East Bay Meditation Center in Oakland, California, she is an author whose writing has been published in Lion’s Roar, Tricycle, Buddhadharma and various anthologies. She is the recipient of an honorary doctor of sacred theology degree from the Starr King School for the Ministry. Mushim was selected by Lion’s Roar Buddhist media magazine as one of twenty-six “Great Buddhist Teachers” in the January 2022 issue. See her eco-related writings, “The Pine Tree Koan,” at https://www.buddhistinquiry.org/article/the-pine-tree-koan/ and “I Take Refuge in the Buddha,” in Lion’s Roar Buddhist media, https://www.lionsroar.com/taking-refuge-in-the-three-jewels/. Mushim’s website is
H. Margarita Loinaz, MD, is a retired public health physician and Buddhist teacher trained in the Theravada and Tibetan traditions. While in public health, she worked at Tom Waddell Clinic and Homeless programs in San Francisco. On the clinical faculty at UCSF she mentored students and residents on the care of underserved communities. With one of her students, she published two seminal articles on the plight of day laborers who often work in unprotected dangerous jobs where injuries are devastating. Later, through training in Biodynamic Osteopathy, she learned to recognize the self-correcting drive within the body and its potential for profound healing.
Dr. Loinaz has been a Buddhist practitioner since 1977 and trained with Jon Kabat-Zinn in 1994 becoming one of the early teachers of MBSR in the SF Bay Area. She developed mindfulness programs for the Spanish-speaking community and homeless patients of the clinic, including an ongoing support group. In an effort to make convert Buddhist meditation centers more inclusive, she and Marlene Jones co-organized the first People of Color retreat at Spirit Rock Meditation Center in 1999. Over the past 20 years she has gradually focused her studies and teaching on the Dzogchen lineage of the Tibetan tradition. These teachings are based on the recognition of our essential nature as human beings which provides a powerful refuge and perspective, particularly while living under cultures of domination. She sees parallels between the self-correcting drive within our bodies with the drive in the mind to understand and free itself..
See Dr. Loinaz’s article “Recognizing Our True Nature” in Lion’s Roar magazine here: https://www.lionsroar.com/meditations-on-buddhanature/