Senior Director, Office of Communications

Overview of journey at UCSF:

After a stint as a newspaper journalist, I joined UCSF as a staff writer for the campus newspaper in the then-called Public Affairs department in 1994. UCSF’s website was just starting to take shape at that time so communicating to the internal UCSF community was done primarily through an 8-page bi-weekly newspaper delivered to faculty, staff and students in their campus mailbox. The paper served as a vehicle to convey UCSF’s strategic priorities and vision, tout top accomplishments and profile members of the UCSF community.

Two years later, I became editor in chief of that campus newspaper, writing the top stories at the time. My bylines include introducing Mark Laret as the new CEO of UCSF Medical Center, planning to build a new campus at Mission Bay, and early efforts to address issues of diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) affecting women and under-represented groups.

I am proud of my partnership with now Vice Chancellor Renee Navarro, Joe Castro, now president of the California State University system, Gene Washington, then executive director and provost of UCSF, and now president of Duke University Health to advance DEI efforts at UCSF. With this team, I developed and launched UCSF’s first diversity website featuring “Voices,” a video series that I envisioned and executed to humanize our UCSF community from different perspectives.

Over the years, my titles have included assistant director of Internal Communications, editor of...

Adjunct Instructor, Pathology

Overview of journey at UCSF:

I came to UCSF for residency in Anatomic Pathology as part of the Physician-Scientist Pathway and completed post-graduate clinical training with fellowships in Surgical Pathology and Gastrointestinal/Hepatobiliary Pathology.  Following clinical training, I completed postdoctoral research in stem cell and regenerative biology here at UCSF with Robert Blelloch at the Eli and Edythe Broad Center of Regeneration Medicine and Stem Cell Research and have accepted an early career faculty position as an Instructor as I prepare to launch as an independent investigator.  As a physician-scientist and board-certified pathologist, my clinical interests are primarily in human liver pathobiology and diagnostics for precision-based medicine and regenerative therapies.  As a stem cell biologist, my basic science research interests are in dissecting the molecular networks that fine-tune the wiring and re-wiring of cell fates, leveraging genome engineering, quantitative cell biology, single-cell RNA sequencing, imaging, and cytometry to bring us closer to cell-based regenerative therapeutic solutions.  In 2020, I founded and now continue to lead the UCSF Women Physician-Scientists Supergroup – a group of now over 70 physician-scientists in 14 clinical departments-- that helps to support, celebrate, and advocate for women physician-scientists bridging science and medicine. Through this group I’ve been able to get to know and learn from fantastic colleagues along similar career paths at...

Communication and Engagement Manager, Office of the Senior Vice Chancellor 

Here is what Kim's nominator had to say about her:  

“Kim LaPean is an ally for all women of color. She always advocates for those who are not typically seen or heard. She makes space for women of color and sponsors us when we are not in the room. Kim is an advocate for Diversity, Equity and Inclusion. She definitely should be celebrated!"

- Ailene Estalilla, Organizational Development Manager Finance, Administration & Operations 

Kim's Bio: 

I joined UCSF Finance & Administration as their first communications and engagement manager in January 2018. My role is to support internal communication and employee engagement within the Senior Vice Chancellor’s office, as well as support a network of department communicators. Before that, I spent 14 years at the University of California, Berkeley in communications roles for the health center and Student Affairs.  

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 Human Factor Designer, Clinical Innovation Center

Here is what Jan's nominator had to say about her:  

“I'm nominating Jan for the Spotlight feature for a variety of reasons, mostly because I want EVERYONE to know how important her work is to our overall mission at UCSF. Given all of the life transforming work happening at UCSF on a daily basis, our patients - and even we can sometimes get lost in systems and process that may be overly burdensome and, ultimately, undermine outcomes of care and experience. What to do about that? Engage a service designer, like Jan! I met Jan a few years back when she worked with a multidisciplinary team on the Delirium Reduction project at Moffitt-Long. I was intrigued by her role (what's a "Service Designer"?) and quickly appreciated her skills ability to help clinicians work better together to prevent harms of delirium for hospitalized adults. Since then, we've interfaced on other multidisciplinary projects (like Integrated Spine Service and Patient Mobility) and I always appreciate her perspective, ideas, and ways of communicating. A few years later, I sought out her expertise when I considered developing my knowledge and skill in human centered design. Jan was generous with her time and offered ways for me to connect with the growing community at UCSF/ZSFG. Through her professional "lens", she brings empathy and curiosity to the important clinical...