Merry Zavala Receives Diversity Award

Merry Zavala, manager for diversity services at Kaiser Santa Rosa, has recently won the Kaiser Permanente Latino Association Support Services Award. For over 20 years, Ms. Zavala has unselfishly dedicated herself to improving the lives of our culturally diverse populations both within the medical center and within the Sonoma County community.

Her work as manager of diversity has been instrumental. She has helped to expand the interpreter programs; members are now able to receive help from a translator either in person or over the phone if they are having difficulty communicating with their doctor. She has been a champion of interpreters for years and has been instrumental in educating others on the medical risks associated with poor patient translation.

She has also made contributions that brought stronger translations of all patient education materials as well as improving bilingual signage.

Additionally, she brought the unique model of Neighbors in Health (a medical outreach program to uninsured families) to Santa Rosa. For the past two years on the first Sunday in August hundreds of families now have access to care for their children at no cost. Read through the highlights of Neighbors in Health 2006.

Through her work, Santa Rosa has excelled in member patient satisfaction due to our connectivity with our Latino patients in a culturally relevant manner. She has also been the catalyst for change in having physicians, staff and managers pay greater attention to the needs of the Latino community.