Dr. Melissa Chen is the Clinical Director and faculty leader for the Interprofessional Community Clinic, RFU's student-led pro bono clinic. She is an internist keenly interested in upstream health care and illuminating the social and structural determinants and disparities that fundamentally affect patient health. She is creating and directing the incorporation of health equity content into the CMS longitudinal curriculum.

 Dr. Chen is certified in internal medicine by the American Board of Internal Medicine. She completed her residency at the University of Washington, medical degree from Vanderbilt, and undergraduate degree from Harvard. Professional experience includes hospitalist work in Seattle and 10 years of experience as a clinician for the underserved at HealthReach, Lake County's only free clinic for a time. RFU honors include the Laurence Medoff Award for outstanding teaching and clinical practice, CMS Champion Award, AOA Volunteer Clinical Faculty Award, M2 Champion of Change, and Outstanding Online Elective Professor. 

Recent Publications and Presentations

Bolden L, Abbas KZ, Chen M, Lawson C, Morrison J. Inspiring Institutional Change:  Utilizing medical student survey responses to motivate the creation of a health disparities and inequities curriculum. Poster presented at the Gold Humanism Honor Society Annual Conference, April 2021.

Chen M, Lawson C, Bridges D. “Stories of Health Disparities: An Online Asynchronous Introductory Elective for Health Profession Students.” Oral presentation at the AAMC GEA April 2021.

Chen, M. “Stories of Health Disparities.” Syllabus published in the curriculum collection of the National Collaborative for Education to Address the SDOH. 2020 November. 

Pomarico Y, Chen M.  “‘I’m supposed to do what?!’: A tool for defining roles at an interprofessional student-led free clinic.  Oral presentation at SRFCFA March 2021.

Gard L, Mercurio M, Orejudos J, Wales D, Chen M.  An Interprofessional Telehealth Model:  Development and Implementation at the Interprofessional Community Clinic.  Oral presentation at SSRFCC March 2021.

Jin J, West N, Luna K, Chen M, Candelario D, Patel K.  The Development of a Flu Vaccination Drive-Through Clinic During the COVID-19 Pandemic.  Oral presentation at SSRFCC March 2021.

Mercurio M, Hormozian S, Chen M, Kelly L.  Implementation of Paper and Digital Incident Reporting in a Student-Led Free Clinic, and the Transition to Telehealth.  Oral presentation at SSRFCC March 2021.

Chen M, Patel K, Candelario D, Pomarico Y, Gard L, Haag S. Addressing Health Disparities:  Skill Development at an Interprofessional Student-Led Free Clinic.  Workshop presented at NCEAS 2021 February 23. 

That was then, This is now:  Race in the clinical history.  Lecture presented at the Santa Barbara Healthcare Workers for Racial Justice.  16 February 2021.   Forum presented for CMS Faculty Development. (December 2020), FSH (February 2021).

Chen M, Hay W, Halvorsen M. Interprofessional Learning in the Telehealth Environment.  Webinar presenter for the SRFCFA.  2020 December 9.

Patel K, Candelario D, Chen M.  Pharmacy and Telehealth: An Interprofessional Model at a Student-led Free Clinic.  Pharmacy Times: 2020 August 14.

Mazur Z, Srivastava S, Chen M.  Intentional Design of an Online Lifestyle Medicine Course.  Poster for the NEXUS Summit:  August 2020.

Chen M. How do we connect: networking and communicating with technology.  Oral presentation at Student-Run Free Clinic Faculty  Association Conference; March 2020; Orlando FL.

Pomarico Y, Resendiz J, Carreon M, Chen M.  Developing competence of medical interpreters at a student-led free clinic.  Poster presented at the Student-Run Free Clinic Faculty Association (SRFCFA) Conference; March 2020; Orlando, FL.

Chen M, Scott C, Siddiqi N, Swamy V, Schneider K, Candelario D. Integration of 4 co-located services for an underserved population in a student-led pro bono clinic. Poster presented at Integrative Medicine for the Underserved (IM4US); August 2019; Santa Clara, CA.

Chen M, Thakkar J, Behrens K, Martin M, Newton A.  Collaborating with Community Health Workers in the education of health professional students leading a pro bono clinic.  Poster presented at IM4US; August 2019; Santa Clara, CA.

Vollmer P, Ziny S, Candelario DM, Patel K, Rahman A, Chen M. Evaluation of Immunization Practices at the Rosalind Franklin University Interprofessional Community Clinic.  Presented 2019: Illinois Pharmacist Association (IPhA) Annual Meeting; Springfield, IL, and SSFRCC March 2020 Orlando FL.

Ziny S, Vollmer P, Patel K, Candelario DM, Rahman A, Chen M. Evaluation of Immunization Practices at a Student-Run Free Interprofessional Community Clinic. Presented 2019: American Pharmacists Association (APhA) Annual Meeting; Seattle, WA.