Jann Murray-García, a pediatrician, is on a path to change the way we learn and “do” race in America. From her career to her volunteer work to her passion projects, Dr. Murray-García demonstrates a commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion in every facet of her life. As a founding faculty member and clinical professor at the Betty Irene Moore School of Nursing at UC Davis, Dr. Murray-García teaches students in the Doctor of Nursing Practice Program, medical students, and clinical and academic leaders about social determinants of health, health inequities, and population health.

In the 1990s, Dr. Murray-García coined and developed the concept of Cultural Humility alongside Dr. Melanie Tervalon. Not only has Dr. Murray-García trained thousands of students and others in this critical anti-racist model, but academic entities and health systems across the country have adopted CH as an operating framework for their Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion initiatives.

Dr. Murray-García’s impact on the Betty Irene Moore School of Nursing is indispensable. In her first decade at the school, Dr. Murray-García instructed nurses in the master’s degree Community Connections course, a yearlong practicum focused on systems-level leadership within community organizations. Additionally, in 2010 she established the UC Davis Health Interprofessional Book Club, comprised of students, staff, faculty, and community members dedicated to social justice literature. For rising second year medical students, Dr. Murray-García developed the 4-week, nonclinical Summer Institute on Race and Health.

Dr. Murray-García helped develop and directs the Anti-Racism and Cultural Humility (ARC) Training Program, which has thus far offered three-day long, full-day immersive experiences to more than 350 UC Davis Health nursing, public health, and medical school faculty and staff, as well as clinical leaders and health system administrators at the highest levels. She also founded and directs the Interprofessional Central Valley Road Trip, an overnight intergenerational, interprofessional field trip that teaches history and health policy in California’s Central Valley.

But Dr. Murray-García’s impact goes beyond the bounds of her own academic circles. She is deeply devoted to improving her local community. In 2002, she orchestrated community forums to address instances of racism within the city and its schools. For more than a decade, she wrote a column for her local newspaper, The Davis Enterprise, concentrating on topics such as racism, parenting, and equity. In 2007, Dr. Murray-García worked with educators to support students’ desire that Davis High School introduce a college preparatory social studies course focusing on U.S. history through the lens of race relations and the pursuit of social justice. Then, in 2009, she helped produce the award-winning documentary, “From the Community to the Classroom,” a student-directed film which explores how children learn about the construct of race in this “high-performing” school district.

Dr. Murray-García’s work in the community and schools made her the 2021 recipient of the C.A. Covell Award, the city of Davis’s “Citizen of the Year” award for Lifetime Achievement in Volunteerism.