United During Uncertainty:

Uplifting Underserved Communities

The COMPADRE (California Oregon Medical Partnership to Address Disparities in Rural Education and Health) 2025 Conference invites you to showcase your expertise with students and faculty of UC Davis, OHSU, and 30+ residency programs in the Northern CA and Southern OR region while gaining new insights about innovative ways to meet the needs of these regions’ underserved populations. 

The theme of this conference, United During Uncertainty: Uplifting Underserved Communities, highlights the importance of solidarity and collaboration among like-minded individuals during these chaotic times. Together, we can collectively uplift the most vulnerable populations and make meaningful change for our communities.

RSVP by Wednesday, July 16 at 11:59 PM

https://tinyurl.com/COMPADRE2025

Abstracts for Poster Sessions & Workshop Proposals

  • If you identify with a deep need to create change at the policy, practice, education, or leadership levels, and would like to share your “best practices”, we invite you to submit a proposal to present a workshop at the 2025 UC Davis COMPADRE Conference.

    Workshops proposals can have a target audience of medical students, residents, program administrators, faculty, or all the above, and should generally impart a skill or offer innovative ideas that participants can implement at their home institution. Workshops will be 50 mins in length. Proposals are welcomed from all conference participants.  

    Key Requirements:

    • If your proposal for an educational session/workshop is selected for presentation, all presenters must confirm before the June 27, 2025 deadline.

    • Presenters must submit visual presentation materials by August 8, 2025 to be reviewed for accessibility before the conference.

    Submissions:

    Submit your proposal to: 2025 COMPADRE Conference Workshop Proposal Submission

    Proposal Guidelines:

    • Please provide a brief structured abstract of your presentation (PDF, max 750 words) consisting of the following:

    • Specific learning objectives (max 5). Priority will be given to proposals focusing on skill building. What sorts of skills are you interested in learning or imparting?

    • A general summary of your proposed workshop.

    • An outlined schedule of how the time will be spent, including specific teaching methods: In what ways will your workshop involve participatory learning or hands-on activities?

    Important Dates:

    • Call for Presentations Closes: June 1, 2025

    • Selection Decision Notification: June 13, 2025

    • Session Confirmation Deadline: June 27, 2025

    • Session Scheduling Notification: July 11, 2025

    • Presentation visual materials deadline: Aug 8, 2025

    Suggested Ideas for Workshop Topics:

    Please note that the target audience can be medical students, residents, faculty, or program administrators.

    • Mitigating implicit bias in medical education and practice

    • Resilience and wellbeing in medical school, residency, and practice

    • Implementing inclusive healthcare practices or expanding healthcare access for marginalized communities

    • Navigating ethical dilemmas in medical practice

    • Engaging in healthcare policy and advocacy to address systemic inequities

    • The art of difficult conversations: communicating with patients, families, and colleagues

    • Time management and efficiency strategies

    • Leadership skills for managing projects and teams, in the clinical and non-clinical spaces

    • Developing innovative medical training electives (for medical students or residents)

    • Procedural skills: joint injections, skin biopsy, POCUS, more!

  • This conference offers a wonderful opportunity for you to share your academic and experiential work with fellow students, residents, faculty, and additional attendees, and receive feedback and insight from colleagues for ways to further your work to best highlight and address your communities’ needs! We encourage all interested conference participants to submit proposals for poster presentations on topics that fit our theme of unity and community advocacy, and which amplify our overall goal of improving health equity, inclusion, and care for marginalized peoples. 

    Abstracts should fall within one (or more) of the following categories:

    • Original research

    • Health policy/advocacy

    • Medical education

    • Community engagement 

    Innovation Showcase: 

    While submitting an abstract, you may “opt in” for a chance to take part in the Innovation Showcase, during which time 5-6 selected participants will present their work in the format of 5-minute oral presentations following the poster session. The conference committee will then determine the poster award winners from the Innovation Showcase group and announce these at the close of the conference. Opting into the selection pool for the showcase will not affect your likelihood of presenting a poster - we encourage all interested participants to enter their abstracts into this additional presentation opportunity!

     Important Dates:

    • June 1: Deadline for poster and workshop submissions

    • July 1: Notification of selection decision for posters and Innovation Showcase

    • July 11: Participant confirmation deadline

    • August 15-16: COMPADRE Conference

      • August 16, 12:30-1 PM: Poster Session

      • August 16, 1-1:45PM: Innovation Showcase 

      • August 16 3 PM: Presentation of Poster Awards

    Proposal Guidelines:

    Please provide a brief abstract for your poster (max 500 words) in standard format: Introduction, Methods, Results, Discussion. Additionally, please identify which category best fits your submission - you may select multiple if applicable. 

    Abstracts and posters may include incomplete research, but should clearly describe the anticipated project impact. The intended goal of the conference is to allow presenters the opportunity to share important work in a safe and collaborative space; as such, we understand that conference timelines may not always allow for fully completed work, and we encourage participants to submit abstracts so long as key takeaways or preliminary findings can be identified and shared.

    Multiple presenters may collaborate on one poster and all contributors must be listed on the abstract submission. Individual attendees may submit up to three abstracts total, including posters in which they are collaborating with others.

    Poster sizing and structure guidelines will be provided after presenters have been selected and have confirmed their participation. Participants will be responsible for the printing and transportation of their own posters. 

    Submission: 

    https://forms.gle/UtVeJSJxkPMQXjjG8 

For any questions regarding abstracts, posters, and the innovation showcase, please email our conference email address: info@learncompadre.com with a CC to our poster session coordinator, Julie Novaes (jmnovaes@ucdavis.edu).

We look forward to reviewing your abstracts and seeing you all at the conference! Thank you.

 Health Equity Leadership Awards

COMPADRE is thrilled to announce the following opportunities for Health Equity Leadership Awards. These awards honor individuals who have demonstrated exceptional commitment to COMPADRE’s vision in advancing health equity and supporting rural, underserved, and tribal populations through education, advocacy, clinical work, and community partnerships. Nominees should exemplify leadership, innovation, and compassion in reducing health disparities and promoting inclusive, community centered, and culturally humble care.

Awardees will be notified by July 11, 2025 and recognized at the conclusion of the COMPADRE conference. Additionally, we will reimburse awardees applicable travel expenses (coach air and/or ground travel and 1 night at the Courtyard Marriott). 

  • Eligibility:
    Medical students

    Selection Criteria:

    • Demonstrated commitment to underserved communities through research, advocacy, or community engagement.

    • Evidence of leadership in health equity-related initiatives, projects, or student organizations.

    • Creative approaches to addressing systemic barriers in education or healthcare access.

    • Embodiment of the COMPADRE mission to build a diverse, equity-focused future physician workforce.

  • Eligibility:
    Residents or fellows in a program affiliated with the COMPADRE network.

    Selection Criteria:

    • Outstanding clinical, advocacy, or scholarly efforts to improve care for rural, tribal, or otherwise underserved communities.

    • Active engagement in system-level or institutional efforts to improve equity in healthcare delivery.

    • Mentorship or role-modeling that supports peers and uplifts marginalized voices in medicine.

    • Innovation in creating sustainable, community-partnered solutions to health disparities.

  • Eligibility:
    Practicing physicians, faculty, or community-based clinical educators affiliated with COMPADRE institutions.

    Selection Criteria:

    • Sustained and impactful leadership in advancing health equity for marginalized populations.

    • Advocacy and policy engagement that has led to measurable improvements in access, outcomes, or educational equity.

    • Commitment to mentoring the next generation of equity-minded healthcare professionals.

    • Collaborative work with community partners to co-design responsive and respectful health initiatives.

Submit nominations by completing this form: https://tinyurl.com/COMPADREnoms2025 by Friday, June 20 at 5:00 pm.

Self-nominations are welcome, but we ask that they are accompanied by a letter of recommendation by someone familiar with how you meet the award criteria. Letters of recommendation can be emailed to info@learncompadre.com with the nominee’s name and award in the subject title.

Residency Fair

We are excited to invited you to table at the COMPADRE Conference Residency Fair on Friday, August 15, 2025 from 3:30 - 5:00 pm. This event is a fantastic opportunity for your residency program to connect with students and residents.

Please follow this link to help us plan for the event: https://tinyurl.com/ResidencyFairRSVP

Travel

Location

UC Davis School of Medicine

Education Building

4610 X Street

Sacramento, CA

Airport

For those traveling to Sacramento, the closest airport is Sacramento International Airport (SMF), which is 17 miles away from UC Davis School of Medicine.

Accommodations

We reserved a block of rooms with a discounted rate at the Courtyard Sacramento Midtown (4422 Y Street, Sacramento, CA), located steps away from the Education Building.

To book using our COMPADRE room rate, please follow this link before Wednesday, July 16 at 11:59 pm: http://tinyurl.com/hotelCOMPADRE2025

Reimbursements

For faculty and staff, the COMPADRE grant can reimburse travel (coach air and/or ground travel) and 1 night at the Courtyard Marriott for two GME representatives from each COMPADRE training program. Additional representatives are welcome but cannot be reimbursed.

>>>> CA Sites: please send receipts and your mailing address to Cassidy Kays Steinberg at cakays@health.ucdavis.edu by 11:59 pm on Friday, August 29

>>>> OR Sites: please email Robynn Church at churcrob@ohsu.edu by 11:59 pm on Friday, August 29