Ellen Beck, MD

Ellen Beck is director of community education for the Division of Family Medicine of the Department of Family and Preventive Medicine at the University of California, San Diego (UCSD). She received her medical degree in 1976 from McGill University and completed a residency in family medicine. After serving as director of the undergraduate program in family medicine (family practice clerkship) at McGill University for two years, she joined the Department of Family and Preventive Medicine at UCSD as predoctoral director in 1988.

With the help of UCSD medical students and several community partners, Dr. Beck co-founded three UCSD Student-Run Free Clinics in the San Diego community. These clinics provide free, quality medical, dental and social services to homeless and indigent people in Pacific Beach, Downtown and the Mountain View areas of San Diego. Her elective course “Community Advocacy” is one of the most popular courses offered to first year medical students through the School of Medicine.

Dr. Beck also created a faculty development program, "Addressing the Health Needs of the Underserved," which is offered to physicians from all over the country. This program is designed to provide administrative, scholarly and teaching skills needed to develop and implement programs in primary care for the underserved. Sixty-six faculty members from 25 states have completed the program. In addition, she created a full-time one year Fellowship in Underserved Medicine at UCSD. She was appointed to the Healthy Families Advisory Panel in Sacramento, and is actively working on creating a collaborative Underserved Services Network for San Diego.

Dr. Beck sees her work as “creating environments where individuals, families and communities take charge of their lives and achieve joy and wellbeing.” Someday, she would like to have an impact on public education in this country, so that both schools and universities become centers that inspire creativity, wonder, a commitment to social justice, and a love of learning.