We had the great pleasure of working with San Francisco General Hospital Foundation again this year for their Heroes & Hearts event and campaign.

At Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital and Trauma Center, patients get world-class compassionate care, and experts are innovating to help patients navigate a complicated system.

Transgender, transsexual, and gender non-conforming people face inordinate barriers to quality health care and wellness services. Already beset by stigma and discrimination, transgender patients must also navigate a health care system still developing protocols to be responsive and compassionate with transgender healthcare needs.

Learn how Gender Health SF patient navigator Karen Aguilar’s peer-based approach is setting a standard that will dramatically improve care for people nationally. The reach of Karen’s work goes far beyond San Francisco, with Gender Health SF serving as a model for clinics across the country.

We are proud to recognize Karen as a 2018 Hero.

Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital and Trauma Center has long been a pioneer in HIV/AIDs care and has been at the forefront of “Getting to Zero” by 2020: zero deaths, zero infections, and zero stigma.

Stigma is the lesser understood of these goals. While preventing deaths and infections are largely supported by medical interventions, education and outreach is front and center for eliminating prejudice and discrimination against people living with HIV and the communities disproportionately impacted by the disease. Overcoming stigma can be the difference between life and death.

Learn how HIVE communications and social justice coordinator Caroline Watson set out to change the way HIVE empowered people living with or affected by HIV to reshape the narrative for HIV prevention. Caroline’s fierce and compassionate commitment to fighting the stigma surrounding HIV has been a gift to HIV patients here and around the world, and significantly, has been a key driver of “getting to zero” HIV in our community.

We are proud to recognize Caroline as a 2018 Hero.