The Hayfron family foundation was founded by Dr. Kweku Hayfron and his wife, Dr. Deborah Titre-Hayfron to address the need for more African American physicians working in areas with large African American patient populations in Alameda County, CA.
As an internal medicine resident at Highland Hospital in Oakland CA, Dr. Hayfron noted a disparity between the number of African American/Black patients seen within the Alameda Health System(AHS) and the number of physicians of similar race/ethnicity.
As a chief resident, he wanted to help address that disparity but was frustrated by the low number of African American applicants. In an informal survey of students, he found that a major issue in hesitancy to apply to programs was lack of exposure to programs through visiting elective rotations. The high cost of living in the Bay Area of California means that the short term leases needed by visiting students to do elective rotations in local hospitals is a major financial barrier.
The goal of the Hayfron Family Foundation is to alleviate the high cost of temporary housing. We hope that by helping to pay for living expenses, more students and residents will do elective rotations in the east bay region. We will do this by awarding $2500 scholarships to students or residents who are planning on doing a rotation at one of the training programs in Alameda County.
