Mary Jean Anderson

Mary Jean Anderson

How did a woman get into the plumbing business 35 years ago? My background is nursing. My then-husband was in the commercial plumbing business, having difficulties with management issues. I was helping him, and as I became more involved, I took over running the business.

Do you have other locations? Not now. While I was a partner with my husband, we had a business in Arizona, which I ran from 1996 to 2001. At the time it was producing $5.3 million in revenue. Eventually I bought my husband out.

I was greeted at Anderson Plumbing with “How can I make you smile today?” How did that come about? It comes from my nursing background and wanting to make things better. When people call us, they are in distress, and we want to make them feel good. I learned through a survey that 78 percent of all women do not know how to turn off their water. If they call us, they want help. We want them to know that we are here to help them.

Of your 108 employees in San Diego, how many are women? In addition to my daughter, we have several women in sales and service as well as two female technicians in heating and air. There are several managers in normally male-dominated positions. I would hire more if we could find them.

Did you ever think of going back to nursing? No, since I came into the plumbing business, I have found lots of people to help.

How has solar energy impacted your business? We are selling systems that are compatible with solar in heating as well. Anderson is the first green plumber in San Diego.

What do you do to mentor others? I believe that doing things right is the only way to do things. I work diligently with my staff to make every customer a priority and every day a new opportunity to make a positive impact. I work to recruit men and women into the industry because it is a very good industry.

To what do you attribute your 35 years of success in the business? We strive to be the most professional, fairly priced, and have the people well-trained to serve our customers. We have very high standards, and each employee receives extensive training before he or she is assigned to go on a call. There is a stereotype of a plumber, and our employees are way above that old-fashioned image of the butt-crack plumbers. We are leading the charge in changing the industry.

You are very visible in the community. What do you do to give back? Oh, there are so many community activities that we participate in, such as the Susan G. Komen walk. We always have a team. Every quarter we do “a random act of plumbing and air.” We select a project from someone in need, and our employees do the work. We work with Rebuild Together and Just in Time. Our employees love to work on community projects. I also serve on the Better Business Bureau board.

What are your goals for the future? To be the best service provider out there. I want to be able to give back to the community, which has been good to me. We are going into our busy season, and we have to prioritize our service—first to the elderly, new moms, and the chronically ill, as well as our existing customers.

What would you like for people to know about you? I love my work. My parents instilled a strong work ethic in me, and I have always loved working.

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• By Chris Baraniuk
• Technology of Business reporter

27 June 2023

Image source, Your Energy Your Way

Image caption,

Leah Robson is challenging the notion that women can’t be plumbers

Leah Robson was hard at work at her customer’s house, setting up the heating. The customer in question was moving in, a single man with his own place.

Again and again, someone working for the removals firm passed Robson as she toiled and asked, “Where do you want this, then?”

Three times she found herself having to explain: “It’s not my house, I’m not married to the man who’s moving in, I’m just fixing the heating.”

Today, Ms Robson runs Your Energy Your Way, a firm that specialises in renewables, heat pumps, plumbing and similar services. She and other women in the industry argue that in 2023 the workforce behind many building trades should be far more diverse – and far too many people still assume that a woman couldn’t be a plumber.

According to data from the Office of National Statistics (ONS), the proportion of women plumbers is tiny, though the ONS estimates that their number grew from 2,700 (1.9%) in 2021 to 3,500 (2.4%) in 2022.

“Even 2.4% is woeful, isn’t it?” says Ms Robson. There is a similar proportion of women working in other building trades.

The ONS cautions that its data is only an estimate, and is based on extrapolated results from a nationwide survey. Respondents included people who described themselves as plumbers or heating engineers.

A government report published in January suggested that 5% of employees across 687 heating and cooling businesses were female, but the report noted: “The sector may be slightly less diverse than these numbers imply.”

The Scottish and Northern Ireland Plumbing Employers’ Federation (SNIPEF) has said it wants to see women making up 10% of all apprentices in the trade.

Image caption,

Hattie Hasan founded her own plumbing company

“I worked for 17 years without meeting another woman. Then I started to look for them,” says Hattie Hasan, founder of Stopcocks Women Plumbers, a plumbing company.

She and Ms Robson point out the value of social media in connecting women in the trade around the country – from Facebook groups to TikTok – as well as in-person events such as those run by Stopcocks. The company also has a register of 750 women tradespeople in the UK, including 100 plumbers.

Employers sometimes assume that including women in their advertising or claiming to be equal opportunities is enough but it isn’t, argues Ms Hasan.

To actually encourage women into a job, plumbing companies should consider how to cater to their needs – from menopause support, flexible working for single parents, separate toilets and personal protective equipment that fits women correctly, which keeps them safe from dust and other hazards at work.

“Some women we’ve spoken to have been told they have to buy their own clothes because it’s more expensive for the company to buy it for them,” says Ms Hasan.

Women might find that working as a plumber is slightly easier at present if they are self-employed, suggests Ms Hasan, as that allows them to manage various commitments besides work on their own terms. She notes that she was forced to set up as self-employed trader herself, years ago, despite approaching multiple companies seeking work.

Image source, Kika Thorne

Image caption,

Sovay Berriman says many customers are happy to see a female plumber

Sovay Berriman is a self-employed plumber in Cornwall. She uses the business name “Plumbmaid”, which she explains is not about being a maid in a subservient sense, but rather it is a reference to Cornish slang, where calling a woman “some maid” is a colloquial way of giving her especially high praise.

“A lot of male customers as well find it a relief,” she says, of being a woman in the industry. “They’re just like, ‘Oh, great!’ – they’re not having to be a bloke.”

While some are very supportive, Sovay Berriman has, like Ms Robson, faced her share of prejudice and says that the industry must work to push back against assumptions that tradespeople are, by default, men.

She adds that she would be cautious about ascribing any particular attributes to either men or women in the industry, to avoid perpetuating stereotypes. It’s not as if all women are better communicators than men, for instance.

However, she points out that she feels her own skills have served her well. “I have found that customers are open to how I explain things,” she says.

“I don’t know if that’s about my gender but I do think potentially that’s something that’s more ingrained in society – that women are good at [communication].”

Today, plumbing and heating are high tech trades that require knowledge of smart controls, renewable energy systems and efficient appliances.

If more people were aware of this, a larger and more diverse cohort might take up the job, she suggests: “With these new green technologies, you are getting a much wider range of skills.”

Parental encouragement can make a big difference, notes Aimee Holloran, a business development manager at Samsung Electronics. She specialises in advising customers about heat pumps, but started out as a plumbing apprentice. Her dad got her into all kinds of things boys typically do, she says, including riding motorbikes. And her mum suggested the plumbing apprenticeship.

Some companies are setting targets for improving gender equality. LiveWest, a housing association in the south west of England, has appointed seven female apprentices in the last year, across various trades, for example. It now has 21 women among a 471-strong trades workforce.

Earlier this year, the Chartered Institute of Plumbing and Heating Engineering (CIPHE) published advice for employers, suggesting that they make their diversity goals public, put together diverse interview panels when hiring people for jobs, and stick to inclusive language. Avoid obviously discriminating terms that continue to be used in job ads such as “tradesman”, for example.

“There is certainly still a long way to go” in terms of gender equality, says Kevin Wellman, chief executive of CIPHE.

Ms Hasan agrees – and makes one final point. Women can bring new and improved approaches to plumbing, beyond simply expanding the workforce. People, she suggests, should stop questioning whether women can be merely “as good as” a man.

“Since when has the way men do things been the high bar that we all have to reach?” she says, with a laugh.

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In medical settings, it is common for women’s pain to be ignored or dismissed. In other cases, it is not properly treated.

This phenomenon is particularly agonizing for women in some of their most vulnerable moments.

If you have been a gynecological patient, maybe you have felt unprepared for the pain of a procedure like an IUD insertion. Wondered why you were not offered a better option to control your pain before the HSG, a pelvic X-ray in which dye is shot into your uterus. Or been told, in any number of situations, that “you will feel pressure,” or “this will pinch,” or “take Tylenol.”

“To be honest, evidence suggests that Tylenol doesn’t likely work, even Advil doesn’t likely work, in many of those settings,” says Sara Whetstone, an obstetrician and gynecologist at the University of California, San Francisco. “So are we lying when we tell people ‘it’s just a cramp’?”

The pain that women experience in medical settings is common, often preventable and routinely ignored. I explored some of this in “The Retrievals,” a podcast series about recent events at the Yale Fertility Center.

The women I reported on experienced an extreme version of procedure pain. They underwent egg retrievals at a clinic where a nurse was stealing the fentanyl they should have been administered to manage the pain of the surgeries. Their pain control was missing entirely. Some of the women screamed out that they felt everything during their retrievals, in which a long needle is inserted through the vaginal wall and into the ovary.

For months, patient after patient complained about pain, and they say the clinic dismissed their complaints. One reason their complaints did not raise more alarm is that members of the medical staff expected that patients could feel pain with this procedure. Under the drug protocol the clinic had offered for years, some patients felt even severe pain. Pain had been normalized.

Not believing a patient is one way of dismissing pain. Offering inadequate pain control is another way of dismissing pain — another way of saying, this doesn’t matter.

Whetstone told me that she realized early in her career that pain control would be important in building trust with her patients, who include many women of color. Patients often tell her about past procedures in which their pain was not properly treated — and nobody listened to them. It’s a double trauma: pain being considered unworthy of adequate treatment in the first place, and then dismissed.

Why wouldn’t a doctor listen to a patient who complains about procedure pain? Whetstone had a reflective response. “I sometimes wonder if people internalize it as a failing that they as a provider did,” she told me. “That’s how I internalize it. When people have more pain than I want them to, I feel like I haven’t done a good job as the provider. So I wonder if not really engaging allows people to emotionally separate from their failure to control pain.”

Just because pain is acute also doesn’t mean it’s only a short-term problem. It can change health outcomes — alter the course of your life. You might avoid going back to the doctor for birth control. You might not get that endometrial biopsy. Or, like a patient I interviewed and others I have heard from since the series began, you might not go back for another egg retrieval and lose a chance to have a child.

All of the women in “The Retrievals” suffered lasting effects from their inadequately treated and unacknowledged pain. One of the most profound is a loss of trust in the medical system. One patient, Esha, who, for privacy, requested to be identified by only her first name, became pregnant with twins during her fertility treatment. She went into labor eight weeks early, and at the hospital, when it became clear that delivery was imminent, a provider approached Esha to talk about anesthesia.

Up until that moment, Esha had been calm. “The minute he said ‘anesthesia,’” she said, it was “pure panic.” Now the word raised a trauma. Esha looked at her husband and started crying.

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TALK | FROM THE TIMES MAGAZINE

Alok Vaid-Menon is a gender-nonconforming activist and a prominent voice on issues of gender and sexuality. I spoke to them about new ways to think about transgender debates.

You write, “There is a shocking disconnect between the way the government and the media speak about gender-nonconforming people and the reality of our lives.” Tell me more.

There are no such thing as trans issues. There are issues that nontrans people have with themselves that they’re taking out on trans people. A great example is when they talk about our “agenda.” “The transgender agenda: It’s recruiting people.” My agenda is the ability to exist in public without the fear of being assaulted.

I think a lot of people have a sense that there is a true self inside them that gets boxed in by other people’s expectations. Do you have advice for people who might feel that way about how to be their true selves?

You’re pointing to exactly what’s behind all the anti-trans sentiment. The fundamental root of our problems is people living versions of who they’ve been told they should be, not who they are. The resentment that people have toward me and my community is because they’re looking at us saying, “What do you mean that we get to be free?”

But you don’t think people’s resentment is about their struggling to adapt to change more than feeling a comparative lack of freedom?

Of course. Things that are new are often jarring at first, but I want to tell you about the internet. I want to tell you about iPhones. These inventions fundamentally restructured how we related to one another, our self-conceptions, and there were not millions of people saying: “Abolish this! We are committed to our routine.”

Read more of the interview here.

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Our editors’ picks: Colson Whitehead’s sequel to “Harlem Shuffle” and eight other books.

Times best sellers: “Jackie,” a biography of the former first lady Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis by J. Randy Taraborrelli, is on the hardcover nonfiction list.

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THE WEEK AHEAD

What to Watch For

• Washington State will hold a statewide primary on Tuesday.

• Pope Francis is scheduled to travel to Portugal on Wednesday to participate in World Youth Day.

• Monthly U.S. employment numbers will be released on Friday.

• Thailand’s parliament is scheduled to pick a new prime minister on Friday.

What to Cook This Week

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Imagine the Bay reduced to a trickle of water, Glen Canyon filled with ribbons of concrete highway, Mt. Davidson covered with private homes and closed to the public.  

It can be easy to take the awe-inducing natural beauty of the Bay Area for granted, presuming it will always be there: the sparkly waters of the Golden Gate, the views from jagged rock faces, the dramatic sweep of hilltop vistas. 

Locals hike, bike and run in the Marin Headlands overlooking San Francisco on land that was preserved by the creation of the Golden Gate National Recreation Area. | Getty Images

Yet there’s an alternate reality—one akin to a dystopian science-fiction film—that could have easily become our Bay Area environmental reality if not for women conservationists in San Francisco and beyond, who did (and do) so much to ensure we breathe clean air and see clean water. 

From a practical standpoint, women often had more time to devote to preserving the environment and fighting the developers of the last century.

“Volunteerism was a major factor,”  according to Amy Meyer, now called “mother of the Golden Gate National Recreation Area” for her efforts to create the country’s first urban national park in 1972. “Whether it was Save the Bay or SF Tomorrow or our group, the organizations that came into being in the late 1960s and 1970s were all led by women—and just about all of them were volunteers.”

READ MORE: How a San Francisco Housewife Gave Birth to a National Park

To other observers, there appears to be an intrinsic, deep-seated call for women to advocate for the environment.

Ildiko Polony, executive director of Sutro Stewards, an organization that works to protect Mount Sutro, noted the outsized role women tend to play not only in land stewardship and conservation but also in the climate change movement. 

“Women tend to be mothers and are closer to the nurturing qualities that we need to also nurture the land,” Polony said. “There’s an intrinsic sense of what hurts the land, hurts us, hurts our children.” 

The names of these women are too numerous to include in one article—from Alice Eastwood who saved the California Academy of Sciences specimen collection in a heroic rescue during the 1906 Earthquake and Fire to Carrie Stevens Walter of San Jose, co-founder of the Sempervirens Club that protected Big Basin redwoods. There’s Jean Kortum and Sue Bierman who fought the “freeway revolt,” Caroline Sealy Livermore who founded the Marin Conservation League and botanist Mary Bowerman who saved Mount Diablo.  

Here are six leading environmental movements in the Bay Area and their “mothers.”

Save the Bay 

Sylvia McLaughlin, Kay Kerr and Esther Gulick 

Polony grew up in Oakland and spent her childhood swimming in Alameda Bay. But she never knew about the extensive dumping that happened in her backyard until she returned to school to study habitat restoration. In one of her classes, she had the opportunity to meet Sylvia McLaughlin, the last surviving founder of Save the Bay, which she co-founded in 1961 by Kay Kerr and Esther Gulick. 

Sylvia McLaughlin, Esther Guilck and Kay Kerr founded Save The Bay. | Courtesy Save The Bay

“There were many of us in the class that were literally crying, feeling so moved that she had discovered this Army Corps of Engineers report back in the ’60s that said by the year 2000, the width of the Bay would be just a trickle if dumping and filling continued at the rate that it was.”

Since the three founders happened to be the wives of deans and chancellors at the University of California Berkeley, Polony noted, the women had access to power and influence, which they used to organize a grassroots campaign that not only stopped dumping and filling in the Bay but also helped to establish the Coastal Commission that saved California coastlines up and down the state. 

The group also prevented San Bruno Mountain from being leveled—the plan was to use the chopped-off mountaintop to fill in the San Mateo County shoreline—and initiated bans on plastic bags.  

It was an inspiration to Polony to embark on similar work for the benefit of future generations. “It was like, ‘Wow, it’s possible, and I can do this,’” Polony said. “I can make an impact for future generations who may never know me.”

Hunters Point

Marie Harrison 

After Marie Harrison moved to Bayview Hunters Point as a teenager with her family, she ended up working for two years at the Hunters Point shipyard, which was later deemed a toxic dumping site. Harrison eventually developed a lung condition that required her to use oxygen, despite being a nonsmoker, all of which set Harrison upon the path of advocacy.  

Marie Harrison was an environmental, health and social justice advocate in San Francisco. | Courtesy Arieann Harrison

In the early 1990s, Harrison was already alerting others to the dangers of the radioactive site, and she later pointed to the shoddy efforts to clean it up—which at one point resulted in criminal charges for those who falsified cleanup reports. 

Harrison continuously urged for greater oversight and accountability for the radioactive dumping site. She also fought for tenants’ rights, twice ran for District 10 supervisor and served on the board of the nonprofit Greenaction for decades. 

Tireless and undefeatable, Harrison was voicing her concerns about the development of the India Basin and the Hunters Point Shipyard on her very deathbed. As something of a credit to her efforts, SF Recreation and Parks bought India Basin in 2014, completed a cleanup of the site and is building a massive new public park that will open in 2024. 

Marin Agricultural Land Trust 

Phyllis Faber and Ellen Straus 

It was another corner of the bay that brought together two environmentally-minded women together. When biologist Phyllis Faber took her high school students on field trips to Ellen Straus’s family ranch on Tomales Bay, she drove past dozens of “For Sale” signs along the way. 

In the 1970s, real estate developers were targeting West Marin County and owners of century-old ranchland were being pressured to sell their family farms. In a bid to save bay wetlands and control development, Faber had also helped sponsor the 1972 statewide initiative that created the Coastal Commission, which gave her some experience navigating the rough waters of environmental politics in California.

Phyllis Faber and Ellen Straus co-founded the Marin Agricultural Land Trust. | Courtesy Marin Agricultural Land Trust

Faber and Straus realized that by creating a land trust, the pressure on farmers could be relieved while the natural environment of the area could be preserved, the agricultural community could survive and sustainable food production would continue in the Bay Area. 

The two pooled their connections in the scientific, political and ranching communities to create the Marin Agricultural Land Trust in 1980. To date, the nonprofit has preserved 55,000 acres of farmland in western Marin and Sonoma counties and its model has been copied countless times across the nation and the world.  

Though Straus passed away in 2002, she is also remembered as the founder of the first organic dairy farm in the West, a business her son took over and is known today as Straus Family Creamery. Faber continued as an accomplished scientific and environmental advocate until she died in January at the age of 95.  

Faber addressed the legacy of local female conservationists in a 2015 interview with Bay Nature. “The freedom that women have in California, the level of self-confidence, opportunity, and idealism that women have compared to other parts of the country, has really driven the [Bay Area environmental] movement.” 

The Glen Park ‘Gum Tree Girls’ 

Zoanne Theriault Nordstrom, Joan Seiwald and Geri Arkush 

Zoanne Theriault Nordstrom, Joan Seiwald and Geri Arkush became known as the Glen Park “Gum Tree Girls” thanks to their civic activism between 1965 and 1970 when they saved Glen Canyon from being ribboned with highways. 

Walkers enter the Glen Canyon Park in central San Francisco. | Liz Hafalia/The San Francisco Chronicle via Getty Images

Theriault and Seiwald met in the 1960s as young moms who often brought their young children to the park to play. Soon they befriended longtime resident Arkush. When reports surfaced that the Department of Public Works was investigating straightening the curve out of Glen Park and widening the road, the three friends banded together. 

“The hell it is!” Nordstrom exclaimed when she came across activity in the park that made it clear the Department of Public Works was progressing with its plan. She immediately formed the Save Glen Park Committee, which had its first meeting on Oct. 19, 1965.   

Seiwald later described the gendered nature of the battle, in what recalls Friedel Klussmann’s “sentimental” fight to save the cable cars—an all-female group battling an all-male group of politicians—in a showdown San Franciscans are grateful that Klussmann won. 

“They thought Glen Park was a ‘bucolic backwater’ and [were] calling us ‘dumb housewives.’ […] They didn’t want the working class in the city,” said Seiwald when she recalled the men in government’s attitude toward the natural area—and them. 

City Engineer Clifford Geertz is responsible for giving the group their nickname of “Gum Tree Girls.” The name was intended as a slur—Geertz hated the eucalyptus gum trees for which Glen Park became known—but the women embraced it as a compliment.  

Mount Davidson 

Madie Brown 

The recent unveiling of a time capsule on top of Mount Davidson might never have happened if it weren’t for Madie Brown, nor would the annual sunrise Easter services, nor would the hikes up to the Armenian cross with all of the native plants carpeting the hills along the way. 

Madie Brown spearheaded a city-wide effort to preserve Mt. Davidson as a public park. | Courtesy Friends of Mount Davidson Conservancy

San Francisco would not even have the hill—the tallest in all of San Francisco—as a public park if it weren’t for Brown’s valiant efforts to save it. 

Brown spearheaded a citywide effort to preserve Mount Davidson as a public park, which she helped to accomplish by 1929, with the park’s formal dedication. 

As the chair of the Mount Davidson Conservation Committee, Brown did more than just create one park: She laid the foundation for grassroots organizing that many organizations would later follow. She was especially good at generating publicity, creating everything from newsreels to exhibitions, and petitions to freshly picked wildflowers as pleas for support. 

“Due to the effort of a nature-loving woman, […] the tree-clad scope and crest of Mount Davidson, rich in sentiment and historic association for San Francisco was now permanently preserved for the pleasure of the people,” reported the San Francisco Chronicle in 1929.  

Golden Gate National Recreation Area

Amy Meyer

Yet another 1960s San Francisco mom is now known for birthing an 82,000-acre national park from her Outer Richmond kitchen. Amy Meyer heard about a movement to preserve the small plot of land being decommissioned from Fort Miley, four blocks from her home. The news hit at the same time as the massive Marincello residential development atop the Marin Headlands was falling apart.

People for a Golden Gate National Recreation Area founder, Amy Meyer speaks at National Trails Day in 2014. | Courtesy Maria Durana/Golden Gate Parks Conservancy

Meyer connected with Ed Wayburn, the local head of the Sierra Club, who had just pushed for the creation of the Point Reyes National Seashore in 1962 but had not had any luck preserving the Marin Headlands, despite years of lobbying in Washington with his neighbor, Ansel Adams.

Meyer and Wayburn mapped a way to combine public lands from Fort Miley all the way north to Point Reyes in a new national park. Meyer founded the People for a Golden Gate National Recreation Area in 1971, and with a year of savvy networking and fortuitous political backing, President Nixon signed the first urban national park into existence in October 1972.

In an interview with The Standard from her kitchen “where it happened,” Meyer remembered one reporter’s surprise when hearing the park was official: “He told me, ‘Amy, I thought you were a nice person, but I also thought you were a little crazy.’”

Amy Meyer, center, joins House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and other officials under the Parks Conservancy flag commemorating the Golden Gate National Recreation Area’s 50th Anniversary in Fort Mason on Oct. 26, 2022. | Maryann Jones Thompson/The Standard

With the later addition of more land on the Peninsula and The Presidio, the Golden Gate National Recreation Area has become a model for urban parks worldwide, fulfilling the agency’s 1970s ideal to create “parks for the people, where the people are.”

“These views look the same now as they did 50 years ago,” said Meyer from the podium overlooking the bay for the park’s 50th-anniversary kick-off ceremony in October. 

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi also addressed the crowd in Fort Mason, talking about how she— like many other mothers—had brought her children and grandchildren to explore the park’s wilderness, later whispering to Meyer, “You are an inspiration.”

Julie Zigoris can be reached at [email protected]
Maryann Jones Thompson can be reached at [email protected]

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NORTHAMPTON, MA / ACCESSWIRE / January 31, 2023 / Chemours proudly celebrates Minjin Kim, world leader in stationary air conditioning, heat pumps and chillers, as the winner of the 2023 Engineered Systems 20 to Watch: Women in HVAC competition. Now in its fifth year, the competition works to raise awareness and appreciation for women who are making a difference at different levels of the industry – from young professionals to engineering trainees to business owners and operators – by awarding extraordinary personalities with a passion for science and their careers. This year marks the second year in a row that a member of the Chemours team has won this award, with Stefanie Kopchick receiving the award in 2022.

Below are highlights, milestones and inspiration from Kim’s career, originally released by Engineered Systems as part of their annual celebration of this year’s 20 to Watch: Women in HVAC.

Minjin Kim

Title: World market leader in the segments of stationary air conditioning, heat pumps and chillers, the Chemours Co.

Age: 35

Educational Experience: Bachelor’s Degree in Chemical Engineering, Sungkyunkwan University; MBA, NYU Stern School of Business

What does your daily work involve?

I work with our customers, mainly stationary original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) and value chain partners, to develop new refrigerant solutions and establish new markets for our solutions. This work is part of our long-term business vision and marketing strategy for Chemours Thermal and Specialized Solutions. I also work closely with various functions including Research & Development, Technology, Business Development, Regulatory and Communications to implement our strategy of driving innovative solutions for the HVACR industry.

What got you started/when did you fall in love with engineering?

I grew up with engineers and scientists in my immediate and extended family. Of particular note is that my father worked as a civil engineer on urban planning and infrastructure projects. I remember on family vacations he would take detours just to see new bridges. My older brother spent 10 years in a lab studying biotechnology. He was the guy who built his own computers in high school. I grew up reading teenage science magazines and looking at blueprints of car engines and tunnels on my father’s desk. I loved science classes, especially chemistry and biology, and going to engineering school seemed like a natural choice.

The story goes on

What has been the most rewarding/proud aspect of your career as an engineer?

The most rewarding part of my job is when a new product comes out. Getting to this point, from initial research to market launch, requires an army of professionals from engineering to compliance, and my job is to understand the requirements for (and the interface between) everyone involved across the board way to summarize. So when a product that we’ve been developing for years can make a significant impact, like a low global warming potential (GWP) refrigerant, to support the HVACR industry’s efforts towards sustainability, it’s extremely rewarding to see how the years of planning implemented.

What challenges do women face in this profession? Can you give a personal example? Why aren’t there more women in engineering? How can we increase the proportion of women in engineering?

I have a few poignant examples from my career that are emblematic of an industry where gender equality is at stake. In my first round of interviews after college, an interviewer told me he wasn’t interested in training female engineers because “they just quit when they get married.”

Another time on a factory visit (after I was hired) the location didn’t even have a powder room so they took me to a utility closet with a toilet surrounded by boxes and tools with a large window open to/from the surrounding cornfield. While I can look back on the toilet incident with a sense of humor, it is telling that the location didn’t even think it was possible for a woman to work there. I’m sure women who are inclined towards engineering or STEM have felt nudges from these experiences that may have discouraged them from going further in this field. Once the potential pool of female engineers is reduced, this can reinforce stereotypes and discourage young women due to a lack of representation and role models in the industry.

I think one way to get more women into engineering is to spread the word about the wide range of career opportunities for someone with an engineering degree. It’s not just test tubes and robots. It helps you develop strong and diverse skills such as analytical thinking, creative problem solving, systems optimization and more. With engineering experience, there are a variety of roles available to you when you decide on a career path. In my case I was able to shift my career in sales, marketing, business development and project management in the chemical industry. You can be valuable if you know how to tackle problems and provide technical solutions to any system that lacks efficiency. So I want to remind women and girls at school that studying engineering expands the possibilities and opportunities for their future in many ways. And it is fun.

How many years have you been working in mechanical engineering? What has changed the most during this time? What has changed the least?

I have been working in the chemical industry in various roles for almost 13 years and I am fortunate to work for a company where leaders and managers care deeply about inclusion and diversity in the workforce.

I see more women in engineering than I did when I started, but the most significant change is in leadership. When I look at leadership at my company, 50% of the leadership team is women, including our business president, and 75% of them are engineering or chemical majors. I recognize that the proportion of women in leadership positions is generally around 30%, but this is a significant change from where I started my career.

While I’m observing some positive improvements, I still see that industry-wide change will take time. For example, if I attend a trade show or conference in the HVACR industry, I estimate that less than 15% of the attendees are women. In my view, the HVACR industry is undergoing a major transformation in terms of technological advancement and impact on the future of our humanity. It’s one of the most exciting fields in the next 10-15 years and I want to encourage young female engineers to join the forces!

What drives/motivates you every day?

Pry! Curiosity has driven me for as long as I can remember. Familiarizing myself with new topics always motivates me at work and in my private life.

What remains on your engineering bucket list – what are you striving for that you haven’t achieved yet?

I want to keep working to solve problems and bring valuable solutions to the market. The climate crisis requires us to solve one of the world’s toughest problems and stop this planet from getting hotter, and one person or one company cannot solve it. I want to work with partners to develop holistic, sustainable solutions that benefit people, animals and the planet.

what nobody knows about you

Before the pandemic, I took dance classes, specifically Latin American dances – rumba, salsa, bachata and cha-cha. I danced in front of more than 300 people during our studio’s showcase in 2019.

List any mentors who have helped you succeed and describe in detail how they shaped your success.

I feel lucky to have some mentors and managers who helped me get here. I can’t name them all, but I would like to give a special mention to Stefanie Kopchick, who has been my manager for almost three years. In fact, she was voted one of the 20 to Watch winners in 2022, so you might have seen her in this room last year. Besides her brilliant mind, she is a great example of “treat people as you would like to be treated”. She was an excellent thinking partner for developing rough ideas into creative solutions. She was an inspiration to me because she never hesitates to speak up to provide the right voice in the room. She has given me mental and emotional support to keep my head clear in good times and bad. Also, the trust she has shown in me over time always keeps me through the toughest of times.

What advice do you have for aspiring female engineers who are considering a career?

Please do not be afraid to enter an engineering field. Studying engineering was one of the best decisions I’ve ever made. It will be challenging but rewarding. It will help you build analytical skills and creative problem-solving skills that will apply not only to your future career but also to the curveballs of life. Also, once you are able to complete such a rigorous curriculum and all the homework, you are prepared for anything.

The Chemours Company, Tuesday, January 31, 2023, Image for press release

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CHICAGO & SAN FRANCISCO–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Rimma Tabakh, the managing partner of Grant Thornton’s San Francisco office, has been recognized as one of the “Most Influential Women in Business” by the San Francisco Business Times. Tabakh and her fellow 2022 honorees were unveiled in the publication’s print issue and celebrated at an award ceremony this month.

The award winners spanned a variety of industries, and they were chosen for their creativity, passion, vision and persistence — as well as the impact they have in their local community. Tony Perazzo, the managing partner of Grant Thornton’s West Region, said Tabakh is known for those qualities throughout the firm.

“Rimma has an admirable ability to pinpoint exactly what clients need to excel even beyond what they thought was possible,” Perazzo said. “That’s a skill every organization needs, particularly in a fast-paced environment like the Bay Area.”

“Rimma has played a major role in our continued growth in the Bay Area,” Perazzo continued, “specifically in industries like tech and manufacturing. I’m thrilled the San Francisco Business Times has recognized her with this well-deserved honor.”

Tabakh joined Grant Thornton in 2002, and in the last two decades, she has excelled in a variety of successive leadership roles. She served as the firm’s US Resident Partner in China for three years, and shortly thereafter, she served for three years as the firm’s Audit practice leader in the Greater Bay Area.

In addition to her current role as office managing partner in San Francisco, Tabakh also serves as an Audit partner and the director of Grant Thornton’s International Business Center for the firm’s West Region. In each of these roles, she has led initial and secondary public offerings, overseen various SEC filings, and advised a myriad of American, Asian and European companies on cross-border transactions.

For her part, Tabakh said the award is a testament to the mentors, mentees and colleagues who have played instrumental roles in her work and career thus far.

“My longtime mentor always told me, ‘Focus on people first, and the rest will follow,'” she said. “I live by those words every day at Grant Thornton, and I know our people-first community will help our firm reach even greater heights in the future.”

About the San Francisco Business Times

The San Francisco Business Times is the No. 1 print and online source for Bay Area business news and information on the most successful people, companies and transactions in the region. Every Friday, the Business Times print edition arrives with an in-depth lineup of local news stories, business profiles and valuable industry rankings. From technology and sustainability to small business, biotech, hospitality, real estate and banking, the Business Times covers the most relevant and timely topics for the Bay Area business community. SanFranciscoBusinessTimes.com takes the Business Times brand known for its insight, analysis and high journalistic standards and extends it to the Internet. Thousands of established and up and coming executives visit SanFranciscoBusinessTimes.com every day looking for the information they need to do Business in the Bay Area.

About Grant Thornton LLP

Grant Thornton LLP (Grant Thornton) is one of America’s largest audit, tax and advisory firms — and the US member firm of the Grant Thornton International Ltd global network. We go beyond the expected to make business more personal and build trust into every result. With revenues of $2.3 billion for the fiscal year that ended July 31, 2022, and 51 offices nationwide, Grant Thornton is a community of more than 8,000 problem solvers who value relationships and are ready to help organizations of all sizes and industries create more confident futures . Because, for us, how we serve matters as much as what we do.

“Grant Thornton” refers to Grant Thornton LLP, the US member firm of Grant Thornton International Ltd (GTIL). GTIL and the member firms are not a worldwide partnership. Services are delivered by the member firms. GTIL and its member firms are not agents of, and do not obligate, one another and are not liable for one another’s acts or omissions.

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A 24-year-old woman named Ann was jogging west on JFK Drive in Golden Gate Park in late June when a hulking man she didn’t know locked his arm in hers, acting, she said, like “they were going to run off into the sunset together.”

She said she pulled away, but that he grabbed her arm and then her waist. She screamed, “Keep your hands off me!” and turned around to bolt in the other direction. Hey chased her. Ann asked a couple walking nearby if she could join them for protection as she called 911.

She waited for police, answered their questions, identified the man — who lingered nearby — and gave officers photos she’d taken of him following her on her phone. The man who was part of the couple she’d been walking with talked to police, too, backing up her account.

In other words, Ann did everything right. Surely, this was a slam-dunk case.

nope Emergency in San Francisco.

Not in a city where scary, threatening behavior may be deemed OK as long as nobody suffers serious physical injuries. And not in a city where misdemeanor crimes are seldom prosecuted.

More than three months after police arrested Bill Gene Hobbs, 33, that evening in Golden Gate Park — and weeks after at least six women filed similar police reports about Hobbs chasing, grabbing and even forcibly kissing them — he remains on the streets free of consequences , spotted Wednesday in Cow Hollow and Thursday in the Marina.

So far, the city’s criminal justice system seems to be sending Ann and the other women a clear message: You’re on your own. Buy pepper spray, hustle along and hope for the best.

“I was truly just a piece of prey to this man, and I’ve never been so scared in my entire life,” said Ann, who asked that The Chronicle identify her by her middle name because she fears for her safety.

After the encounter, she said she got a guard dog, installed more locks on her door, bought pepper spray and saw a therapist. Those terrifying minutes in the park changed her life.

As for Hobbs, not so much.

Police arrested him at 5:37 pm June 25 on suspicion of misdemeanor battery for allegedly grabbing Ann, but the office of District Attorney Brooke Jenkins discharged the case on July 13 for lack of evidence, though it could be revived.

Until I told Ann, she was unaware that her quick actions, cooperation with police, photos of the assailant and the witness’ account hadn’t been enough to charge Hobbs. And she was outraged.

“I don’t know what else I could have done,” she said. “Do they expect every woman in this city to walk around with a GoPro strapped to their head?”

It’s a fair question. About a dozen women have shared stories in this column about frightening encounters with a man they believe is Hobbs, who stands 6-feet-4 inches, weighs 210 pounds, sports a buzz cut and has tattoos all over his body including the letters EVIL inked on his fingers.

Countless more women have said on NextDoor and Facebook that he harassed them too. Quiet, nothing.

The Chronicle has not been able to verify that Hobbs was involved in each of the complaints about him on social media in recent weeks, but in a phone interview last month, he admitted he approaches women he finds attractive — while asserting that he never gets physical . Hobbs did not return phone messages left for him on Thursday and Friday.

Hobbs has a significant criminal record, with numerous past arrests in San Francisco, Los Angeles, Kern and Ventura counties and convictions for crimes including drunken driving, driving on a suspended license, theft and being under the influence of drugs.

Hobbs’ history of avoiding consequences in San Francisco spans years.

In December 2020, he allegedly followed and grabbed a 15-year-old in West Portal. He was charged with misdemeanor child molestation and battery and spent a few months in jail before Superior Court Judge Russell Roeca dismissed the case “in the interest of justice,” wiping clear Hobbs’ record and an order to stay away from the teenager.

Hobbs has faced charges in six other cases in San Francisco dating back to 2017, accused of crimes including trespassing, false imprisonment and battery. All were dismissed by judges.

Police Capt. Tim Falvey told me Thursday that all district captains have been notified about Hobbs and told to be on the alert for suspicious behavior against women, but that as of Thursday there was no warrant for his arrest.

A source familiar with the police investigation into Hobbs, but not authorized to speak publicly, said Deputy Chief Raj Vaswani, who oversees the investigations bureau, is leading the effort to build a solid case against the alleged stalker and is working closely with the DA’s office .

But so far, no individual account rises above a possible charge of misdemeanor battery or assault, according to the source. Though such a charge would be punishable by up to six months in jail, police have seen their efforts to arrest Hobbs repeatedly brushed off by the District Attorney’s Office or Superior Court judges and want to ensure their efforts this time stick, the source said.

Police are encouraging women to seek individual restraining orders against Hobbs — and at least one is known to have been served to Hobbs by sheriff’s deputies already. Hobbs is no longer staying at an address associated with him near the University of San Francisco, the source said, and may be trying to dodge police by bouncing around the city.

(Hobbs is no stranger to the concept of restraining orders. This past week, he sought one against me for being a “stalker, cyber bully and antagonist,” but a Superior Court judge quickly rejected it.)

Emberly Cross, who runs the citywide Cooperative Restraining Order Clinic, which helps people seek protection from their abusers, said it’s frustrating that police are putting the onus on women to seek their own court orders.

“That’s what the criminal legal system says when they’re punting a case,” Cross said. “It says nothing is going to happen on the criminal legal side.”

She said women would need to put their full names on requests for restraining orders and attend a court hearing at which Hobbs could appear, which can be a scary experience.

“To me, this gentleman really highlights the problem with the criminal legal system,” she said. “These women are screaming at him, screaming at the system, and nothing is happening. He’s just out living his life without a care in the world while women in the city are scared to go out.”

The city missed yet another chance to get Hobbs off the streets on Aug. 11 when he entered a home on Avila Street in the Marina while the residents were walking their dog.

Jackson, a man who was renting a room in the home, said he returned from his walk to find that Hobbs had parked his bike in the garage and placed his backpack on the floor, before announcing that he was moving in. He noted there was an American flag out front and that he was American.

Jackson’s girlfriend, Riley, listened to the two men’s disturbing conversation from another room and called 911.

“Jackson said, ‘It’s time for you to leave,’ and Bill was shocked,” Riley recalled. “He said, ‘What do you mean? Why would I leave? This is my home now.’ He was very convinced that we were his new family.”

Jackson and Riley, who asked to withhold their last names because they fear for their safety, said police responded quickly and were helpful, but seemed frustrated to have repeatedly picked up Hobbs, only to see him repeatedly released.

Police arrested Hobbs that day on suspicion of trespassing and giving false information to police — he claimed to be Scott Peterson, the name of the California man who notoriously killed his pregnant wife — but Jenkins’ office dismissed that case “in the interest of justice” because he hadn’t stolen anything.

Jackson said he’d never been told by the DA’s office that the case had been dismissed despite a state law requiring crime victims to be notified of developments in their cases.

When she was pushing to recall her former boss, Chesa Boudin, Jenkins repeatedly said he’d failed to hold repeat offenders accountable and had dropped the ball in keeping crime victims informed. Now, it appears she’s having the same problems.

I’ve made several requests to interview Jenkins about the Hobbs case, but she hasn’t been made available. Her spokesperson emailed a statement from her saying the managing attorney for the office’s child abuse and sexual abuse unit is working closely with the police on its investigation.

“We will take every step possible to hold Hobbs accountable when we’re able to bring forward a case that we can prove beyond a reasonable doubt,” Jenkins said in the statement. “Multiple incidents can be prosecuted together so the court understands the gravity of Hobbs’ conduct.”

Former San Francisco Public Defender Geoff Brown had a lot of thoughts on the episode — and not necessarily ones you’d expect from a public defender. He said the city has options to deal with Hobbs.

The city could seek a civil injunction against him for disturbing women on a broad scale, serving him papers notifying him to not engage in grabbing, forcibly kissing or chasing women again. Then if he repeats the behavior, he can be picked up for violating a court order and jailed, Brown said.

Meanwhile, he said, police and the DA should build a broad case and seek multiple consecutive sentences, bringing witnesses from a variety of incidents before a judge and jury.

“This boils down to one thing we haven’t done in San Francisco — we don’t take misdemeanors seriously,” Brown said. “I always thought there was a case for a good misdemeanor prosecution that stops particularly bad behavior, but now it’s like they don’t count.”

Ann, the 24-year-old jogger, believes his encounter with Hobbs should count. But only several days ago did an advocate from the DA’s victim services division call her to see if she needed assistance.

“She was like, ‘Yeah, you’ve probably heard a lot about this guy in the press.’ I said, ‘What?’” Ann recalled, noting that she then found my columns and scoured NextDoor to learn about the many other alleged incidents.

Ann said she also got a call from a police investigator who told her the department hopes to persuade Jenkins to charge her case after all and use it as part of a larger case against Hobbs.

For now, Ann waits — and wonders why there have been few repercussions for the alleged attacker who upturned her life.

“How many women have to be traumatized?” she asked. “I just don’t understand how loudly we need to scream to be heard.”

Heather Knight is a San Francisco Chronicle columnist. Email: hknight@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @hknightsf

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SAN FRANCISCO–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Tia, the modern medical home for women, announced today the grand opening of its first Bay Area clinic at Mission & Van Ness in San Francisco. Transforming the historic 1500 Mission building, the flagship Tia Clinic will provide Bay Area women with a first-of-its-kind medical home designed to make every woman feel seen, heard and cared for.

Tia’s “Whole Woman, Whole Life” model includes virtual and in-person services, fusing primary care, mental health, and gynecological care with wellness services like acupuncture and pelvic floor physical therapy in one integrated experience. The new brick-and-mortar clinic represents the first of 10 sites that Tia plans to open in the Bay Area that will serve 40,000 women.

Additionally, united by a shared vision to end fragmentation in women’s healthcare, Tia and UCSF Health plan to develop a new network of clinically integrated clinics together, forming a cornerstone of a Bay Area women’s healthcare network that increases access to high-quality care with an exceptional experience. By connecting Tia’s retail-style clinics with UCSF Health’s specialty and inpatient facilities, the two aim to fill a critical gap in primary care with connected, whole-person care that integrates physical, mental and reproductive health for women and their families.

“Women deserve comprehensive primary care that centers on our experiences — clinically, psychosocially and experientially. Sadly, a ‘one-size-fits-most’ healthcare system leaves 50% of women without a primary care provider — depriving women of essential, preventive care and forcing them instead to bounce from specialist to specialist searching for answers, which drives up costs and worsens outcomes,” said Carolyn Witte, co-founder and CEO of Tia. “Tia wants to change that by working with UCSF to create a women-centered healthcare system that spans outpatient to inpatient with an anchoring on prevention. The UCSF Health team are not only champions and trailblazers of clinically excellent care, but inclusive and equitable healthcare designed to affirm women’s choices. We are honored to collaborate with a health system whose values ​​are uniquely aligned with our own.”

Tia and UCSF Health aim to create a seamless and closely integrated program between the two independent healthcare organizations, which includes:

• Shared clinical leadership between UCSF Health & Tia, with UCSF Health medical directors and high-quality specialists working hand-in-hand with Tia medical directors and providers at all clinical locations;

• shared clinical protocols and care coordination to ensure consistency between primary and specialty care and seamless baton passes for providers and patients;

• Coordinated measurement of and improvement on critical quality metrics that enable UCSF and Tia to work together to improve patient outcomes and women’s healthcare standards across UCSF and Tia locations;

• Deep technical integration that enables shared clinical notes, medical records, care coordination, and quality data reporting to drive better outcomes and experience for both patients and providers.

“Women nationwide struggle to find primary care that fully integrates their health care needs throughout their lives,” said Amy Murtha, MD, Professor and Chair of the UCSF Department of Obstetrics, Gynecology and Reproductive Sciences. “UCSF Health is a leader in women’s health and renowned for its integrated specialty care, but we can’t reach every woman in the Bay Area. This collaboration aims to help address that fragmentation by increasing women’s access to primary care services, with seamless access to UCSF’s specialty care when they need it.”

The clinics will provide Tia’s signature “Whole-Woman, Whole Life” care model, rooted in a deep understanding of sex-specific difference, culturally tailored and trauma-informed care. With their shared commitment to diversity, inclusion and health equity, Tia and UCSF Health will work to ensure diverse representation in their patient and provider populations. Tia also will continue to integrate robust training for all clinicians and clinical support staff on racial justice in healthcare and culturally competent care that’s tailored to the lived experience of women of color.

In the Bay Area, more than 40 percent of women have delayed preventive health services during the pandemic, according to a recent survey of 500 women. The study, which was commissioned by Tia, also found that 80 percent of women in the Bay Area say that worry or stress about the pandemic has impacted their mental health.

One of the worst fragmentation points is the transition between primary care and specialty care where breakdowns at critical points in a woman’s care journey can have devastating effects, most notably in maternity care.

Tia, which focuses on prevention and engages women early on, will provide UCSF Health with new outpatient access points that reach more women for its high-quality network of specialty providers and inpatient services, including its award-winning pregnancy, labor and delivery program. The tight clinic integration between the organizations also enables Tia’s Care Coordination team to transition care between the two organizations smoothly.

Tia has grown rapidly over the last year and is on a path to serving 100,000 women nationwide by the end of 2023. UCSF Health is the second major health system collaboration for Tia and follows the company’s expansion in New York, Los Angeles, and Phoenix. Tia also recently closed a $100 million Series B funding round to further expand its footprint in new and existing markets over the next few years.

Tia plans to open its clinically integrated locations with UCSF Health throughout the Bay Area in the coming years. For more details on the Tia Clinic in San Francisco, visit www.asktia.com/location/tia-san-francisco

The post Tia Opens Flagship Clinic in San Francisco and Groups with UCSF Well being to Scale Complete Ladies’s Healthcare to 40,000 Bay Space Ladies appeared first on DAILY SAN FRANCISCO BAY NEWS.

SAN FRANCISCO–(BUSINESS WIRE)–May 2, 2022–

Tia, the modern medical home for women, announced today the grand opening of its first Bay Area clinic at Mission & Van Ness in San Francisco. Transforming the historic 1500 Mission building, the flagship Tia Clinic will provide Bay Area women with a first-of-its-kind medical home designed to make every woman feel seen, heard and cared for.

Tia’s “Whole Woman, Whole Life” model includes virtual and in-person services, fusing primary care, mental health, and gynecological care with wellness services like acupuncture and pelvic floor physical therapy in one integrated experience. The new brick-and-mortar clinic represents the first of 10 sites that Tia plans to open in the Bay Area that will serve 40,000 women.

Additionally, united by a shared vision to end fragmentation in women’s healthcare, Tia and UCSF Health plan to develop a new network of clinically integrated clinics together, forming a cornerstone of a Bay Area women’s healthcare network that increases access to high-quality care with an exceptional experience. By connecting Tia’s retail-style clinics with UCSF Health’s specialty and inpatient facilities, the two aim to fill a critical gap in primary care with connected, whole-person care that integrates physical, mental and reproductive health for women and their families.

“Women deserve comprehensive primary care that centers on our experiences — clinically, psychosocially and experientially. Sadly, a ‘one-size-fits-most’ healthcare system leaves 50% of women without a primary care provider — depriving women of essential, preventive care and forcing them instead to bounce from specialist to specialist searching for answers, which drives up costs and worsens outcomes,” said Carolyn Witte, co-founder and CEO of Tia. “Tia wants to change that by working with UCSF to create a women-centered healthcare system that spans outpatient to inpatient with an anchoring on prevention. The UCSF Health team are not only champions and trailblazers of clinically excellent care, but inclusive and equitable healthcare designed to affirm women’s choices. We are honored to collaborate with a health system whose values ​​are uniquely aligned with our own.”

Tia and UCSF Health aim to create a seamless and closely integrated program between the two independent healthcare organizations, which includes:

• Shared clinical leadership between UCSF Health & Tia, with UCSF Health medical directors and high-quality specialists working hand-in-hand with Tia medical directors and providers at all clinical locations;
• shared clinical protocols and care coordination to ensure consistency between primary and specialty care and seamless baton passes for providers and patients;
• Coordinated measurement of and improvement on critical quality metrics that enable UCSF and Tia to work together to improve patient outcomes and women’s healthcare standards across UCSF and Tia locations;
• Deep technical integration that enables shared clinical notes, medical records, care coordination, and quality data reporting to drive better outcomes and experience for both patients and providers.

“Women nationwide struggle to find primary care that fully integrates their health care needs throughout their lives,” said Amy Murtha, MD, Professor and Chair of the UCSF Department of Obstetrics, Gynecology and Reproductive Sciences. “UCSF Health is a leader in women’s health and renowned for its integrated specialty care, but we can’t reach every woman in the Bay Area. This collaboration aims to help address that fragmentation by increasing women’s access to primary care services, with seamless access to UCSF’s specialty care when they need it.”

The clinics will provide Tia’s signature “Whole-Woman, Whole Life” care model, rooted in a deep understanding of sex-specific difference, culturally tailored and trauma-informed care. With their shared commitment to diversity, inclusion and health equity, Tia and UCSF Health will work to ensure diverse representation in their patient and provider populations. Tia also will continue to integrate robust training for all clinicians and clinical support staff on racial justice in healthcare and culturally competent care that’s tailored to the lived experience of women of color.

In the Bay Area, more than 40 percent of women have delayed preventive health services during the pandemic, according to a recent survey of 500 women. The study, which was commissioned by Tia, also found that 80 percent of women in the Bay Area say that worry or stress about the pandemic has impacted their mental health.

One of the worst fragmentation points is the transition between primary care and specialty care where breakdowns at critical points in a woman’s care journey can have devastating effects, most notably in maternity care.

Tia, which focuses on prevention and engages women early on, will provide UCSF Health with new outpatient access points that reach more women for its high-quality network of specialty providers and inpatient services, including its award-winning pregnancy, labor and delivery program. The tight clinic integration between the organizations also enables Tia’s Care Coordination team to transition care between the two organizations smoothly.

Tia has grown rapidly over the last year and is on a path to serving 100,000 women nationwide by the end of 2023. UCSF Health is the second major health system collaboration for Tia and follows the company’s expansion in New York, Los Angeles, and Phoenix. Tia also recently closed a $100 million Series B funding round to further expand its footprint in new and existing markets over the next few years.

Tia plans to open its clinically integrated locations with UCSF Health throughout the Bay Area in the coming years. For more details on the Tia Clinic in San Francisco, visit www.asktia.com/location/tia-san-francisco

View source version on businesswire.com:https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20220502005182/en/

Libbey Baumgarten -libbey@jbc-pr.com

KEYWORD: UNITED STATES NORTH AMERICA CALIFORNIA

INDUSTRY KEYWORD: WOMEN PHYSICAL THERAPY MANAGED CARE HEALTH MENTAL HEALTH BABY/MATERNITY CONSUMER FITNESS & NUTRITION

SOURCE: Tia

Copyright Business Wire 2022.

PUB: 05/02/2022 08:00 AM / DISC: 05/02/2022 08:02 AM

http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20220502005182/en

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(Ab0ve): Unidentified participants at Asian American Pacific Islander Youth Rising Rally marching from Aquatic Park to the pedestrian 80 freeway over pass. (Shutterstock/Siliconeer)

Since March 2020, the web portal Stop AAPI Hate has logged 10,370 reports of hate incidents, 16 of which have been physical violent attacks. Elderly Asian-American women have been especially vulnerable. Just in the last month two middle-aged women, one young woman and one more middle-aged women, both were killed in New York.

At an Ethnic Media Services briefing, held Feb. 25, panelists—Sung Yeon Choimorrow, Executive Director, National Asian Pacific American Women’s Forum; Marita Etcubanez, Senior Director of Strategic Initiatives, Asian Americans Advancing Justice; Michelle Kang, General Secretary of the Atlanta Korean Committee against Asian Hate; and Sasanna Yee, inspirational speaker and yoga teacher – discussed how communities have responded. A Siliconeer report.

(Above, left): Marita Etcubanez, Senior Director of Strategic Initiatives, Asian Americans Advancing Justice (AAJC); Michelle Kang, Secretary-General, Atlanta Korean American Committee Against Asian Hate; Sung Yeon Choimorrow, Executive Director, National Asian Pacific American Women’s Forum; and Sasanna Yee, San Francisco-based mindful movement instructor and community wellness activist. (EMS)

Song Yeon Choimorrow provided a historic perspective as to how we got here and why women are such frequent targets of anti-Asian hate. “The rise in coverage of the murders and the violence against our community, particularly Asian American women, we must note that while the pandemic and the rhetoric of the former president blaming China and Chinese people for starting the virus and the pandemic may have dramatically increase the incidences of hate against AAPIs, it’s certainly not something new. As Asian American women, many of us felt living in the United States, long before COVID, and my personal experience – I came to the United States as an international student and there are a number of times I’ve been approached by men in social gathering spaces who sexually harassed me because of my race.”

“Objectification of Asian American women is nothing new and the pandemic has just exasperated this for many of us. Asian American women, in particular, experience increased harassment because we are targeted both for our race and our gender, as Stop AAPI Hate has reported,” said Choimorrow.

“In America, we see the rise of the demonization of Asian women as ‘dragon lady,’ as seen in a movie and on the other hand Asian women are also depicted as submissive and referred to as ‘geisha girl,’ ‘China doll’ and ‘lotus blossom.’ These are not favorable terms but rather a way to hyper-sexualize Asian women that makes American general public think that we’re easy targets for sexual and other forms of harassment.”

“In 1966, sociologist William Peterson coined the term ‘model minority’ to describe Japanese Americans for their success after World War II. Peterson in essence says Japanese Americans are successful because their cultural values ​​and good ethics. This idea of ​​Japanese Americans then applied to different Asian and Asian American ethnicities. The stereotype that Asian Americans are smart, hardworking, and will be submissive and quiet, also leads to vulnerability and bullying which many Asian American students and workers faced even before the pandemic.”

Choimorrow also talked about the deadly Atlanta Spa shooting victims, the references made on US television shows like ‘Gilmore Girls’ and ‘Lane Kim,’ amongst some of her examples.

Marita Etcubanez of Asian Americans Advancing Justice spoke next discussing strategies the community has developed to protect itself as well as Federal legislation addressing hate crimes. “While hate crimes and hate incidents are still underreported, we have seen more people reporting both hate crimes and hate incidents, some to law enforcement, but also to community organizations like Asian Americans Advancing Justice, and our Stand Against Hatred website as well as Stop AAPI Hate.

“We have seen more people joining in demanding community-oriented solutions to public safety. It has become clear to us that people are very eager to learn about what they can do as individuals to help stop Anti-Asian hate and harassment. Since launching, our joint bystander intervention trainings in the Spring of 2020, Asian Americans Advancing Justice affiliates in Illinois, California and DC have reached and trained about 150,000 people.

“We are building a community of people who are trained, and ready to take action, and intervene, when they see or experience anti-Asian hate or harassment. We marked a victory with passage of the Covid 19 Hate Crimes Act, a Federal bill that passed with overwhelming bipartisan support.

“It requires the Justice department to formulate guidance for law enforcement agencies and others on creating online reporting systems for hate crimes and hate incidents, including making those systems accessible for people with limited proficiency in English.

“We were furious and frustrated over the attacks and killings of eight innocent people and six were Asian women in Georgia,” said Michelle Kang of the Atlanta Korean Committee against Asian Hate.

“Why we need to include Asian American history in K-12 curriculum? – In May 2021, to dispel the misunderstanding and lack of knowledge that Asian Americans are foreigners, there is a long history of Asian immigration into the US starting from the mid 1800s, we fight to ensure our voices as Asian, Black, Brown, Hispanic , Pacific Islanders and Native Americans are not forgotten within American history, and demand that each student have the right to see themselves in their school curriculum,” said Kang.

Sasanna Yee, inspirational speaker and yoga teacher, took to yoga to help victims who have experienced trauma, overcome their tragedy. Her grandmother was fatally attacked in a San Francisco park in 2019.

There are countless incidents, some reported but most go by unnoticed. It’s time to be American in the true spirit and embrace all communities as equal and treat them with equal dignity.

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