Amaranta Craig, MD, a resident in ObGyn, is this year’s winner of the SFGH Julius R. Krevan’s Award for Clinical Excellence. The Krevan’s Award is given annually to one intern from each clinical service at SFGH in recognition of outstanding clinical skills and dedication to serving vulnerable and underserved patients.
Amaranta’s accomplishments
Amaranta has been driven to fight for healthcare equality and social justice since being in high school in Texas where she saw several friends become pregnant and witnessed first-hand how much a girl’s opportunities are changed by teenage pregnancy. In college at the University of Texas, Austin, she become very involved in organizations committed to ending domestic violence and became even more committed to fighting for social justice. During medical school at UCSF, Amaranta, realizing how powerful research can be in understanding and righting disparities in health, took an extra year to complete a clinical research fellowship. She studied contraceptive counseling in women with a focus on racial and ethnic disparities. She also turned her attention to helping others from disadvantaged backgrounds or who are underrepresented in medicine. She held leadership positions in the national Latino Medical Students Association as the VP of scholarships and then the CEO of the northern region. She worked on several projects and organizations to improve the “pipeline” for high school and college students such as being the mentorship coordinator for WHURI: the Women’s Health Undergraduate Research Internship for under-represented UC Berkeley students interested in careers in healthcare.
Since joining us for her Obstetrics and Gynecology residency, Amaranta has continued to pursue her passion of providing the best possible care to women, especially those who are vulnerable or marginalized. She is extremely compassionate, altruistic, and determined. Going the extra mile for her patients is routine for Amaranta. She takes complete ownership and initiative for her patient’s care in a way that is surprising at such an early stage in her training. For example, she checks in on her clinic patients when they are in labor, she keeps track of all patients she sees and personally ensures follow-up, she makes sure her patients get available social resources, and is always thinking outside the box to ensure her patients get timely and appropriate care. As one attending summarized: “Amaranta has a dogged resolve at making sure patients get all the care they need and get it as quickly and effectively as possible.”