UCSF OEM Residency Awarded a California "Grow Grant"

The UCSF Occupational and Environmental Medicine (OEM) Residency Program has been awarded funding through the University of California Health Grow Grants program to support a new rural training track focused on California’s agricultural regions. This competitive statewide initiative, established through Proposition 35, aims to expand the physician workforce in high-need specialties and underserved communities across California.

With this award, UCSF OEM will partner with clinical and public health sites in the Fresno–Merced area and the Salinas Valley to provide residents with immersive, community-based training in occupational and environmental health. Beginning in 2026, two residents per year will have the opportunity to complete longitudinal rotations in these regions, with additional residents participating in shorter activities such as site visits, seminars, and quality improvement projects. Training sites will include UCSF Fresno, Kaiser Fresno, the Merced County Department of Public Health, and the Agile and ProActive Occupational Health clinics in Salinas.

California’s agricultural workforce faces significant occupational health risks, including pesticide exposure, heat illness, musculoskeletal injury, and wildfire smoke exposure. Yet many rural communities lack access to physicians trained in occupational medicine who can diagnose, treat, and prevent these conditions. This new track will prepare OEM residents to provide clinical care, consult with employers on workplace safety, and collaborate with public health agencies on surveillance and prevention.

The Grow Grant will enable UCSF OEM to build a sustainable pipeline of physicians interested in serving farmworkers and rural employers while strengthening partnerships with community organizations and health departments. The program is designed to serve as a scalable model for expanding specialty training in underserved regions throughout California.

We are grateful to our many partners across the Central Valley and Central Coast who helped make this initiative possible and look forward to welcoming our first rural track residents next year.

More information about the Grow Grants is available here.