2022 John Wooden Leadership Fellow – Allen Chen
Congratulations to UCLA-NUS EMBA ’22 alum, Allen Chen for winning the 2022 John Wooden Leadership fellowship!
Wooden Fellow Recipient 2022
“Personalization of care is what I emphasize, and that means understanding that our patients are people with values, goals, loved ones, dreams. Ultimately, everybody on my team is on the same page — trying make the world a kinder, more compassionate place.”
Allen Chen – John Wooden Fellow’22
Professor and Chair, University of California, Irvine, School of Medicine
Academic health care is a team sport. Whether caring for sick cancer patients and providing them solace, researching new treatments or educating the next generation of young doctors, creating effective teams is what goes farthest in tackling those goals.
Coach Wooden’s legacy of promoting inclusiveness resonates with me. As an oncologist, I recognize that cancer is a disease that doesn’t affect everybody equally. Underserved communities suffer from disproportionately high incidence and mortality rates, and a distrust of medical institutions still exists.
Perhaps my proudest accomplishment is developing a cancer disparities registry focusing on how ethnicity, socioeconomic background, housing and insurance influence access and treatment. In 2021, I spearheaded the implementation of a “same-day access” clinic for cancer patients. Black, Latino and Asian patients were likelier to use the initiative and wait times for oncology visits were reduced from an average of 11 days to 3.
Data from this project was used to devise outreach programs to bridge many of the identified gaps and serve as the model for access improvement across our entire organization. I was also awarded a grant to develop a health equity curriculum that expands awareness of this issue in the workplace.
I try to see patients not just for their diseases, but as living, breathing individuals. Personalization of care is what I emphasize, and that means understanding that our patients are people with values, goals, loved ones, dreams. Ultimately, everybody on my team is on the same page — trying make the world a kinder, more compassionate place.
More information about The John Wooden Leadership Fellows
Open to students in the MBA, EMBA, FEMBA, UCLA NUS EMBA, MFE and MSBA programs. UCLA Anderson students are chosen when they demonstrate leadership styles that espouse ethics, team spirit, hard work and loyalty. Each applicant should possess an ability to manage change, have an unquenchable thirst for improvement, constant learning and innovation. Their experiences enrich the UCLA Anderson community, and their leadership values echo Coach Wooden’s and his Pyramid of Success.
More information about The UCLA-NUS EMBA Program
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