OAKLAND, Calif., Jan. 15, 2015 /PRNewswire/ -- Kaiser Permanente joins others nationwide in congratulating Cynthia A. Telles, PhD, for her recognition by the MLK Community Health Foundation as a Celebrating the Dream honoree and Yancey Award recipient for health equity leadership.

More than 600 civic, business and philanthropic leaders gathered to applaud the partnership that led to the founding of the Martin Luther King Jr. Community Hospital in Los Angeles. Dr. Telles has been instrumental in making the hospital, which is slated to open in spring of 2015, a reality. 

Dr. Telles was honored alongside actor, artist and humanist Forest Whitaker, founder and CEO of the Whitaker Peace and Development Initiative and Stand Up to Cancer founders Katie Couric, Sherry Lansing, Kathleen Lobb, Lisa Paulsen, Rusty Robertson, Sue Schwartz, Pam Oas Williams, and Ellen Ziffren.

The Martin Luther King, Jr. Community Hospital will be a 131-bed facility with labor and delivery, critical care, general surgery, emergency and ancillary services. The new hospital is envisioned as a central hub in a system of care, offering state-of-the-art services and providing health education and community outreach programs both onsite and with community partners.

Dr. Telles has served on the boards of Kaiser Foundation Hospitals and Kaiser Foundation Health Plan, Inc. since April 2003. She serves as chair of the Community Benefit Committee and also is a member of the Audit and Compliance Committee and Executive Committee, and serves on the Executive Advisory Board of Kaiser Foundation Health Plan of Georgia, Inc. Dr. Telles is the director of the Spanish-Speaking Psychosocial Clinic of the Neuropsychiatric Institute and Hospital at the University of California, Los Angeles School of Medicine, and an associate clinical professor with the UCLA School of Medicine. The SSPC provides training in the provision of socio-culturally competent, comprehensive mental-health services to the rapidly growing and underserved Latino community.

In May 2014, Kaiser Permanente awarded $2 million to the MLK Community Health Foundation's Healthy Babies, Healthy Beginnings initiative to help fund the expansion of the obstetric unit in the hospital. Thanks to this award, new mothers in the surrounding South Los Angeles area will soon be able to deliver their babies in a state-of-the-art facility that welcomes them and their family members with high-quality, compassionate care, close to home. The funds will provide for the addition of private labor and delivery rooms, postpartum rooms that accommodate visiting family members, two rooms dedicated to women undergoing caesarean section, and nurseries on two floors.

The MLK Community Health Foundation's key priorities are improved care, access to health care, and wellness and prevention programs for South Los Angeles.

About Kaiser Permanente
Kaiser Permanente is committed to helping shape the future of health care. We are recognized as one of America's leading health care providers and not-for-profit health plans. Founded in 1945, our mission is to provide high-quality, affordable health care services and to improve the health of our members and the communities we serve. We currently serve approximately 9.5 million members in eight states and the District of Columbia. Care for members and patients is focused on their total health and guided by their personal physicians, specialists and team of caregivers. Our expert and caring medical teams are empowered and supported by industry-leading technology advances and tools for health promotion, disease prevention, state-of-the-art care delivery and world-class chronic disease management. Kaiser Permanente is dedicated to care innovations, clinical research, health education and the support of community health. For more information, go to: kp.org/share.

CONTACT:
Ravi Poorsina
(510) 421-0557
Ravi.X.Poorsina@kp.org

Kate Wathen
(510) 613-3157
Kate.Wathen@kp.org

Logo - http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20130718/SF49717LOGO

SOURCE Kaiser Permanente

Related Links

http://www.kaiserpermanente.org