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Our UC San Diego Center for Community Health’s Refugee and Immigrant Health (RIH) Unit has been recognized with UC San Diego Health’s Transformational Healthcare Improvement Excellence Award in the Advancing Health Equity category for the Community Doula Program. The award recognizes innovative initiatives that improve healthcare quality, patient outcomes, and health equity across the health system.

Launched in January 2025, the Community Doula Program is a partnership between RIH, the UC San Diego Health Volunteer Doula Services Program, and the Obstetrical Refugee/Asylee Care Navigation Program. Together, we developed a community-centered model that trains refugee and immigrant community members as certified doulas to provide culturally and linguistically responsive support throughout pregnancy, childbirth, and the postpartum period.

By matching families with doulas who share their language, culture, and lived experiences, the program helps build trust, improve communication between patients and healthcare teams, and ensure families receive compassionate, patient-centered care that reflects their unique needs.

Since its launch, the program has trained 18 community doulas across two cohorts, who have collectively supported more than 60 births throughout San Diego County. Early evaluation findings are also showing meaningful impact, including improved patient experiences, stronger communication between patients and providers, increased integration of doulas within healthcare teams, high satisfaction among families and clinicians, and promising improvements in perinatal outcomes.

Beyond improving birth experiences, the program is also helping build a sustainable, community-based perinatal workforce and creating meaningful leadership and employment opportunities for refugee and immigrant community members.

As trusted cultural brokers, community doulas help bridge gaps between families and healthcare systems while advancing perinatal care.

This recognition is also a reminder of what is possible when health systems invest in community partnerships and value the voices, strengths, lived experience, and leadership of the communities they serve. As the Community Doula Program continues to grow, we remain committed to expanding access to culturally and linguistically responsive perinatal care, strengthening community partnerships, and improving birth experiences and outcomes for refugee and immigrant families.

To connect or learn more about the program, please reach out to program leads April Ricotta (aricotta@health.ucsd.edu) and Segen Zeray (szeray@health.ucsd.edu).