San Joaquin Community Hospital’s Jarrod McNaughton

I’d Love to Be the Beast … or Warren Buffett

Jarrod McNaughton is vice president of San Joaquin Community Hospital in Bakersfield; he also sings and performs in musical theater. Before participating in a panel on how Bakersfield can recruit—and keep—doctors, he revealed in the Zócalo green room that while he’s already played his dream role—Beast in Beauty and the Beast—he’d jump at the chance to reprise it.

UCSF’s Catherine Dower

‘When In Doubt, Let Your Horse Figure It Out’

Catherine Dower is the associate director of the UC San Francisco Center for the Health Professions; she conducts research on healthcare workforce challenges. Before participating in a panel on physician …

Kern Medical Center’s Paul Hensler

An Air Force Captain and a Missionary

Paul Hensler has been CEO of Bakersfield’s Kern Medical Center since 2007; he’s led hospitals in California for over 30 years. Before participating in a panel on physician shortages in …

Journalist John Arthur

Take Me Out to the Ballgame (Or the Symphony)

John Arthur is vice president and executive editor of The Bakersfield Californian, where he supervises the news staff; a long-time veteran of California newspapers, he was at the Los Angeles …

Can Bakersfield Find Doctors Who Won’t Run Away?

Getting Enough Physicians To the Central Valley Is Tough—But, Say Some, Doable

Estimates of the severity of America’s looming physician shortage vary, but one thing is certain: Doctors and healthcare workers are not distributed evenly around the nation, and certain regions are …

Will High-Caliber Doctors Practice In Low-Appeal Places?

Medical Professionals Often Avoid Places Like the San Joaquin Valley, But One Place In Kansas Might Have Some Ideas

It takes a special kind of doctor to practice in California’s San Joaquin Valley.

It’s one of the state’s sickest regions, with high rates of obesity and diabetes and an epidemic …