- Clinic director had to adapt to COVID challenges: Starting a new job and moving to a new area is hard no matter what, but how about trying that with a broken foot in the middle of a pandemic and rampant wildfires? Larissa Mangas, the clinic director at UC Santa Cruz Student Health Center, faced all of that last year. Mangas arrived at her new job having recently injured her foot and wearing a walking boot. Just two days after she started her position March 9, 2020, the campus shifted to remote operations due to COVID–19 restrictions ... (read more)
- UCSC reopens COVID-19 vaccination clinics for students, faculty and staff (TV spot): On Thursday, the University of California, Santa Cruz (UCSC) opened the first of three COVID-19 vaccination clinics on campus for students, faculty and staff. The school is making plans to require their students are vaccinated by the Fall term ... (see video)
- Clinic Director Puts Off Retirement to Help in COVID Response: Debbi Saint John was all set to retire as clinic director of the UC Santa Cruz Student Health Center. She had a big party, she had the cake, she said all her goodbyes. But it was not to be. When COVID–19 hit, all operations were disrupted, and Cowell Student Health Center Director Dr. Elizabeth Miller asked Saint John if she would consider staying on to help with the COVID response team. Saint John couldn’t say no... (read more)
- One-Stop SHOP for Virtual Student Health and Wellness at UCSC: Who staffs the testing kiosks? It's the SHOP staff and students! Learn about how SHOP stepped up to provide this much-needed COVID-19 service while continuing to do their normal work of free wellness coaching and support for common student experiences and struggles — sexual and reproductive health, alcohol and other drug use, addiction and recovery, eating disorders, mental health, and fatigue and sleep deprivation.
- Health center pivots to provide services through pandemic: At the onset of the COVID–19 pandemic, the UC Santa Cruz Student Health Center had to quickly change everything it was doing while remaining open for students... (read more)
- Slugs roll up their sleeves to help make campus a COVID-19 success story: Low positivity rates, zero on-campus transmission, and fast testing turnaround times have made UC Santa Cruz a leader in efficient coronavirus response compared to its university counterparts... (read more)
- TestMe: Slugs rise to the challenge of helping to keep the campus community healthy: Undergraduate students working as diagnostic lab attendants are an essential part of the campus’s COVID-19 response... (read more)
Curious about the "COVID heroes" who power the COVID-19 testing and vaccine programs?
- Students help power campus testing program: UC Santa Cruz senior Arcelia Gonzalez Jimenez, who hopes to be a doctor someday, was searching for ways to help with the COVID–19 pandemic. When she saw an ad asking for students to help with testing, she jumped at the opportunity. Last summer, she joined the first cohort of students trained to help run the campus’s asymptomatic testing program... (read more)
- As pandemic hit, conferences manager pivoted to health care: Michael Luttrell never thought he would work in the health care field. Until last year, he headed operations for UC Santa Cruz’s Conference Services. But when the world abruptly shut down a year ago because of the COVID–19 pandemic, all conferences were canceled. Like everyone else, he had to swiftly change gears. Within a few months, he found himself starting a brand new job: operations manager for the university’s COVID–19 testing services... (read more)
