Health Center faculty honoree a champion of primary care

The Health Center’s Board of Directors has named Dr. Bruce Gould the 2009 winner of its Faculty Recognition Award.

Gould, professor and associate dean for primary care at the UConn School of Medicine, has earned a reputation as an advocate for public health, primary care, and preventative medicine. He also serves as director of the Connecticut Area Health Education Center (AHEC) Program, medical director of Hartford’s Department of Health and Human Services, and medical director of the Burgdorf Health Center, a community clinic serving the underserved population in Hartford’s north end in collaboration with Saint Francis Hospital and Medical Center.

A primary care general internist, Gould also is the founder of and adviser to the Mobile Free Migrant Farmworker Clinic, which has served Connecticut’s migrant farm workers since 1998.

“Dr. Gould has made a career of giving voice to the most vulnerable populations,” says Dr. Bruce Koeppen, dean for academic affairs at the School of Medicine.

“He’s passionate about the delivery of medical care to the underserved of today and tomorrow, through his efforts to encourage medical students to consider careers in primary care and public health and his efforts to introduce youth from disadvantaged communities to those professions.”

Gould helped establish the medical school’s Urban Service Track, a special mentorship program designed to produce doctors, dentists, nurses, and pharmacists committed to serving underserved populations in Connecticut’s cities, and the Youth Health Services Corps, a nationally recognized recruitment program that trains and places high school students as volunteers in health care agencies.