Bernadette Lim
{{Short description|American physician and community organizer}}
{{Unreliable sources|date=June 2024}}
Bernadette "Bernie" Lim (born July 15, 1994) is an American physician and community organizer. She is the founder of the Freedom Community Clinic based in Oakland, CA. She is lecturer faculty at the Institute for Holistic Health Studies at San Francisco State University.{{Cite web |title=Bernadette (Bernie) Lim {{!}} Department of Recreation, Parks & Tourism |url=https://rpt.sfsu.edu/people/bernadette-bernie-lim |access-date=2024-06-09 |website=rpt.sfsu.edu}}
Early life and education
Lim was born in Los Angeles, CA. She attended St. Lucy's Priory High School in Glendora, CA and served as the California-Nevada-Hawaii KIWIN'S Governor for Key Club International.{{Cite web |date=2011-12-29 |title=Kiwanis kids help build Rose Parade floats |url=https://www.sgvtribune.com/20111229/kiwanis-kids-help-build-rose-parade-floats/ |access-date=2024-06-09 |website=San Gabriel Valley Tribune |language=en-US}} Lim attended Harvard University where she received a Bachelor of Arts in Human Evolutionary Biology and Global Health and received cum laude honors.{{Cite web |title=Influential Women 2023: Bernadette Lim, Executive Director, Freedom Community Clinic |url=https://www.bizjournals.com/sanfrancisco/news/2023/10/05/influential-women-bernadette-lim-freedom-clinic.html |access-date=2024-06-09 |website=www.bizjournals.com}} As part of her undergraduate career, she created Women SPEAK, a national girls' empowerment non-profit and was the lead author of the first Status of Women and Girls in Boston report.{{Cite web |title=Bernadette Lim |url=https://www.creativity-found.org/bernadette-lim |access-date=2024-06-09 |website=The Creativity Foundation |language=en-US}}{{Cite web |last=Spinks |first=Rosie |date=2018-09-22 |title=Bernadette Lim's Grassroots Feminism |url=https://psmag.com/magazine/bernadette-lim-30-under-30 |access-date=2024-06-09 |website=Pacific Standard |language=en}}{{Cite web |last=Militare |first=Jessica |date=2016-04-05 |title=2016 College Women of the Year: Bernadette Lim |url=https://www.glamour.com/story/bernadette-lim-2016-college-women-of-the-year |access-date=2024-06-09 |website=Glamour |language=en-US}}{{Cite web |date=2015-09-29 |title=Bernadette Lim |url=https://22under22.hercampus.com/2015/bernadette-lim |access-date=2024-06-09 |website=The Her Campus 22 Under 22 Most Inspiring College Women |language=en-US}} She was also a regular contributor to The Harvard Crimson.{{Cite web |title=Bernadette N. Lim {{!}} Writer Page {{!}} The Harvard Crimson |url=https://www.thecrimson.com/writer/1210632/Bernadette_N._Lim/ |access-date=2024-06-09 |website=www.thecrimson.com}} Lim was made a Fulbright scholar in 2016, and moved to Pune, India to pursue public health research on gender disparities among healthcare workers.
She completed her masters and medical education at UC Berkeley School of Public Health and UCSF School of Medicine in 2017, as part of the UC Berkeley-UCSF Joint Medical Program.{{Cite web |title=Profiles |url=https://www.melanininmedicine.org/profiles |access-date=2024-06-09 |website=Melanin in Medicine* |language=en-US}}{{Cite web |date=2020-10-20 |title=Joint Medical Program student Bernadette Lim receives national AAMC scholarship |url=https://publichealth.berkeley.edu/students/joint-medical-program-student-bernadette-lim-receives-national-aamc-scholarship |access-date=2024-06-09 |website=Berkeley Public Health |language=en-US}}{{Cite web |title=UCSF Medical Student Receives 40 Under 40 Leaders in Minority Health Award {{!}} UCSF Medical Education |url=https://meded.ucsf.edu/news/ucsf-medical-student-receives-40-under-40-leaders-minority-health-award |access-date=2024-06-09 |website=meded.ucsf.edu |language=en}} During her time in medical school, she founded several initiatives related to community health, health equity, and racial justice, including the Freedom School for Intersectional Medicine, the Institute for Healing & Justice in Medicine, and the Woke WOC Docs podcast.{{Cite web |date=2021-07-02 |title=BERNADETTE LIM |url=https://www.wearefamilyfoundation.org/yttf-2020/bernadette-lim |access-date=2024-06-09 |website=We Are Family Foundation |language=en-US}}{{Cite web |date=2021-12-27 |title=Woke WOC Docs on Apple Podcasts |url=https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/woke-woc-docs/id1441267323 |access-date=2024-06-09 |website=Apple Podcasts |language=en-US}}{{Cite web |title=Medical Student Podcast Sheds Light on Health Justice {{!}} UCSF Medical Education |url=https://meded.ucsf.edu/news/medical-student-podcast-sheds-light-health-justice |access-date=2024-06-09 |website=meded.ucsf.edu |language=en}} She wrote her Masters thesis on Filipino youth health disparities. She is an activist and speaker on eliminating inequities in health care and expanding integrative medicine for underserved populations. In 2019, she was honored as the youngest ever recipient and only medical student awardee of the National Minority Quality Forum 40 Under 40 Leaders in Minority Health.
Career
In 2019, Lim founded the Freedom Community Clinic in Oakland, CA while in medical school. During medical school, Lim would participate in community organizing efforts for youth and gained mentorship from activists such as Dr. Tolbert Small, former physician to the Black Panther Party.{{Cite web |last=Mease |first=Lindley |date=2022-05-31 |title=Whole-person Healing: Interview with Bernadette "Bernie" Lim of Freedom Community Clinic |url=https://medium.com/blue-heart/whole-person-healing-interview-with-bernadette-bernie-lim-of-freedom-community-clinic-cdc50158744e |access-date=2024-06-09 |website=Blue Heart |language=en}}{{Cite web |title=Healing the Hood |url=https://bayareamonitor.org/article/healing-the-hood/ |access-date=2024-06-09 |website=Bay Area Monitor |language=en-US}} Motivated by her family's experiences of trauma in the medical system, her Filipino-Toisan ancestry, and her involvement in community organizing, she started the Freedom Community Clinic, a non-profit that combines the strengths of ancestral and holistic healing with Western biomedicine and provides direct healing services to Black, Brown, Native, and immigrant communities in the Bay Area.{{Cite web |date=2021-03-25 |title=Freedom Community Clinic offers whole-person healing in Oakland |url=https://abc7news.com/freedom-community-clinic-oakland-black-health-care/10447825/ |access-date=2024-06-09 |website=ABC7 San Francisco |language=en}}{{Cite news |last=Creighton |first=Caron |title=Bay Area clinic serves BIPOC communities through holistic health care |url=https://www.sfchronicle.com/local/bayarea/article/Bay-Area-Clinic-Serves-BIPOC-Community-Through-16073253.php |access-date=2024-06-09 |work=San Francisco Chronicle |language=en}} She started the clinic through the Oakland Youth Impact Hub and held several pop-up healing clinics on the streets during its beginnings.{{Cite web |last=Rankow |first=Liza J. |date=2024-05-19 |title=Bernie Lim: Healing to the People |url=https://lizarankow.substack.com/p/bernie-lim-healing-to-the-people |access-date=2024-06-09 |website=Healing Conversations from the Front Lines of Activism}}
In 2021, Lim announced on Twitter that she would not be applying to residency after graduating medical school in order to pursue her work at Freedom Community Clinic full-time.{{Cite web |title=x.com |url=https://twitter.com/drbernielim/status/1366566352060780546 |access-date=2024-06-09 |website=X (formerly Twitter)}} She writes and speaks often about issues of health and well-being in academic medicine and holistic healing for underserved communities.{{Cite web |title=Bruce Lee Podcast: Flowing with Dr. Bernadette Lim on Apple Podcasts |url=https://podcasts.apple.com/ph/podcast/flowing-with-dr-bernadette-lim/id1134673435?i=1000614495591 |access-date=2024-06-09 |website=Apple Podcasts |language=en-GB}}{{Cite web |title=Be Well Sis: The Podcast: Whole Person Healing: A Conversation with Dr. Bernie Lim |url=https://bewellsis.libsyn.com/whole-person-healing-a-conversation-with-dr-bernie-lim |access-date=2024-06-09 |website=bewellsis.libsyn.com |language=en}}
Awards and honors
- 2016 Glamour Magazine College Woman of the Year{{Cite web |last=Militare |first=Jessica |date=2016-04-05 |title=2016 College Women of the Year: Bernadette Lim |url=https://www.glamour.com/story/bernadette-lim-2016-college-women-of-the-year |access-date=2024-06-09 |website=Glamour |language=en-US}}
- 2016 Fulbright scholar
- 2017 Pacific Standard Magazine Top 30 Under 30 Thinkers in Policy and Social Justice
- 2019 National Minority Quality Forum 40 Under 40 Leaders in Minority Health{{Cite web |last=PhD |first=Gary A. Puckrein |date=2019-02-27 |title=2019 40 Under 40 Leaders in Minority Health |url=https://nmqf.org/press-release-2019-40-under-40-leaders-in-minority-health/ |access-date=2024-06-09 |website=National Minority Quality Forum |language=en}}
- 2019 Dalai Lama Fellow{{Cite web |date=2019-05-29 |title=Meet Bernadette Lim, 2019 Dalai Lama Fellow |url=https://csc.virginia.edu/feature/meet-bernadette-lim-2019-dalai-lama-fellow |access-date=2024-06-09 |website=Contemplative Sciences Center |language=en}}
- 2020 Yamashita Prize for Outstanding Social Change Activist in California{{Cite web |title=Honorees: FOUNDATIONS FOR CHANGE: Thomas I. Yamashita Prize {{!}} Institute for the Study of Societal Issues |url=https://issi.berkeley.edu/research-programs/issi-prizes/yamashita-prize/honorees |access-date=2024-06-09 |website=issi.berkeley.edu}}
- 2020 World Policy Forum Global Solutions’ Initiative Young Global Changer{{Cite web |title=Class of 2020 |url=https://www.global-solutions-initiative.org/young-global-changers/alumni/class-of-2020/ |access-date=2024-06-09 |website=Global Solutions Initiative {{!}} Global Solutions Summit |language=en-US}}
- 2021 The California Endowment Youth Voices For Change Award{{Cite web |last=Bioneers |date=2021-02-01 |title=The California Endowment Youth Voices For Change Awards |url=https://bioneers.org/the-california-endowment-youth-voices-for-change-awards/ |access-date=2024-06-09 |website=Bioneers |language=en-US}}
- 2022 Social Mission Alliance Fitzhugh Mullan Rising Star Award{{Cite web |title=Macy Awards |url=https://socialmission.org/macy-awards/ |access-date=2024-06-09 |website=Social Mission Alliance |language=en-US}}
- 2022 Echoing Green Fellow{{Cite web |title=Bernadette Lim |url=https://fellows.echoinggreen.org/fellow/bernadette-lim/ |access-date=2024-06-09 |website=Echoing Green Fellows Directory |language=en-US}}
- 2023 San Francisco Business Times Most Influential Bay Area Women in Bay Area Business
- 2024 Most Humble Person in California