Miriam Aaron Roland Volunteer Service Prize
The Miriam Aaron Roland Volunteer Service Prize recognizes Stanford faculty who engage and involve students in integrating academic scholarship with significant and meaningful volunteer service to society. Established in 2004 through the generosity of Miriam Aaron Roland '51 (International Relations) of Montreal, Canada, as an endowment at the Haas Center, the Roland prize is unique at Stanford for its focus on the significant role that public service by faculty can play in higher education, benefiting the students, communities and the faculty themselves. The prize includes a cash award and will be presented by Provost John Etchemendy at the Fifth Annual Community Partnerships Award Luncheon, to be held at the Garden Court Hotel in Palo Alto on May 7, co-hosted by the University Office of Public Affairs and the Haas Center for Public Service.
In keeping with the Haas Center's own inclusive definition of public service, the Roland Prize is awarded to faculty doing exemplary work at the community level, in nonprofits and NGOs, and/or in government service or philanthropy-either domestically or internationally.
Photo Gallery: 2008 Community Partnership Awards Luncheon
Winner of the 2008 Roland Prize
Lars Osterberg, MD, MPH, Clinical Associate Professor of Medicine at Stanford School of Medicine; Chief of General Internal Medicine at VA Palo Alto Health Care System and CHP/PCOR Associate, was responsible for establishing Cardinal Free Clinics (CFC) as the administrative body that operates two free clinics in the area: the Arbor Free Clinic and the Pacific Free Clinic. CFC receives support, and is integrated with courses within the School of Medicine. In his capacity as Director of CFC, he has supervised scores of students and other providers who, as volunteers, provide free medical care on weekends to the most medically needy members of our community.
According to his nominators, Osterberg “cares deeply and advocates for unmet health care needs of people who are generally marginalized by our current health system.” In addition to his work with CFC, Osterberg combines teaching and service as President of the Board of Directors of Opportunity Health Partners (OHP). This nonprofit organization operates the Opportunity Health Center, a licensed community clinic for the homeless and, by Osterberg’s arrangement, for the Veterans’ Administration, based at the Opportunity Center in Palo Alto. Osterberg reaches out to the School of Medicine to involve both medical residents and medical students in his provision of health care to the homeless.
Mid-career, Osterberg obtained a Masters in Public Health from the UC Berkeley School of Public Health. His research interests are in areas of healthcare access and healthcare delivery for vulnerable populations; innovations in medical practice; and patient adherence to medications. In his clinical settings, undergraduates, medical students and house staff are enriched by his lessons in social justice and compassionate, respectful medicine. In addition, he has lectured in patient advocacy classes and has supported students in undertaking scholarly projects to assess the quality and impact of Arbor Free Clinic.
Provost John Etchemendy presents the Roland Prize to Osterberg, along with the Community Partnership Awards below, at a private luncheon co-sponsored by Stanford's Office of Public Affairs and the Haas Center.
2008 Community Partnership Award winners
The Boys and Girls Club of the Peninsula has for 50 years provided places where youth are welcome and can belong. The Club has evolved in recent years and is now regards as one of the largest and most comprehensive youth development organizations in the San Francisco Bay Area. Today, through seven sites – three clubhouses and four Center for a New Generation school-based programs – located in the low-income areas of East Palo Alto, Menlo Park, and Redwood City, over 3,000 youth annually find engaging programs and a trained and caring staff to help them learn and grow. The Club’s mission is to guide and inspire the youth of our community to develop the attitudes and life skills they need to thrive. Programs focus on Academics, Science and Technology, Social Education and Life Skills, Physical Fitness and Life Skills, and Visual and Performing Arts.
In 1996, Stanford alumni Chris Bischof and Helen Kim welcomed eight ninth grade students to Eastside College Preparatory School to serve East Palo Alto. By the next fall, the school had grown to 20 ninth and tenth grade students. The next year Eastside enrolled 35 students, the following year 70. The Eastside School Field Studies class at Jasper Ridge Biological Preserve, now in its tenth year, focuses on sixth-grade student researchers working in small groups taught by trained Stanford student mentors during spring quarter. Eastside students collect data in their group’s assigned ecosystem on air, soil and water temperature, pH, and percent canopy cover, and each student monitors his or her own plant for nine weeks. Eastside students spend four hours a week working at the preserve, ending with a peer- reviewed poster session summarizing the five ecosystems studied.
Hope House, a program of the Service League of San Mateo County, is a unique program that provides loving care for women and their infants. Since 1990, the Hope House has provided a home for 655 women and 152 clean and sober babies. Hope House is a 6-month, family oriented alcohol and other drug treatment program that specializes in treating each woman’s addiction and subsequent mental health and medical issues individually. For over seven years, Stanford University has provided exceptional coursework for the Hope House women. Through the Ethics Department, they have taught classes such as Women’s Issues, Religious Studies, and Philosophy.
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 | Lars Osterberg, MD, MPH, Clinical Associate Professor of Medicine at Stanford School of Medicine, winner of the 2008 Roland Prize. |
 | Lars Osterberg in conversation with Miriam Roland and Julie Weitlauf, Instructor (Research Line), Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Stanford University School of Medicine and a psychologist at the VA Palo Alto Health Care System. |
 | Provost John Etchemendy and Peter E. Haas Director Gabe Garcia greet Lars Osterberg. Seated, Osterberg’s mother, Marianne Osterberg. Not pictured, Osterberg’s father, Karl. |
 | The Boys and Girls Clubs of the Peninsula, with Kelly Beck (standing, far left), Haas Assistant Director of Service-Learning Programs and director of Science in Service, which serves BGCP. Beck introduced the organization. |
 | Leaders from the Hope House Scholars Program, introduced by Debra Satz (Philosophy, former director of the Ethics in Society Program), who served on the Haas Center’s Faculty Steering Committee from 2004-06. |
 | Faculty and staff from Eastside School Field Studies at Jasper Ridge. |
Past Roland Prize Recipients
2007 - Terry L. Karl '70 (Humanities; '76 MA, '82 PhD, Political Science) Professor of Political Science, Gildred Professor in Latin American Studies and Senior Fellow, by courtesy, at the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies
2007 - James M. Patell, Herbert Hoover Professor of Public and Private Management in the Stanford University Graduate School of Business (GSB)
2006 - Don Barr, MD ('90 MS, Health Services Research; '93 PhD, Sociology) associate teaching professor of Sociology and Human Biology and staff physician at the Palo Alto Medical Foundation
2006 - Michael Wald, Jackson Eli Reynolds Professor of Law
2005 - Al Camarillo, Professor of History and Haas Centennial Professor in Public Service
2005 - Marilyn A. Winkleby, Associate Professor of Medicine
2004 - Milbrey McLaughlin, David Jacks Professor of Education and Public Policy
2004 - Boyd C. Paulson, Jr., Charles H. Leavell Professor of Civil Engineering