Shedding light on health and health care issues that affect our daily lives. Illuminating Health is the official podcast of the UCSF School of Nursing. Listen-in to short conversations between today’s leading health experts.
Kate Melino, associate professor and a 2026 Macy Faculty Scholar, is an expert in the mental health care of older adults and adults with serious mental illness. On this episode, Melino talks about the clinical and educational interventions needed to ensure older adults receive high quality mental health care.
26 Feb 2026
Nurses Leading the Future of Rural Health
On this episode of Illuminating Health, associate professor Elizabeth Castillo shares how her childhood in California’s San Joaquin Valley shaped her understanding of health care access, inspiring her career path, and discusses why nurses are uniquely equipped to lead efforts to increase primary care access in rural communities.
29 Oct 2025
Gut Feelings: Exploring the Microbiome’s Role in Health and Healing
Associate Professor Cherry Leung and Professor Sandra Weiss are nurse scientists who lead research on the gut microbiome, investigating not only how it impacts human health, but how an understanding of the microbiome can help us treat or even prevent certain health conditions.
21 May 2025
Care in Community: How Shared Medical Appointments Improve Diabetes Care and Education
In this episode, DNP students Lety Wilke and Katie Judge discuss their work highlighting how an interprofessional team-led shared appointment model of care is effective in advancing diabetes care and education for linguistically diverse patients.
27 Feb 2025
From AI to Virtual Nursing: Leveraging Technology in Nursing Practice
In this episode, Kay Burke, UCSF Health’s chief nursing informatics officer, shares engaging, real-world examples of how she and her team of nurses are leveraging innovative digital tools to improve the lives of UCSF patients and providers, and offers her predictions for what’s next for technology and nursing practice.
12 Dec 2024
Closing Care Gaps for Pregnant Patients
In this episode, Andrea Kuster, associate clinical professor, and Tasha Toliver, manager of UCSF Health’s Office of Population Health Outreach Team, share about their program that provides comprehensive and individualized health care services to publicly insured pregnant patients in the San Francisco Bay Area.
30 Sept 2024
Bridging Physical and Mental Health Care
During the perinatal period, one in five women in the United States experience a mental health issue such as postpartum depression or anxiety. But accessing mental health support can be difficult, particularly as a new parent. Hear from two experts leading an innovative integrated mental health program at a community-based obstetrics and gynecology clinic in San Francisco.
17 Jul 2024
How and Why Music Heals
Many of us know from personal experience that music positively impacts our well-being. But a growing body of research demonstrates music’s impact on our physical health, including brain health. How does music support healthy aging? Why does playing and listening to music reduce stress?
Julene Johnson, a cognitive neuroscientist and co-director of the Sound Health Network, who studies how music impacts healthy aging and older adults living with dementia, and Sheri Robb, a board-certified music therapist who studies music interventions for children and adolescents living with cancer and their caregivers, discuss the healing power of music.
The guest host for this episode is Hannah Katagiri, a student in the school’s Family Nurse Practitioner specialty.
21 Jun 2024
Dear Future Health Care Leaders
If you had one minute to address your future health care leaders, what advice would you give them?
In honor of commencement season, we invite you to listen to messages shared with UCSF School of Nursing graduates that serve as important reminders for all of us engaged in the essential work of improving health and health care for our communities.
20 May 2024
The Nurses Whose Advocacy Changed Patient Care During the AIDS Crisis
In the early days of the AIDS epidemic in the 1980s, nurses played a crucial role in caring for patients and forever transformed health care. Cliff Morrison, the nurse who launched the country's first in-patient AIDS unit in 1983, and Carol Dawson-Rose, an early leader in international patient-centered AIDS prevention and care, share their experiences about providing care at the height of the AIDS crisis — and what nurses today should do to be strong advocates.
19 Mar 2024
How to Cultivate a Welcoming and Inclusive Environment
What does it take to foster a welcoming and inclusive environment, especially during times of change and uncertainty?
Mica Estrada, associate dean of Diversity, Inclusion and Outreach and a social psychologist, and Emebet Aklilu, director of operations for the Office of Diversity, Inclusion and Outreach, discuss what is needed and what each of us as individuals can do to help create and sustain an inclusive environment — whether at school, in the workplace or in the community.
The guest host for this episode is Jacob Virtusio, a student in the school’s Psychiatric Mental Health Nurse Practitioner specialty.
13 Feb 2024
Shedding Light on Diabetes, the Rise in Prevalence and Improving Care
About 38 million people in the United States have diabetes, and one in five of them don’t even know they have it.
In this episode of Illuminating Health, professor Carolina Noya discusses what’s contributing to the rise in type 2 diabetes in the United States, what groups are most impacted and a pilot program she is leading that is showing promising results for patients struggling with managing diabetes.
The guest host for this episode is Oluchi Okwu, a student in the Family Nurse Practitioner specialty.
Illuminating Health is the official UCSF School of Nursing podcast that sheds light on health and health care issues that affect our daily lives. Listen in to short conversations with today’s leading health experts. This episode is produced by Katherine Tam and Lisa Klope in the UCSF School of Nursing's Office of Communications.
25 Jan 2024
Why Nurses' Voices are Critical to Shaping Health Policy
“Nurses are born advocates,” alumnus and nurse Jason Bloomer said. “It’s one of the most fundamental things that makes a nurse a nurse, beyond keeping our patients safe.” In the third episode of Illuminating Health, professor Stella Bialous and Bloomer share their experience shaping health policy and discuss why nurses are uniquely positioned to lead change. The guest host for this episode is Erin Ear, a student in the school’s Family Nurse Practitioner specialty.
14 Nov 2023
What We Must Do to Transform Care for People Experiencing Homelessness
Nearly 600,000 people across the U.S. are experiencing homelessness. What kind of health issues do people who are unhoused face, and how does that affect the health care system? What practical solutions are needed to improve care for people experiencing homelessness?
In the second episode of Illuminating Health, professor Heather Leutwyler and Taylor Cuffaro, a doctoral student and co-founder of the school’s street nursing team, discuss the challenges people who are unhoused face with health care access and how effective the street nursing model has proven.
The guest host for this episode is Dennys Balestra, a student in the school’s Adult Gerontology Primary Care Nurse Practitioner — Occupational/Environmental Health specialty.
Illuminating Health is the official UCSF School of Nursing podcast that sheds light on health and health care issues that affect our daily lives. Listen in to short conversations with today’s leading health experts.
7 Nov 2023
Why We Need First-Gen Grads in Nursing and Health Care
Across the U.S., more than 40 percent of college graduates are the first in their families to earn a bachelor’s degree. What does it mean to be a first-gen student? Why is it so important to have first-gen nurses engaged in improving health and health care?
In the inaugural episode of Illuminating Health, Christina Keny (https://geriatrics.ucsf.edu/education/fellowships/current-fellows#Bio), a first-gen graduate and doctoral candidate at the UCSF School of Nursing, and Laura Wagner (https://profiles.ucsf.edu/laura.wagner), professor and founder of FirstGenRN (https://firstgenrn.ucsf.edu/) — the first program of its kind nationwide — share their personal experiences and advice.
The guest host for this episode is Mark Tungol, a student in the school’s Adult-Gerontology Clinical Nurse Specialist specialty and the president of the Associated Students of the School of Nursing at UCSF.
Illuminating Health is the official UCSF School of Nursing podcast that sheds light on health and health care issues that affect our daily lives. Listen in to short conversations with today’s leading health experts.
Reach and audience
Public platform figures. Ratings count people who left a rating, not total listeners.
Apple Podcasts (US)
4.8 / 5
20 ratings
Podcast Authority Score: 16 / 100
A composite of feed quality, social presence, YouTube performance and engagement. Read the methodology.
Quality
3
Social presence
0
YouTube
0
Engagement
71
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