Two physicians in Northern California received the Kaiser Permanente 2025 David Lawrence Community Service Award for their volunteerism — and making lives better for people in other parts of the world.
Launched in 2003, the award is named for David Lawerence, MD, former Kaiser Permanente CEO. Recipients each receive $10,000 from Kaiser Permanente to give to a charity of their choice.
This year, 15 people and one team of 4 across Kaiser Permanente nationally received the award.
In Northern California, Ryan Brown, MD, a facial plastic surgeon at the Santa Rosa Medical Center, received the award for his work in providing reconstructive surgery to people who have cleft lips and palates in Lima, Peru over the last 14 years. He started the nonprofit Healing the Children Rocky Mountains when he was a Kaiser Permanente physician in Colorado. He continued his work with Healing the Children Rocky Mountains when he moved to Santa Rosa, and it has grown to provide not only cleft surgeries, but also hearing, vision, and speech therapy services.
The other Northern California award recipient, Barnali Gupta, MD, is an internal medicine physician who practices at the Lincoln Medical Offices near Roseville. She received the award for starting the Rocklin Science Academy, an elementary school in Katihar, India for underprivileged children. The school opened in 2023.
Creating learning opportunities in India
Dr. Gupta said she and her husband started the school for boys and girls up through the fifth grade after being personally encouraged by the Dalai Lama, an acquaintance of the couple. They pay for the 5 teachers and the building entirely out of their own savings. They also teach at the school via video.
“The problem we noticed in India is that the public schools don’t do a good job of teaching English,” said Dr. Gupta. “The kids in the public schools fall behind as a result and they can’t compete in science and math. Then later, all the job interviews are conducted in English, so if they don’t learn it, jobs are hard to come by.”
The school teaches about 50 students to speak, read, and write in English with an emphasis on science and math. The school also helps girls develop better self-confidence.
“When you see the kids who knew no English alphabet, and in 3 years they are speaking and having a great conversation in English, and when you see them score a 100% in math, that is satisfying,” Dr. Gupta said.
She will donate the $10,000 award to the Tibet House California.
Offering free medical care in Peru
Dr. Brown said with the help of the Peruvian government, a hospital in Lima, and volunteers, Healing the Children Rocky Mountains has helped close to 5,000 children with cleft lip and palate surgeries, speech therapy, eyeglasses, and hearing aids.
In his organization’s most recent mission in November, the group of volunteers conducted 124 surgeries, taught 140 lessons of speech therapy, fit 72 hearing aids, and was able to vision test and fit 384 children with glasses.
“It’s super gratifying to help people who could not afford these services,” said Dr. Brown. “I also love helping people here in Santa Rosa, but this is different.”
He said people with cleft palates and lips have a hard time eating and speaking, and they are often bullied and ostracized.
“They can become social outcasts,” said Dr. Brown. “Being able to watch the parents in the recovery room, you see tears of joy because they feel like their child might have a normal life because of the surgery. As a father, I know how it feels to have a kid who is bullied. To see them get self-esteem is very fulfilling.”
Dr. Brown said he will donate his $10,000 award to Healing the Children Rocky Mountains.
