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DR. TOM BURNS

South Bay Regional Director, Encore Physicians Program

Dr. Tom Burns is the South Bay Regional Director for the Encore Physicians program; this program places retired physicians at community health centers that care for the underserved, where they treat patients and mentor younger physicians. This successful program, initially headed by Dr. Gerry Bourne in the San Francisco Bay Area, is supported by a grant from Northern California Kaiser Community Services, and has been extended to the South Bay.

Tom recently retired after spending 36 years as a staff Rheumatologist and Chief of the Rheumatology section at Kaiser Hospital and Clinics in Santa Clara. He served as the Chief of the Quality Assurance Department for many years, and remains as an adjunct clinical faculty at Stanford Medical School.

With his passion for providing universal access to educational opportunities for all, he also serves on the Board of Directors of Seeds of Love Worldwide, a 501(c) non-profit organization. He also believes in encouraging community involvement by serving on the Board of Directors at his local Northwest YMCA in Cupertino. He now enjoys recruiting his colleagues to work in community health centers as their “Second Act.”

Tom grew up in New York and graduated from Princeton University and SUNY Downstate Medical School. He is boarded in both Internal Medicine and Rheumatology/Immunology.