Senator and pediatrician Richard Pan, M.D. received the 2022 California Medical Association (CMA) Gary Krieger Speaker’s Recognition Award. The recipient of this award is hand-selected by the CMA Speaker of the House for remarkable contributions to CMA and its House of Delegates. The award was presented this past weekend at CMA’s annual meeting in Los Angeles.

Dr. Pan has been a member of CMA and the Sierra Sacramento Valley Medical Society since 1999. In addition to serving organized medicine as a CMA trustee and delegate, in 2010 Dr. Pan was elected to serve in the California Legislature and has spent the past 12 years working tirelessly to improve lives of Californians.

Dr. Pan has been a catalyst for positive change in the community creating innovative educational programs, expanding access to health care for children and bringing people together to address community priorities.

TIME magazine called Dr. Pan a “hero” when he authored landmark legislation to abolish non-medical exemptions to legally required vaccines for school students, thereby restoring community immunity from preventable contagions. Dr. Pan also authored one of the most expansive state laws regulating health plans eliminating denials for pre-existing conditions and prohibited discrimination by health status and medical history. He demands transparency and accountability in state health programs; holding hearings on reducing fraud, investigating poor access to dental care, and ensuring children with cancer and other serious conditions have access to pediatric specialty care. Dr. Pan provided leadership in enrolling families for health coverage, resulting in halving the number of uninsured in California, and he sponsored numerous health fairs providing resources including free glasses, dental screenings, and vaccines.