Kara Toles, MD

Dr. Kara Toles is an Assistant Clinical Professor and Director of Equity & Inclusion in the Department of Emergency Medicine at the University of California, Davis. Health equity lies at the core of her work as a physician, educator, advocate, and leader. She is passionate about ensuring that people made vulnerable by interlocking systems of oppression receive equitable and compassionate care in the emergency department. Both her lived experience as a Black, queer woman from the Southern US and her professional experiences have deeply influenced her work in leading educational and organizational initiatives which center health equity and the liberation of minoritized people. She acknowledges the deep harm done to communities of color by structural violence in the form of racialized drug policies. She is proud to be CA Bridge’s inaugural Director of Equity to provide strategic vision and facilitate the growth of various antiracist and health equity initiatives.