Ignatius Bau, who joined The California Endowment in 2003, is Director of Culturally Competent Health Systems. In his current capacity as Director, Bau is responsible for the program planning, grant making and budget for the foundation’s Cultural Competence and Work Force Diversity programs.
Prior to his current appointment, Bau, who is based at The Endowment’s San Francisco office, was a Program Officer with the foundation, and has served as a creative and persistent force to achieve the goals of the organization’s Cultural Competence and Work Force Diversity programs.
Prior to joining The Endowment, Bau served for seven years in a number of capacities with the Asian and Pacific Islander American Health Forum, a national health policy advocacy organization headquartered in San Francisco. His most recent position there was deputy director for Policy and Programs, directing program, policy and research activities for the organization to ensure achievement of the agency’s mission, values, operational principles and strategic plan.
Prior to that, he served as the organization’s policy director during which he coordinated legislative and administrative advocacy activities on issues of health care access, cultural competence, health care quality, managed care and welfare reform. His initial position with the organization was as HIV program coordinator where he oversaw a national technical assistance and training program for over 70 community-based organizations and health departments providing HIV prevention interventions targeting Asian and Pacific Islander populations.
Other positions of note include: adjunct faculty at the New College of California School of Law in San Francisco where he co-taught an Immigration Law and Issues class; and staff attorney at the Lawyers’ Committee of Civil Rights of the San Francisco Bay Area where he engaged in class action litigation, legislative and administrative advocacy, and public education.
Bau has served on numerous nonprofit, community-based organizations’ boards of directors, including the Asian and Pacific Islander Wellness Center, the Northern California Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights, and the National Minority AIDS Council. He also has served on a number of government committees and task forces including the President’s Advisory Council on HIV/AIDS, the National Institutes of Health’s Office of AIDS Research Prevention Science Working Group, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s National HIV Prevention Planning Group, the Department of Health and Human Services’ Office of Minority Health National Minority HIV Plan Working Group, the Institute of Medicine’s Committee on HIV Prevention Strategies Non-Governmental Organization Liaison Panel and the California Department of Health Services’ Task Force on Multicultural Health. He also was a member of the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organization Public Advisory Group, the National Quality Forum Work Group on Minority Healthcare Quality Measurement and Reporting, and several Technical Advisory Committees for the California Health Interview Survey.
Bau was the lead author of the “A People Looking Forward: Action for Access and Partnerships in the 21st Century,” the Interim Report of the President’s Advisory Commission on Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders, and has authored “This Ground is Holy,” a book on the sanctuary movement for Central American refugees, a chapter on immigration law in “AIDS and the Law (Third Edition)” and several articles in legal, health and public policy journals.
Additionally, Bau has presented at numerous conferences, facilitated retreats and training workshops, and possesses vast experience in conference planning. He is the recipient of several awards for his community service, including the Asian and Pacific Islander Wellness Center’s 1998
National Community Award the National Lawyer Guild Immigration Project’s 1995
Carol King Award, the State Bar of California’s 1994
Legal Services Achievement Award and the Asian Law Caucus’ 1994 22nd Anniversary Honoree.
Bau, a San Francisco resident, received his B.A. in Political Science from the University of California, Berkeley (Phi Beta Kappa) and his J.D. from the Boalt Hall School of Law at the University of California, Berkeley.
