In an event that celebrated the energy, creativity and innovation of the Bay Area, UCSF Chancellor Susan Desmond-Hellmann and three other Bay Area leaders were honored on April 18, each receiving the Commonwealth Club of California’s 2012 Distinguished Citizen Award.

Keeping her eyes on the strawberry fields of central California, the bustling diesel truck routes in Oakland, and the stubborn toxic soils of the former Naval ship yards at San Francisco’s Bayview-Hunter’s Point, UCSF Associate Professor Gina Solomon, MD, MPH will soon have a new vantage point — the state capitol.