Founders of San Francisco Free Clinic will describe lives in medicine, dance, fiction, and film

The alumni who founded the San Francisco Free Clinic, Richard Gibbs ’86 M.D. and Tricia Hellman Gibbs ’87 M.D., will speak about their lives in medicine and related pursuits in the arts as part of the Alumni Grand Rounds series sponsored by the Office of Development and Alumni Affairs at Yale School of Medicine (YSM).

Their talk, “Life as a Doctor: Real and Imagined,” will take place on Tuesday, April 25, at 5 p.m. in the Beaumont Room, Sterling Hall of Medicine, 333 Cedar St. The event is open to members of the Yale community.

The Gibbses will tell the story of their real-life experiences founding and running a free clinic for patients without health insurance over the past 24 years. Tricia Gibbs will then go on to explain the narrative and film adventures of the fictional physician in her novel and soon-to-be released major motion picture “The Rendezvous,” and how she envisions the role of stories and narrative in a larger process of healing in society.

Both physicians came to Yale after distinguished careers in other areas. After a 12-year career in professional ballet, Richard Gibbs returned to school in his mid-30’s, earning his undergraduate degree at Harvard and an M.D. from Yale. A family medicine physician, he is also the supervising physician for the San Francisco Ballet. He continues to teach ballet and frequently lectures on dance injuries.

Tricia Hellman Gibbsis a graduate of Williams College and Yale School of Medicine. Prior to medical school, she was a member of the U.S. Ski Team and an All-American Athlete in Alpine Ski Racing. She recently earned a master’s degree in Jewish studies from the Graduate Theological Union in Berkeley. In addition to her work in family practice, she is a published fiction author and producer of the film “The Rendezvous,” which is based on her novel, “A New Song,” published in 2011 under the pen name of Sara Isaias.

The Gibbses met and married while at Yale. Both are professors of clinical medicine at the University of California-San Francisco.

Alumni Grand Rounds is a series of talks that brings YSM alumni and students together for career-focused discussions about medicine and biomedical science. A light dinner will be served at 4:45 p.m. before the talk, which is open to the Yale community. Space is limited. To attend RSVP at http://tinyurl.com/alumnigrandrounds by April 20.