A potent sense of responsibility draws Dr. Washington Burns B.S. ’52, B.A. ’57, M.D. to a neighborhood now wrestling with drugs, gangs, and gunshots.
“I came to West Oakland as a teenager in 1945,” says Burns. “There were plenty of jobs, and you could run around without concern about crime or drug trafficking.” Fifty years later he came back to open the Prescott-Joseph Center for Community Enhancement (prescottjoseph.org), a hub for family support services.
The center works with programs like Another Road to Safety, which partners with local agencies to prevent children from being sent to foster care. “In the two-and-a-half years we’ve been involved, not a single child has been displaced to foster care,” says Burns.
This April, Burns received the 2007 Haas Public Service Award in recognition of his significant volunteerism. “Dr. Burns has provided gentle but firm leadership that has resulted in visible social change and hope for the West Oakland community,” says Glynda Hull, professor of education. “(The center) has become the anchor of a coalition of organizations and individuals who respect his no-nonsense approach, humble willingness to serve, and compassion.”
Many neighborhood kids, including students at local Prescott Elementary School, where the center helped secure funding for an art teacher, are “witnessing violence in the community and in their lives,” adds Burns. Art and other programs teach children “to express themselves more positively.”
At Cal, Burns says, he discovered that “you have to begin to believe in yourself.” He brought this motto to his 34-year career as a laboratory director at California Pacific Medical Center, and now he’s passing it to others.
Burns remains undaunted by challenges. This summer, to help combat the disproportionately high number of people from low-income neighborhoods battling asthma, the Prescott-Joseph Center will begin running a mobile asthma clinic.
