Kandace Fung, MD

Kandace Fung grew up in Corona, California, in the Inland Empire, with her parents, sister, and grandparents. She grew up with integrative medicine, watching her grandma apply Pak Fah Yeow on her temples for headaches and eating mung bean porridge in the summer for its cooling effects. At Claremont Mckenna College, Kandace became closely involved in community building and student activism, strengthening her Asian American identity and realizing the socioeconomic, educational, and health inequities her communities face. She advocated for increased institutional support for students of color and fostered community building and healing, which furthered her interest in becoming a physician for under-resourced communities. Throughout college and while a medical student in the Charles R. Drew/UCLA program, she has continued to explore integrative medicine through coursework and student organizations, such as the Chinese Medical Interest Group Group, and seeking opportunities to practice culturally inclusive patient care in the clinical setting. As a medical school student, Kandace seeks to be intentional in her education and community engagement, learning to be a physician healer who practices with love and compassion. She is excited to be selected as a Tang Scholar to reconnect with her culture through a deeper understanding of integrative medicine and collaboration with her communities in San Gabriel Valley and internationally to promote mental health awareness and fill in the gap for hesitancy and illiteracy in mental health.