Dr. Candice Weaver, or C.C. as she is affectionately known, is a multi-talented individual whose journey into medicine is as inspiring as it is impactful.
Growing up, Dr. C.C. (short for Candice Carmel) did not envision herself becoming a physician. Her path to medicine was shaped by early experiences, including the loss of her father and cousin to AIDS when she was just a teenager. These events, along with witnessing her grandmother’s struggles with COPD, ignited a desire in her to create change and become a beacon of hope for others.
“I am the type of person that sees inequity and I fight until I see a change. I had a few traumatic experiences at an early age that shaped my worldview,” Dr. C.C. shares.”These were the things that led me not only to seek change but to become the change that I was seeking. So, when I was in high school, I started speaking out about AIDS and HIV prevention throughout my community. It led me to Washington DC, where I won a national essay contest, and that landed me at [UC] Berkeley. Berkeley is a school that encourages students to fight and be vocal about inequity, and that’s exactly what it fostered in me.”
After earning her Master’s degree in Public Health Policy at UC Berkeley, she pursued premedical studies and conducted cancer research at Johns Hopkins University. She then attained another Master’s degree in Public Health from Dartmouth Medical School. Following this, she earned her medical degree from Touro University and completed her residency training through The University of California, San Francisco (UCSF). She dedicated three years to the National Health Service Corps. She is currently a double-board certified physician, practicing Family and Lifestyle Medicine.
“In public health, you’re helping the masses, but as a physician, you’re helping one-on-one. In family medicine, specifically, you get to be a jack of all trades. I chose that career because I felt like I would never be bored, that I would have the human interaction that I craved but wasn’t getting from just cancer research and public health. Lifestyle medicine came a little bit later for me,” Dr. C.C. shares of her journey.
Despite her role as a physician, Dr. C.C. remains committed to “helping the masses”. She currently sits on the Board of Directors for Community Solutions, Inc., a nonprofit organization that provides mental health, housing, and social services for underserved women, children, and other disenfranchised people in the South Bay Area.
“It means a lot to me. I was actually asked to join the board several years ago. I am a survivor of domestic violence. I was in a relationship in college with someone who unfortunately had severe mental illness, and that really shaped my life experience,” Dr. C.C. adds “I had to grow up very quickly dealing with that experience. Once I became a physician and had a little more agency, I was more than happy to help people like the 25-year-old me. Community Solutions does really great work for many disenfranchised people in the South Bay area, specifically women, children, and those in need. I don’t want to speak on behalf of their organization, but I am very proud to be a member of their board.”
She hopes this work will provide the type of access those in underserved communities don’t often have.
“One of the biggest challenges is access to care, not just any access, but access to physicians who look like us. People seek care from those they trust, and especially in the Black community, where Black women are facing a major health crisis in maternal health and prenatal care, it’s a challenge to find physicians they trust, particularly Black women physicians. Even within our communities, there are challenges in
