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monthly membership rate paid directly to the physician instead of the typical third-party payment model. This monthly payment model covers extended visits, labs, consultative services, care coordination and comprehensive care management. For those patients who pay expensive monthly insurance premiums, this model can create substantial savings.

Towolawi’s DPC model is centered around the American College of Lifestyle Medicine, which promotes prevention over pills through six main methods of treatment: restorative sleep; stress management; a plant-based, whole-food diet; regular physical activity; healthy social connections with others; and minimizing and avoiding risky substances like alcohol, drugs and tobacco.

After working in a major primary care setting for years, it was especially important to Towolawi that she operate in a way that empowered the patients by arming them with the tools to make

better, healthier choices. She helps her patients eat healthier. Through her “Shop with Your Doc” program, she shares “Dr. T’s recipes” and does a “book of the quarter” for her patients. “It’s just really giving people the knowledge,” she says. “Knowledge is power.”

Towolawi resigned from Swedish in August of 2020 and opened Nurture Well Center less than a year later. Now, she is able to provide personalized care. Her appointments are onehour long, which allows her to sit with each patient to get to the root of their issue. This also allows her to focus deeply on communities that are the most at risk.

According to the National Academy of Medicine, “racial and ethnic minorities receive lower-quality health care than white people—even when insurance status, income, age, and severity of conditions are comparable.” Towolawi has also worked telehealth urgent care shifts outside of her practice and has seen these disparities time and again. Recently, an older Black man experiencing chest pain called Towolawi from an emergency room. “He and his wife were on the video call,” she says. “He said he’d been in the emergency room for six hours. No one had been communicating with him. He felt like he was not respected, not even offered a cup of water. He was using telehealth even though he was at a hospital emergency room because he felt he was not feeling heard or seen, and it just broke my heart.”

Towolawi opened her practice to address such disparities. While heartbreaking, experiences like her telehealth patient’s are not uncommon. She tells people to trust their guts: If something seems off, they should seek care elsewhere. “It’s something that happens far too often,” she says. She works to give them the tools to manage their situation or refers them to someone who can give them the care they deserve.

Towolawi says she hopes more people will consider direct primary care as an alternative to traditional care. She is also passionate about spreading the word about lifestyle medicine. Merging DPC and lifestyle medicine has allowed her to make the type of care she once dreamed about a reality.

In the print edition, this story incorrectly stated that Dr. Towolawi opened the state’s first Black-owned primary care practice. In fact, Washington is home to a number of Black-owned primary care practices. Our apologies to Dr. Towolawi and the Black physicians who have established primary care practices in Washington.

Primary care doctors are stressed to the max. There’s not enough time to do the care that we want to provide.

Personalizing Primary Care

UW Medicine alum opens a lifestyle medicine-focused practice to promote patient-centered care

By Luna Reyna

CAPTURED BY CANDACE PHOTOGRAPHY

When she started medical school at the UW in 2006, Margaret Towolawi was the only Black student in her entering class. She graduated in 2010, finished her family medicine residency training at the UW in 2013, and later worked at Swedish Richmond Beach Primary Care where she was the only Black doctor. Now, 15 years after completing her medical studies, she has opened one of the few Black-owned membership-based primary care practices in Washington.

She follows the direct primary care model (DCP), which is designed to provide a stronger, more trusting doctor-patient relationship and more personalized comprehensive care. Patients have more access to their doctors, with the added bonus of a

The COVID-19 pandemic prompted Dr. Margaret Towolawi to change the way she cared for her patients. She took a courageous leap, opening her own private practice in Shoreline.

NEWS BRIEFS

Lauren King

In early October, Lauren King, ’04, was confirmed as the first Native American federal judge in Washington state history. She is the sixth Native American ever to serve on the federal bench. King, a member of the Muscogee (Creek) Nation, was an attorney with Foster Garvey PC in Seattle where she chaired the Native American law practice group. Her expertise includes civil rights and tribal law. One of her major cases involved the Muscogee Nation’s land and treaty rights. The state of Oklahoma had been exercising criminal jurisdiction over crimes involving Indians on the Muscogee (Creek) reservation. In July 2020, the U.S. Supreme Court issued a landmark decision upholding the tribal nation’s land rights guaranteed by treaty. The ruling also applied to the rights of four other tribes in the boundaries of Oklahoma.

After earning her undergraduate degree in business at the UW, King attended the University of Virginia School of Law. Her professional background includes serving as a pro tem appellate judge for the Northwest Intertribal Court System. She has also been a commissioner on the Washington State Gambling commission. Her U.S. Senate confirmation came just a week after that of UW Law alum David Estudillo, ’99. Both King and Estudillo now serve at the U.S. District Court in the Western District of Washington.

Sheila Edwards Lange

has returned to the University to serve chancellor of UW Tacoma. Edwards Lange, ’00, ’06, has a celebrated history at the UW from her decade of service as the vice president of the Office of Minority Affairs and Diversity and vice provost for diversity. Among the milestones accomplished under her leadership were the naming and renovation of the Samuel E. Kelly Ethnic Cultural Center and the realization of a 40-plus year dream to build – Intellectual House.

Kristin Esterberg

joins UW Bothell as its 9th chancellor. The former State University of New York at Potsdam president has a long track record of expanding diversity, equity and inclusion efforts in her previous posts. “I am looking forward to advancing the campus’ strategic priorities to strengthen diversity and equity, enhance community and campus engagement, and advance cross-disciplinary teaching and scholarship,” she says.

A Beacon to Gather Around

The crests of all nine historically Black Greek organizations now have a home in the HUB

By Eric Moss

In 1933, the Delta Sigma Theta sorority established a chapter at the UW, paving the way for five other Black sororities and fraternities. There are now six active chapters at UW. Even then, the organizations understood that membership in a fraternity or sorority could change the way a student participates in all other college activities. This has been especially true for members of historically Black Greek-letter organizations in predominantly white colleges and universities.

While Black fraternities and sororities have thrived at the UW, their presence over the years has gone generally unrecognized. But now, thanks to the work of current students, their crests are on display in the HUB for all to see.

Black students who join the organizations may find an instant community, engage in systems of support designed to help them navigate white-centered institutions and develop lifelong networks with like-minded alumni. Additionally, the organizations offer students opportunities to develop leadership skills, support philanthropy and become mentors for those who join after them.

The governing body for nine historically African American fraternities and sororities, also known as the Divine Nine, is the National PanHellenic Council (NPHC). Many alumni of NPHC-affiliated chapters work as faculty and staff across all three UW campuses. Calen Garrett, president of the UW NPHC chapter says, “It’s just funny how all over campus there are people who are members of these proud organizations that have been here for so long, yet no one seems to know that we’re here and all we do for the community.

“We needed something physical to affirm that we’re here so people can see us. The other Greek councils have the entire Greek row that people can see and witness and experience every day. There was nothing really there for us that served as a beacon for us to gather.”

Last spring, Garrett was inspired by news that the University of Kentucky was publicly displaying its NPHC-affiliate crests. He started working with OMA&D and Student Life leadership toward a dedicated space where people could see an NPHC presence and find a spot for the Black Greek community to meet. In August, all nine NPHC crests were installed on the main floor of the HUB just outside the Associated Students of the University of Washington offices.

“So far the reception has been amazing from the alumni community,” says Garrett. “A lot of them come from schools that already have had crests installed for some time or even permanent plots or monuments, and it’s been amazing to have that love from so many people who are so far out of college, that they really just want us to have the same experience they had in school.” Garrett credits the short timeline and success of the project to the support from UW leadership. “It’s really about the future, and future students of color who come to campus to have something that speaks to them and speaks to their experience,” he says. “That’s what it’s all about, the future and all the marginalized students of color who come after me.”

Calen Garrett, president of the National Pan-Hellenic Council's Seattle chapter, speaks to a gathering of NPHC members and alumni at a dedication ceremony for the crests of the Divine Nine, traditionally African American fraternities and sororities.