Spotlight on Community Champions

As a nonprofit safety net healthcare provider, Marin Community Clinics is dependent on volunteers, donors, partner agencies, and other supporters – our Champions. With the ongoing and generous support of Marin residents, businesses, foundations, and health professionals, we are able to maintain and expand our essential services. The incredible success of our 2007-2008 Building a Healthy Future capital campaign, which resulted in new state-of-the-art clinic facilities in San Rafael and Novato, is a testament to the foresight and generosity of our community.

This page will provide a rotating spotlight on some of Marin Community Clinics’ most valued contributors.

Dr. Albert Varner

Dr. Albert Varner has been a volunteer gastroenterologist at Marin Community Clinics for many years. And, as if lending his medical expertise was not enough, he also served on the Building a Healthy Future Capital Campaign committee, tirelessly seeking donors and gifts for the historic initiative to build our San Rafael and Novato clinics.

Dr. Varner is a graduate of Davidson College and Harvard Medical School. After internship and residency at the UCLA Medical Center, he became Chief Resident at the American Hospital in Paris. Upon his return to the United States, he completed a fellowship in gastroenterology at the Los Angeles VA Medical Center and subsequently became an Assistant Professor of Medicine at UCLA. In 1980 Dr. Varner entered private practice in Marin County, and currently he is a member of Marin Gastroenterology in Greenbrae. His work as Medical Director of the Endoscopy Center of Marin and on the board of the Marin IPA keeps him busy when he is not seeing patients.

In his words: “I've enjoyed my work at MCC and found it to be very rewarding in many ways. I encourage my colleagues to give it a try in hopes they'll like doing it as much as I do. The patients are grateful and the staff is wonderful. MCC is truly one of the county's greatest assets.”

Dr. Patrick Bennett

Dr. Patrick Bennett, a native of San Rafael, has been serving as a volunteer urologist at Marin Community Clinics for about 13 years. He was educated at Saint Ignatius College Preparatory in San Francisco, Harvard College, and UCSF Medical School. After two years of general surgery training and residency at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston, he returned to Marin County and joined Marin Urology in Greenbrae. Dr. Bennett is Board certified in Urology, and a member of the American Urologic Association and the American Medical Association. He is on the medical staffs of Marin General Hospital, Novato Community Hospital, and Kentfield Rehabilitation Hospital. He maintains an active practice of both office-based and in-patient surgical procedures.

In addition to his work with MCC, he frequently performs surgery as a volunteer with Operation Access. Dr. Bennett also served on the Building a Healthy Future capital campaign committee, gathering support for MCC’s facilities expansion project among members of the medical community.

He credits his parents for modeling the rewards of giving back to the community. His mother still volunteers at the San Rafael elementary school Dr. Bennett attended as a child! “I attended UCSF medical school, and I feel that the people of our state made an investment in me which I am now fortunate enough to repay in part as a volunteer physician. I enjoy working at MCC as I believe that it provides an essential role in caring for the residents of Marin. MCC is an efficient, inspiring place to practice medicine.”