Iván Marquez, MD, PL-1
The Sacramento Native American Health Center (SNAHC) is a federally qualified health center that serves as a patient-centered medical home for a diverse population of Sacramento youth. This project aims to adapt the Reach Out and Read (ROR) model to reflect the inclusive and culturally responsive care model practiced at SNAHC. The ROR program will include an integrated, family-centered curriculum that will be used to prompt brief discussions between parents and pediatric providers about the effects of discrimination on childhood health. The curriculum will be designed to acknowledge the role of discrimination as a core social determinant of health and will emphasize strategies for parents to encourage early childhood resilience to discrimination. By adapting the evidence-based ROR model, this project also aims to replicate the program’s well documented advances in early childhood literacy by increasing access to age-appropriate books and promoting positive parent-child interactions that are known to confer lifelong benefits to early childhood development.
Ultimately, the goal of this project is not to change individual behaviors but rather to contribute to the workplace culture essential to SNAHC’s care model. Consistent with the AAP’s Policy Statement on The Impact of Racism on Child and Adolescent Health, we understand discrimination to be a function of institutional structures, and we affirm the need for pediatricians to acknowledge its pervasive role in the lives of our communities. By incorporating our curriculum into the ROR model, we hope not only to foster a safe and inclusive space for healing for all our patients but to also make the program a sustainable feature of the pediatric care we deliver at SNAHC.
Meet the project leader:
Iván was raised in the suburbs of Chicago by two Mexican immigrants whose relentless labor and love paved the way for him to pursue a higher education. He attended Stanford University and graduated with a BA with Honors in American Studies. His academic interest in the culture of American health care culminated with an honors thesis that described ways that passage of the Children’s Health Insurance Program reflected the myopic tendencies of US health politics. He was accepted to the Humanities and Medicine Program at the Mount Sinai School of Medicine, where he received his MD in 2019. During his time at Mount Sinai, he conducted health services research on racial and ethnic health disparities in a network of community health centers in New York state. He also engaged in a two-year community project with an East Harlem-based nonprofit working to redress asthma-related child health disparities in New York City by increasing access to community health workers. He is currently completing postgraduate training at the University of California, Davis Pediatric Residency program, where he hopes to continue working to address disparities in youth mental wellness, especially for those living in historically marginalized communities. After completing residency training, he plans on joining the National Health Services Corp and practicing as a community pediatrician.