Health Equity Champions

Health Equity Champion Honorees

• 

  MarkAlain Dery, DO, MPH

  LCMC Health, Access Health Louisiana, Orlando College of Osteopathic Medicine

  I have dedicated my career to advancing health equity in infectious diseases through clinical leadership and community education.  

• 

  Mariana Gomez, MD

  Carilion Clinic, Virginia Tech Carilion School of Medicine

  My work in advancing health equity in infectious diseases has focused on improving the hepatitis C care continuum for rural and underserved populations in Appalachian Virginia. I am proud to have built teams of compassionate clinicians, nurses, patient navigators and community partners who strive to meet patients where they are. By also supporting and training other providers to deliver HCV care, this team-based approach has expanded access to curative therapy and helped reduce disparities related to geography, stigma and insurance status. 

• 

  Nathanial Nolan, MD, MPH, MHPE

  Street Med St. Louis, St. Louis Veterans Affairs, St. Louis University

  I founded and now run a nonprofit organization called Street Medicine St. Louis, which provides outreach medical care to people who are housing-unstable. This was started as a solo endeavor during my infectious diseases fellowship after I met a homeless patient admitted with endocarditis. Without a home, phone, transportation, etc., his care was complicated and fragmented. His pathway into the health care system was difficult and, even when hospitalized, he had trouble feeling heard by his medical team. He taught me that a different solution was needed for patients living on the fringes of modern society. 

• 

  Entisar Jazaa Almodyan, PharmD, BCPS, BCIDP, CMTMP, AAHIVP

  Maternity and Children Hospital, Hail Health Cluster, Saudi Arabia

  My work in advancing health equity in infectious diseases has focused on ensuring that vulnerable populations – particularly neonates, children, pregnant women and patients with limited health literacy – receive timely, evidence-based and equitable antimicrobial care. As an infectious diseases clinical pharmacist practicing in a maternity and children’s hospital within the Hail Health Cluster, I serve a population that includes high-risk patients, families from rural and underserved areas, and individuals facing barriers related to access, education and continuity of care. 

• 

  Priya Nori, MD, FIDSA

  Montefiore Health System, Albert Einstein College of Medicine

  I’m most proud of providing mentorship and sponsorship to medical students, residents, fellows, pharmacists and junior physicians from the South Asian diaspora and using my voice and platform to shed light on critical issues impacting our workforce. I’m honored to provide an example of what a South Asian health care leader looks like for young professionals. I take this responsibility seriously and display my cultural heritage proudly in professional spaces. I draw from my background as much as possible during presentations at national meetings and publications, whether through anecdotes, through teaching materials or through my attire. I consider this my “superpower” and use it to connect with ID specialists from all cultural backgrounds. I also use it to successfully recruit young physicians into ID to ensure our workforce is sustained. I try to embody the philosophy that there is room for all voices and perspectives in medicine and ID, and that this diversity makes us richer and more effective and builds workforce resiliency. 

• 

  Prerana Roth, MD, MPH

  Prisma Health-Upstate, University of South Carolina School of Medicine, Clemson University School of Health Research

  I strive to overcome barriers created by structural inequalities to ensure lifesaving treatment is available to all. I am most proud of the journey of implementing HIV and HCV screening in the emergency departments across our large health care system and then putting in multiple programs with collaboration across departments to ensure all people diagnosed are able to receive care. Our HCV Ab positivity rate was 4%, much higher than the national average, and South Carolina did not have the infrastructure to treat everyone. Our gastroenterology department did not even treat people with substance use disorder or alcohol use, so I trained myself in HCV treatment and took courses offered by IDSA. I then trained NPs and physicians across the system in family medicine and addiction medicine and our mobile health units. Even with increased access to appointments, people were not able to make it to the appointments due to costs, competing priorities, lack of transportation and mistrust of the health care system. To overcome this barrier, we obtained grant funding and collaborated with community paramedics to bring treatment to each patient with lab work and medication delivery to the home (or mutual meeting spot) and a telemedicine visit with an HCV treatment provider. We have also engaged with OB colleagues to expedite treatment for those diagnosed during pregnancy to ensure they receive treatment while they are still engaged with the health system during their peripartum period. This process of creating systems to provide care and HCV cure to those who likely otherwise would not have received it is what I am most proud of. I hope to make these systems self-sustaining in the future. 

• 

  Dovie Watson, MD, MSCE

  University of Pennsylvania Perelman School of Medicine, Department of Medicine, Division of Infectious Diseases

  My clinical practice, research and professional advocacy work have focused on fostering more equitable sexual health care service provision for LGBTQ+ patients with multiple marginalized identities through the elimination of provider-level and organization-level stigma, discrimination and other barriers to equitable care. I previously served as a member of the Health Equity Alliance in the Penn Medicine Center for Health Equity Advancement, leading professional development workshops on LGBTQ health inequities for medical providers across the Penn Medicine health system. 

• 

  Alysse Wurcel, MD, MS, FIDSA

  Boston University School of Medicine

  I am a leader in the field of health disparities in carceral settings. I am most proud of the work I did during COVID-19 to support best practices in the carceral system for mitigating transmission. I am able to bridge the divide between people working in carceral administration (e.g., the sheriffs and wardens), people providing health care in carceral settings and the needs of people who are incarcerated.