Population-Based Health in Practice: Addressing Health-Related Social Needs for Hispanic/Latino Patients

Monica Vela, MD recently joined the University of Illinois College of Medicine as Professor of Medicine and Director of the Hispanic Center of Excellence. She also serves as Associate Editor for JAMA Network Open. She is the former Associate Vice Chair for Diversity and Associate Dean at University of Chicago Pritzker School of Medicine. She has spent the last 16 years directing a required course for first year medical students entitled, “Health Disparities: Equity and Advocacy,” which provides a structural competency foundation and advocacy training. Her coursework is the only course in the extant literature shown to improve diversity of the medical school applicants and improve the cultural climate among medical students.

Dr. Vela has been selected by Pritzker students for a Favorite Faculty Award 9 times since 2010 for her teaching. Her research spans medical education on health disparities and care of limited-English proficiency patients, as well as diversity in the medical profession. In 2012, she won the American College of Physician’s National Award for Diversity and Access to Care. In 2014, she was awarded the Society of General Internal Medicine National Herbert Nickens Award for Diversity and Minority Health as well as the inaugural Alpha Omega Alpha Fellow in Leadership Award. Also that year, she was awarded the University of Chicago Distinguished Faculty Award for Community Service. She was awarded the 2019 University of Chicago Diversity Leadership Award and was honored during the University’s annual Martin Luther King, Jr. commemoration.

Sergio Aguilar-Gaxiola, MD, PhD, is a professor of clinical internal medicine at the University of California Davis (UC Davis) School of Medicine in Sacramento. He is the Founding Director of the Center for Reducing Health Disparities at UC Davis Health, the Director of the Community Engagement Program of the UC Davis Clinical and Translational Science Center (CTSC), and a member of the Clinical and Translational Science Awards (CTSA) Community Collaboration Enterprise Committee Lead Team. He is a member of the National Advisory Council of the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Administration (SAMHSA) and the Center for Mental Health Services (CMHS). He also serves as a board member of Physicians for a Healthy California, the California Health Care Foundation, and the Public Health Institute.

Dr. Aguilar-Gaxiola’s applied research program has focused on identifying unmet health/mental health needs and associated risk and protective factors. He aims to better understand and meet population health/mental health needs and advance equity in health and mental health disparities for underserved populations. He has led community-based approaches to develop, implement, evaluate, and disseminate best practices on community engagement with underserved communities; he seeks to enhance interagency collaboration, transform systems of care, and advance health equity. Dr. Aguilar-Gaxiola is also very active in translating health, mental health, and substance abuse research knowledge into proactive policy and practical information that is of public health value to consumers, communities, providers, service administrators, and policymakers.

Dr. Aguilar-Gaxiola is currently serving as a member of the executive committee of the World Health Organization’s (WHO) World Mental Health Survey Consortium (WMH) and as its coordinator for Latin America participating countries. He played an instrumental role in the 2^nd edition of Principles of Community Engagement as published by the National Institutes of Health (NIH), the CTSA, and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), overseeing its entire Spanish translation. He has also contributed to the 3^rd edition of Principles of Community Engagement and led the writing of a 10^th principle on the key role trustworthiness plays in advancing health equity.

Dr. Aguilar-Gaxiola is a co-chair of the organizing committee of the National Academy of Medicine (NAM) Assessing Meaningful Community Engagement Measures in Health and Health Care. He is the author of over 190 publications and the recipient of multiple international, national, state, and local awards. Most recently, he received 2^nd place in the Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC) Innovations That Bolster Community Trust in Science Award for the Interdisciplinary Collaboration and Cultural Transformation Model (ICCTM) project.