Across the country, immigrants contribute to the fabric of our society. Working essential jobs, raising families, and enriching our neighborhoods. When it comes to health care, however, many face barriers that go far beyond the doctor’s office: language obstacles, limited access to insurance, fear tied to immigration status, and cultural differences that can make navigating the system overwhelming. In today’s episode, we’ll discuss how our most vulnerable communities are navigating these challenges to health equity.

Today, I’m joined by Dr. Sarah Kimball, Director of the Immigrant & Refugee Health Center at Boston Medical Center and an Associate Professor of Medicine at Boston University School of Medicine. She completed her medical school training at Harvard University Medical School and did residency training in Internal Medicine at the Brigham and Women’s Hospital Residency Program in Primary Care and Population Medicine. She joined the faculty at Boston University Chobanian & Avedisian School of Medicine in 2014. Dr. Kimball has expertise in immigration-informed medical care, where she has helped to research and build health systems that are responsive to the needs of im/migrant patients. She is currently the Director of the Immigrant & Refugee Health Center (IRHC) at BMC, a comprehensive medical home that addresses the barriers that immigrants face to being holistically healthy. She has served previously as the Medical Director of the Boston Accountable Care Organization (BACO) Complex Care Management (CCM) program at BMC. In addition to a love of primary care, Dr. Kimball’s main interest is in teaching social justice and advocacy skills. She is an associate editor at the Journal of Immigrant and Minority Health, with an expertise in Health Services Research. She was a founding member of the Society of Refugee Health Providers and serves at the co-Chair of the Research, Evaluation, and Ethics Committee.

Our discussion today focuses on Disability Justice, a movement that centers the voices and experiences of those most marginalized, recognizing that disability is not a single, isolated experience. Disability inclusion is vital for social justice. It is deeply interconnected with race, class, gender, and other systems of oppression. Their slogan ‘'Nothing About Us Without Us' is a powerful statement that reminds us why centering those with disabilities in this fight for justice is imperative.

Today I’m joined by Mallory Cyr. Mallory combines lived experience as a disabled woman with a rare disease and professional expertise in healthcare policy and transition to adulthood. She earned her MPH in Maternal & Child Health from Boston University and a BFA in Creative Writing from the University of Maine at Farmington. A nationally recognized expert, Mallory has provided ADA consulting, technical assistance, and over 50 workshops and keynote presentations to state and national organizations. She previously served as a policy specialist and contract manager for Colorado Medicaid, overseeing the statewide Non-Emergency Medical Transportation benefit and advancing systems and benefits for individuals with disabilities and medical complexities. From 2008 to 2020, she contributed to the National Center on Healthcare Transition Improvement, co-authoring a textbook chapter on health care transition published by Springer in 2018 (Health Care Transition: Building a Program for Adolescents and Young Adults with Chronic Illness and Disability). Mallory has been honored with Boston University’s 2021 MCH Alumnae Award for Outstanding Service and the DeBeaumont Foundation’s 2023 40 Under 40 in Public Health. Mallory lives in North Carolina with her husband and their rescue dog, Tinsley. To learn more about Mallory and her work, visit MalloryCyr.com.

Fellowships are a wonderful way for students to pursue additional hands-on experience during their academic career. They’re defined as any amount paid or allotted to, or for the benefit of, an individual to aid such individual in the pursuit of study or research. There are two types of fellowships that the Center of Excellence offers: practice and research. Practice fellows work closely with community leaders, while Research fellows work closely with faculty members. Having a fellowship can provide even the most unlikely of skills, for example, hosting this podcast has been an incredible practice fellowship. I’ve had the chance to meet and interview incredible practitioners in various fields of public health. Luckily, the MCH fellowships are open to all on-campus MPH students.

Today I’m joined by 3 different MCH Student Fellows who have spent the last year working on various projects. 1 Research fellow: Jennifer Madu; and 2 Practice fellows: DeJah Fleurancois and Margaret Jones. They will explain the work they’ve been doing and how this has impacted their public health journey.