Advocacy in Medicine (AIM) Conference - Navigating Borders: Addressing Global and Immigrant Healthcare Needs

Join us for an exciting conference hosted by the Advocacy in Medicine Work Group (AIM), titled "Navigating Borders: Addressing Global and Immigrant Healthcare Needs."

The evening will begin with a reception featuring poster presentations, showcasing original scientific research conducted by health professional students. These posters will explore topics in Immigrant, Global, and Refugee Health across clinical, laboratory, and social sciences disciplines.

Following the poster presentations, we are honored to welcome Theo Oshiro, Co-Executive Director of Make the Road New York, as our keynote speaker. Make the Road New York builds the power of immigrant and working-class communities to achieve dignity and justice. Theo Oshiro will deliver an inspiring keynote address, drawing from his extensive experience advocating for immigrant rights and healthcare access.

After the keynote, a dynamic panel discussion will feature leading experts in immigrant healthcare: Dr. Betty Kolod, MD, MPH (Montefiore Medical Center); Dr. Sana Malik, MSW, MPH, DrPH (Stony Brook University); Dr. Marc Shi, MD, MSc, AAHIVS (Montefiore Medical Center); and Guedy Arniella, LCSW (The Institute for Family Health). Together, they will explore innovative strategies to improve healthcare access and equity for underserved immigrant and global populations.

Food and beverage will be provided.

Keynote Speaker

Theo Oshiro
As Co-Executive Director of Make the Road NY (MRNY), Theo Oshiro helps lead MRNY’s strategic vision, leads high-impact service programs, including Adult Literacy and Health Advocacy, heads their Westchester-based work, and conducts key fundraising and finance functions. A Peruvian immigrant raised in Queens, Theo joined Make the Road in 2005 after receiving a Master’s Degree from the University of Chicago. Since he began at Make the Road, he has been a leading fundraiser, building MRNY’s health access team from the ground up and expanding the organization’s overall services infrastructure by tripling their staff size across Legal Services, Health, and Adult Education, and expanding services for members into their Long Island office. Theo helped lead Make the Road’s expansion into New Jersey, Connecticut, and Pennsylvania, as well as special projects on immigrant integration, civic engagement and voter mobilization, green space accessibility, and census advocacy and outreach. Theo led MRNY’s advocacy that resulted in the passage of a city-level law and state-level SafeRx legislation to require comprehensive interpretation and translation services to limited English proficient patients at chain and mail-order pharmacies. Theo has been recognized several times for his contributions to immigrant communities, winning the New York Lawyers for the Public Interest’s Felix A. Fishman Award and being named to City and State NY’s Labor Power 100 list in 2021. Theo was also appointed to serve on city- and state-level policy task forces focused on immigrant health and health disparities. primary care doctor for people who use drugs and prevention specialist living in the Bronx. She trained in the Primary Care and Social Internal Medicine Residency Program at Montefiore Medical Center and Albert Einstein College of Medicine.  Dr. Kolod is active in physician organizing and advocacy, with an emphasis on community-leadership and collaboration. She is on the Health Justice Steering Committee of Northwest Bronx Community and Clergy Coalition and chair of Physicians for a National Health Program-NY Metro Chapter, a leading organization in the struggle for universal healthcare.

Panelists

Betty Kolod, MD, MPH
Betty Kolod (she/her/hers), MD, MPH is a primary care doctor for people who use drugs and prevention specialist living in the Bronx. She trained in the Primary Care and Social Internal Medicine Residency Program at Montefiore Medical Center and Albert Einstein College of Medicine.  Dr. Kolod is active in physician organizing and advocacy, with an emphasis on community-leadership and collaboration. She is on the Health Justice Steering Committee of Northwest Bronx Community and Clergy Coalition and chair of Physicians for a National Health Program-NY Metro Chapter, a leading organization in the struggle for universal healthcare.

Sana Malik, MSW, MPH, DrPH
Sana Malik (she/her/hers), MSW, MPH, DrPH is an Assistant Professor at the Stony Brook University School of Social Welfare and serves as the chair of the American Public Health Association Public Health Social Work Section. Dr. Malik is an expert in disparities research and has served as consultant for various health and social service agencies, such as the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees. She was awarded a U.S. Fulbright Fellowship in Jordan, completed a Masters in Social Work from Virginia Commonwealth University, and later completed her Masters and Doctorate in Public Health from Johns Hopkins University, with certificates in Child and Adolescent Health and Humanitarian Assistance. Dr. Malik’s area of inquiry falls broadly under the umbrella of examining inequities in underserved populations including racial and ethnic minority groups, immigrants, and refugees, with a focus on behavioral health, cancer-related disparities, social determinants of health, social support structures, barriers and facilitators to care seeking behaviors, and culturally as well as religiously tailored health education programming.

Marc Shi,  MD, MSc, AAHIVS
Marc Shi (he/him/el) MD, MSc, AAHIVS completed his medical education at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine before moving to New York for residency in Primary Care and Social Internal Medicine at Montefiore Medical Center/Albert Einstein College of Medicine. He is currently an Assistant Professor of Medicine and general internist practicing primary care and HIV medicine at the Comprehensive Health Care Center, and is the on-site medical provider at The Brook supportive housing. His research focuses on developing tools at the provider and healthcare system level to address housing instability, and he organizes with the New York Doctors Coalition, the Northwest Bronx Community and Clergy Coalition and the Non-Violent Medicaid Army to fight for housing and health systems that prioritize people and communities over profit.

Guedy Arniella, LCSW
Guedy Arniella (she/her/hers), LCSW is a clinical social worker and psychotherapist with extensive experience working in East and Central Harlem and the South Bronx. At the Institute, she oversees a city-wide Immigrant Health Initiative, among other programs. She has been a co-principal investigator on numerous NIH and CDC grants aimed at addressing health disparities, and is fluent in Spanish. Ms. Arniella’s focus has always been to help improve the quality of life of those that are at higher risk for or impacted by health problems in communities of color. Prior to joining the Institute, Ms. Arniella managed the adult psychiatric department at Mount Sinai Medical Center and served as director of outreach for North General Hospital. In her current work at the Institute, she helps to assure access to essential health care for thousands of individuals in groups and communities affected by racism, discrimination and poverty, including formerly incarcerated people and asylum-seeking families