MD – The Warren Alpert Medical School of Brown University, Providence, RI
Residency – Pediatrics, Children’s National Hospital, Washington, DC

Biography: Dr. Jeanne Delgado, a pediatrician, is interested in medical practice for historically under-resourced children and families and aims to utilize their needs as the primary influence for leading program evaluation to discern the efficacy of social programs within a community organization or medical home. Her research interests include identifying the role of social determinants of health in HIV transmission and developing methods to address sexual and reproductive health needs among immigrants and in the global health field.

As an NCSP scholar, Dr. Delgado graduated with a Master of Public Health in Epidemiology and completed her clinic requirements with the Los Angeles County Department of Health Services as a newborn hospitalist at Olive/View Medical Center. Her main research project is entitled “Associations Among County-Level Social Service and Police Expenditures with Adverse Birth Outcomes,” which used over 20 years of annual nationwide county budgets to understand how the relationship between a county’s prioritization of police spending versus spending on social services is associated with health outcomes among black and Latinx communities. She was mentored on this project by Drs. Rebecca Dudovitz (UCLA), Nina Harawa (UCLA), Nick Jackson (UCLA), Onyebuchi Arah (UCLA) with research assistance from Rebecca Young (UCLA). For this focus on racial and health disparities, Dr. Delgado was awarded the HEALRISE (HEALth, Racism, Inequities, and Social Epidemiology) scholarship of $10,000 to complete the project. Dr. Delgado also participated in COVID-19 research with Dr. Peter Szilagyi (UCLA), a highly recognized leader in vaccination research. She became part of this COVID-19 work group and contributed to developing questions that were administered nationwide to parents of children and adolescents in order to understand their behaviors and attitudes toward COVID-19 vaccination for their family. This group’s efforts resulted in several published manuscripts, including one of the top 10 cited Pediatrics articles of 2021.

Dr. Delgado rounded out her clinical and research work with extracurricular activities at COVID-19 vaccination sites with local FQHCs. She also partnered with Esperanza, a legal aid organization for newly arrived immigrants in Los Angeles, to serve as a physician mentor to introduce UCLA medical students to immigrant healthcare. Lastly, Dr. Delgado completed a health policy elective with the Refugee Health Alliance (RHA) at their clinical headquarters in Tijuana, Mexico. During fellowship Dr. Delgado regularly participated in medical triage assessments at the U.S.-Mexico border on behalf of RHA and during her elective was able to work alongside board members, administrators, and volunteers to learn how frequently changing US immigration policy affects the care provided to migrants living at the US-Mexico border. From this experience, Dr. Delgado learned how a clinic serving marginalized communities cares for the social and medical needs of patients in a low-resource setting. This experience, alongside the research expertise gained from NCSP, has provided Dr. Delgado with the practical skills needed for her career post-fellowship. Dr. Delgado joined the team of CHLA/AltaMed in September 2022 to continue her research and clinical work.