2023-2024 Fellow – Alumni
Yasmin Crespo-Mejias, MD, MPH
Yasmin Crespo-Mejias, MD, MPH
About Me
Born and raised in Hatillo, Puerto Rico, Yasmín graduated from the University of Puerto Rico Family Medicine Residency Program in 2023 and will join Kaiser Permanente as Community Medicine and Global Health Fellow. Her passions include preventive medicine and working with marginalized and underserved populations. She loves practicing medicine beyond the clinic and hospital walls. As a resident, Yasmín collaborated on the expansion of community outreach activities in the town of Loíza, Puerto Rico. She has traveled internationally to multiple global health sites and provided medical care to underserved Dominican Republic and Honduras communities. Yasmín hopes to make a positive impact in the Vallejo and Napa communities and provide continuity to projects at Kaiser’s Global Health partners. Her dream is to create community medicine and global health programs that serve vulnerable communities.
Overview
The Kaiser Permanente Napa-Solano Community Medicine and Global Health (CMGH) fellowship is designed to train family medicine physicians to become teachers, mentors and leaders in community medicine and global health, honoring the spectrum of field-based care ranging from local street medicine and primary care to care beyond our borders, with an emphasis on social justice and equity.
Highlights
- Research opportunities with the guidance of a research project manager
- Local, regional, and national opportunities to present scholarly work
- Established community partners
- Establish community-based projects
- Youth Network Development “Pipeline Development” work
- Mentorship
- Funded global health trips
- Experience in Street Medicine
During this 13-month fellowship, fellows will work with CMGH faculty to provide Community-Oriented Primary Care in medically underserved communities, engage in health disparities research and lead community-based research projects. Additionally, fellows will facilitate relationships between community partners and the Kaiser Napa-Solano Family Medicine Residency Program (KPNSFMRP) to integrate enriching, educational experiences into the resident community medicine rotation and the medical student community medicine sub-internship.
Clinical Work
Fellows split clinical time at across a variety of clinical settings where they occasionally precept medical students and residents. These clinical setting include:
- La Clinica North Vallejo: Federally Qualified Health Center (FQHC) in Vallejo
- Ole Health: FQHC in Napa
- Kaiser Vallejo Family and Community Medicine Department: Primary Care Clinic
- Care Without Walls: Kaiser’s Street medicine clinic
- One Love Vallejo Mobile Health: Non-profit-based Vallejo Street Medicine team
Ongoing Community Projects
KPSOARS
The fellow will chair the Kaiser Permanente Specialists Offering Access to Referral Services (KPSOARS) Committee which oversees the review and approval of short-term specialty access to uninsured patients at La Clinica. Responsibilities include:
- Facilitating monthly meetings with residents and faculty to review new referrals
- Follow-up on previously approved patients
- Act as a liaison between KP and La Clinica providers.
Leadership Forum
The fellow will facilitate a monthly leadership forum series for Napa Valley Community College students involved in the Medical Scholars Program. The primary goal of this series is to develop the students’ research and leadership skills while providing community volunteer opportunities.
Kaiser Napa Solano Family Medicine Residency
The fellow also serves as an instructor and junior faculty member of the KPNSFMRP, through precepting and teaching, health disparities advocacy, research, and clinical practice in resource-poor settings both locally and abroad.
Global Health
The Kaiser Permanente Napa-Solano Family Medicine Residency program is committed to sustainable and educational global health initiatives which consider the needs of the local community through direct clinical work, health education, or other support activities. The Fellow will have the unique opportunity of taking part in a long-term partnership with ENLACE, (ENLACE), a Honduran-based nonprofit which works with local doctors to bring in medical groups throughout the year to bolster and spread their impact. The Fellow works with ENLACE leaders to organize the annual trip made by the Kaiser Napa Solano Family Medicine Residency to bring care into the hillside communities around Taulabe. This trip also has an emphasis community health development and sustainable projects in these less accessible Honduran communities
Working in conjunction with the global health advisor, the fellow will help support global health opportunities for the KPNS family medicine residents. The fellow will also assist with global health didactic sessions and mentoring the residents and medical students participating in global health activities. The fellowship culminates with a yearly global health trip with residents as part of the residents’ leadership curriculum, with an emphasis on. Additionally, to further the fellow’s global health education, the CMGH fellow will take part in an online global health course.
Objectives
The Community Medicine & Global Health Fellow will:
- Receive training and career development through practical experience and the development of tools in the areas of teaching, health disparities research, advocacy, leadership and clinical care under direct faculty mentorship.
- Provide direct support to local FQHCs, street medicine clinics, and other community partners to meet the shared goals of eliminating health disparities and systemic racism and oppression, reducing community violence and supporting culturally mindful, integrated approaches to community health.
- Support local and regional Community Benefits by assisting in implementation and oversight of community-based strategies to address identified community health needs.
- Instruct, supervise and precept KPNSFM residents and medical students training in community based and international health sites.
- Support the residency program’s travel to established and potential global health training sites with priority given to international training sites that reflect the local demographics of Napa and Solano counties.
Sample Schedule
Additional Information
Global Health: An Interdisciplinary Overview Online Course
Salary and Benefits
- Competitive salary
- Benefits: Medical and dental coverage, 4 weeks paid vacation, educational stipend, $1500 relocation stipend, $2000 housing allowance, $720 wellness stipend, stipend for global health, monthly hospital meal allowance
Community Medicine & Global Health Graduates
| Name | Career |
|---|---|
| Tessa Stecker, MD | Program Director, KP Northern California Community Medicine Fellowships Program Director, KP Northern California Health Policy Elective Outpatient Family Medicine, Faculty, Kaiser Permanente Napa-Solano Family Medicine Residency Program |
| Elizabeth Iten, MD | Faculty Member, John Muir Family Medicine Residency Program UCSF Educational Alliance Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Anti-Oppression Co-Lead |
| Christina Kinnevey, MD | Assistant Professor, Primary Care Department, Touro University California Addiction Medicine Specialist Buprenorphine Treatment Clinic |
| Emily Fisher, MD | Faculty, Kaiser Permanente Napa-Solano Family Medicine Residency Program Director, Vallejo Mobile Unit |
| Jacquaé Walker, MD | Faculty, Family Medicine Program at Charles R. Drew University of Medicine and Science |
| Viviana A. Meléndez Muñiz, MD | Faculty, HCA Florida Oak Hill Family Medicine Residency Program |