ERIE, Pa. — Dr. Ala Stanford’s path to a profession in drugs, and to a publish on the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, the place she served as a regional director, overseeing all federal well being applications in 5 states and the District of Columbia, started at age 8.
“In Philadelphia, when you are an impoverished kid, everyone goes to the health center,” Stanford mentioned. “We went to Public Health Center No. 5. There was a physician there who was a Black lady, and he or she appeared so relaxed. She appeared joyful and put-together. She had on good garments.
“I had never seen someone like her before,” she mentioned.
Stanford determined she would attend school. She enrolled at Penn State Behrend and went on to earn a level in biology from the Penn State Eberly College of Science. She earned her medical diploma from the Penn State College of Medicine.
She was the primary Black feminine pediatric surgeon to be skilled solely within the United States.
Stanford, a 2022 Alumni Fellow, lately returned to Behrend as a featured visitor within the school’s Speaker Series. She mentioned her work with the Black Doctors COVID-19 Consortium, which led to appearances on NCS and in USA Today, and her position on the Department of Health and Human Services. She additionally appeared on Chancellor Ralph Ford’s podcast, “Behrend Talks.”
She based the Black Doctors COVID-19 Consortium, she mentioned, as a result of residents of Philadelphia’s minority communities weren’t receiving enough medical care. At the time, simply three of each 1,000 residents had entry to COVID testing.
“I was the doctor people could reach,” she mentioned. “They have been all calling me, saying, ‘Ala, I think I have COVID. I’m going to the hospital.’ And the hospitals have been sending them dwelling, saying they weren’t sick sufficient, or their physician wasn’t on employees at that hospital.
“I started calling the hospitals,” she mentioned. “I asked them, ‘Are you really turning people away?’ And they said, ‘We have to. We’re swamped.’”
As a surgeon with a personal observe, Staford had entry to masks, gloves and surgical robes. She had accounts with lab firms that would present testing kits. She started to make home calls, providing on-the-spot COVID assessments.
Her husband drove the van.
“We went door to door,” she mentioned. “People would come out on their porch. I would do the COVID test, put it in ice, and then we were on to the next house.”
She administered 12 assessments on that first day. It wasn’t practically sufficient. She determined to ask her pastor for assist.
“I went to the city website, and I could see the ZIP codes where the positivity rates were the highest,” she mentioned. “We started reaching out to churches in those areas, asking, ‘Can we have your parking lot, some electricity and a restroom for our staff?’ And we built triage hospitals right there in the parking lots.”
It labored. Within the week, with assist from a rising pool of volunteers, she was screening 400 sufferers every single day.
“It wasn’t just churches,” she mentioned. “We have been at mosques. We have been at union halls. We have been at parks and recreation facilities. We have been on avenue corners.
“With any public health strategy, regardless of the group you are serving, you need to understand what people need and who they trust,” she mentioned. “I don’t believe that people showed up because I was a Black woman doctor. They didn’t know who I was. But they knew that church, and they knew that pastor. And because the pastor said it was OK, they trusted us.”
Her work with the Black Doctors COVID-19 Consortium thrust Stanford right into a public highlight, and into a unbroken dialogue about public well being. NCS known as, and Forbes, and USA Today. She obtained the George H.W. Bush Points of Light Award.
She used her new platform to increase the work of the consortium, forming the Dr. Ala Stanford Center for Health Equity. She wrote a guide, a memoir-manifesto titled, “Take Care of Them Like My Own.”
In October, she launched a congressional marketing campaign.
“My default is to serve,” she mentioned. “That has been my entire life. And the more I have given, the more I get back. Now that I have this platform, and when I talk, people listen, it seems like this is the path to have the most impact for my community.”
To take heed to the total recording of Dr. Ala Stanford’s dialogue with Chancellor Ralph Ford, visit the “Behrend Talks” archive.