The American Public Health Association Honors Angela Diaz, MD, PhD, MPH, Director of the Mount Sinai Adolescent Health Center
To receive the 2023 Helen Rodriguez-Trias Social Justice Award for her lifelong work delivering quality health care to vulnerable young adults and adolescents.
The American Public Health Association (APHA) is giving its annual award for excellence in public health leadership and innovation to Angela Diaz, MD, PhD, MPH, Dean of Global Health, Social Justice, and Human Rights at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai.
Dr. Diaz, who is also Director of the Mount Sinai Adolescent Health Center and Jean C. and James W. Crystal Professor in Adolescent Health, will receive the Helen Rodriguez-Trias Social Justice Award for her lifelong work delivering quality health care to vulnerable young adults and adolescents.
The Helen Rodriguez-Trias Social Justice Award is given to someone who has worked toward social justice for underserved and disadvantaged populations with a goal of improving the health and well-being of these populations through work that leads to the elimination of health disparities. This work should empower disenfranchised communities to make healthy changes, and influence public policies toward a greater equitable distribution of resources for those with little or none. This award is named after the late Helen Rodriguez-Trias, MD, past president of APHA and a pediatrician.
For decades, Dr. Diaz has embodied this award. Since 1989, Dr. Diaz has led the Mount Sinai Adolescent Health Center in New York City, a unique program that provides high-quality comprehensive, integrated, and interdisciplinary primary, sexual and reproductive health, and behavioral and mental health care—as well as health education, nutrition, and legal services—to more than 12,000 adolescents and young adults annually, all under one roof, at no cost to patients.
Dr. Diaz is an advocate for policy and public health strategies that reduce and prevent child trafficking, and served on a National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine committee that influenced the creation of state and federal child trafficking laws.
Dr. Diaz has also conducted many international health projects in Asia, Central and South America, Europe, and Africa, and is a frequent speaker at conferences throughout the country and around the world.
Dr. Diaz earned her medical degree from Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons. She completed her residency in Pediatrics at Mount Sinai and an Adolescent Medicine fellowship at the Mount Sinai Adolescent Health Center. Dr. Diaz earned a Master of Public Health from Harvard University and a PhD in Epidemiology from Columbia University.
This year’s award will be presented at an event on Tuesday, November 14, from 12:30-2 p.m.
About the Mount Sinai Health System
Mount Sinai Health System is one of the largest academic medical systems in the New York metro area, with 48,000 employees working across eight hospitals, more than 400 outpatient practices, more than 600 research and clinical labs, a school of nursing, and a leading school of medicine and graduate education. Mount Sinai advances health for all people, everywhere, by taking on the most complex health care challenges of our time—discovering and applying new scientific learning and knowledge; developing safer, more effective treatments; educating the next generation of medical leaders and innovators; and supporting local communities by delivering high-quality care to all who need it.
Through the integration of its hospitals, labs, and schools, Mount Sinai offers comprehensive health care solutions from birth through geriatrics, leveraging innovative approaches such as artificial intelligence and informatics while keeping patients’ medical and emotional needs at the center of all treatment. The Health System includes approximately 9,000 primary and specialty care physicians and 11 free-standing joint-venture centers throughout the five boroughs of New York City, Westchester, Long Island, and Florida. Hospitals within the System are consistently ranked by Newsweek’s® “The World’s Best Smart Hospitals, Best in State Hospitals, World Best Hospitals and Best Specialty Hospitals” and by U.S. News & World Report's® “Best Hospitals” and “Best Children’s Hospitals.” The Mount Sinai Hospital is on the U.S. News & World Report® “Best Hospitals” Honor Roll for 2024-2025.
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