Suzinne Pak-Gorstein

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Suzinne Pak-Gorstein is an attending pediatrician at Harborview Medical Center, an Associate Professor in the Pediatrics Department,^[1] and an Adjunct Associate Professor in the Global Health Department at the University of Washington in Seattle. She serves on numerous committees and focuses her career on helping immigrant and refugee children and families. Pak-Gorstein focuses her work on Child Health Equity which includes Global Health Nutrition. More specifically; refugee health, global health, and global public health education. Pak-Gorstein is a contributor to many publications on global health, pediatrics, and nutrition.

Education[]

Pak-Gorstein attended Smith College in Northampton, Massachusetts to earn her Bachelor of Science in biochemistry and anthropology in 1986.^[2][3][4][5] Next, she completed her Master of Public Health in International Health and epidemiology in 1991 at the University of Michigan.^[2][6] After six years in medical school, Pak-Gorstein became a Doctor of Medicine after graduating from Michigan State University in 2000.^{[6][2][4][7][5]} From 1991 until 2001, she studied International Health and epidemiology at the University of Michigan and graduated with her PhD.^{[2][4][6][8][5]}

Career[]

Early career[]

While living in Michigan, Suzinne Pak-Gorstein did an internship at Children's Hospital.^[6] In Seattle, from 2003 to 2005, she completed her residency with the University of Washington Pediatrics Department as Seattle Children's Hospital.^[3][5] She began working for WHO and UNICEF in several countries in 1998, including Laos, Nepal, Indonesia, Bangladesh, and India, where she conducted national surveys, nutrition surveillance systems, and program monitoring and evaluation.^[2] Pak-Gorstein's role was to support the government and help plan and implement these new programs and also provide technical support. Her work focused on young child and infant feeding services, micronutrient deficiency monitoring and control, child survival, public health training, and establishing guidelines for micronutrient deficiency prevention.^[9][10] She has also worked as the lead author for the CDC, writing guidelines for nutrition and growth screening for refugee children in the United States.^[9]

Current career[]

Since 2006, Pak-Gorstein has served as the Medical Director for the Pediatrics Department at Harborview Medical Center and has worked for Seattle Children's Hospital.^[11] She also continues to work as an attending pediatrician at Harborview treating refugee and immigrant families, fighting food insecurity, providing health screenings, and focusing on child development.^[2][12] Currently, Dr. Pak-Gorstein is an Associate Professor in the Pediatrics Department and an Adjunct Associate Professor in the Department of Global Health where she teaches 'The History and Practice of Public Health' at the University of Washington.^[2]

Related organizations[]

Founding member[]

In 2009, Pak-Gorstein co-founded and now co-directs, the Resident Education and Advocacy in Child Health (REACH) program^[13] at Seattle Children's Hospital in conjunction with the University of Nairobi.^[2] The program aims to train residents on wholistic children's health that incorporates the community into public health while discussing policy, advocacy, and strategy for possible interventions.^[14] This innovative approach in training the residents earned the REACH program the National Teaching Program Award in 2014.^[15] As a founding member of the Northwest Immigrant and Refugee Health Coalition,^[16] Pak-Gorstein works with service groups and advocates for the rights of immigrants and refugees.^[8]

Leadership positions and membership[]

She is an advisor on several committees, including the International Rescue Committee, who provides necessities, education, and empowerment to refugee families in crises.^[2][17] She is featured as a valued provider who has a made a difference in many immigrant and refugee children's lives.^[18] Pak-Gorstein is a Pediatric Advisor on the Washington State Office of Refugee and Immigrant Assistance^[19] which can provide health services, food, money, employment help, and more through local organizations and agencies.^[20][2] As a co-chair of the Nutrition Think Tank sector of the Global Center for Integrated Health of Women, Adolescents, and Children (Global WACh),^[21] Pak-Gorstein works toward the broader goal of bettering the health and wellbeing of these groups.^[2][22] She is on the Steering Committee for the Global Health special interest group of the Academic Pediatric Association and conducts educational programs. Pak-Gorstein is also on the Pediatric Academic Societies^[23] Planning Committee for the Coalition of Centers in Global Child Health,^[24] which strives to improve the health of children through research, leadership, and education.^[2][9] Pak-Gorstein is involved with the American Academy of Pediatrics in several ways. This includes serving as a member of the Section on International Child Health^[25] (now called Section on Global Health), the co-chair of the Telehealth Equity workgroup. Pak-Gorstein also helped create a toolkit on Immigrant Health.^[26][27] She created and now leads modules for the Global Child Health Educational Modules Project.^[28][29][8]

Several more committees that she has been involved with include: the New Arrivals Working Group of King County,^[30] and Washington State Refugee Health Coalition.^[30]

Advocacy[]

Pak-Gorstein actively advocates against hate crimes towards immigrant and refugee children as it can lead to a myriad of other health problems and exacerbate others. To combat this, she has developed a toolkit^[31] for providers that includes tips, how to support these patients, how to screen children, and steps to address bullying and racism.^[32] She also encourages vaccinations to protect the community from harmful pathogens as well as promotes public awareness about vaccines and their lack of connection to autism.^[33][34]

Research[]

Pak-Gorstein is part of many publications, her research is dedicated to child health equity, including global health nutrition. Some of categories she focuses on within this include: refugee health, global public health education, and global health.

Many of her publications are to educate and inform health care workers so they can improve provided care. Pak-Gorstein's research aims to increase the global health training for residents and educate providers on cultural practices. Her research also provides ways to improve maternal and infant care along with care for refugee and immigrant children, who have a higher risk of malnutrition. Pak-Gorstein’s research discusses the cultural differences in feeding practices to provide more culturally appropriate care to groups who experience the dual burden of malnutrition at a higher rate. Such burdens include: wasting, stunting, overweight, and obesity.^[35][36][37] More ways to help immigrant and refugee children was found to be places for them to be physically active, programming for feeding practices, and access to healthy, fresh foods.^[38]

Her research has uncovered that many pediatric residents have a desire to work abroad and value global health training opportunities but it is not always offered, there is no set curriculum, and the current curriculums have gaps.^[39][40][41] In response to this, Pak-Gorstein has contributed to a new proposed curriculum for global child health to be implemented in residency programs and developed a program for University of Washington Seattle Children's Hospital pediatric residency program^[42] called the Resident Education in Advocacy and Child Health (REACH) program^[13] to provide global health education and experience.^[43][44]

In Kenya, she studied the long term effects of adverse childhood experiences and proposed interventions at different socio-ecological levels.^[45] Other research conducted in Kenya was to identify child health priorities, assets, and the needs of the community.^[46] Suzinne Pak-Gorstein was involved in another study in Kenya that aimed to determine perceptions of adolescent sexual and reproductive health and causes of adolescent pregnancy.^[47]

Through many different pathways, Suzinne Pak-Gorstein researches topics to address child health equity across the globe.

Awards[]

References[]