At the WCAAP Health Equity Summit we will have two breakout times with three different options for learning.
Session 1: Convening and Conversation
Developing SMARTIE Aims for Ecosystems Change
Participants will become confident changemakers in this session. WCAAP GATHER facilitators, Marcus Baca MD and Annie Hoopes MD, MPH, will explain how thoughtful and intentional SMARTIE aims advance health equity. Audience members will also hear from featured WCAAP GATHER alumni – Anna Snyder, Peter Metzger, Zeke Melquist, Kim Chi Cheuck, and Amrita Stark – to learn that each individual has the capacity to create a more just health system.
Facilitators:
Andrea (Annie) Hoopes, MD, MPH (she/her)
Andrea (Annie) Hoopes, MD, MPH (she/her) is a board-certified adolescent medicine physician at Kaiser Permanente Washington and Assistant Investigator at Kaiser Permanente Washington Health Research Institute. Annie’s research aims to promote adolescent healthcare equity by co-designing, implementing, and studying interventions that support and innovate how teens receive healthcare. She prioritizes projects focused on adolescent sexual and reproductive health, apply qualitative and human-centered design research methods, and involve collaborators passionate about using research as a tool for system and policy change. Dr. Hoopes is a member of the WCAAP Equitable Care Committee and a GATHER facilitator
Marcus Baca, MD, FAAP
Dr. Marcus Baca is a pediatrician based in Albuquerque, New Mexico, his hometown. He earned his medical degree from the University of New Mexico and completed his pediatric residency at the University of Washington/Seattle Children’s Hospital. He currently practices outpatient pediatrics with a particular focus on mental health and the care of children in foster care. With a passion for equity in healthcare, he serves as a facilitator for the GATHER curriculum, an antiracist educational training for other pediatricians and medical professionals, through the Washington Chapter of the AAP. Outside of medicine, he enjoys traveling, outdoor adventures, and spending time with his fiancée and their rambunctious dogs.
Panelists:
Peter Metzger MD, FAAP (he/him)
Dr. Metzger is a general pediatrician with HealthPoint @ Family First Community Center in Renton, WA. As a physician, Peter is passionate about empowering patients and families to be confident decision-makers about their bodies and health. His clinic partners with the Family First Community Center to provide integrated healthcare (medical/dental/mental health) in a community center setting – aiming to improve whole community wellbeing. Outside of clinic, Peter’s loves to couple the nuanced art of teaching with the often hard-to-talk-about topics of puberty, gender, and sexuality in his work with Great Conversations. Peter is delighted to partner with his wife to raise their daughter, cultivating a shared joy of cycling, running, and being in the mountains.
Kim Chi Cheuck, MD, FAFP
As a child of refugees, Dr. Kim Chi Cheuck developed a passion to serve vulnerable communities early on. She is currently a family physician and clinical site director at Healthpoint. She aims to personally guide the health of families and promote equitable healthcare for all.
Anna Snyder, MD, FAAP
Dr. Anna Snyder is a general pediatrician in Bellingham, WA. She completed residency at Seattle Children’s and worked in Yakima following residency. Her clinical interests and advocacy include adolescent medicine, gender care, and working to reduce weight stigma in medicine. She serves on the WCAAP Equitable Care Committee.
Zeke Melquist, MBBS, FAAP
Ezekiel Melquist (He/Him/His) is a general pediatrician at a rural health center and critical access hospital. He is a member of the WCAAP’s Equitable Care Committee and has a passion for social justice issues.
Amrita Stark, MD
Amrita Stark MD FAAP is a general pediatrician and partner at Child and Adolescent Clinic based in Vancouver, Washington. Her community practice is committed to serving all children regardless of insurance type. Dr. Stark works on Health Equity and Advocacy in her clinic and community. When not working or thinking about working, she enjoys reading, writing, making art, exploring, and spending time with her family and friends.
The Intersection of Health Equity and Primary Care Transformation
Tumaini Rucker Coker, MD, MBA, FAAP
Medicaid covers 4 in 10 children nationwide, thus its implementation has great potential to advance child health equity. In this breakout session, attendees will learn about options for primary care transformation, with a focus on Medicaid, to advance health equity.
Dr. Coker is Division Head for General Pediatrics and Professor of Pediatrics at the University of Washington School of Medicine and Seattle Children’s. As a general pediatrician and community-engaged health services researcher, her research focuses on community-partnered pediatric primary care delivery design to promote health equity and eliminate health and healthcare disparities for children and families in low- income communities. Dr. Coker leads a successful and extramurally-funded research program with a focus on community-engaged design, adaptation, testing, and dissemination of preventive care delivery models. She is the former and founding Research Director of the Health Equity Research Program at Seattle Children’s Center for Diversity and Health Equity, and serves as the Co-Director of the University of Washington’s NIH-funded Child Health Equity Research Fellowship. Dr. Coker is an elected member of the National Academy of Medicine, and previously served as chair for the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine’s (NASEM) Committee on Addressing the Long-Term Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Children and Families, as a committee member for the of the committee for the NASEM consensus report, Implementing High-Quality Primary Care: Rebuilding the Foundation of Health Care, and is a member of the NASEM Standing Committee on Primary Care. Dr. Coker is also a member of the United States Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF).
Vaccine Equity: Data, Barriers, and Solutions
Jamilia Sherls, DNP, MPH, RN, CPN, CDP
Join us at the WCAAP Equity Summit in May 2025 for a learning session focused on increasing vaccine confidence. Leaders as they share successful interventions, practical tools, and strategies to support equitable immunization practices. Gain valuable insights to enhance your approach and better serve diverse communities in your practice!
Dr. Jamilia Sherls, DNP, MPH, RN, CPN, CDP is a public health nurse with almost 20 years of experience managing community health programs and addressing health inequities. She is currently the Director of the Office of Immunization at the Washington State Department of Health and leads a large, amazing team that is dedicated to protecting Washingtonians from vaccine-preventable diseases. Collectively, Dr. Sherls and her staff collaborate with providers, insurers, local and tribal health, and community partners to implement evidence-based strategies designed to increase vaccine coverage rates, provide clinical immunization education and trainings, support outbreak responses, and uphold school and childcare immunization requirements. Dr. Sherls also has years of experience as a health care system leader and a pediatric acute care nurse. Dr. Sherls has received numerous awards and recognition for her work in equity and public health, including the 2021 March of Dimes Heroes in Action Award of Excellence, and has been invited to speak at several national conferences and webinars. She is a clinical faculty member at the University of Washington-Tacoma School of Nursing and Healthcare Leadership.
Dr. Sherls received a Doctor of Nursing Practice and a Master of Science in Nursing in Community Systems Administration at Thomas Jefferson University; a Master of Public Health in Community Health & Prevention at the Drexel University Dornsife School of Public Health; a Bachelor of Science in Nursing at Thomas Jefferson University; and a Bachelor of Science in Biology at the University of Puget Sound. She also holds two professional certifications in pediatric nursing and diversity and is a member of the Sigma Theta Tau International Honor Society of Nursing and the Delta Omega Honorary Society in Public Health. Dr. Sherls serves on the Association of Immunization Managers (AIM) Executive Committee as Secretary-Treasurer and represents AIM on the CDC Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) HPV workgroup.
Session 2: Skill Building
Upstanding Microaggressions & Talking About Racism with Patients
Peter Asante, MD, FAAP & Patricia Egwuatu, MD
Health justice leaders, Peter Asante MD and Patricia Egwuatu MD, will lead an interactive discussion about microaggressions and racism in medicine. Participants will learn about how to be an upstander in the name of health justice and discuss ways to invite conversations about racism with patients and families in the clinical space.
Dr. Patricia Egwuatu is the Associate Program Director of Equity Inclusion and Diversity at Kaiser Permanente Family Medicine Residency Program in Seattle, WA. She practices full spectrum Family Medicine and as the Associate Program Director facilitates the Racism in Medicine curriculum and EID efforts. Dr. Egwuatu currently teaches a course at the University of Washington School of Medicine called African American/Black and Health Care disparities. She grew up in Auburn Washington and is of Nigerian and Ugandan descent. Dr. Egwuatu graduated from the University of Washington and earned her BA in Medical Anthropology and Global Health, attended Pacific NW University of Health Sciences for Medical School and graduated from University of Washington Family Medicine Residency Program. She is actively involved as a board member for the King County Health Board, Washington Academy of Family Physicians Foundation and Nourish 2 Thrive, a nonprofit organization focusing on enhancing the health and nutrition of perinatal women and infants in BIPOC communities.
Peter Asante, MD FAAP is a board-certified General Pediatric Physician with a passion for adolescent medicine, currently practicing at Mary Bridge Pediatrics in Auburn, WA who approaches his clinical practice through the lens of community health and antiracist implementation science. Prior to matriculating to medical school at the University of Pittsburgh SOM, he was a social worker in Bronx, NY for youth with intellectual and developmental disabilities. He completed his pediatric residency training at the UW/Seattle Children’s Hospital. After residency, he spent 7 years at Yakima Pediatrics, where he founded and was Medical Director of the Teen Health Clinic, and also founded the first school-based health clinic in Yakima, WA. He continues to advocate for expanding access to comprehensive healthcare for under-resourced youth in his work as co-chair of the Equitable Care Committee for WCAAP and current President for the Washington School-Based Health Alliance.
Reclaiming Joy in Medicine Through Family and Community Engagement
Cora Bruener, MD, FAAP & Miss Shayla Collins
Shayla Collins, parent advocate and mindfulness facilitator, and Cora Breuner, adolescent medicine and biofeedback provider, partner once again to share their experiences finding and reclaiming joy in their lives. This discussion will highlight distinctions between joy and happiness and reframe how many of us think about joy in our lives. The audience will have ample opportunity to engage with the speaker, as this is intended to be an interactive and experiential session.
Dr. Breuner attended Medical School in Philadelphia at Jefferson Medical College, followed by a residency in San Diego at the Balboa Naval Hospital. After this, Dr. Breuner was the general medical officer on the destroyer tender, USS Acadia, homeported in San Diego. She entered a 3-year pediatric residency, serving as Chief Resident the final year. She spent the next two years as a general pediatrician in Japan, where she volunteered as a pediatric consultant in Navy clinics throughout Japan and Korea. Dr. Breuner then spent a year working in Pakistan caring for Afghan refugees, where she taught soldiers to be medics in their military and local communities. She completed her Adolescent Medicine fellowship at Seattle Children’s, then obtained her MPH from the University of Washington with a thesis focused on complementary medicine use in homeless youth. She currently is the Director of the Adolescent Biofeedback Clinic. She has many publications on the safety and efficacy of integrative and holistic medicine.
Miss Shayla Collins is a devoted wife & a mother of two young Boys. Both of her children were born with exceptionalities. She quickly learned that she would have to not only be a fierce advocate for herself & her family, but for all families who are thrust into a multitude of difficult to navigate systems. She works at the University of WA as a mindfulness facilitator and also has strong partnerships with several community organizations supporting Family Engagement. Shayla enjoys reading, eating delicious vegetarian cuisine and antique shopping.
Tailoring Vaccine Communication and Engagement for Diverse Populations
Anisa Ibrahim, MD
Join us for a learning session focused on advancing vaccine equity in pediatric care. This session will highlight best practices from WCAAP’s partnership with the Somali Health Board and community leader Dr. Anisa Ibrahim to provide tools and strategies to build vaccine confidence and deliver strong, culturally responsive recommendations. Don’t miss this opportunity to enhance your practice and support equitable immunization efforts!
Dr. Anisa Ibrahim is a UW Clinic Associate Professor of Pediatrics and the medical director at Harborview Pediatrics Clinic. After graduating from the University of Washington School of Medicine, Dr. Ibrahim completed her residency at the University of Washington/ Seattle Childrens Hospital. Dr. Ibrahim’s specific clinical expertise include caring for and outreach to immigrant and refugee populations, specifically those with medical or social complexity. Dr. Ibrahim serves on national leadership committees including the American Academy of Pediatrics Council on Immigrant Child and Family Health as well as the Refugee Review Board and Research committee for the Society of Refugee Healthcare Providers.