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 nation’s leading integrated academic health systems and one of the largest in the New York metropolitan area. Its comprehensive system includes seven hospitals, more than 400 outpatient practices, over 600 research and clinical laboratories, the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, the Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences, and the Mount Sinai Phillips School of Nursing. Together, the Health System comprises approximately 48,000 employees, more than 9,000 physicians, and 8,600 nurses.
As a leading learning health system, Mount Sinai combines clinical expertise with scientific discovery to improve patient care while training the next generation of health care and biomedical leaders. The Health System provides care across every stage of life, from prenatal care through geriatrics, while advancing personalized medicine through artificial intelligence, data science, and biomedical research.
Mount Sinai is consistently recognized among the nation’s leading academic health systems for patient care, research, and education. The Mount Sinai Hospital is ranked No. 1 in New York by Newsweek and No. 5 on the magazine’s World’s Best Hospitals list. The Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai ranks No. 11 among U.S. medical schools and No. 1 among freestanding medical schools for National Institutes of Health funding, reflecting the strength of its scientific enterprise and leadership in biomedical research.