At the intersection of public and immigrant health: Upholding safety, access, and rights

Margaret (Maggie) Sullivan is an Instructor and Director of the FXB Center for Health and Human Rights Program on Immigrants and Unhoused Communities, a Distinguished Fellow of the National Academies of Practice (NAP) in Nursing, and a Fellow of the American Academy of Nursing (FAAN). She is a nationally board-certified family nurse practitioner dedicated to serving immigrant communities, especially those with precarious documentation status or at risk of homelessness. Maggie co-leads the Partnership for Community Mental Health and Immigrant Well-being with her colleague, Jocelyn Chu, a project which aims to examine the mental healthcare landscape in Massachusetts and learn from immigrant-led, culturally rooted, community-based approaches to mental health. She co-advises the Harvard Students Human Rights Collaborative (HSHRC) and conducts forensic medical evaluations for asylum with Harvard Medical School’s Asylum Clinic. In collaboration with the Initiative on Health & Homelessness, Maggie co-developed and co-teaches HPM 523: Homelessness and Health: Lessons from Health Care, Public Health, and Research.

Nahiris M. Bahamón, MD, FAAP, is a pediatrician at Lowell Community Health Center in Lowell, MA currently completing an MPH in Health Policy as a Commonwealth Fund Fellow in Minority Health Policy at Harvard University. Born and raised in Colombia, she has demonstrated a commitment to community health and a passion for improving healthcare quality and access to culturally sensitive care for immigrant and marginalized communities. Dr. Bahamón led multiple initiatives to improve adolescent and LGBTQ+ healthcare, as well as vaccine access to marginalized communities during the COVID pandemic. She has served in various leadership and advocacy roles at Physicians for a National Health Program and the American Academy of Pediatrics, including board member and co-founder of Residents for a National Health Program. Dr. Bahamón also served as the official representative for the Illinois Chapter of the American Academy of Pediatrics (ICAAP) in advocacy work against the changes to the “public charge” rule proposed during the first Trump administration.

Luca Koritsanszky, CNM, WHNP-BC, MPH, is a Doctor of Public Health candidate at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, specializing in immigrant health, maternal and child health, midwifery care models. She currently serves as the OBGYN Team Lead at Mattapan Community Health Center, where she oversees initiatives to enhance maternal care access for immigrant and underserved populations. With extensive experience in global health, she has led program evaluations and implementation strategies for Partners in Health, Lifebox Foundation, and Ariadne Labs, focusing on improving healthcare delivery in resource-limited settings. Luca is also an Associate Faculty Member at Ariadne Labs and a faculty member at Boston Medical Center, where she mentors residents and nurse practitioner students. Her work emphasizes equitable, community-centered healthcare solutions, particularly for immigrant and refugee populations.

Clara Long is Director of Policy and Organizing with HIP (Human Impact Partners), a national public health justice organization. Previously, she co-led the U.S. Program at Human Rights Watch and served as a researcher and advocate on U.S. human rights issues.  Her reports and advocacy have covered such issues as climate migration, U.S. elections response, deaths in immigration detention linked to poor medical care, mistreatment and dismissal of asylum seekers at the U.S. border, border policing abuses, the detention of children and families, and harmful deportations of deeply-rooted long-term U.S. residents. Clara was a Teaching Fellow with the Stanford Law School International Human Rights and Conflict Resolution Clinic and the co-producer of an award-winning documentary, Border Stories, about perspectives on immigration enforcement from both sides of the U.S.-Mexico border. Clara graduated with honors from Harvard Law School and holds masters degrees from the London School of Economics in Environment and Development and from Stanford’s Graduate Program in Journalism. 

Priya is currently pursuing her masters in the Department of Health and Social Behavior at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. She grew up in Nairobi, Kenya and earned her medical degree from the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland. She currently practices as a primary care physician at NeighborHealth in East Boston, a Federally Qualified Community Health Center. She is passionate about immigrant health access and is dedicated to increasing equitable care for immigrant communities in the U.S.