Press Releases and Announcements
Organizations Work Alongside Communities in the Face of Climate Change
June 2024
Migrant Clinicians Network (MCN), with partners Mentes Puertorriqueñas en Acción (MPA) and the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) Caribbean Climate Hub (CCH), have launched a three-year collaborative project with community health centers to bolster Caribbean agricultural communities’ resilience and increase health and well-being in the face of climate threats. As the region enters another predicted above-average hurricane season, the collaboration will empower communities to identify and consider the needs of populations like agricultural workers who have a higher risk of experiencing climate-related events and have lower access to health care.
"Communities across the Caribbean have already been deeply impacted by the climate crisis,” noted Marysel Pagán Santana, DrPH, Director of Environmental and Occupational Health at MCN Caribbean Region, also the principal investigator of this project. “Our unique susceptibility to climate change -- from experiencing a greater frequency of hurricanes, to alternating floods and droughts – is difficult to respond to and prepare for, in communities like rural agricultural towns, that have many barriers to care and have unique health risks that are worsened by climate. This important collaboration will help communities across Puerto Rico, the Virgin Islands, and beyond, to adapt to climate change and even improve health outcomes.”
Read the full press release here.
Migrant Clinicians Network CEO Kim Nolte Recognized as 100 Most Influential People in Global Health in 2024
May 2024
Migrant Clinicians Network (MCN) proudly announces that MCN Chief Executive Officer Kim Nolte, MPH, has been honored by TIME as one of the top 100 people in global health in 2024 through their inaugural TIME100 Health list.
"MCN is dedicated to ensuring that migrant and immigrant communities receive the health care and support they need to thrive," said Nolte. "This recognition underscores MCN’s forty-year commitment to advancing health equity and justice for migrant and immigrant communities worldwide. Our work is more important than ever. The danger of the climate crisis, layered with social, economic, and political changes, is pushing record numbers of people to migrate. These migrants face increased health risks while they migrate and after they arrive, and decreased access to health care even when desperately needed."
Read the full press release here.
New Award through the National Institutes of Health Common Fund Community Partnerships to Advance Science for Society
September 2023
Migrant Clinicians Network, in collaboration with Baylor College of Medicine/Texas Children’s Hospital, is thrilled to announce a $5 million award over the next five years to fund Humanitarian Health Care Network: Bringing the Most Vulnerable to Care, a community-engaged research project that will develop and coordinate a system to connect pregnant people with prenatal care at their destination, and link children with complex medical needs with the specialty care they need. This first-of-its-kind award, through the National Institutes of Health (NIH) Common Fund Community Partnerships to Advance Science for Society (ComPASS), will enable MCN to pursue much-needed community-driven research to study and address the underlying structural factors that prevent migrants and asylum seekers from accessing care.
This community-led research program will build on MCN’s three-decade growth of Health Network, MCN’s virtual case management system, as well as allowing for an understanding of the comprehensive systems at play in providing health care to immigrants.
Read the full announcement blog here.
MCN’s award # 1OT2OD035845-01 is provided by the NIH Common Fund.
- Learn more about Health Network.
- Learn more about Texas Children’s Hospital.
- Read about Baylor College of Medicine.
- Read more on the NIH Common Fund.
- Read the press release from NIH.
- Watch a video about ComPASS.
Migrant Clinicians Network Renewed as HRSA National Training and Technical Assistance Partner
May 2023
Since our inception, Migrant Clinicians Network has provided up-to-date clinical support for clinicians at health centers across the country on critical issues of migrant and agricultural worker health through a technical assistance grant from the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA). With this funding, MCN has reached thousands with in-person trainings, health center technical assistance, new relevant resources, webinars, and much more. This month, MCH received a three-year renewal approval. With this support, MCN will continue to act as a National Training and Technical Assistance Partner (NTTAP) to improve the health of thousands of agricultural workers around the country by supporting the clinicians who serve them. This funding provides support for critical offerings including many of our popular bilingual webinars, our diabetes Project ECHO learning series, new resources on emerging issues, collaborations like the Farmworker Health Network, SDOH Academy, Special & Vulnerable Populations Diabetes Task Force, publications like Streamline, and more.
“We are proud of our longstanding relationship with HRSA and the impact our work has made on the health and well-being of agricultural workers and other populations encountering vulnerability,” said Theressa Lyons-Clampitt, Senior Program Manager of Training and Technical Assistance. “MCN is grateful to HRSA for its continued support and recognition of our important role in providing relevant resources, training, and technical assistance to the clinical team members who care out critical health support in health centers across the nation.”
Learn more about our technical assistance offerings. See our upcoming educational opportunities or request a training.
MCN’s New Efforts to Empower Caribbean Farmworkers in the Path of Climate Disasters, with USDA Climate Hub
April 2023
Droughts, floods, heat waves, wildfires, excessive snow, intense hurricanes – climate change has, at this point, touched every one of us. But some are more exposed to climate disasters than others, and some geographic locations are more at risk. This is the case of the US Caribbean territories like Puerto Rico and US Virgin Islands, which, in recent years, have been in the direct path of climate-strengthened hurricanes followed by devastating drought.
On those islands, certain communities fare worse than others. Agricultural workers, by the nature of their occupation, are constantly subject to the climate and its changes. Additional factors that can negatively influence their health every day – from low wages; to the related poor diets, substandard housing, and lack of financial cushion; to poor worker protection; to limited access to health care – can grow dangerous or deadly in the wake of a climate disaster.
Migrant Clinicians Network’s new three-year project, in partnership with Caribbean Climate Hub and Mentes Puertorriqueñas en Acción, and funded by the US Department of Agriculture, will increase agricultural communities' ability to adapt to climate change and improve health outcomes by getting them culturally relevant tools and resources they need, in a language they understand. MCN will partner with community health centers in Puerto Rico and the US Virgin Islands to disseminate critical information on climate-related hazards – from mud slides to mold to unsafe drinking water.
“This exciting project will expand MCN’s work in the Caribbean,” said Marysel Pagán Santana, DrPH, MCN’s Director of Environmental and Occupational Health and Senior Program Manager for the Caribbean. “Year after year, our region suffers from intensifying climate-related events. We need to support our communities as we adapt and understand mitigation and often lifesaving strategies to respond to our climate crisis.”
“The climate crisis is worsening, and we know there is much work to be done,” added Amy K. Liebman, MPH, Chief Program Officer of Workers, Environment, and Climate for MCN. “MCN is thrilled to further our in-depth climate-related initiatives and broaden our partnerships with farmers, workers, community groups, health centers, and government agencies.”
“MCN is committed to protecting the health and well-being of those on the frontlines of the climate crisis,” said Kim Nolte, MPH, MCHES, Chief Executive Officer for MCN. “We have a proven track record of developing hyper-local solutions and are well positioned to support communities to be better prepared for climate-fueled disasters.”
Learn more about this project in the press release from the USDA.