NHC SF Member Blog: Humans of NHC 2022-2023!

Maria Vallejo Hower

Maria Vallejo Hower (she/her) is currently the Perinatal Coordinator for the Primary Care Perinatal Partnership and supports a NHC SF member in their service and serves as a linkage between SFDPH Primary Care Family Health Centers across San Francisco. We are so grateful for her support this past year and her dedication to our patients! See below for the full text of our interview with her. Content warning: there are mentions of suicide, domestic violence, and grief. 

Jessie Escobar

Jessie Escobar (he/him) is a Health Program Coordinator with San Francisco Department of Public Health's Whole Person Integrated Care (WPIC). He works within the Operations Team for a handful of programs and currently supports five (5) AmeriCorps members. Jessie's dedication to the health of San Francisco is unmatched, and we are so grateful for Jessie's support of our AmeriCorps members. Read on for the full interview with Jessie!

Michael Wilk

Mike Wilk (he/him) is an Infectious Diseases Program Manager at HealthRight 360 in San Francisco. Mike has been doing HIV/AIDS outreach work for many years and is a pillar of the San Francisco community. He has supervised NHC’s AmeriCorps volunteers’ quality improvement and patient outreach projects and we are so grateful for all that we have learned from him!

Paola Zavala

We’re so excited to introduce Paola Zavala (she/her) from Curry Senior Center! Paola is a case manager and social worker for senior clients at Curry. She shares about her career path of choosing social work, and discusses the highs and lows of such meaningful, life-saving work. Paola also shares advice for anyone interested in social work to, “get as much experience as possible! School is great, but I do think… being hands on is such a better way to learn in this field. And just make sure that you actually want to do it. I think a lot of people get into social work because they see it as an easy thing, but it’s not super easy - and just take care of yourself.” Thank you so much, Paola, for your hard work and compassion for senior citizens of San Francisco! Read the full interview below!

Eula Sherman

We’re thrilled to introduce Eula Sherman (she/her), who is a health worker at Potrero Hill Health Center and has been supporting the Food Pharmacy at this clinic. Eula is a leader in the community and a champion of Food Pharmacy. She is the main reason why the Food as Medicine Collaborative was able to partner with the Potrero Hill Neighborhood House to host our monthly Community Days. We are so grateful to be able to work alongside and be inspired by such a vibrant spirit! Thank you, Ms. Eula, for all you do!

Elizabeth Abbs

Dr. Elizabeth Abbs (she/her) is a primary care provider at the Tom Waddell Urban Health Clinic, located in the Tenderloin neighborhood of San Francisco. She sees patients for all primary care needs and runs specialty clinics for addiction medicine, and for the transgender community. She is also the clinical subject matter expert on quality improvement projects for the San Francisco Department of Public Health on controlled prescriptions and opioid safety. Read on to learn more about her career and life experiences!

“Humans of NHC” is a campaign run by the National Health Corps Program that highlights people that interact with the NHC program in any capacity.

Members, Staff, Mentors, Supervisors, Clinic Staff are interviewed by an NHC Member and are asked to share about their career trajectory, their passions, challenges and advice for professionals exploring their fields. These interviews are then transcribed and posted on the National Health Corps website for all to read!

Thank you to all of our Humans of NHC for guiding the members throughout their 2022-2023 Service Term. You have made an impact on their service and their professional journeys!

Click the images to read the full interview on the National Health Corps website!