Community Engagement & Structural Competency
Our Community Efforts | Programs and Committees | Institutional Level InitiativesOur Community Efforts
Mobile Medical Unit Rotation
The Mobile Medical Unit provides medical care at several schools in the neighborhoods surrounding the University of Chicago. The patients we serve are generally children and adolescents who are underinsured, uninsured, or have difficulty accessing the healthcare system. We offer physical exams, vaccines, hearing/vision screening, pregnancy testing, urine testing, rapid strep testing, and lead/anemia screening. As a resident, you have the opportunity to help provide care with the mobile unit and get to know your community!
Organized Community Service Events
There are so many ways to volunteer in Chicago, and our residents participate in all sorts of service events! Recent examples include neighborhood clean-ups, time at a community garden, and sorting clothes at a local shelter.
GME Community Champions
The GME Community Champions program is structured to leverage the robust community network and partnerships of UChicago Medicine’s Urban Health Initiative (UHI). It is available to all residents at the University of Chicago (including pediatrics!) Champions have served as panelists on virtual community meetings, guest hosts on a community health radio program, spokespersons for public service announcements, and even participants in a cooking demonstration.
Programs and Committees
Pediatric Advocacy and Community Experience (PACE)
On this block, you’ll explore the concept of community through experiences both inside and outside the hospital, while learning about local resources available to patients. This foundational understanding is key to delivering structurally competent, compassionate, and effective care. Including:
– Nurse/Resident Shadowing Experience (NuRSE): Step out of the role of a resident and into the life of a nurse! During this experience, you’ll work with one of our floor-nurses while taking care of a patient, gaining exposure to their workflow, sign out process, and basic nursing skills.
– Community Garden: Participate in upkeep and gardening in our hospital community garden! Snacks and amazing skyline views provided!
– Washington Park Clinic: A free, Pritzker medical student-run clinic that provides services to uninsured and underinsured children and adolescents – including vaccinations and sports/school physicals.
– Chicago Legal Lecture: Meet with a local expert from the Chicago Legal council to discuss current cases and an orientation to Medical-Legal Partnerships
MATTER | Visiting MSIV Program
The Mission Aligned Trainees to Explore Residency (MATTER) at UChicago Visiting Clerkship Program is co-sponsored by the Pritzker School of Medicine and UChicago Medicine GME Office. This competitive program provides mentoring, networking, and stipend support for fourth-year medical students interested in addressing health inequities and social determinants of health in the Chicago community. In addition to completing the rotation in the participating department, scholars will attend GME community engagement activities and curriculum.
Successful applicants will advance our community engagement mission and become prospects for academic training programs for internship and residency at UChicago Medicine. A goal of the program is to improve participation of those students who are economically disadvantaged.
Comer Trainee DIJ Council
We are committed to fostering a culture of belonging within our residency and across Comer Children’s Hospital through our DIJ Trainee Councils, which create sustainable, resident-led structures that elevate inclusion efforts and ensure all voices are heard and valued. These councils help strengthen support systems through resource groups and guided mentorship while cultivating community and advocacy. We are proud to recruit mission-driven individuals who are deeply committed to caring for and standing alongside the patients and families we serve.
Comer Structural Competency Committee (CSCC)
The CSCC is a resident-led curriculum committee that teaches structural competency—defined as the ability of healthcare providers and trainees to understand how symptoms, clinical presentations, and attitudes toward patients and health systems are shaped by upstream social determinants of health. This training equips residents to recognize and respond to health and illness as downstream effects of broader social, political, and economic forces when caring for patients and families.
Faculty Advisor: Rochelle Naylor
Chief Resident Lead: Adriana Green
Resident Members:
– Zoie Sheets
– Zain Talukdar
– Ananya Chandra
– Maya McKee
– Gabby Rodriguez
– Torie Livingston
– Khang Phan
Diversity Statement
The Department of Pediatrics within the Biological Sciences Division (BSD) strives to create an environment that welcomes and promotes diversity of thought and experience as essential features for advancing human knowledge and enabling transformative education. Authentic engagement with people whose views and paths differ from our own allows us to challenge assumptions and generate the most impactful, field-defining research and healthcare delivery. An academic climate that is diverse and inclusive promotes rigorous inquiry through encouraging critical examination of assumptions, often the first step toward breakthrough discoveries and treatments.
The BSD is committed to encouraging a multiplicity of voices, as this is foundational to free expression and academic freedom. This culture of free expression exists across academic, research, and clinical settings that includes people of many different backgrounds, experiences, and ideas. Promoting a culture of diversity and inclusion strengthens the BSD’s distinctive intellectual character and supports our Elevate 2035 strategic plan for continual growth as a leading research and healthcare delivery organization anchored on the South Side of Chicago. This culture deepens our ability to connect with and positively impact communities locally, nationally, and globally.
