Kimberly Montez, MD, MPH, associate professor of General Pediatrics and Social Sciences & Health Policy, grew up in a low-income Latino community outside of Houston. She witnessed how adverse childhood experiences and health inequities can translate into negative health and economic consequences into adulthood. Dr. Montez saw firsthand how community engagement and health equity are critical for disadvantaged populations who are often marginalized and disempowered.
Dr. Montez is the associate dean of Justice, Equity, Diversity and Inclusion (JEDI) where she leads faculty and student initiatives across Wake Forest University School of Medicine in Winston-Salem. She’s also vice chair of JEDI for the pediatrics department and is the associate director of integrating special populations-pediatrics for the Maya Angelou Center for Health Equity where she assists investigators in increasing recruitment of special populations into research studies.
She is also a strong advocate of access to paid family and medical leave. This passion was sparked by her own journey; her daughter was born at 27 weeks and spent 109 days in the neonatal intensive care unit. Dr. Montez didn’t have access to paid family and medical leave since the United States doesn’t have a national policy, and the state she lived in at the time did not offer it either. Dr. Montez returned to work within two weeks of delivery and has made this topic one of her advocacy priorities. She’s met with North Carolina (N.C.) lawmakers, spoken at a press conference when paid leave legislation was introduced in N.C., presented to the N.C. Child Fatality Task Force (a legislative body) and has written a policy statement for the American Academy of Pediatrics that will be published later this year. Get to know her in her own words.
How does your research improve clinical care?
My research focuses on promoting health equity through community engagement among marginalized populations by addressing the health-related social needs, such as food insecurity, and improving diversity and inclusivity in medicine. For example, it is well documented that food insecurity negatively affects health across ones lifespan.
The clinic at which I practice (Atrium Health Wake Forest Baptist Downtown Health Plaza) has a Food is Health program that involves written screening for food insecurity among all patients at every visit. We also have an onsite food care navigator to meet with families, provide resources, offer a bag of food or fresh produce from our onsite food pantry and connect patients with the federal nutrition programs. Much of my research revolves around evaluating Food is Health and its impact on health outcomes.
What sparked your passion for promoting health equity?I grew up in a low-income Latino community in a Houston suburb where I experienced and witnessed firsthand how adverse childhood experiences and health inequities faced early in life have negative health and economic consequences into adulthood. Therefore, community engagement and health equity have always been a passion of mine, particularly for disadvantaged populations who are often marginalized and disempowered.
In medical school, I “majored in” community health and public service and was director of the free clinic, which further solidified my passion. In residency, I became heavily involved in advocacy efforts, where I began to recognize the importance of health policy as a driver of health inequities. I did a fellowship in community health and obtained my master’s degree in public health where I focused on community-engaged research; while on faculty at Wake Forest, I completed an additional fellowship in community-engaged research with the Program for Community-Engaged research. Health equity threads all of my educational, research, advocacy and clinical endeavors.
What is your role with the Health Justice Advocacy Certificate Program that’s in partnership with Wake Forest University School of Law?
As director of the pediatric residency advocacy program at the time, a group of medical students approached me about the lack of formal advocacy and health policy training in the medical school curriculum. Together, we co-developed an advocacy certificate program, which I direct with the help of a medical student executive team.
This certificate later evolved into its current form when I became medical champion for our medical legal partnership in conjunction with Wake Forest University School of Law with a goal of inter-professional education. Our work to help mitigate the eviction crisis during the pandemic was recognized by the White House. Later this year, we will be hosting a Health Justice Speaker Series with our first invited guest being the co-director of the National Center for Medical Legal Partnership.
What professional accomplishments are you most proud of?
I am most proud of a project on which I am working with Dr. Kristina Lewis, associate professor of Epidemiology and Prevention, on an electronic health record-based intervention to facilitate referrals and enrollment in the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants and Children (WIC) within healthcare settings.
WIC is a federal nutrition program shown to mitigate food insecurity and improve health outcomes among low-income individuals. Traditionally, the healthcare system and WIC do not communicate and only 50% of the eligible population enrolls in WIC. Our partnership is novel and innovative, resulting in thousands of referrals to WIC across eight pediatric and family medicine clinics in the Wake Forest Baptist region, which is now being expanded to three of our obstetrics clinics and to Atrium Health’s Shelby’s Women's and Children’s Clinic.
The program has received national attention, including the Anne E. Dyson Child Advocacy Award from the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) which was given to a former resident who led the initial phase of this work. This project is now being replicated at many institutions across the country.
You co-author policy statements for the American Academy of Pediatrics – can you tell us what that entails?
As a leader for the Council on Community Pediatrics within AAP, one of my roles was to revise and update policy statements that had been published in the past, such as Food Security for All Children and Poverty and Child Health. With an authoring group, we reviewed the literature for each topic and provided evidence-based recommendations for pediatric practitioners, advocates and lawmakers. For a topic that did not have a policy statement already in place, such as Gender Pay Equity, Adverse Police Exposures, and Paid Family and Medical Leave, we pitched the topics to AAP leadership by demonstrating the need for policy statements on these topics, which were approved.
The AAP’s state and federal governmental affairs groups use these policy statements when advocating for pediatricians or on behalf of children and families when they meet with lawmakers.
What advice would you give to young researchers?
I recommend taking advantage of the many institutional resources available, whether it’s Qualitative and Patient-Reported Outcomes Shared Resource Providing that offers expertise, consultation and mentoring for research projects that use qualitative designs and patient-reported outcomes measurement or Integrating Special Populations through the Maya Angelou Center for Health Equity or pilot funding and cooperative agreements through various centers and the Program for Community Engaged Research.
The Center for Translational Science Institute offers a variety of free services to early career researchers, including the study coordinator pool and statistical support. Joining a center is a great way to network and meet potential collaborators from across the institution. I also recommend joining or finding a team of like-minded collaborators to stay motivated and productive.