Immigrant & Refugee Health
Yakima Valley & Seattle, WA
This program traces immigrant and refugee health across the Pacific Northwest, from the Yakima Valley to Seattle. The Yakima Valley is the agricultural backbone of Washington, worked largely by Mexican and Indigenous Mixteco and Triqui farmworkers navigating healthcare access under real resource constraints. Seattle houses the Gates Foundation, PATH, and IHME, the same institutions designing global health interventions abroad while South King County's immigrant neighborhoods face some of the county's steepest health disparities, disparities that funding rarely reaches. We'll work alongside community-led organizations in both places, asking what it means when global health comes home. If you care about immigrant and refugee communities, want to see rural Washington beyond Seattle's postcard version, don't mind a farm shift or a food bank warehouse, and want to sit with hard questions about who development actually serves, this program is for you.
Meet the co-leads:
Billy Ramirez
Hi everyone! I'm Billy, a senior studying human biology with a focus on global health policy. I love solo traveling and have made my way across South America, Asia, and West Africa. I've shadowed OR doctors and worked in community health centers in Oaxaca, and done nonprofit work on gender-based violence in Cape Verde. I worked on the Hill for Rep. Sam Liccardo, and on campus I'm Director of Operations for Academic Outreach at Stanford Society for Latin America, Health Issue Area Coordinator at the Haas Center, and part of Common Origins dance team. Can't wait to meet you all!
Daniel Hadi
Hi everyone! I'm Daniel, a senior from Portland, Oregon studying Economics and Art History. For the past few years I've chased one question: in development, who actually captures the gains. I’ve studied this via donor markets in Mozambique, federal trade policy in Portland, and research at Stanford. This summer, I’m working at BCG, building more effective California public-private partnerships. I'm also an RA at Ng Humanities House. Outside class I'm always (attempting) to learn new languages and explore new cultures. Excited to meet you all this year!