The HCH Clinicians’ Network’s annual award celebrates the memory of the Network’s “Founding Mother,” Karen Rotondo. This award recognizes hands-on caregivers who demonstrate vision and creativity in advancing the goals of ending and preventing homelessness, and who have made a significant contribution to improving the health and quality of life of people without homes.
Jackie Alba-Nguyen, MD, is Assistant Medical Director at Valley Homeless Healthcare Program in San Jose, Calif. Jackie practices primary care, street medicine, trans care, and addiction medicine.
In 2016, Jackie and VHHP opened the Gender Health Clinic for people experiencing homelessness, which later expanded to the Gender Health Center serving the entire county, regardless of housing status. Jackie has fiercely advocated to halt encampment sweeps in her community and for initiatives to decriminalize homelessness.
A colleague says, “Dr. Alba-Nguyen does not simply provide medical services for her patients. She is inspired to create lasting systemic changes to improve the way her patients and future generations are treated. She has a genuine way of getting people to look at systemic inequities through a human lens which is her superpower.”
