There are very few people who can claim to know the Mount Sinai Adolescent Health Center better than Angela Diaz, MD, PhD, MPH, its Director. After all, she has not only been the Center’s longest-serving leader, but also a patient.
“I’ve been working at the Center since 1984. And it has been a job of love,” says Dr. Diaz. “I often say, ‘Who has been in the same job for 40 years and loving every minute of it?’”
The Adolescent Health Center, located on East 94th Street in Manhattan, was established in 1968 as a primary care program specifically for the health needs of teenagers. It now offers medical, sexual and reproductive health, behavioral and mental health, dental, optical, and legal services for people aged 10 to 26, and serves more than 12,000 patients annually.
Dr. Diaz became the Center’s third Director in 1989, and after decades of hard work, the blueprint for adolescent care she and her team developed has become a model of excellence nationwide. Now, she is ready to pass on the torch to the next generation.
From left to right, Christine Soghomonian, MA; Felice Axelrod; Angela Diaz, MD, PhD, MPH; Dennis Charney, MD; and Adam Jacobs, MD, at the Breakfast of Champions event celebrating the Adolescent Health Center
“I love my many years of working here, but I really feel good that this is the right moment to give the opportunity to a new leader to come, and new ideas and freshness for the Center,” says Dr. Diaz.
“She’s a legendary figure, both at Mount Sinai and throughout the nation, as somebody who’s committed to providing outstanding care to those who are underserved,” says Dennis Charney, MD, Anne and Joel Ehrenkranz Dean of the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai and President for Academic Affairs of the Mount Sinai Health System. “When you look back upon her leadership in running the Adolescent Health Center for as long as she did, she has changed the trajectory of thousands of adolescents who have become successful individuals,” he adds.
Bringing the Center to New Heights
Dr. Diaz has attracted great talent to build the Adolescent Health Center into an autonomous, full-service resource for young people. But particularly under her leadership, says Dr. Charney, she has ingrained an ethos of providing care for the underserved and underprivileged—for example, services are free of charge for all youth.
As a leader, Dr. Diaz has been a master in attracting philanthropy and federal funding to support the Center, and she has hosted an annual gala that’s well-attended every year, notes Dr. Charney. She also sits on several national advisory committees, and state health agencies have consulted with her on public health.
Despite Dr. Diaz’s successes, she remains incredibly humble, says Dr. Charney. “Her ambition is characterized by an intense need to help others. She cares deeply about others, and she’s willing to do almost anything to help others.”
The Mount Sinai Health System has named Sarah Wood, MD, MS, as Dr. Diaz’s successor to the titles of Director of the Center, as well as Chief of the Division of Adolescent Medicine, Pediatrics.
A Lifelong Experience With the Center
Dr. Diaz’s deep bond with the Adolescent Health Center stems from having been a patient, worked as a trainee, and been a parent whose children all used its services.
Born in the Dominican Republic, Dr. Diaz grappled with poverty and with her immigration status when she moved to New York City.
“We didn’t have health insurance, so I never went for preventive care or checkups, didn’t get vaccines, none of that,” Dr. Diaz says. “I remember that when I got migraines as a teenager, I used to go to a hospital, to the emergency room. That was my health care.”
It was only in high school that she learned about the Center through Mount Sinai’s health careers program, and it was then that she received care in a primary care setting for the first time, in 11th grade. But the Center didn’t just provide Dr. Diaz health care; it turned her life around.
In 12th grade, Dr. Diaz became depressed and dropped out of school. “No one realized that I was depressed. So I just came to the Center saying, ‘Help me,’ and asking ‘What is wrong with me?’”
Not only did the Center provide Dr. Diaz the diagnosis and treatment for her condition, her therapist and other staff encouraged her to return to school. The health career program helped reaffirm her childhood dream of becoming a doctor.
“So that’s what we do here—we see these kids for who they are, we see their strength,” says Dr. Diaz. “Nobody else may see it, but we see their intelligence, we see their creativity, we see how hard-working they are, and we take their hands and we go to the next stage with them, and we connect them to the school if they need that, we connect them to lawyers.”
When Dr. Diaz obtained her medical degree, she did her pediatric residency training at Mount Sinai and her adolescent medicine fellowship training at the Center. Leslie Jaffe, MD, who was Director of the Center then, suggested she do a fellowship in adolescent medicine there. But she was unsure whether that was possible—to pay for medical school, she had joined the National Health Service Corps and there was an understanding she would work wherever they sent her after her residency.
And so Dr. Jaffe worked with the federal government to make the Center a site for the program. “Once I was working here, I just fell in love with the kids, and the staff,” says Dr. Diaz. “It was such a special place, like a family where you belong. I’ve always had a sense of belonging here, and I never left.”
What’s Next for Dr. Diaz?
In addition to being an administrator and a clinician, Dr. Diaz also has a research program. It received a five-year renewal earlier this year, and she anticipates furthering that front.
Having also been appointed Dean for Global Health, Social Justice, and Human Rights in 2021, Dr. Diaz has plans on devoting more effort to that role, including curating her learnings and experiences in the field.
“I know that I’ll be happy just doing whatever. I was a factory worker before, so I could do and enjoy anything,” she says.
Stepping aside as Director of the Center will also give Dr. Diaz more time to spend with family. “I love my mom, my kids. I have two grandkids. I’m sure I will have more grandkids, so there’s plenty to be done and enjoy.”
A Timeline of Dr. Diaz’s Achievements
Obtained Doctor of Medicine from Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons
Joined the Mount Sinai Adolescent Health Center to train in adolescent medicine
Was offered a faculty position at the Mount Sinai Adolescent Health Center
Became Mount Sinai Adolescent Health Center’s third Director
Named White House fellow under the Clinton administration, examining health care policies in the U.S. territories in the Pacific and Caribbean
Appointed as James W. and Jean C. Crystal Professor in Adolescent Health at the Mount Sinai School of Medicine
Obtained Master of Public Health from Harvard University
Appointed Chair of the National Advisory Committee on Children and Terrorism for the Department of Health and Human Services
Admitted as a member of the National Academy of Medicine (formerly the Institute of Medicine of the National Academies)
Appointed to Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s New York City Commission for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, and Questioning (LGBTQ) Runaway and Homeless Youth Taskforce
Obtained Doctor of Philosophy in Epidemiology from Columbia University
Elected to the governing council of the National Academy of Medicine
Appointed Dean for Global Health, Social Justice, and Human Rights at Icahn Mount Sinai