Growing Up with the Mount Sinai Adolescent Health Center
“The Adolescent Health Center enabled me to take advantage of opportunities that might have otherwise been out of reach,” says Mary Medina.
In 1949, Mary Medina’s mom came to New York from her native Puerto Rico at nine years old. By the age of 20, she was a single mother of four and was determined to give her children a different life than the one she had had.
So when she heard about the Mount Sinai Adolescent Health Center, she took her kids there for primary care and reproductive health services to make sure they had the care and information that would enable them to get an education and start a career without the challenges of teen pregnancy.
Ms. Medina, who grew up with her mom and three brothers in East Harlem and the Bronx, was 13 at her first visit. It was easy to talk to the health care providers there and ask them questions about sex and contraception.
To her mother’s relief, she succeeded in grammar and high school, and she went to college. That was followed by more achievements: She continued on to graduate school, where she received a Master of Social Work and also a law degree.
Today, Mary Medina, JD, MSW, remembers her introduction to Mount Sinai. “When I was a child, my mom first took us to the pediatric clinic, and then to the Adolescent Health Center. I grew up there,” Ms. Medina says.
Years later, after she completed her training, she learned about a position at The Mount Sinai Medical Center, as it was then known. “It was a no brainer for me to apply,” she says. “It was where I felt I belonged. I’ve always considered Mount Sinai my home.”
Ms. Medina spent more than 16 years working at Mount Sinai, eventually attaining the position of Director of Government Relations. It was a significant step in launching Ms. Medina’s successful 35-year career in health care, which included positions as Chief of Staff to the Chairman of the New York City Health and Hospitals Corporation, and Executive Director of the Greater New York Hospital Association. Today, she is a part-time attorney in private practice, serves on the Board of Directors of the Health Care Chaplaincy Network, and is a volunteer end-of-life doula.
Ms. Medina says, “The Adolescent Health Center enabled me to take advantage of opportunities that might have otherwise been out of reach.”
