California - Dr. Jennifer Sluder
Posted April 2006

Dr. Jennifer Sluder practices in the Emergency Department of Children’s Hospital Los Angeles, which primarily serves children who typically do not have many medical options. Of the patients served, most live below the poverty level with about 70%-80% of their patients relying on California’s Medicaid program, MediCal.  In addition to her clinical work there, she also spends time coordinating an elective for the residency training program, teaching residents, and giving community lectures on a variety of relevant children's issues.

Dr. Sluder identifies her most important advocacy work through her involvement with Docs For Tots.  In the past, she has given presentations on childhood obesity at both the National Black Child Development Institute Annual Conference in California and the National Hispanic Medical Association’s conference in Los Angeles.  Dr. Sluder began her advocacy work with Docs For Tots when she found it difficult to volunteer in other organizations, such as free clinics.  Docs For Tots has enabled her to help children from a policy perspective, providing her with the resources and technical assistance to advocate for children outside of clinical practice.

Dr. Sluder feels that advocacy is an important aspect of her professional work, allowing her to educate people who do not otherwise have the resources or knowledge to improve their health.  She believes that, as a physician, it is important for her to use her influence to be a part of positive change in social policy that can affect large numbers of people.  Having been a recipient of different forms of support from others when she was a child, Dr. Sluder feels that advocacy is one way she can now help others.