Humans of NHC: Cynthia Diaz

Cynthia Diaz is the Program Manager for Enhanced Care Management at Aria Community Health Center. She completed her Bachelor of Science in Public Health, specializing in Community Health, and has over 10+ years of experience in both community and preventive work. She has developed and
improved processes for current programs that have enhanced effective
communication between patients' health and their families.

Together with her team, they have offered services to improve their patients' health. It includes giving out resources to help them with their clinical and nonclinical needs, such as housing, transportation, food resources, and health resources. Together, as a team, they have promoted health equity by reducing communication gaps and having multilingual staff to ensure that all information is shared appropriately and accurately.

I (Rigs Ducusin) had a chance to ask Cynthia some questions about the rewarding part of her job and the challenges she faces as she gets to manage the whole team.

When discussing the rewarding part of her job, Cynthia said that having patients who start from zero, helping them throughout the process, and seeing their progress with the Aria Community Health Center is at the top of her list. She explained that giving back to the community while learning from the community and learning about the community's needs helps the team be more vital in assisting the community in the right way.

However, despite all these rewarding experiences at her job, there were also challenges for her and her team. One is finding funds for programs to continue the sustained efforts for Aria's outreach programs. It can be challenging to work in a large group, especially with the different personalities between them; there could be misunderstandings and lapses, but for her, at the end of the day, she and the team have the same goal, which is to serve the community and provide everyone with respect and humility.