Sherry Dong is a familiar face around the blocks of Chinatown.  Known for her dedication to promoting Asian-American health, Dong’s involvement in the community goes above and beyond her role as the Director of Community Health at Tufts Medical Center.  On October 29, Dong will be honored at the 2010 Action for Boston Community Development (ABCD) Community Awards Dinner for her exceptional contributions to Boston’s neighborhoods and civic life.  In the following interview with the Sampan, Dong, shares about growing up in New York City and her desires for the betterment of the Asian-American community.

Sampan:  Please tell us about yourself.  Where did you grow up and go to school?
Dong: I was born and raised in New York City, on the Lower East Side, Chinatown. My father was a taxicab driver, my mother was a garment worker. She would often bring piece work home and we would sometimes help her while watching TV. Can you imagine being paid pennies for each pocket you flipped, belt loop you sewed onto a pair of pants or collar sewn onto a shirt? I am still amazed when I think about how well my mother saved and never made us feel like we were lacking.

I am a product of the NYC public schools, P.S. 1 and Hunter College High School, and decided to attend Tufts University, double majoring in Asian Studies and Sociology. I later completed a Masters in Public Administration at Northeastern University.

Sampan:  What is your current role at Tufts Medical Center and what does it involve?
Dong:  Director of Community Health Improvement Programs. It’s dynamic and multi-faceted, lots of moving parts. Among other things – I oversee our grant giving initiatives – the Asian Health Initiative, Dorchester Health Initiative, and Parent to Parent Program; community partnerships and programs; community relations; am a strong advocate for culturally and linguistically competent care; and troubleshoot as needed. I have a lot of opportunity to make positive change, and get involved in different things. It keeps me nimble.

I get to work with a lot of people, internally and externally, clinicians, human services providers, marketing and communications, finance, elderly, law enforcement, public officials, the press, just about anyone on almost any topic imaginable.

For example, AACA [Asian American Civic Association] approached me several years ago regarding a potential collaboration on a workforce development initiative. In a nutshell, AACA would assess the need, and provide ESL and GED training to our incumbent employees to help them advance professionally, and personally. I am not a workforce development expert by any means. However, I agreed with AACA that this was an excellent opportunity for the employees and for Tufts Medical Center and determined to secure commitment for this workplace education initiative. It required financial commitment, and support from managers to provide their employees with release time in order to take the classes during work hours, on-site or at nearby AACA. We are fortunate to have a forward looking and community-minded CEO in Ellen Zane who saw the value in this initiative, and managers willing to support it. I am fortunate to work under her leadership.

I have the latitude to develop new partnerships and programs, including the AACA one, and our summer internship program for high school students from the community and a number of BPS schools, including the Josiah Quincy Upper School and South Boston High Schools. We kicked off the program in 2006, and with the support of managers across the Medical Center willing to take a student, we have placed over 60 students in departments ranging from Anesthesiology to Accounting, Gamma Knife Center, Neonatal Intensive Care Unity, Occupational Therapy, etc.
I get to work with wonderful doctors who want to reach out to the community. I learn more about the health of Asians. I learned from one of our physicians, Richard Wein, an ENT (Ear, Nose, Throat) physician specializing in the treatment of head and neck cancer, that nasopharyngeal carcinoma is a cancer that disproportionately affects Asians, particularly from southern China. We worked together to provide free screenings for the community. He has held 5 screenings since November 2008, benefiting 108 community members.

Sampan:  Have you always known that you want to be in the healthcare profession?
Dong: Not exactly. I fell into healthcare accidentally, by way of my previous work and familiarity with the Chinatown community. But I love what I do, most of the time, and feel very privileged that someone saw potential in me, despite my lack of specific prior healthcare experience, encouraged me, and empowered me.

I just knew I wanted to do something that helps “the community” – Asian, Chinese, low-income, disenfranchised, limited English proficient individuals, etc. – and have been fortunate in that my personal and professional interests have mostly been aligned, as a student helping Chinese immigrants on employment discrimination, housing, and other legal issues; addressing disability rights issues at the Attorney General’s Office of Massachusetts; and especially in the Mayor’s Office of Neighborhood Services as Mayor Menino Asian liaison where I got to give back to the community in my way.

Sampan:  You’ve done a tremendous amount of work in the Asian-American community on a professional as well as personal level.  Could you share with us your involvement in the community outside of work?

Dong:  I spend a lot of time organizing a food pantry program serving the Greater Boston Chinese community, Ricesticks and Tea. I was aware of RST as a board member of the Asian Task Force Against Domestic Violence, which co-founded the program under Cheng Imm Tan’s leadership. But I became more actively involved through my role at the Medical Center when I became aware of a funding opportunity that was a perfect match for RST. I contacted them and Tufts submitted the proposal on their behalf, and was awarded funds to provide food assistance and nutrition and health education. One thing led to another, and with the help of many dedicated volunteers and friends of volunteers, including AACA, which graciously serves as RST’s fiscal agent, the program is 100% volunteer led and relies on important individual and organizational donations, serving over 100 families each month, representing approximately 300 seniors, adults and children. We organize a holiday party for the families every December, with gifts, food and caroling (my favorite part). We reach out to our friends, families, supporters to help by adopting a kid, senior, or family and getting them a gift. (This is a shameless plug for anyone who might be interested in supporting RST, and the gift drive.)

I am also on the board of the Chinese Historical Society of New England; have been serving on the Oversight Committee for the Chinatown Masterplan 2010 visioning process over the past 2 years, to help shape the goals and vision for the community in the next decade and beyond; and have co-chaired the Chinatown Coalition for several years, leading several community health education initiatives supported by the Boston Public Health Commission, specifically relating to emergency preparedness planning and seasonal, avian pandemic and H1N1 flu.

Sampan:  You spend much time promoting various health causes.  What do you think are some health concerns within the Asian-American population that often go unaddressed or need more attention?
Dong:  Before I go into specific health issues, I would be remiss not to point out that there is insufficient data about the health of Asian Americans, so to say that disparities do not exist is not quite accurate since there isn’t enough conclusive data. When it is collected, data is mostly gathered in English. If other languages are included, it would be Spanish, then maybe Portuguese, but generally no Asian languages, so Asian immigrant health issues are understated. On the rare occasion that there is health data about Asians, it is unlikely to be disaggregated, meaning Chinese are lumped with Korean are lumped with Vietnamese, Cambodian, etc. so any differences in health status or priorities are not captured.

Hepatitis B and Tuberculosis are identified as health problems disproportionately impacting Asians, and should receive resources and attention. But the lack of data to support the health concerns we see in the community and share anecdotally is a challenge in terms of allocation of government and foundation resources and recognition that these health issues adversely affect this community.

One of the programs I am very proud of is the Asthma Prevention and Management Initiative (APMI), which was initiated in partnership with our Floating Hospital for Children’s Asian Clinic and General Pediatrics, and the Josiah Quincy Elementary and Upper Schools, through a health disparities grant from Blue Cross Blue Shield of MA Foundation. Our pediatricians told us experientially that asthma was a problem among their Asian patients, in the absence of a lot of quantitative data or research in this area. We have continued to support the program, and provide workshops to asthmatics at the school as well as to residents and other community service providers, as well as developed several multi-lingual educational materials for parents, teachers, nurses, and children.

Asians experience much higher rates of Hepatitis B, and nasopharyngeal carcinoma, as mentioned earlier, than the general population. Our physicians are working on these issues, and more needs to be done. Diabetes and obesity are also concerns that may not seem as obvious in this community. However, given increasing acculturation to Western habits and Western diets, both are on the rise, especially among youth. You need only walk around Chinatown to see that smoking continues to be a major problem and deserves continued attention and resources. Tufts Medical Center support community health education, outreach and prevention programs through our Asian Health Initiative. With the help of its advisory committee, which includes community leaders who see the issues at the grassroots level, diabetes, smoking cessation and obesity were in fact identified as the priority areas for our most recent funding cycle.

Sampan:  What are your hopes for the Asian-American community through the work that your do?
Dong:  I hope that through my work at the Medical Center we can improve the health of the community directly through medical services and health education and outreach, as well as by collaborating with our community partners, including AACA, to reach out to the community. I hope people will become their own best health advocates, and support community-wide efforts.