MCN in the News

For media requests, please contact media@migrantclinician.org

Media Mentions

MacKenzie Scott Has Donated More Than $12 Billion. Here's Where Some of the Money Has Gone, from USA Today, features MCN as an example of a smaller organization who has received a donation, with a quote from MCN's Deliana Garcia. 

Cancer Among Migrant & Seasonal Farmworkers, a research summary by MCN's Candace Kugel, FNP, CNM, MS, and Claire Hutkins Seda, reviews the large and growing body of evidence that migrant and seasonal farmworkers have a higher risk of cancer. Published in the Public Health Post.

Attorney General James Leads Coalition in Calling for Federal Heat Standards for Worker, a press release from the New York State Attorney General's office, features MCN's Amy K. Liebman, Director of Environmental and Occupational Health.

What's Going On! Labor Monday, a radio segment on WBAI, Pacifica Radio in New York City, featured MCN's Ed Zuroweste, MD, Founding Medical Director. 

"Overtime Pay and Farmworkers’ Pain" by MCN's Ed Zuroweste, MD, Founding Medical Director, is an op-ed on the health perspective on overtime pay for farmworkers in New York State, published in the New York Daily News. 

"Panel Addresses Risks Faced by Farmworkers: Heat, Pesticides, and Other Inequities," published on John Hopkins Center for a Liveable Future, features MCN's Marysel Pagán Santana, MS, DrPH, who presented on climate change's impacts on farmworkers in Puerto Rico.  

"Why Farmworkers Need More Than New Laws for Protection From Heat-Related Illness," published in the Medical News & Perspectives of the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA), largely quotes MCN's Amy K. Liebman, Director of Environmental and Occupational Health, and leans on MCN's Clinician's Guide to Heat-Related Illness. DOI:10.1001/jama.2021.15454

"That Milk? Those Lemons and Tomatoes? Essential Workers Got Them To Us. Don't Forget Them," an editorial column in the Pioneer Press, quotes MCN's Amy K. Liebman, Director of Environmental and Occupational Health. 

"Helping the Helpers: Helping the Witnesses of Trauma Move Into Empowered Awareness Through the Witness to Witness (W2W) Program," is an episode from the Therapy on the Cutting Edge podcast on the work of MCN's Kaethe Weingarten, PhD, Director of Witness to Witness. 

“New Effort Combats Spread of Infectious Diseases, COVID Among Foreign-Born Workers in Poultry, Seafood Industries” quotes MCN's Amy K. Liebman, Director of Environmental and Occupational Health.

“Groups Tell 11th Circ. To Flip Roundup Cancer Link Ruling” mentions MCN's participation in an amicus brief in a recent lawsuit. 

"On the Southern U.S. Border, Newly Arrived Migrants Receive Health Services," from the blog of Direct Relief, quotes MCN's Deliana Garcia, Director of International Projects and Emerging Issues, and mentions Health Network's efforts to provide pregnant asylum seekers with care after they are released from detention. 

As Temperatures Rise, Farmworkers Ask for Federal Heat Safety Protections, a radio segment from PRI's The World, features MCN's Amy K. Liebman, Director of Environmental and Occupational Health.  The piece is also available as an article in The Week. 

Trusted Voices are Key in Getting COVID-19 Vaccine to Underserved Delmarva Communities quotes MCN's Amy K. Liebman, Director of Environmental and Occupational Health.  

'Our Super Bowl': Mobile COVID Vaccine Units Arrive on MD Shore, Opening Accessibility, from the Salisbury Times (Maryland), quotes MCN's Amy K. Liebman, Director of Environmental and Occupational Health.  

Undocumented Immigrants Sought Far Less Health Care After Trump Launched His Campaign, New Study Shows, from STAT News, quotes MCN's Laszlo Madaras, MD, MPH, Chief Medical Officer. 

'We're Very Grateful': For Some Farmworkers, US Work Visas Provide Opportunity for Vaccination from Illinois Newsroom features MCN's Laszlo Madaras, MD, MPH, Chief Medical Officer. 

Coronavirus Devastates California Farm Workers from Capitol Weekly mentions MCN's blog for information on farmworker health and safety. 

Op-ed: Essential Farmworkers Deserve Pesticide Protections, from Environmental Health News, is co-written by MCN's Amy K. Liebman, Director of Environmental and Occupational Health. 

After Enduring 'Complete Hell' During the Pandemic, Food Workers Struggle to Get Vaccinated, published in Mother Jones and elsewhere and produced by the Food and Environment Reporting Network, quotes MCN's Amy K. Liebman, Director of Environmental and Occupational Health. 

Who is ‘essential’? Food and farm workers left in limbo in vaccine priorities, from Politico, features Laszlo Madaras, MD, MPH, Chief Medical Officer, and mentions MCN's Health Network. 

Q&A: What PCPs need to know about COVID-19 vaccines, from Healio News, is co-authored by Laszlo Madaras, MD, MPH, Chief Medical Officer. 

Every State Needs Emergency Regulations to Protect Essential Food Workers, from STAT News, is written by MCN's Amy K. Liebman, Director of Environmental and Occupational Health.

EPA Limits Enforcement of Pesticide Application Boundaries, from The Hill, quotes MCN's Amy K. Liebman, Director of Environmental and Occupational Health.

What New York Farmworkers Have Earned: Pay Them for Overtime, Despite What Farm Owners Have Said in Unfair Hearings, an opinion piece from the New York Daily News, quotes MCN's Dr. Ed Zuroweste, Founding Medical Director.

EPA Faces Decision on Chemical Linked to Brain Damage in Children from The Hill quotes MCN's Amy K. Liebman, Director of Environmental and Occupational Health.

Report Says Pandemic Exposed Conditions and Risk for Migrant Crab Pickers on the Eastern Shore from the Baltimore Sun quotes MCN's Amy K. Liebman, as Director of Environmental and Occupational Health and a resident of the Eastern Shore. 

Who Gets the First COVID-19 Vaccines? The Answer is a Complex Tangle of Science and Ethics from the Union of Concerned Scientists' blog quotes MCN's Karen Mountain, CEO, on the need to confront medicine's "tragic racist past."

How You Get Your Berries: Migrant Workers Who Fear Virus, but Toil On from the New York Times features MCN’s Amy K. Liebman, Director of Environmental and Occupational Health.

As Summer Season Heats Up, Migrant Workers Confront Compounded Coronavirus Risks from the Huffington Post chronicles the clinicians featured on MCN’s June 2020 webinar on COVID-19, farmworkers, and clinicians.

Medical Troubles, Letter to the Editor in the New Yorker, was written by MCN’s Dr. Laszlo Madaras, Chief Medical Officer, responding to the geographic stagnation of medical records.

Military jets salute workers on front line as more coronavirus cases and deaths are reported, from the Washington Post, features MCN’s Amy K. Liebman, Director of Environmental and Occupational Health, on COVID-19.

'The distancing is non-existent': Seafood processing workers in Massachusetts speak out about unsafe working conditions amid coronavirus from Business Insider features MCN’s Dr. Ed Zuroweste, Founding Medical Director.

I'm Worried About The Psychological Toll On Health Care Workers. They Need Help from WBUR/NPR features MCN’s Kaethe Weingarten, Director of Witness to Witness.

Migrant farmworkers feed America, and they’re at high risk for a coronavirus outbreak from Food & Environment Reporting Network features MCN’s Amy K. Liebman, Director of Environmental and Occupational Health.

Pre-existing conditions and lack of sick leave and health insurance puts farm workers at increased coronavirus risk from The Counter features MCN’s Amy K. Liebman, Director of Environmental and Occupational Health.

Press Releases

AS DELTA VARIANT CASES SURGE, 221 COMMUNITY HEALTH OUTREACH WORKERS REACH MORE THAN 1.8 MILLION PEOPLE IN RURAL BIPOC COMMUNITIES

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: August 31, 2021

Sheila Quintana Aguilar, Alianza Nacional de Campesinas, sheila@campesinasunite.org

Claire Hutkins Seda, Migrant Clinicians Network, media@migrantclinician.org

Alianza Nacional de Campesinas (Alianza), Migrant Clinicians Network (MCN), Rural Coalition (RC) and 23 more organizational partners and members have mobilized 221 community health outreach workers across 20 states and Puerto Rico to encourage vaccination within Black, Indigenous and people of color (BIPOC) rural communities. Funded by an $8.1 million grant from the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA), an agency of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), the effort aims to raise vaccination rates among immigrant and migrant farmworkers, and rural communities of color.

Across the country, since June 15 of 2021, more than 1.8 million people have been reached, and 23,963 people have reported receiving the vaccine as a direct result of such contact. The outreach has occurred through culturally relevant, community-health based approaches including one-on-one conversations, door-to-door canvassing, informational and Q&A sessions on COVID-19 and vaccine efficacy, cultural events, food distribution drives, and through mobile and static vaccination clinics, as well as T.V, radio, and social media.

MIGRANT CLINICIANS NETWORK RECEIVES CRITICAL IMMIGRATION LITIGATION GRANT AWARD FROM BOREALIS PHILANTHROPHY

CHICO, CALIF. — Borealis Philanthropy, a grantmaking advocacy group specializing in funding social justice movements across the United States, has selected the Migrant Clinician Network (MCN) as a recipient of the Immigration Litigation Fund for their initiative, Medical Review for Immigrants (MRI).

MRI is yet another example of the ambitious projects that MCN has been bold enough to pursue, focusing on securing releases for   immigrant detainees in order to facilitate  critical care for their ongoing health needs. Lead by Marsha Griffin, a pediatrician who also serves as MCN’s chair emeritus, MRI connects pro-bono attorneys and doctors within MCN’s clinical network to arrange for the secure release of identified immigrants with urgent health needs. Once the release of a client has been secured, MRI is able to provide bridge case management services, a cost-effective strategy that has helped to define MCN’s Health Network as a successful support system for more than 10,000 constituents. Through MCN, MRI is able to provide clients with records transfer, follow-up care, and other services congruent with case management, even as they stay on the move.

Receiving a $65,000 award from the Immigration Litigation Fund signals the opportunity to expand on the “good work we have already accomplished on a shoestring budget for the past two years,” Dr. Griffin said. “MCN is the engine that made it happen.”

According to their website, the Immigration Litigation Fund focuses on funding litigation projects which “brings harms to light, keeps the day-to-day experiences of immigrants in front of the court and in the public eye, and addresses problems not solved by legislation and in public opinion.” This commitment to upholding the essential civil and human rights for individuals caught in the crosshairs of the nation’s immigration enforcement system helped to identify Borealis as a natural funding source for MRI.

“We are so grateful to our staff contact at Borealis Philanthropy for seeing the value of our effort to support attorneys in their pursuit to secure releases for their clients held in immigration detention,” Deliana Garcia, Director, International Projects and Emerging Issues, said. “Dr. Griffin and I made the first contact, and were encouraged to submit, based on the strength of our idea.”

Ashley-Michelle Papon, MCN’s Project Coordinator, Outreach and Development, also contributed to this grant application.

For more information on MRI, please visit our website: https://www.migrantclinician.org/services/MRI