Marsha Griffin, MD, is a co-founder, President and CEO of Community for Children, Inc., a non-profit formed by three pediatricians and an educator to fill critical gaps in care for immigrant children and families.
She is also a Retired Clinical Professor of Pediatrics, at the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley School of Medicine (UTRGV) where she served as the Director of the Division of Child and Family Health and Director of the Community for Children international program in social justice. She completed her medical education at the University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio and pediatric residency training at Texas Children’s Hospital and the UT Health Science Center at San Antonio.
She was a founding member of the Executive Committee of the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) Council on Immigrant Child and Family Health, co-authored the AAP Policy Statement “Detention of Immigrant Children,” and was asked to Chair the AAP Border Strategy Team. She previously served as Medical Director of the Humanitarian Care Respite Clinic in McAllen, Texas, from 2014 to 2020 where she organized volunteer medical teams from around the country to provide care for the thousands of immigrant families passing through the border region.
In 2018, she received one of the American Academy of Pediatrics’ highest awards, the Clifford G. Grulee Award, for her advocacy for all children and for her outstanding service to the American Academy of Pediatrics. In 2019, Dr. Griffin was named Health Policy Hero by the National Center on Health Policy in Washington, DC. She serves on the Board of Trustees for the Acacia Center for Justice. Her current research and advocacy centers on identifying and addressing health inequities suffered by asylum-seeking pregnant mothers and children with serious medical conditions, which begins on the southern US border but is pervasive throughout the country.
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