We are excited to welcome pediatrician Dr. Gurbaksh Esch back to Flint as the inaugural Pediatric Public Health Initiative Alice Hamilton Scholar. Esch will participate in a two-year post-residency position for pediatricians that includes public health training, mentored research, and clinical care with Dr. Mona Hanna-Attisha and the Michigan State University-Hurley Children's Hospital Pediatric Public Health Initiative.
March 17, 2021
Dr. Esch grew up in Troy, Michigan, went to Oakland University for her undergraduate studies, and received a Bachelor of Science in biology and a minor in Spanish-language. She went onto receive her medical degree from Michigan State University College of Human Medicine.
During her time at the College of Human Medicine, she spent her clinical years in Flint, Michigan, where she developed a love for pediatrics and an interest in health equity.
Dr. Esch is currently a third-year Pediatric resident at Royal Oak Beaumont, where she has started a Health Equity Rounds curriculum to recognize and mitigate implicit bias, understanding systemic racism and its context in medicine, and making evidence-based individual, program, and institutional changes toward health equity. She has also worked on quality improvement projects focused on improving HPV vaccination rates in the resident clinic and improving resident and medical student education on common pediatric skin rashes on Black and Brown children.
She looks forward to her time as the inaugural Pediatric Public Health Initiative Alice Hamilton Scholar and returning to Flint, MI, explicitly focusing on parenting and ACEs research. Dr. Esch enjoys spending time with her family and her two dogs, running, and reading mystery/thriller novels outside of work.
Alice Hamilton Scholars
A two-year post-residency position for pediatricians, Alice Hamilton Scholars complete public health training, mentored research, and clinical care with the Pediatric Public Health Initiative (PPHI).
PPHI is a partnership between Michigan State University and Hurley Children’s Hospital with a mission to improve outcomes for children.
The two-year scholar program is named in honor of Alice Hamilton (1869–1970) who was an American physician, research scientist, author, humanitarian, and social justice pioneer. She graduated from medical school in Michigan in 1893, then worked with Jane Addams at the Hull House in Chicago where she opened a well-baby clinic for poor families in the local settlement house neighborhood. The first woman professor at Harvard University, Dr. Hamilton is considered the mother of the field of occupational health and spent her life protecting vulnerable populations from toxic exposures.
Learn more about applying to become an Alice Hamilton Scholar.
