2020
Estefania Miramontes Valdes
- Age: 32
- | She/her/hers
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All girls and women in the world need to have access to quality and comprehensive reproductive health services because reproductive health is healthcare, and therefore a fundamental human right.
- Estefania Miramontes Valdes
Bio
Estefania Miramontes Valdes is originally from Mexico and currently lives in the United States. She received a Doctor of Medicine from Tec of Monterrey School of Medicine in 2016. As a Community Outreach Specialist at Johns Hopkins University, Estefania provides comprehensive and bilingual family planning and sexual and reproductive health education and counseling to girls and women at a pediatric primary care practice, coordinates referrals and appointments for contraceptive and reproductive health services within and outside of the clinic, connects uninsured women to reproductive health resources, does data collection and management for research purposes, conducts Institute Review board review, and writes grants and papers. As a Community Outreach Specialist at Centro SOL (Center for Salud/Health and Opportunities for Latinos), she is responsible for social media management and event organizing. Additionally, Estefania works in contract tracing at the Baltimore City Health Department.
What ignited your pursuit for gender equality?
Previous experiences in my home country where gender inequality is very common and has led to many teenage pregnancies, unwanted pregnancies, and sexual assault. After moving to the US, I sensed the same problems within the Latino communities and the underserved communities, so I knew I had to do something. By educating girls and women about family planning and SRH, I know I'm empowering them to chose about their bodies, their lives, and their families.
Please share your biggest wins as an advocate for gender equality.
I have had the pleasure to educate and empower around 500 girls and women and helped 40 percent of them connect to reproductive health resources regardless of their insurance status. This work has been possible thanks to an innovative quality improvement family planning program I developed, coordinated, and implemented.
Outside of your gender equality advocacy work, what do you enjoy doing?
Cooking, watching series and movies, spending time with my husband, and dancing.
Languages Spoken:
- English (Advanced/Native)
- Spanish (Advanced/Native)
Publications:
Speaks On:
- comprehensive family planning education and counseling
- reproductive healthcare access in underserved communities
- male engagement in family planning
Past Awards, Certifications, or Fellowships:
- Conducting Epidemiological Research at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health Summer Institute (2019)
- Innovating Education in Reproductive Health (Partnership with the ACOG LARC Program) (2019)
- LARC Counseling Scenarios: Initiation of Shared Decision-Making Process (2019)
- UCSF & Bixby Center for Global Reproductive Health (2019)
- 120 under 40 (2019)
- Foundations of Global Health at Johns Hopkins University (2018)
- Family Planning Basics at Family Planning National Training Center (2018)
- Quality Contraceptive Counseling and Education: A Client-Centered Conversation (2018)
- Epidemiology in Public Health Practice at Johns Hopkins University (2017)
