Board member profile: Marie Dahlstrom
When Marie Dahlstrom learned about the Project Access model while serving on United Way of the Columbia-Willamette’s Health Access Committee, she advocated for creating a similar organization in the Portland/Vancouver metropolitan area.
Since then, Marie said, “as someone who’s been involved in the creation of Project Access NOW, I’ve been absolutely ecstatic to see it launch and grow.”
As director of research and development at Familias en Accion, a health organization for Latinos, Marie works primarily with Latinos, who are overrepresented among the uninsured. She runs the organization’s Cancer Patient Navigator Program, where Project Access NOW executive director Linda Nilsen-Solares sits on the advisory board. Before Project Access NOW, uninsured Latinos with cancer had an extremely difficult time to get care, if they could get it at all.
“We’d receive calls from folks diagnosed with cancer, but we had no resources to tap into and nowhere to send them,” Marie said. “Physicians would tell them—even to people who have been here for years—to seek care in their country of origin.”
Marie joined the Project Access NOW board in April 2010 as its newest member.
“I’m impressed with the numbers of volunteers who support Project Access NOW and patients served,” Marie said.
Marie is “very excited to participate in the implementation of the strategic plan. I see many opportunities with the plan to ensure communities can get healthy, understand health issues, and have all possible resources to manage disease.
“As a new board member, I look forward to supporting Project Access NOW in serving the underserved communities. I’d also like to involve and engage students in those communities getting into the health profession as stakeholders and even future board members.”
Marie’s other activities include running a health prevention program at Familias en Accion, and serving as diversity coordinator at University of Portland’s School of Nursing, where she works to enhance access for Hispanic students. Her prior experience includes co-authoring community health assessments in Multnomah and Clackamas Counties, working at OHSU’s Center for Health Disparities, and a masters in psychology.
(July 2010)
