Board member profile: Marie Napolitano
Marie Napolitano has been caring for the indigent, migrant population of Oregon for more than 22 years. Until 2010, she primarily traveled to provide migrant health care in Virginia Garcia Medical Center’s mobile health van. In 2010, Marie began to collaborate with Familias en Accion to focus on the comprehensive treatment of diabetic patients.
It so happens that Familias’ director of research and development, Marie Dahlstrom, is a Project Access NOW board member. She connected Marie with Project Access NOW’s Linda Nilsen-Solares and it was clear to Linda, Marie – and the rest of the board of directors – that Marie would be a valuable addition to the Project Access NOW board.
As an educator and the director of the Family Nurse Practitioner Program at the University of Portland’s School of Nursing, Marie has placed students in training situations where they have observed and treated patients who have no insurance and no ability to pay. Her students return to her class having been touched by the many moving stories of the people they see and of the continued need to provide care for these most vulnerable of our neighbors. Marie is one of many providers who believe a coordinated referral network to get uninsured patients specialty and primary care is essential.
“Thank goodness for Project Access NOW. It is a huge response to what we as providers were doing,” Marie says.
Marie is honored to be a part of the Project Access NOW board whose members are all “so dedicated and values driven.” She serves on the Clinical Capacity Committee and has also begun working with Project Access NOW staff on the process of medical case review. Among her other community collaborations, Marie also serves as chair of the Board of the Migrant Clinicians Network.
