Recent Accomplishments

DC AAP Impact Report: Hope Starts With Us!

The D.C. Chapter of the American Academy of Pediatrics (DC AAP) is comprised of over 450 pediatricians committed to the optimal health and development of children and adolescents of Washington, DC. DC AAP is tackling some of the greatest health inequities to Washington, DC’s children and adolescents. Our approach is to design early interventions, connections families to services, and to advocate policy for needed systems change.

In everyday practice, pediatricians experience the first hand health, social, and emotions challenges for their patients. DC AAP becomes the connector to develop via solutions for healthier outcomes. Through the chapter’s collective expertise, pediatricians become the experts at the table for children’s issues. 

Thanks to the strength of our organization, we positively impacted our local community in a lot of ways this year. However, one particular initiative sticks out as significantly profound – when chapter members provided support for our fellow pediatrician, Dr. Roy Guerrero, MD. Dr. Guerrero is the sole pediatrician in the Uvalde, TX area and after the tragic school shooting in May 2022, he became an important voice on gun violence. DCAAP members sprang into action to support him as he testified on Capitol Hill during a Congressional hearing on gun violence. Our members continued to support gun legislation reform as a show of solidarity for Dr. Guerrero, his patients, and all the people affected by mass shootings nationwide.

The New England Journal of Medicine now reports firearm-related injuries have become the most common cause of death for children ages 1-24 years of age.

Our support of Dr. Guerrero is incredibly touching and powerful. However, it barely scratches the surface of what you’ve done to transform our DC community in 2022.

Highlights Include

    • Forging a grant partnership with the DC Women, Infant and Children (WIC) program to better understand WIC enrollment amongst pediatric providers and program participants and create a model for closed-loop referrals and communication with WIC.
    • Our Spring Symposium, “Building Pediatrician Capacity in Addressing Food Insecurity” connected leading food resource and access organizations across DC with AAP chapter members. The symposium produced quick reference referral guides for pediatricians and parents now available in print and on the DC AAP website.
    • Work from the AAP Food Insecurity Learning Collaborative was recently recognized by the 2022 White House Conference on Hunger, Nutrition, and Health as part of its National Strategies on Hunger Nutrition and Health. AAP and No Kid Hungry have committed funds and resources to scale this work nationwide.
    • An educational series and training on intimate partner violence that culminated in our Fall Symposium “Exploring the Role of Pediatricians in Addressing Intimate Partner Violence.” Key community referral resources are available on AAPDC.org.
    • Providing support to the Under 3 DC Coalition that led to the expansion of DC’s HealthySteps programs.
    • Domestic Violence Resource Sheet
    • Food Insecurity Resource Sheets for Pediatricians and Patients
    • Supporting new city-wide legislation to expand adolescent “right to consent for medical care” to include COVID-19 vaccinations.
    • Continuing our support – on both the local and national level – for the declaration of a state of emergency for mental health and children.
    • Obtaining funding to design and implement a multi-channel campaign, including community meetings, web content, and social media, to counter misinformation about COVID-19 vaccinations.
    • Highlighting and supporting important member-led community grant projects through national presentations given at PAS and AAP’s NCE.

    What’s most impressive about this list is that members of our Chapter share these accomplishments. Working together we can have an impact. We have had an impact. And we look forward to our continued impact of making a difference in our profession and for the children and families of DC.