When people tell Dr. Lisa Merritt they don鈥檛 trust doctors, she says it鈥檚 鈥渉eartbreaking鈥�.
鈥淚 have to laugh and look at them and say, 鈥榶ou鈥檙e going to tell me that, and I鈥檓 a doctor,鈥欌�� said Merritt, the founder and executive director of the Multicultural Health Institute (MHI) in Sarasota, Florida. 鈥淏ut they feel comfortable, to be honest with me, because that鈥檚 how people really feel.鈥�
Merritt has dedicated her career to improving access to public health resources for minority communities, and as a Black physician, she gets a first hand look at the barriers to care.
She founded the MHI in California in 1995 with a group of doctors and community advocates.
In 2006 the MHI headquarters relocated to Sarasota, after Merritt had moved there to help supervise her mother鈥檚 care following a cancer diagnosis.
The MHI鈥檚 office that Merritt shares with an intern is tucked into the corner of a Goodwill job connection center in Newtown. The office walls are crowded with certificates, brightly colored posters and newspaper clippings highlighting the work of Merritt and the institute.
Before the pandemic, the MHI held wellness fairs, offering free health screenings for things like blood pressure and diabetes. Merritt led a long term study into healthcare in Sarasota鈥檚 historically Black neighborhood of Newtown. And the institute trains volunteers, called community navigators, who connect people with healthcare resources, from help with prescriptions to housing and food assistance.
When COVID-19 hit, the MHI responded, tracking the spread of the disease and organizing .
In a video on the group鈥檚 Facebook page from March 2021, Merritt chatted through the open window of a car with two women at a vaccination drive outside a church in Bradenton, a city on Florida鈥檚 gulf coast, just north of Sarasota
鈥淗ow do you feel, mentally, after the second dose?鈥� she asked.
鈥淩elieved. I鈥檓 out in the community all the time,鈥� one of them responded.
Pop up vaccine clinics like this were a way for Merritt to bridge a gap in healthcare.
Merritt said MHI was able to look at the data and show how COVID was affecting the community differently in different zip codes.
In North Sarasota, where the population is mostly Black and Latinx, they found the positivity rate was higher than neighboring communities.
鈥淭hese are the essential workers,鈥� Merritt said. 鈥淭hese are the people that couldn't sit home, and work from home. These were multi-generational homes.鈥�
She said she understands why there鈥檚 mistrust of healthcare providers from a community that has had firsthand experience with a segregated health system.
鈥淲hile vaccines were being sent to gated communities and people's friends, that did not do much to engender further trust in the power structure that rules over people's lives.鈥�
But she said access to information, testing and vaccines were bigger barriers than mistrust.
Overcoming those barriers meant working with public health agencies and other partners to make vaccines available in the community.
鈥淎nd then we would do literally hundreds of people on a Saturday and a Sunday at a church or a community center. And we're able to literally level the playing field.鈥�
In addition to running pop-up clinics, information and education sessions, Merritt mentors future health care leaders at the MHI.
She said former interns have gone on to become lawyers, doctors, artists 鈥� but they all have an interest in public health.
鈥淭he pandemic kind of just opened my eyes to the large swath of failures that exist, kind of at all levels of the public health field,鈥� former intern Ormond Derrick said.
Derrick, who has a bachelor's degree in political science and global health from Sarasota鈥檚 New College of Florida, developed a COVID-19 access guide in English and Spanish for MHI, and he helped get people things they needed, like information on testing sites, or how to use pulse oximeters to measure blood-oxygen levels.
鈥淚t's a very simple intervention tool that saves lives,鈥� Derrick said of the pulse oximeter. 鈥淚've saved my family's lives, specifically, because I use the same skills I learned at MHI to help them when they were diagnosed with COVID.鈥�
Derrick said MHI shows how the healthcare system should work. He called it 鈥渁n incredible model of how to do health advocacy and health equity work and really to replicate it no matter what.鈥�
MHI intern Olympia Fulcher said working at the MHI has shown them a different way of thinking about public health.
鈥淵ou don't have to be a doctor or an epidemiologist to really make a difference in a public health setting,鈥� they said.
Fulcher, who has a degree in computer science, has been building an app so community members who don鈥檛 have internet access can find useful information about COVID-19 on their phones.
鈥淎nd that was really what cemented it for me, that even though I feel like I'm just crunching numbers all day, it really is making an impact in the community,鈥� they said.
Fulcher described Merritt as 鈥渙ne of the most inspiring people I鈥檝e ever met. She鈥檚 had a huge impact on me. Huge.鈥�
Derrick echoed that sentiment. 鈥淪he's like the closest thing to an angel I think I've met but of course, she is just an extraordinary human being at the end of the day,鈥� he said.
Merritt said her own career was shaped by great role models. Now she鈥檚 paying it forward and helping shape the next generation of public health advocates.
鈥淚'm grateful that I had incredible models, and that I'm just part of a link in a chain. And I hope to inspire other young people.鈥�
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