Fellows >> Maricel G. Santos

 

 

Maricel G. Santos

Assistant Professor of English Department, M.A. TESOL & Affiliated faculty of College of Education

 

Ed.D.

Harvard Graduate School of Education

 

At SF State since 2005

 

Interests

Adult ESL in community-based settings; literacy as social practice; health literacy; ESL learners and teachers as agents of change in health care; L2 vocabulary development; relationships between L1 and L2 literacy development; motivation, persistence, and transition in adult ESL; research methods for community action; action research design

 

Research

Dr. Santos’ interests in health disparities grew out of her experiences in the adult ESOL (English to Speakers of Other Languages) field over the past 16 years. Her current research on Project PILOT (Partners in Immigrant Leadership, Outreach, and Training) seeks to harness the potential of the adult education classroom as a powerful context for collaboration with health care providers, community outreach, and the development of grassroots leadership. She hopes that her work on Project PILOT will expand our understanding of the many ways adult ESL teachers and learners can serve as agents of change in health care.

 

Contact

Maricel G. Santos, Ed.D.

English Department

HUM 465

San Francisco State University

1600 Holloway Ave

San Francisco, CA 94132

Tel: (415) 338-7445

mgsantos@sfsu.edu

 

Project PILOT (Partners in Immigrant Leadership, Outreach, and Training)

 

 

Description

The overarching goals of Project PILOT (Partners in Immigrant Leadership, Outreach, and Training) are to address health disparities affecting immigrant communities by ensuring that adult ESL learners are better prepared to advocate for themselves and their communities both in the health care delivery and policy contexts, and to create a mechanism by which adult ESL learners are able to participate in the design of health training, education, research and dissemination activities.
 

Specifically, the project aims to:

  • Identify a cadre of motivated adult learners who are committed to taking
    community action around health disparities;

  • Design educational materials for adult ESL programs that support the
    development of health literacy and leadership skills in adult immigrant learners so that are better poised to train others to navigate the health care system;

  • Support and document the civic activities that the adult ESL learners take as advocates for  improved health outcomes in their community, and

  • Design and replicate a model of partnership that facilitates on-going dialogue and collaboration between a network of Bay Area adult ESL programs and local health care providers.
     

Mentor

 

Dean Schillinger, M.D.

Associate Professor of Medicine, University of California, San Francisco
Co-director, UCSF Center for Vulnerable Populations/ San Francisco General Hospital

 

Dr. Schillinger is an Associate Professor of Clinical Medicine at UCSF. He also directs the UCSF Center for Vulnerable Populations. He received his medical training at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine, his residency in primary care at UCSF, and his Chief Residency at San Francisco General Hospital. His main area of research interest is caring for vulnerable populations. His academic and research activities include health communication,
chronic disease, health policy/advocacy, literacy, education and health, and public systems of care.
 

Last Updated on 03/14/2008 by Webmaster