Health Equity Intern Program
For more information about this program please contact:
Leandra Carlyle, Events and Operations Associate, lcarlyle@hmprg.org
Overview
Health & Medicine’s health equity internship program is an excellent opportunity for current and recent graduate students to gain exposure to health policy careers with a focus on advancing health equity and eliminating and redressing structural inequities. A successful internship can be an integral part of a person’s education and professional development. Our paid internship program provides on-the-job learning, network growth opportunities, and mentorship toward a successful career launch. Under the supervision of a staff preceptor, interns contribute to health-related policy and/or public health practice projects under one of Health & Medicine’s main focus areas. All interns will also be considered for one of two named internship opportunities. To learn more about these, please read about the Ben and Susan Squires Equity Internship and HiteHass Equity Internship below.
Our internship program supports the next generation of professionals who believe in our mission of health equity and social justice. We are especially interested in applicants pursuing careers focused on health policy, public health, social work, and advancing health equity through addressing root structural causes. Applicants must be currently enrolled in (or recently graduated from, in the last year) a graduate degree program in the greater Chicagoland area. Graduate students residing in the Chicagoland area and enrolled in online graduate programs out of state are also eligible.
While projects vary depending on organizational needs throughout the year, interns may be involved with the following types of work:
- Researching and analyzing policy and writing reports, briefs, or fact sheets relevant to public health, health care, health workforce, and topics relevant to Health & Medicine projects
- Helping track the progress of bills and ordinances at the state, county, and city level and Health & Medicine’s advocacy for each of these
- Planning, sharing resources for, and following up on health policy forum and roundtable events
- Organizing information and coordinating projects related to health policy and public health capacity building
- Joining staff at various collaborations and coalitions
To allow students to apply to any cohort at any time, our internship application remains open throughout the year. For consideration in the corresponding cohort, applications must be submitted by the following deadlines:
If you are seeking a Spring internship (February – April 2025): Apply by November 29, 2024
If you are seeking a Summer internship (June – August 2025): Apply by April 4, 2025
If you are seeking a Fall internship (October – December 2025): Apply by August 8, 2025
Health & Medicine’s Internship Program Model
In 2018, Health & Medicine created an Internship Equity Committee charged with developing a new model for internships, called the Equity Intern Program. The new model replaced unpaid intern labor with paid internships and established a “one door” application process. Rather than internships given to those most well-connected, all applicants complete the same application and are subject to the same review and selection requirements. Providing paid internships is an important step toward creating and sustaining a diverse, equitable, accessible, and inclusive workforce.
Learn More
Ben and Susan Squires Equity Internship
Inspired by their mother and father’s commitment to their careers in health care and desire to mentor young people, Amy Squires and Sarah Squires-Doyle graciously support the Ben and Susan Squires Equity Internship. The Internship supports one intern per year.
Since she was a young girl, Susan Squires always dreamed of becoming a nurse. After graduating from high school, she went straight into a four-year BSN program at Illinois Wesleyan University and later earned a master’s degree in nursing from Rush University. She was one of the first Nurse Practitioners in Illinois and fought tirelessly for prescriptive rights. Her career took her to many settings including neighborhood health clinics, the University of Illinois Chicago, and Cook County Hospital (now John H. Stroger Jr. Hospital of Cook County) where she served under the hospital’s Chairman of Medicine, Dr. Quentin Young, the future founder of Health & Medicine. Susan loved interacting with patients and had a loyal following. After retirement, she volunteered at her local hospital and taught nursing students overseas through Global Volunteers and Cross-Cultural Solutions.
After serving as a tail-gunner in World War II, Ben Squires went to Northwestern University and graduated with a degree in education. He followed many different career paths before finding his true calling in public health. For more than 20 years, he worked on various health care initiatives in Chicago and with the Illinois Department of Public Health. He was passionate about challenging health inequities and helping to pave the way to improve access to quality health care for all people in Illinois. He especially enjoyed leading efforts to improve maternal and child health programs and to reduce infant mortality in Chicago. Ben served as a board member at Health & Medicine for 25 years and made significant and lasting contributions to public health in Illinois.
In 2021, Ben posthumously received the Quentin D. Young Board of Directors Award of Excellence for his tireless commitment to public health and his mentorship of young people in the early stages of their careers.
Susan and Ben were married for more than 50 years and loved living and working in Chicago. Susan passed away in 2015, and Ben in 2021, but their devotion to health equity lives on. “We are deeply honored to continue our parents’ legacy by funding equitable internships with Health & Medicine, an organization we love, respect, and trust,” daughters Amy Squires and Sarah Squires-Doyle said.
Past Ben and Susan Squires Equity Interns
- Spring 2024: Meera Puthenmadom
- Summer 2023: Yasmeen Santana
- Fall 2022: Mayra Miranda
- Summer 2022: Mehwish Ali
- Spring 2022: Stephanie Robinson
- Fall 2021: Rachel Donaldson
HiteHass Equity Internship
Drs. Marsie Hass and Scott Hite generously support one health equity intern for the year 2023 through the Hass Hite Equity Internship. Drs. Hass and Hite established the named internship to further the work of Dr. Quentin Young, Health & Medicine co-founder, by bringing more equity to health care. “Although there have been many initiatives to further this goal by educating and encouraging doctors to view health equity as an inalienable right, the country has not yet come far enough to actualize Dr. Young’s vision,” they say.
Rooted in classical rabbinic teachings, Drs. Hass and Hite believe that social policy legislation should provide extra protection to those potentially at a disadvantage. “We believe that we must continue to do what we can to promote equity in both health and medicine.”
Dr. Marsie Hite is a retired, board-certified, obstetrician/gynecologist. Prior to college, she participated in research at the Weizmann Institute of Science in Rehovot, Israel. She completed her graduate studies and conducted genetic research through the Honors Program in Medical Education at Northwestern University, where she also received her bachelor’s degree. After completing her residency in Obstetrics and Gynecology at Michael Reese Hospital and Medical Center, Dr. Hass joined a private practice in the southern suburbs of Chicago, where she was an attending physician at both South Suburban and Ingalls Hospitals. At South Suburban Hospital, where Dr. Hass was Chairman of the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology until her retirement, she and her partner established and administered an Obstetric hospitalist program, which guaranteed physician availability in Labor and Delivery for all patients at all times.
Dr. Scott Hite, also a retired, board-certified, obstetrician/gynecologist, earned his bachelor’s degree in chemistry and philosophy from Haverford College. He earned his medical degree from the University of Illinois Chicago, where Dr. Quentin Young’s mentorship led him to co-create an extracurricular course in Medical Ethics that was incorporated into the medical school’s standard curriculum. Dr. Hite completed his residency in Obstetrics and Gynecology at Michael Reese Hospital and Medical Center and received the Medical Staff Goldsmith Award for “humane attitude towards patients and their families” in his first year. After completing medical training, he was an attending physician at South Suburban and St. James Hospitals in the southern suburbs of Chicago and served as Chairman of the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology at Suburban Heights Medical Center. He later joined a private practice in Chicago as an attending physician at Michael Reese (where he was appointed Vice Chairman of the Obstetrics and Gynecology Department and later elected as President Medical Staff) and Northwestern Hospitals. While in practice, Dr. Hite had academic appointments at the University of Illinois and Northwestern University and provided medical-legal consultation and education outside of his academic appointments. After retiring from clinical medicine, he worked as a medical director for Blue Cross Blue Shield (HCSC) until his final retirement.
Past HiteHass Equity Interns
- Spring 2023: Marissa Jones