Overview

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.

Ben Squires Equity Interns
Fall 2021: Rachel Donaldson
Spring 2022: Stephanie Robinson
Summer 2022: Mehwish Ali
Fall 2022: Mayra Miranda
Summer 2023: Yasmeen Santana

Why Equity Internships
In 2018, Health & Medicine created an Internship Equity Committee charged with developing a new model for internships in which unpaid intern labor is replaced with a paid internship model, and for which we established a “one door” application process so that opportunities are not limited to the well-connected. Providing paid internships is an important step toward creating and sustaining a diverse, equitable, accessible, and inclusive workforce. Learn more about our Equity Intern Program here.