A few weeks ago Nancy got word that she had been nominated for an award called “Women Who Mean Business.” It’s sponsored by The San Diego Business Journal and every year they choose women who are leaders in their fields. Last night was the awards dinner and Nancy won the award for Community Service. This was her nomination:
Dr. Nancy Graff graduated with a B.A. and M.D. from UC San Diego. After completing residency at UCLA, she returned to San Diego as a fellow at the UCSD Division of General Pediatrics in 1990. She is currently a clinical professor at the UCSD School of Medicine. Graff has always wanted to be sure that everyone has a voice, especially those who can’t fight for themselves. For that reason she decided to focus her career on the prevention of family violence and the health and well-being of children in the foster care system.
Acknowledged as an expert on child abuse, Graff has served as the medical director of the Polinsky Children’s Center clinic since 1994. In this position, Graff meets the needs of children suspected of or found to be at risk of child abuse. Since returning to San Diego for fellowship since 1990, she has also addressed the needs of children and families at El Cajon Community Clinic, The Birthplace and Hillcrest Receiving Home. She worked closely with UCSD’s Academic Center of Excellence on Youth Violence Prevention for a number of years. While working with the center she developed and now leads a Youth Violence Seminar for medical students
Graff directs two programs at the UCSD Division of Community Pediatrics. As the director of Pediatricians and Communities Collaborating Together, a residency training program, she ensures that San Diego’s future pediatricians will competently practice culturally appropriate medicine, as well as understand appropriately respond to and prevent family violence. Graff also directs a program that provides varied developmental and behavioral services for children 0-5 and their families, including developmental/behavioral screening, assessments and evaluations
Graff serves as the State Governmental Affairs Representative for Chapter 3 of the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) and has chaired the chapter’s Committee on Child Abuse and Neglect since 2002. Currently Graff sits on the San Diego County Juvenile Policy Group Healthcare Committee and is a member of the following Domestic Violence Fatality Review Team, Developmental Screening and Evaluation Project Advisory Board, and San Diego County’s Fetal Infant Mortality Review Advisory Board and Case Review Workgroup. Graff has served on the board of La Cuna, a nonprofit foster family agency that places Latino babies in healthy and loving homes, and is a past chair of the AAP’s Community Access to Child Health Committee.
Graff has participated in the AIDS walk and the AIDS bicycle ride from San Francisco to L.A., where she volunteered as a member of the crew. Graff is also a member of Childrens’ Health is a Legal Duty (CHILD), which fights for the rights of children whoa re prevented from receiving health care due to their parents’ religious beliefs. Consistent with her beliefs that all children deserve health care, she has gone beyond the expectations of a pediatrician to simply treat ailing children, to fight for all children at a policy level.
Not a bad night, all things considered. It’s nice to see that the greater San Diego community recognizes what I’ve known all along: she’s an incredible person (and a terrific wife by the way).