student honored with national public health award from united states public health service
Graduating medical student Sydney Hatch has been selected to receive a United States Public Health Service (USPHS) 2025 Excellence in Public Health Award. The goal of the USPHS is to promote the health and safety of our nation and to recognize
medical students who have positively impacted the public health needs of their community
and beyond.
Sydney has proven herself to be an exceptional individual whose innovations and diligence have contributed to the well-being of this region.
She joined us from The Ohio State University, where she majored in Molecular Genetics. Her ongoing volunteer activities underscore her dedication to serve those who are underserved. She became knowledgeable about health policy in Ohio and received a Community Volunteer of the Year Award and made her final decision to choose medicine as her lifelong profession.
Sydney's leadership, research, and organizational skills have been well shown in her dedication to the CommunityCare Clinic (CCC) run by the students of The University of Toledo College of Medicine and Life Sciences. This free clinic has markedly improved access to health services for disadvantaged populations in our area. As she became involved in her first year of medical school recruiting volunteer medical students, this program saw 8,400 individual patients that year.
Sydney's exemplary managerial skills supported expansion of five traveling clinics which reached individuals on the street corners but also in underserved neighborhoods in Lucas County.
During her time as Director of Administration of the CCC, and in collaboration with the Ohio Department of Health, she accepted an award for the CCC as the Largest Student Run Free Clinic in the Country.
Sydney also worked on Grant Funding, receiving two important and practical outcomes for the Clinic patients. One was the implementation of onsite laboratory services and the other was an award to install a covered bus stop outside the primary CCC location.
This innovative student also created a new patient intake form which includes important elements of the Social Determinants of Health (SDOH). This document may become an important tool as our community, with our county health district, continuously deals with the complexities of SDOH. Her Presentations and Publications include both local and national venues including recent acceptance of her article, "The Demographic Gap", which will be published in The Journal of Community Health.
Sydney Hatch has been an innovative and dedicated medical student who honors our medical school
with this award from the United States Public Health Service.
Article written by Donna Woodson, MD, FAAFP, Professor emerita, UToledo College of
Medicine and Life Sciences