Zlotnick Scholarship
Bio
David A. Zlotnick, MD '62, a first-generation American, came from the Bronx, New York, to Stanford University, where he completed medical school and pediatric residency with special interests in infectious disease, cardiology, and adolescent medicine. After serving in the Navy Medical Corps, he began private practice in Palo Alto, volunteering care to migrant workers in Gilroy and Salinas, while keeping his commitments as an active clinical associate professor at Stanford University School of Medicine and Santa Clara Valley Medical Center. He was an early leader for Interplast (now ReSurge) and with his wife, Caroline Dixon Zlotnick, RN, BA ‘62, formalized their pediatric reconstructive peri-operative care on many international missions. Undeterred by the sequelae of an astrocytoma discovered the week of his 49th birthday, he rehabilitated his clinical skills at the Stanford Pediatrics Clinic. Dr. Zlotnick returned to service in Navy and community clinics until his premature death in 2002.
Purpose
Dr. and Mrs. Zlotnick created the David A. Zlotnick, MD Memorial Endowed Fund in the Department of Pediatrics to encourage, develop, and support the volunteerism of Stanford medical students interested in pediatrics, pediatric residents, and pediatric faculty members, with a preference for volunteerism in Central and South America. The Fund aims to provide Zlotnick Scholars with experience, understanding, and satisfaction for lifelong contribution and leadership in the interest of children’s health.
The Fund and its Scholars are a legacy to Dr. Zlotnick’s career in local, regional, trans-border, and international pediatric care and teaching, which began at Stanford and continued with his close affection for the Stanford University School of Medicine and the Department of Pediatrics.
The Fund will be used for medical students interested in pediatrics, pediatric residents, or pediatric faculty members participating in rotations at established sites such as the Cachamsi program in Ecuador for clinical and medical Spanish education or FASEH in Brazil (for residents and faculty only). Medical students interested in pediatrics and pediatric residents will be given preference. Applicants with long-standing relationships at other sites in Central and South America must receive approval to travel to these sites from the program. It is expected that participants will rotate in the children’s hospital and pediatric clinics in qualified and approved programs. Scholarships are available for a minimum of six-week rotations.
Eligibility
Stanford medical students interested in pediatrics*, pediatric residents, and pediatric faculty.
Funding
Travel expenses, accommodations, and food/board, to support the recipients volunteering their time and skills.
Funds are not to be used for salary backfill or other compensation to recipients.
Donate
We invite you to support future scholarship by contributing to The David A. Zlotnick MD Memorial Endowed Fund. As the Fund grows, the payout can award more scholars in his legacy. Visit the Zlotnick Scholarship donation page to make your gift today.
Selection
Scholars will be selected from the pool of Stanford Global Child Health Travel Scholarship awardees each year. Application deadlines and information are available on the program page.
2023/2024 Scholar, Calvin Lau
Bay Area native and pediatric resident, Calvin Lau, MD, is the 2023-24 David A. Zlotnick MD Memorial scholar. Calvin earned his BA at Duke and his MD from UCLA, where he became passionate abou improving access to high-acuity pediatric care locally and abroad.
With support from the Zlotnick scholarship, Calvin completed a 6-week rotations at Instituto Nacional de Enfermedades Neoplasicas (INEN/ National Institute of Neoplastic Diseases) in Lima, Peru in 2023 and returned to continue his collaboration during another 6-week rotation in 2024. His rotations included assisting in pediatric cancer studies with researchers from the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO). Read more about his 2023 experience here and 2024 experience here.
Calvin plans to continue his research collaboration with INEN/PAHO researchers and remain engaged in pediatric cancer care both in and outside the U.S. as a pediatrician in the Bay Area.
2022 Scholar, Monique Barros de Araujo
Monique De Araujo, MD, MPH is the 2022 David A. Zlotnick MD Memorial scholar. She grew up in Brazil and received her undergraduate, medical, and masters degrees at UNC. Her volunteer experiences have taken her to settings as diverse as Moscow/St. Petersburg, Russia and Kabale, Uganda.
As a pediatric resident at Stanford/LPCH in the global child health concentration, she is passionate about improving child health around the world. Her research has included work with Dr. Rishi Mediratta, SOM and LPCH peds residency alumnus, on video training for Ethiopian health workers to recognize respiratory distress in children.
The Zlotnick scholarship enabled Monique to return to her home country where she learned about its unique public medical system, with its focus on universal health care, and reliance on community health care workers.
After graduating from residency in 2022, Monique hopes to continue caring for underserved populations worldwide.
2019 Scholar, Jecca Steinberg
Jecca Steinberg, the 2019 Zlotnick Memorial Scholar, is a final year medical student at Stanford. As an undergraduate at Rice, she immersed herself in disparate communities in Texas, Guatemala, and Mexico. Her work helped her earn a Marshall Scholarship to study in the UK, where she earned a Masters in Global Health and Development at University College London and a Masters with Distinction in Epidemiology at London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. At Stanford, she has been recognized for her work on several community based pediatrics projects in San Jose and East Palo Alto, as well as in developing a course to highlight how physicians can serve their communities.
The Zlotnick scholarship enabled Jecca to travel to Riobamba, Ecuador, to integrate the lessons of her global health background and medical training at Stanford. Read her reflection here.
Jecca will be headed to Northwestern for residency in Ob/Gyn in 2020. She is excited to continue her commitment to diminishing health inequities and serving global communities both domestically and abroad.
2018 Scholar, Ben Lerman
Ben is a fourth-year medical student completing a dual degree MD/MS in Epidemiology and Clinical Research. Originally from southern California, he received his BA in biology from Stanford. His major clinical interests are pediatric cardiology and hematology-oncology, and his primary academic interests lie in clinical outcomes research, global health, and medical education.
His current research examines how clinicians can better predict post-operative mortality in heart failure patients undergoing non-cardiac surgery. He also works with the Digital Medical Education International Collaborative (Digital MEdIC), a Stanford-led platform using digital technology to improve medical education and health literacy in the developing world.
Read his reflection about his time in Ecuador, which was supported by the Zlotnick scholarship, here.
Ben will begin residency in pediatrics in July, 2019.
2017 Scholar, Jessie Liu
Jessie Liu was born in New York to two immigrant parents and spent a decade in the Midwest before moving to Southern California. She attended Stanford for undergraduate studies, where she was given opportunities to conduct research and do public health work in Peru, Guatemala, and Tanzania. To further immerse herself in Latin American culture, she worked in Ecuador for two years, first with a nonprofit in Quito and later conducting water, health, and sanitation research in the Galapagos. She returned to Stanford for medical school in 2011, where she worked with a local nonprofit to improve healthcare for farmworking families and took a couple years' leave of absence to help grow a nonprofit that teaches family members skills they need to care for a loved one with a medical condition.
Jessie enjoys being active outdoors, cooking with fresh produce, and doing any of the above with friends and family. She will be starting residency in family medicine at Contra Costa to pursue her goal to increase agency of individuals and communities to be their best, healthiest selves, through practicing as a family physician and designing solutions at scale.
2016 Scholar, Melissa Martin
Melissa Martin was born and raised in Los Angeles. She graduated from Stanford with a BA in Human Biology and returned to the Farm for her pediatric residency after completing medical school at UCSF. An active member of Chicanos/Latinos for Health Education and the Stanford/LPCH peds residency diversity committee, Martin is passionate about decreasing health disparities among children in the US and globally.
Although she has traveled widely and is fluent in Spanish, her rotation to Ecuador, enabled by the Zlotnick scholarship, was her first global health experience. In Ecuador, she had the opportunity to work in a public hospital, outpatient clinic, and with the indigenous community of Cacha. As she wrote in her application, "I hope this will be the first of many experiences in my career to care for children in underserved areas overseas."
Updated August 7, 2024