Meet Dr. Chanelle Diaz, winner of the 2026 Bernard Lown Award for Social Responsibility
The Bernard Lown Award for Social Responsibility, created in honor of Dr. Lown after his death in 2021, recognizes young clinicians who stand out for their bold leadership in social justice, environmentalism, global peace, or other humanitarian efforts.
The Lown Institute is proud to present Chanelle Diaz, MD, MPH, with the 2026 Bernard Lown Award for Social Responsibility, for her outstanding leadership in advancing the health and dignity of those held in immigration detention through pro bono forensic medical evaluations, groundbreaking research, outspoken public advocacy, and a commitment to cultivating the next generation of socially responsible clinicians. (press release)
Dr. Diaz is an Assistant Professor of Medicine at Columbia University Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons and a primary care physician in the NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital Ambulatory Care Network. She volunteers with the New York Lawyers for the Public Interest’s Medical Providers Network and Physicians for Human Rights.
See the timeline below to learn more about Dr. Diaz’s life and accomplishments.
Chanelle Diaz is born
Chanelle Diaz is born in San Diego, California, to a Brazilian mother and Cuban American father. She spends her early childhood in Brazil and Venezuela before settling in Miami, Florida at age five. Her first languages are Spanish and Portuguese.
She is raised by her maternal grandparents.
Inspired by her pediatrician, she decides at age eight to be a doctor.
Selected as a Gates Millenium Scholar
Selected as a Gates Millennium Scholar and graduates in the top 4% of her high school class with an International Baccalaureate Diploma.
She becomes certified as a first responder.
Begins college and serves as World Health Organization intern
Becomes the first in her family to attend a four-year college, enrolling at Williams and majoring in political science with a concentration in global health.
Conducts qualitative research in São Paulo, Brazil on the implementation of the National AIDS Program.
Studies abroad in Geneva, Switzerland, where she interns at the World Health Organization.
Interest in health disparities grows
Spends two months in Uganda collaborating with Makerere University students on research examining HIV-related caregiving and its impact on rural household economies.
Works as a research associate on an NIH-funded multi-site clinical trial evaluating rapid HIV testing strategies.
As an HIV counselor at the Miami-Dade County Health Department, she observes intersecting epidemics of injection drug use and HIV, influencing her decision to pursue an MD/MPH.
Begins medical school and launches efforts to pass a needle exchange initiative in Florida
Matriculates to the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine as part of the inaugural MD/MPH cohort.
Co-leads student efforts to promote needle exchange legislation and co-founds the Florida Needle Exchange Initiative.
Fellowship in HIV Prevention Research
Serves as a research fellow with the South American Program in HIV Prevention Research (SAPHIR) at UCLA. She works with a community-based HIV organization in Lima, Peru, conducting qualitative research on barriers to care and documenting the lived experiences and stigma faced by patients in resource-limited settings.
Collaborates with researchers at Fundação Oswaldo Cruz (Fiocruz) in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil to analyze cardiovascular risks associated with antiretroviral therapy in a large cohort of patients in low- and middle-income countries, publishing the first study to address this question in Latin America. This work earns her the Infectious Disease Society of America Clinical Scholars Award.
Needle exchange legislation is passed
Co-authors a cost-analysis paper demonstrating that injection-drug-related infections cost one safety-net hospital as much as $11.4 million per year.
These results push state lawmakers to establish the first legal needle exchange program in Miami, which leads to legalization of syringe exchange programs across Florida in 2018.
Major life moments
Graduates with her MD/MPH, marries Xavier Pereira, and moves to New York where she begins residency in primary care and social internal medicine at Montefiore Medical Center in the Bronx.
Begins activism work for immigrant health
Works as a volunteer asylum evaluator with HealthRight International.
Joins the New York Lawyers for Public Interest Medical Providers Network (MPN), conducting medical evaluations for detained immigrants and documenting unmet medical needs and human rights concerns.
As a resident, she designs an immigration detention health track for medical trainees.
Mobilizes healthcare workers for the Families Belong Together movement opposing family separation.
Co-founds the Montefiore Immigration Working Group, a multidisciplinary coalition advancing immigration-informed care.
Publishes in STAT News on medical neglect; completes residency
Publishes an op-ed on medical neglect in immigration detention in STAT News.
Completes residency and joins Montefiore as a clinician-educator in general internal medicine.
Presents at the American Public Health Association conference on the role of health professionals in exposing human rights abuses in immigration detention.
Public advocacy accelerates
Co-authors an open letter signed by more than 3,000 physicians calling on ICE to release detained individuals during the COVID-19 pandemic.
While caring for patients on the front lines of the pandemic, she publishes on the impact on physicians, the burden on immigrants in the Bronx, and the public health risks of immigration detention.
Selected for Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute (PCORI) funded K12 career development award.
Co-authors a major study and becomes a mom
Co-authors Harmful by Design, one of the first U.S. qualitative studies examining the health impacts of immigration detention.
Her daughter, Sofia, is born.
Receives the Society of General Internal Medicine Lawrence S. Linn Research Grant and a Center for AIDS Research (CFAR) catalyst grant to study immigration-related stress and gaps in HIV care in immigration detention using community-engaged research methods.
Joins Columbia faculty and co-authors Health Affairs piece on structural racism
Co-authors Advancing Research to Address the Health Impacts of Structural Racism in U.S. Immigration Prisons alongside 2024 BLASR Winner Dr. Altaf Saadi, and is featured as an expert panelist in a Health Affairs video on tackling structural racism in health.
Appointed assistant professor of medicine at Columbia University Irving Medical Center and attending physician at NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital.
Becomes the internal medicine medical director at the Charles B. Rangel Community Health Center and the medical director of the NYP Adult Community Health Worker Program.
Serves as medical expert reviewer for the ACLU and Physicians for Human Rights
Serves as a medical expert reviewer for Deadly Failures: Preventable Deaths in U.S. Immigrant Detention, a report from the ACLU and Physicians for Human Rights.
Receives the Top 40 Under 40 Award from the National Hispanic Medical Association.
Selected to join the inaugural cohort of United Hospital Fund’s Health Equity Fellowship, working to implement immigration-informed care.
Calls out denial of medical care at ICE facilities and co-authors manuscript on “migratory grief”
Joins other NYC physicians in criticizing the denial of medical care at ICE facilities.
Partnered with the New York Lawyers for Public Interest to develop an immigration detention health preparedness toolkit and co-authored a manuscript currently under review, “Migratory grief” and structural barriers to care: a community-engaged qualitative study of immigration-related stress among immigrants living with or at risk of HIV.
Discusses barriers to care for immigrant communities in an article by The City.
Her son Adrian is born.
Wins the Bernard Lown Award for Social Responsibility
Wins the 2026 Bernard Lown Award for Social Responsibility for her outstanding leadership in advancing the health and dignity of those held in immigration detention through pro bono forensic medical evaluations, groundbreaking research, outspoken public advocacy, and a commitment to cultivating the next generation of socially responsible clinicians.