Dr. Tina Castañares will
receive one of three Oregon Health Forum Leadership awards
tonight in Portland.
Castañares, now medical
director for Hospice of the Gorge, has been a family physician
since 1980. She was board-certified in hospice and palliative
medicine in 2006.
Castañares is also a
national leader in the provision of health care to migrant and
seasonal farm workers, and has been a tireless advocate on their
behalf.
“Dr. Castañares is a
leader in the Oregon health care arena and very much deserves to
be recognized for her tireless work,” wrote Chris DeMars and
Thomas Aschenbrener, of the Northwest Health Foundation, the
organization that nominated Castañares for the Health Forum’s
Community Leader Award.
“She has indeed gone
above and beyond in contributing to the health of Oregonians,”
they wrote.
Castañares will be
honored during a banquet tonight at the Portland Hilton. The
Forum will present the Lifetime Award to Dr. Peter Kohler, OHSU
president emeritus, and the Visionary Award to David Ford,
president and CEO of CareOregon.
Castañares is an
original member of the Oregon Health Services Commission, where
she participated in the priority-setting work that made the
Oregon Health Plan possible. For 12 years she was the health
officer for Hood River County and for 11 years the national
ombudswoman for farm worker health to the U.S. Assistant Surgeon
General.
Castañares has taught
and lectured nationally and internationally about resource
allocation, Latino and immigrant health, end-of-life care,
bioethics and health care reform. She also maintains a private
consulting practice.
In 1986, Castañares led
a group of public health practitioners who wanted to start a
health clinic for migrant and seasonal farm workers in Hood
River, which became La Clinica del Cariño.
Castañares is still La Clinica’s medical
director. She is a current or former member of the boards of
numerous entities, including the American Hospital Association,
the Northwest Health Foundation and the Center for Ethics in
Health Care.
