2nd Annual Environment, Health, and Nursing: Children and Families

Paloma Aguirre serves as Mayor at-large for the City of Imperial Beach.

Paloma Aguirre is a first-generation Mexican American. She was born in San Francisco, CA and lived there until she was eight years old. Her family then moved to Mexico where she spent the rest of her formative years.

‍In 2001, she moved back to the U.S. in pursuit of a college degree and competitive bodyboarding. Upon arrival, she first surfed Imperial Beach and immediately fell in love with its people and its waves. Mayor Aguirre went on to compete in bodyboarding competitions, both locally and regionally. On occasion, she found herself competing in the men’s category where she is known to have won a trophy or two.

‍After putting herself through college, she graduated from the University of San Diego (USD) with a B.A. in Psychology. She later earned a certificate in Nonprofit Management from Brandman University and obtained a Master of Advanced Studies in Marine Biodiversity and Conservation, from Scripps Institution of Oceanography at the University of California, San Diego (UCSD) in 2015.

‍Early in her career, Mayor Aguirre worked as a social-justice community organizer in South San Diego, helping low-income families address immigration, foreclosure, and predatory lending issues. Later, she joined WILDCOAST, a formerly Imperial Beach-based coastal and marine conservation non-profit where she worked for over 10 years. Aguirre’s primary focus was fighting cross-border pollution of the Tijuana River Valley that directly impacts the coastal region of the San Diego-Tijuana border region, including Imperial Beach. Her bilingual and bicultural lived experience allows her to be a leading advocate in the fight against sewage pollution.

‍In 2014, Aguirre was named Woman of the Year for her outstanding leadership in environmental conservation and for her work restoring the Tijuana River Valley.  In 2016, she was selected for the prestigious NOAA Sea Grant Knauss fellowship in Washington D.C. where she worked for U.S. Senator Cory Booker (D-NJ). Aguirre assisted him in drafting and passing bills to reduce trash in our oceans and improve math and science skills in minorities. In 2018, she was elected as the City’s first Latina Councilmember for the City of Imperial Beach.

Mayor Aguirre represents the City of Imperial Beach on the San Diego Community Power Board of Directors, and as alternate on the Metropolitan Transit System (MTS) Board. She also serves as Speaker Anthony Rendon’s San Diego Coast appointee on the California Coastal Commission, and as Governor Newsom’s appointee to the Good Neighbor Environmental Board, an independent federal advisory committee, which advises the President and Congress of the United States on good neighbor practices along the U.S. border with Mexico.

‍In her spare time, Mayor Aguirre enjoys bodyboarding and spending time with her husband and two dogs Dante and Dasha.

Dr. Paula Stigler Granados is an Associate Professor in the School of Public Health – Division Head for Environmental Health. Her main areas of interest include Chagas disease, water quality, global health, public health policy, environmental health and neglected tropical diseases. She received her MS degree in Environmental Health Sciences at San Diego State University and her PhD in Global Health in the joint doctoral program with the University of California, San Diego and San Diego State University. Dr. Granados has expertise in environmental exposure risks, socio-economic determinants of health, geo-spatial analysis of environmental hazards, climate change and community based participatory research. She has worked throughout Latin America and the United States with indigenous and rural populations on a multitude of projects addressing public health. Dr. Granados has several on-going research projects, including a Center for Disease Control and Prevention funded award to raise awareness among healthcare providers in the U.S. about Chagas disease. She is also utilizing the ECHO model of tele-mentoring to provide learning opportunities for physicians regarding Chagas disease. Dr. Granados also leads a Department of Defense Global Health Initiative grant to conduct surveillance of Chagas disease in military communities along the U.S. Mexico border region. She is an advocate for community-led projects and has a deep commitment to multi-disciplinary collaborations to solve important public health issues.

Vi Thuy Nguyen, MD, FAAP is a Fellow of Environmental Health as part of the American Academy of Pediatrics and serves as Co-Chair of San Diego’s AAP Climate Change and Health Committee, Chair of AAP California State Government Affairs Expert Committee on Environmental Health and Climate Change. She is Co-Founder of San Diego Pediatricians for Clean Air, a loose coalition of concerned pediatricians who advocate for pediatric asthmatic patients. She also now serves as Co-Chair of the Public Health Advisory Council for Climate Actions Campaign in San Diego. She originally earned her MD at Harvard Medical School and trained in general pediatrics and pediatric endocrinology at Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) and the National Institutes of Health (NIH). She completed her 5-year-term as Assistant Chief of Pediatrics at Kaiser Permanente San Diego. In her professional life, she managed over 90 outpatient general pediatricians with special oversight on the South County. She was responsible for Pediatric Quality measures with special emphasis on pediatric asthma health and vaccine measures. After a numerically successful but personally grueling time in middle management and experiencing burn-out, Vi has pivoted her extra-curricular physician time to being an advocate for physician wellness and joy and climate work. She is a proud trained Climate Reality Leader and Co-Lead of Kaiser San Diego’s Sustainability/Green Team and Pediatric Asthma Team. She actively blogs and Instagrams as an alternate eco-avatar plogger (jogger and beach cleaner) in the Pacific Beach area. She is currently laser focused on decarbonization and building electrification.  She was able to successful orchestrate H3SD San Diego’s Heat and Human Health Summit.