Tribute to Selina Zygmunt
Selina Zygmunt (second from left) worked close with MCN through our Hombres Unidos program
By Claire Hutkins Seda, Writer, Migrant Clinicians Network, Managing Editor, Streamline.
Last year, Selina Zygmunt, longtime MCN collaborator and dedicated supporter of agricultural workers, passed away in Reading, PA. As Site Coordinator at Keystone Health Center’s Migrant Health Program in Reading, PA, for almost 20 years, Zygmunt strived to improve the health of the underserved despite the strains of poverty, poor working conditions, and mobility.
“Selina always seemed to be a person for whom working with agricultural workers was a calling,” said Candace Kugel, CRNP, CNM, Specialist in Clinical Systems and Women’s Health for MCN.
At Keystone, Zygmunt was instrumental in developing and implementing a sealant program for agricultural worker children in local schools, and collaborated with a local dental residency program to start up a dental clinic for children during the winter months, said Mary Englerth, PA, at Keystone Health Center’s Migrant Health Program. “We had great collaboration, and Selina followed through and was very creative with any suggestions given,” Englerth said. “She went out of her way to help others... There is just no one who could take her place.”
Zygmunt worked closely with MCN through our Hombres Unidos Contra La Violencia Familiar, a program aimed at primary prevention of sexual and intimate partner violence in the Latino mobile community. “She had two of her male outreach workers trained as facilitators for Hombres Unidos, and she also promoted the program among the local workers. I observed the final session of the Hombres Unidos series attended by a group of male workers who shared a house and they expressed how deeply they were affected by the experience and their appreciation of Keystone and Selina,” Kugel noted. “Selina is missed but not forgotten.”
Read this article in the Spring/Summer 2017 issue of Streamline here!
Sign up for our eNewsletter to receive bimonthly news from MCN, including announcements of the next Streamline.
Return to the Streamline Spring/Summer 2017 Table of Contents.