About

Fernando S. Mendoza is an Emeritus Professor of Pediatrics at Stanford University, with a focus on general pediatrics. His research interests include childhood health disparities and workforce diversity, particularly centered on Latino and immigrant children, early childhood health and development, and the patterns of parenting that influence outcomes in immigrant families. Mendoza's work emphasizes the importance of understanding health and developmental issues in the rapidly growing population of children in immigrant families, which constitute a significant portion of the US child population. Throughout his career, Mendoza has contributed to exploring the health disparities faced by immigrant children, examining parental behaviors such as early book-sharing and healthcare utilization among this group. He has also dedicated efforts to improving diversity within academic pediatrics, assessing the pipeline for underrepresented minorities and exploring strategies to enhance diversity in leadership positions. Mendoza's research and leadership have been recognized through numerous awards, including the Fernando Mendoza Health Equity, Research and Opportunity (HERO) Award, and the DRIVE Award, which was renamed in his honor. His work extends to community engagement, serving on various boards and advisory committees, and collaborating with national organizations to address health equity and workforce diversity in pediatrics.

Research topics

• Medicine
• Political Science
• Psychology
• Psychoanalysis
• Mechanical engineering
• Family medicine
• Medical education
• Art history
• Classics
• Law

Selected publications

• Hispanics and Academic Medicine: Creating an Inclusive Community, Academic Success, and Leadership Careers for Impactful Healthcare Change

  2026-01-01

  book-chapterOpen access1st authorCorresponding

  Abstract Our nation is at a demographic inflection point with the Hispanic population currently being the largest minority group, and its child population set to approximate the non-Hispanic White child population within the next 30 years. To create healthy communities for our nation’s Hispanic population, present and future, their health disparities will need to be addressed. Academic medicine has the responsibility to do this, but without Hispanic academic leaders involved in the process, efforts are likely to be less effective and take longer to address Hispanic health disparities. This chapter provides a roadmap for developing a greater number of Hispanic academic health leaders by drawing on the reflections of the authors, themselves senior Hispanic academic leaders, about their paths and the insights they gained about the academic environment through personal experiences. The sections cover the following: (1) Who are we and why are Hispanics important in academic medicine; (2) How do Hispanics succeed in academic medicine: the process of acculturation and inclusion; and (3) Hispanic academic leadership and creating change. The authors then provide a brief discussion of their career paths to exemplify how their academic medical leadership developed. The goal of this chapter is to help create the next generation of Hispanic academic leaders who will address the health disparities in our communities.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Reconsideration of Secure Communities rollout reveals preemptive local-federal cooperation in immigration enforcement

  Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences · 2026-04-06 · 1 citations

  articleOpen access

  Qualitative studies on local police collaborations with federal immigration enforcement authorities reveal risks to the well-being of noncitizens, particularly the undocumented, and their families and communities. Yet statistical evidence of these policies' effects is mixed. We propose that quantitative studies may misidentify the timing of when these policies begin disrupting immigrant communities by relying on a policy's formal enactment date to indicate its activation. We test this proposal in the context of Secure Communities, a federal program with a staggered rollout that asked local police to detain noncitizens they arrested for possible transfer into Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) custody and deportation. Individual states signed a Memorandum of Agreement (MOA) with the federal government as a framework for their county-by-county activation of Secure Communities. Counties were not required to activate immediately; their formal enactment frequently occurred later when prompted by ICE. We find that the date when a state signed an MOA consistently predicts a county's increased probability of receiving ICE requests to hold noncitizens in detention, transferring detained noncitizens into ICE custody, and removing noncitizens from the country. This relationship operates most strongly in counties with preexisting enforcement infrastructure between local police and federal immigration authorities. By contrast, while we find that enactment dates are associated with increases in each outcome, pretreatment trends render these relationships statistically indeterminate. Our results highlight how multilayered relationships between local and federal authorities allow for policing to be used as a tool for facilitating the preemptive implementation of immigration enforcement across the country at the expense of noncitizens and their families and communities.

  PublisherDOI

• Developing Competencies to Advance Health Care Access and Quality for Latino, Hispanic, and Spanish Origin Populations

  JAMA Network Open · 2025-08-14 · 2 citations

  articleOpen access

  Importance: The Latina, Latino, Latinx, Latine, Hispanic, or of Spanish Origin (LHS+) population is 20% of the US population and experiences disparities in health care access and quality. The common mission of medical schools is to prepare future health care practitioners to deliver high-quality care to all patients. To do this, schools have adopted competency-based medical education (CBME) as a model of developing curricula. Objective: To develop specific competencies and milestones that address the unique needs of the LHS+ population. Evidence Review: A 13-member national expert working group (ie, Workgroup) was created in April 2023 to lead the project's development. The Workgroup selected a modified Delphi process. For the first Delphi round (May to September 2023), based on the Workgroup's experience and expertise, the Workgroup used targeted literature searches to draft an initial set of competency domains, competencies, and milestones. These were distributed through electronic surveys to 76 reactor panelists in 2 Delphi rounds in September 2023 and March 2024. Consensus was defined as 80% or greater panelist agreement. Findings: In round 1 of the modified Delphi process, the Workgroup identified 21 competencies and 38 milestones. After 2 reactor panelist rounds, 19 competencies and 34 milestones across 7 domains reached the 80% consensus threshold. The 7 competency domains included: (1) diversity of LHS+ individuals and families (4 competencies); (2) communicating with individuals, families, and communities who identify as part of the LHS+ community (3 competencies); (3) LHS+ diaspora, immigration, and migration (3 competencies); (4) research (3 competencies); (5) ethics (2 competencies); (6) patient-centered care (3 competencies); and (7) medical and surgical LHS+ workforce disparities (2 competencies). Conclusions and Relevance: The LHS+ health equity competencies build on the call for CBME and expand the literature focused on marginalized populations. A critical next step is identifying and supporting educators to develop, implement, evaluate, and publish teaching and learning assessment materials aligned with these new competencies.

  PublisherDOI

• National Birth Outcomes and Care Utilization for Infants of Emergency Medicaid Eligible Parents

  2025-05-31

  preprintOpen access

  Medicaid births represent nearly 40% of all births nationwide and in states such as Oregon and California, births covered by Emergency Medicaid (EM) are 20-30% of all Medicaid births. EM provides restricted/limited benefits coverage for life-threatening conditions, including labor and delivery care for individuals who are otherwise ineligible for Medicaid because of immigration status. Despite EM-covered populations experiencing social and economic disadvantage, prior research on outcomes has included select states, such as Oregon, South and North Carolina, and Texas. This study uses national data to compare health outcomes for infants born to individuals receiving EM and non-EM coverage.

  PublisherDOI

• Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion, Child Health, and the Pediatric Subspecialty Workforce.

  UNC Libraries · 2025-02-02 · 3 citations

  articleOpen access1st authorCorresponding

  Using multiple metrics, the diversity of the pediatric population in the United States is increasing. However, recent data suggest significant disparities in both the prevalence and management of child health conditions cared for by pediatric subspecialists. These inequities occur across multiple dimensions of diversity, including race and ethnicity, country of origin, socioeconomic status, sex and gender, and disability. Research also suggests that attending to diversity, equity, and inclusion in the medical workforce may positively affect health outcomes. High-quality pediatric subspecialty care thus requires knowledge of these data, attention to the effects of social drivers, including racism and discrimination, on health and wellbeing, and interventions to improve pediatric health equity through educational, practice, policy, and research innovations. In this article, we review data on the diversity of the pediatric population and pediatric subspecialty workforce, suggest potential strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats of current diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives in academic pediatrics, and provide recommendations across 4 domains: education and training, practice, policy, and future research. The ultimate goal of pediatrics is to improve health equity for all infants, children, adolescents, and young adults cared for in the United States by pediatric subspecialists.

  PublisherDOI

• Linking deliveries to newborns using nationwide Medicaid data

  BMC Medical Research Methodology · 2025-10-24

  articleOpen access

  Linking mothers to their newborns in health records is crucial for understanding the impact of policies, programs, and medical treatments on intergenerational health outcomes. While previous studies have used shared identifiers for linkage, such data are often unavailable in Medicaid records due to privacy concerns. Existing algorithms are not sufficiently flexible to accommodate Medicaid data from all states and from both Medicaid Analytic Extract (MAX) and Transformed Analytical Files (TAF) data systems. We present a scalable framework and linking algorithm that connects deliveries and infants without relying on names, addresses, or linkage to vital records. First, we confirm our ability to identify newborn beneficiaries and deliveries resulting in live birth across states and over time by comparing our findings to the total number of Medicaid births recorded in the National Vital Statistics System (NVSS). Second, we confirm that our algorithm accommodates variations in Medicaid records over time and across states for MAX and TAF data, supporting matches at different levels of stringency. Finally, we assess the extent to which our algorithm is effective across demographic groups. Using data from all 50 states over 9 years, our algorithm linked 11.68 million mother-infant dyads, covering 68% of Medicaid-enrolled infants, over 30% of all U.S. infants. Our linked cohort is approximately representative of the broader population of Medicaid beneficiaries on key observable characteristics including race and ethnicity, age, gender, and region. However, linked beneficiaries are more likely to be white and from the Midwest or Northeast relative to those we are unable to link. Despite substantial variation in the nature of Medicaid data across states and over time, it is possible to identify family units in all states between 2011 and 2019 without linking claims to vital records. This algorithm will facilitate research on social determinants of health and the intergenerational effects of medical interventions and public policy.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Linking Newborns and Mothers to Enable the Study of Inter-generational Health Outcomes: Evidence from Nationwide Medicaid Data

  Research Square · 2024-11-14 · 1 citations

  preprintOpen access
  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Inexperienced bumble bees are poor at securely landing regardless of flower orientation or presence of labellum

  bioRxiv (Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory) · 2024-07-02

  preprintOpen access

  Abstract The mutualism between bees and flowers creates strong selection on both the structure of the flower and behavior of the bee to maximize pollination and foraging success, respectively. Previous research has primarily assessed the costs of foraging by quantifying the time and accuracy of search, and handling time of the flower. However, there is little attention given to the actual success of landing, and it is often not explicitly stated whether failed landing attempts are taken into consideration. We show here that landing attempts often are unsuccessful, especially in inexperienced bees. Orientation of artificial flowers in our experiment neither influenced the preference nor landing success of a naive bumble bee forager. The presence of a labellum, often considered to serve as a landing platform, also did not influence landing success, indicating that it may mostly play a role in flower recognition or act as a nectar guide. Failed landing attempts may thus play an under-recognized role in the foraging efficiency and behavior of bees, and learning may be key in individual bee landing efficiency, not just flower recognition. Further research should aim to quantify the costs of landing failures and consider the role of experience in individual bee landing success.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Bias, Prejudice, Discrimination, Racism, and Social Determinants: The Impact on the Health and Well-Being of Latino Children and Youth

  Academic Pediatrics · 2024-09-01 · 13 citations

  reviewOpen access1st authorCorresponding
  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion, Child Health, and the Pediatric Subspecialty Workforce

  PEDIATRICS · 2024-02-01 · 14 citations

  reviewOpen accessSenior author

  Using multiple metrics, the diversity of the pediatric population in the United States is increasing. However, recent data suggest significant disparities in both the prevalence and management of child health conditions cared for by pediatric subspecialists. These inequities occur across multiple dimensions of diversity, including race and ethnicity, country of origin, socioeconomic status, sex and gender, and disability. Research also suggests that attending to diversity, equity, and inclusion in the medical workforce may positively affect health outcomes. High-quality pediatric subspecialty care thus requires knowledge of these data, attention to the effects of social drivers, including racism and discrimination, on health and wellbeing, and interventions to improve pediatric health equity through educational, practice, policy, and research innovations. In this article, we review data on the diversity of the pediatric population and pediatric subspecialty workforce, suggest potential strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats of current diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives in academic pediatrics, and provide recommendations across 4 domains: education and training, practice, policy, and future research. The ultimate goal of pediatrics is to improve health equity for all infants, children, adolescents, and young adults cared for in the United States by pediatric subspecialists.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

Frequent coauthors

• Willie Frazier

  UConn Health

  49 shared

• Michael Brimacombe

  49 shared

• Glenn Flores

  University of Miami

  34 shared

• Reynaldo Martorell

  Emory University

  31 shared

• Ricardo Castillo

  University of Bío-Bío

  23 shared

• Thomas N. Robinson

  University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus

  19 shared

• K. Farish Haydel

  Stanford University

  17 shared

• Andrea J. Romero

  17 shared

Labs

• Pediatrics - General PediatricsPI

Education

• M.D., Pediatrics - General Pediatrics

  Stanford University School of Medicine

• B.S.

  University of California, Los Angeles