Bonus Conference Episode: Extending Beyond Medical Dispositions — Exploring and Utilizing Your Community’s Safety Net

Presented by Evelyn Figueroa, MD, University of Illinois Chicago

STFM Conference on Medical Student Education Opening Session | Friday, January 30, 2026

Dr Figueroa is a Chicago-based family physician who has operated an anti-poverty nonprofit since 2017. In this session, Dr Figueroa will share her academic journey to community-centered family medicine and provide best practices for locating social services across the country. From city-funded assistance to programs sponsored by non-government organizations, support varies significantly across the country. Dr Figueroa will share her approach for swiftly locating free resources that address gaps in social determinants of health.

Learning Objectives

Upon completion of this session, participants should be able to:

Describe how state residency, gender, marital status, and other social markers resource access.Improve their skills at locating patient-centered community resources.Reflect on how three social determinants, including racism, impact the health of their patients

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Copyright © Society of Teachers of Family Medicine, 2026

Evelyn Figueroa, MD

Evelyn Figueroa, MD, is the founder and executive director of the Figueroa Wu Family Foundation, an anti-poverty organization. She serves as the director of the Pilsen Food Pantry, the Foundation’s largest program. From an early age, Dr Figueroa recognized the dire effects of poverty and discrimination on Chicago communities. She became a family physician in the hopes of serving marginalized populations. For over 2 decades, Dr Figueroa has worked as an academic physician and is currently a professor and the director of community engagement in her department. With her students in mind, Dr Figueroa built the nonprofit to provide experiential service learning and allow community based participatory research. In the summer of 2023, Dr Figueroa sponsored medical students for the creation of a free health clinic for uninsured people in the Pantry’s building. Dr Figueroa has received numerous awards for her teaching and advocacy work. In 2024, she was given an Illinois Academy of Family Physicians President’s Award and in 2025 Dr Figueroa was honored with the STFM Advocate Award.