• La Maestra added endocrinology, hepatology and home visiting to the organization’s scope of practice. The organization has significantly expanded the Health Homes program to assist clients with chronic conditions including diabetes, serious mental illness (SMI) hypertension and asthma to get the care and service they need often without having to leave the comfort of their home.
• La Maestra also received multiple San Diego County grants for outreach, education and for a 21-housing unit that will be built at 4135 Fairmount Avenue.

• In light of the COVID-19 pandemic, La Maestra quickly pivots services and increase telemedicine and telephonic services by more than 65% and at the height of the pandemic 78% of clinic service are provided via telemedicine or telephonic visits

• In 2020, the organization added additional clinic sites and services including multiple Behavioral Health and Substance Use Disorder Service sites to meet the needs of the community. The organization now has 18 clinic sites, including primary care, behavioral health, pharmacy, dental suites, and school-based clinic sites. The organization also added ophthalmology services and a large Cough & Cold clinic site located at 4074 Fairmount Avenue in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. The site provides COVID-19 testing, including walk-up and drive thru testing, vaccination information and services, COVID-19 triage services.

La Maestra received SAMHSA CCBHC funding to become a Certified Community Behavioral Health Center.

• Zara Marselian publishes her third book, Surviving in the Shadows. The book illustrates the real-life experiences of people who have escaped from trafficking, domestic violence and political oppression. Through the collection of stories, as told by the people who have been trapped in these forms of modern-day slavery, the book provides an authentic and hopeful look into overcoming these injustices.

• La Maestra’s Oral Health Initiative Program, serving children 0-5 and pregnant women, expanded access to health for the undeserved in a novel and innovative way through the Henry Schein Cares Medal.

• La Maestra was able to improve access to mental health, substance abuse, and obesity prevention services to Hoover High School, Clark (Monroe) Middle School, Rosa Parks Elementary, and Central Elementary School through integrated telemedicine that will allow students to quickly consult with a provider.

• La Maestra added Chiropractic services in an effort to further integrate the La Maestra Circle of Care services®, which provides primary and specialty care, including holistic medicine along with social services in an effort to improve overall health and wellness outcomes.

The organization received two Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Admiration grants (SAMHSA SBIRT and SAMHSA MAT-PDOA.)

A pharmacy robot was purchased to alleviate the need for pharmacists to manually count pills, which has allowed pharmacy staff to refocus on what really matters— better patient care and medication compliance.

A new dental suite opened in Lemon Grove thanks to a HRSA Oral Health Service Expansion grant.

Zara Marselian publishes her second book, Transparent People. The book illustrates the real-life experiences of nine individuals who have risen from a life of addiction into a life of recovery. It is a glimpse of what life events led to their addictions, their lives in addiction, and what prompted them to emerge from that cycle.

Building on several years of developing its own population management tools to comprehensively track the social determinants of health and ensure each patient accesses the variety of health and wellbeing services and case management they need to address them, La Maestra joins several other health centers in implementing the Protocol for Responding to and Assessing Patients’ Assets, Risks, and Experiences (PRAPARE) assessment tool.

With funding from CCI, La Maestra pilots several new approaches to improve the waiting room experience and further streamline access to Circle of Care social services through the use of electronic surveys administered while patients wait for their appointment.

La Maestra Family Clinic rolls out San Diego County’s first ever Mobile Mammography Coach in October 2015, in partnership with Community Health Imaging Centers and with major sponsorship from Susan G. Komen San Diego. The event, attended by Mayor Kevin Faulconer and organizations involved in the fight against breast cancer, features testimonials by survivors who were able to access early detection through La Maestra’s breast cancer education and screening programs and became breast cancer promotoras.

The coach, staffed by a culturally and linguistically competent team, is equipped with state-of-the-art full-field digital mammography equipment and 3-D Tomosynthesis. Additional support for the coach and numerous screening events throughout the county is provided by the American Cancer Society, San Diego Chargers, San Diego Gas & Electric, Walmart, the Kroger Foundation and KyXy FM and Energy 103 FM radio.

La Maestra Familiy Clinic is award the Sister cecilia B. Abhold Award for Excellence in Outreach Programs by the National Center for Health in Public Housing. The same year, Zara Marselian receives the Social Empowerment Award from the nonprofit Alliance4Empowerment, and December 8 is declared “Zara Marselian Day” in San Diego County.