Robin Ortiz is a physician for adults and children who will complete the combined Internal Medicine and Pediatrics Urban Health Residency Program at Johns Hopkins Hospital in June of 2019. As a physician, she is dedicated to understanding how adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) and their impact on chronic disease can be prevented, that we might prevent risk and build resiliency throughout life. This mission brought her to Generation Mindful where has served as the company's lead medical advisor since April, 2018.
Dr. Ortiz is dedicated to active research projects, within the scope of public health and epidemiology, studying early life environmental, stress, hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis, and epigenetic influences on later life health and disease outcomes.
Dr. Ortiz has completed prior research training at the National Institutes of Health where she studied psychosocial, neuroimmune, and biochemical influences in chronic pain, cancer, and cardiometabolic disease.
Dr. Ortiz graduated from Northeastern University with a Bachelor of Science degree in behavioral neuroscience with a minor in psychoneuroimmunology and then from medical school at Loyola University in Chicago.
She is a primary care provider at East Baltimore Medical Center’s Med-Peds practice and takes great joy in working intimately with her patients to build a stronger and healthier local community. She has additional training in lifestyle intervention and behavior modification specializing in plant-based nutrition, motivational interviewing, positive parenting, self-hypnosis, mindfulness, and stress reduction.
She has explored childhood trauma in research leading to publications such as, “Quantifying the Influence of Child Abuse History on the Cardinal Symptoms of Fibromyalgia,” and continues elucidating epigenetic underpinnings of the association between stress and chronic disease with a grant, “NRC31, MC4R, and CRF Methylation Associations in Type II Diabetes”, and project, “Type 2 Diabetes and Cardiometabolic Risk Associated with Increase in DNA Methylation of FKBP5”.
Dr. Ortiz, with collaboration, has been awarded a $10,000 grant to implement a pilot residency program curriculum in ACEs and Trauma-Informed Care. She has shared the message of the importance of understanding the impact of ACEs and approaches to individual and societal resilience against their sequel in writing, talks, and advocacy.
She has authored, “The Role of Mindfulness in Reducing the Adverse Effects of Childhood Stress and Trauma,” and spoken on, “Rising Up: How to Build Self and Neighborhood Resilience Against the Influence of Childhood Trauma,” in Baltimore.
Dr. Ortiz has gone to Washington, D.C. to speak to congressmen about the impacts of violence and trauma in childhood. She continues to be a researcher, physician, and advocate dedicated to bettering the lives of those who experience adversity and building a resilient, healthier world.
Dr. Ortiz plans to continue this work after residency with a board certification in lifestyle medicine, a degree in public health, and a career in academic medicine. More about Dr. Ortiz, her work, speaking engagements and events, and health coaching can be found at www.DrRobinOrtiz.com.
Founder, Generation Mindful
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