119. Dr. Sheryl Recinos, MD; Physician, Author, Homelessness Advocate

Ordinarily Extraordinary - Conversations with women in STEM

Sheryl Recinos is a physician, author, speaker and advocate. She is a locums hospitalist. After spending her teen years homeless and living on the streets in Los Angeles, she got a Bachelor's Degree in Cellular and Microbiology and later went back to school for her MD. Her childhood trauma helps her identify trauma in patients she sees and she advocates and works with homeless in Los Angeles. She has written several books about homelessness including a memoir, Hindsight, which chronicles her childhood.
What do we talk about in this episode?

1. Sheryl's traumatic childhood and how she survived and became a physician.
2. How the trauma she grew up with helps her in her job as a physician.
3. How she strives to be the parent she always wanted to have.
4. Her writing career. She has written a memoir about her childhood, a series of young adult books, and is about to publish a children's book.
5. How the system not only failed her as a child, but actually worked against her.
6. Her life now a physician, author, speaker, and mother.

Music used in the podcast: Higher Up, Silverman Sound Studio

You can support my podcast on Patreon here: https://patreon.com/user?u=72701887

Resources

You can find lots of information and resources and work Sheryl is doing here: https://sherylrecinosmd.com

"Hindsight: Coming of Age on the Streets of Hollywood": https://www.amazon.com/Hindsight-Coming-age-streets-Hollywood-ebook/dp/B07HYJTPKZ/ref=sr_1_1?qid=1583000285&refinements=p_27%3ASheryl+Recinos&s=digital-text&sr=1-1&text=Sheryl+Recinos

My Friend's Place - For 33 years and counting, My Friend’s Place has been
assisting and inspiring youth experiencing homelessness
to build self-sufficient lives. (https://www.myfriendsplace.org)

There's a lot of information and statistics on foster care system that can be found here: https://www.aecf.org/blog/child-welfare-and-foster-care-statistics

One in every five foster youth is homeless when they age out of the system at 18. Ten percent of foster children are placed in institutions and group homes, many of whom are older teenagers. Four percent of foster cases have the goal of emancipation, but over 50 percent have the goal of reunification. (https://www.fosterva.org/blog/what-happens-to-foster-children-when-they-turn-18#:~:text=One%20in%20every%20five%20foster,have%20the%20goal%20of%20reunification.)