Why did you get into health care?

Aswita Tan-McGrory, MBA, MSPH; Deputy Director, Disparities Solutions Center at Massachusetts General Hospital

My grandfather was very much a social justice advocate. When I was younger, he had a lot of meetings with Indonesians from Chinese descent, and they were sort of fighting the injustices that were happening by the Indonesian government. So I was sort of raised in this environment of always doing something, and then I think the leap to social justice for just people in general and in America, underserved populations, is really not a big leap, and that’s really what I was interested in.

So I think seeing my grandfather putting the interest of other people before his own and wanting to change a situation and not wanting to just accept it for what it was, was a really big message for me. That has really stuck with me always, wanting to make that difference and not just sort of accept the status quo.