Mervin B. Dino '12

As a student at Loyola Academy, Dino competed on the track and field team and was a member of the Torch Club and The Prep student newspaper. He went on to complete a bachelor of science degree in health systems management at Loyola University Chicago and is currently pursuing a master’s in public health at the University of Illinois at Chicago.

We caught up with Dino, whose dual roles as both project leader at Advocate Illinois Masonic Medical Center and program director at the Medical Organization for Latino Advancement (MOLA) keep him engaged in the work about which he is most passionate.

First, I am a proud Rambler—I had the privilege of attending both Loyola Academy and Loyola University Chicago. Currently, I’m a project leader at Advocate Illinois Masonic Medical Center on Chicago’s North Side and volunteer as program director at the Medical Organization for Latino Advancement (MOLA).  

At Advocate, I run the Transition Support Program, an initiative that helps patients and families navigate the health care system in a culturally and linguistically competent way—regardless of their ability to pay for medical care. As a health care professional bilingual in Spanish, I also personally work with patients and families in our inpatient units and clinics. In 2018, the Transition Support Program received the Advocate Process Improvement Award, largely attributed to the efforts of our wonderful team and many dedicated individuals at our hospital.

At MOLA, I helped start and direct a mentorship program that builds a pipeline to health care careers for underrepresented Latino/a high school students who receive mentorship and medical training from health care leaders and physicians representing Chicago-area hospitals and universities. In the long run, these opportunities motivate them to be agents of change in their communities. Earlier this year, the mentorship program was featured on local news—NBC Chicago, Telemundo Chicago and Univision Chicago—and national news on Telemundo.

 

When I reflect on my time at LA, I think about my four years on the track and field team, Spanish class and, most importantly, the many people who helped define the experience for me.  I remember practicing long jump technique at track practice—not just the exhilarating feeling of “flying in the air” and the sand in my shoes, but also the values I learned in the process: work ethic, teamwork and humility. All of these values, along with the tough lessons that came with them, drew me to pursue a career in public health and health care.

Loyola Academy taught me compassion and humility. I believe that we are called to lift others up to make a positive impact in the world, especially for our most vulnerable. Often times, we need to make sacrifices for others which is never easy.  

 

During my hospital career, I once worked with an undocumented patient in his late twenties with congestive heart failure and end-stage renal disease (ESRD) who was also receiving regular kidney dialysis. Obviously he was very young to be going through this, and it was a very complex case. This patient and his family really needed help navigating a confusing system and encouragement to follow through on medical care. My team and I visited him every day in the hospital, went with him to his appointments and have been working to coordinate his kidney transplant. This case reflects the lessons of compassion I learned at Loyola—to not just help people episodically, but to follow them every step of the process.

My track and field coaches Ryan Gibbons ’95, Daniel Seeberg ’75, and Dario Tainer gave me the opportunity to be a leader—something that really helped me grow personally. Leslie Rathunde, who was my Spanish teacher for three years, inspired me to continue my foreign language education and become bilingual. My counselor, Jennifer Newberry, always provided me with positive encouragement, which I try to bring to our high school students in MOLA.

 

I’m working on my master’s degree in public health part-time at the University of Illinois-Chicago School of Public Health. I am also working on expanding the programs I run at Advocate and MOLA to more hospitals, schools and, hopefully, across Chicago and beyond.

 

Every Saturday, I am privileged to work with an amazing group of students at Curie High School on Chicago’s Southwest Side through our mentorship program, and I always tell our  students that they need to push themselves out of their comfort zones in order to grow. As a proud Rambler alum, I need to live by this, too!