Natasha Abadilla was born and raised on the island of Kauai, Hawaii, and has lived in the Bay Area for a total of nine years and counting. She is a proud first-generation Filipina-American, Stanford undergraduate and medical school alumnus, global public health advocate (she lived/worked in Kenya for two years prior to medical school), community health educator (namely in East Palo Alto, where she currently calls home), crazy rescue dog mom, aspiring author, warm beach and water lover, food enthusiast, reality TV afficionado, and most recently: new Child Neurology resident at Stanford Children's.
She is a domestic violence (DV) survivor and advocate for all DV victims and survivors worldwide. Natasha wants to share with the world that DV victims are not "one size fits all" - people who come off as strong, have many friends, and are leaders in their communities She has written for and spoken to small groups of medical professionals on her experience surviving DV and how important it is to screen all patients for DV. For laypeople, she wants to encourage everyone to recognize warning signs and red flags that DV victims may be showcasing and emphasize the importance of checking on friends, no matter how strong and put together they may seem.
Professionally, as someone who grew up in a medically underserved community, she has a keen interest in how physicians can most effectively empower and support patients when resources are poor. During medical school, her research projects included: analyses of language concordance as a major player in long-term post-op pediatric recovery, mixed methods research on informed consent perceptions in Sudan, and explorations into what constitutes a successful post-trauma recovery. She hope to contribute to the growing body of research aimed at mitigating health disparities and improving patient education in Child Neurology throughout her professional career.
