The Kugel & Zuroweste Health Justice Award

The Kugel & Zuroweste Health Justice Award recognizes early-career leaders advancing health justice for migrant and immigrant communities through innovative, equity-centered work. Presented annually by Migrant Clinicians Network, the award honors individuals whose leadership and commitment address systemic barriers to care and improve health equity.

Why This Award Exists?

The award is named after Candace Kugel, FNP, CNM, MS, and Ed Zuroweste, MD, two pioneers who spent more than 40 years providing care to agricultural workers, immigrant families, and underserved communities across the United States and internationally.

As longtime partners in life and in the movement for health justice, Candace and Ed dedicated their careers to advancing access to care through clinical service, training, mentorship, and advocacy.

Their work embodies the purpose of this award: to recognize those who show up for communities that the health system often overlooks.

Below, we congratulate the 6th annual award recipient and finalists.

Recipient of the 6th Annual Kugel & Zuroweste Health Justice Award

Alejandra López

Doula & Program Coordinator - Roots Family Center

Alejandra López is the recipient of the 6th Annual Kugel & Zuroweste Health Justice Award in recognition of her leadership advancing culturally responsive maternal and infant health care for Spanish-speaking and immigrant families in Colorado. A community doula and program coordinator at Roots Family Center, Alejandra developed Colorado’s first Spanish-language doula training curriculum, integrating Indigenous and ancestral perspectives into perinatal care. Through her work, she has trained and mentored more than 32 Spanish-speaking doulas, supported 20 births, and helped provide culturally grounded care to over 80 families. Her leadership opened a new pathway for Latina doulas to become Medicaid-billable, strengthening both access to care and workforce sustainability. Alejandra’s work exemplifies health justice in action—restoring dignity, culture, and equity to maternal health systems.

Finalists

Monica Pineda Etter

Community Health Worker - University of Vermont Extension

Monica Pineda Etter serves some of Vermont’s most isolated migrant farmworkers along the Canadian border, bridging gaps in care across rural communities. Between 2022 and 2025, she worked with 356 farmworkers, 89% uninsured, coordinated 785 health and social service appointments, supported 133 individuals in accessing food, and helped deliver 723 vaccines through on-farm outreach. While working full time, Monica is completing a Master’s degree in Counseling to address critical gaps in Spanish-language mental health care.

Edith Lopez Anaya

Program Supervisor - Vista Community Clinic

Edith Lopez Anaya is a frontline leader whose work reflects courage, consistency, and deep community trust. Raised in a Spanish-speaking household with family roots in agricultural work, she brings lived experience to her role supporting farmworkers in remote and high-risk settings. As a supervisor, she leads outreach efforts across migrant communities, coordinates emergency preparedness and health education, and empowers local leaders through the Poder Popular program, strengthening advocacy and access to care for underserved populations.

Wendell Lindor

CHW - Maine Mobile Health Program

Wendell Lindor advances health justice by navigating complex systems to ensure access to care for migrant and seasonal workers in rural Maine. Drawing on his background as an educator, he provides culturally and linguistically responsive care to Haitian Creole– and Spanish-speaking communities, as well as individuals experiencing homelessness. His persistence, adaptability, and commitment to dignity make him a vital advocate for underserved populations.

Maritza Mejia

Outreach Coordinator/ Community Health Worker- Amador Health Center

Maritza Mejía is a trusted advocate whose work has expanded access to care for migrants, rural families, dairy farmworkers, and individuals experiencing homelessness across Doña Ana County. Since joining Amador Health Center during the COVID-19 pandemic, she has supported thousands of community members, including helping distribute more than 10,000 vaccines. Through street medicine, farm-based outreach, and chronic disease prevention programs, Maritza meets people where they are with compassion, dignity, and unwavering commitment to health equity.

About Candace Kugel and Ed Zuroweste

Candace Kugel, FNP, CNM, MS, and Ed Zuroweste, MD, both exemplify commitment and meaningful contribution to health justice.

Working alongside one another for decades in the fight for health justice, they celebrated their 30th wedding anniversary in 2024.

Ed in the field visiting tomato workers in Tennessee.

Candace laughing with a storekeeper in Honduras.

“Candace and Ed devoted their careers to the pursuit of health justice,” said Karen Mountain, MBA, MSN, RN, MCN's former CEO. “They are two of my personal heroes.”

Candace Kugel at a Hombres Unidos Contra la Violencia Familiar training in Pennsylvania in 2008.
Candace at a Hombres Unidos Contra la Violencia Familiar training in Pennsylvania in 2008.

Candace Kugel, FNP, CNM, MS

Candace became a Family Nurse Practitioner in 1983, and 10 years later also completed training and certification as a Nurse-Midwife.

The majority of Candace's clinical career was spent working in both roles serving agricultural workers and others at a community health center in rural Pennsylvania. Additionally, she has performed extensive training and technical assistance in the areas of women's health and clinical management internationally and in US health centers and clinics.

"I met Candace in Australia and later worked with her in Honduras. She is wonderful, and a fabulous teacher. Both Candace and Ed have an innate spirit of adventure," reflected Mamie K. Guidera, MSN, CNM, FACNM, Advanced Senior Lecturer at the University of Pennsylvania School of Nursing.

"There are so many lovely things that one can say about Candace: her ability to connect with people from all walks of life; her warmth, kindness, and profound empathy; her deep passion for and commitment to service; her meticulous attention to detail to make certain the work is of the highest quality; her obviously loving relationship with Ed; and her joy and laughter even in trying circumstances," said Suzanne Stalls, CNM, MA, Senior Technical Advisor, Jhpiego. "I am deeply grateful that Candace is a part of my life and I know there are hundreds of others whose lives she and Ed have touched. They make the world a more compassionate, just place."

Candace has numerous publications, including a chapter on US mobile health as global health in an award-winning textbook on global health nursing. She continues to serve as a consultant for the Health Resources and Services Administration’s Bureau of Primary Health Care. She recently retired from MCN, where she was Specialist for Clinical Systems and Women’s Health since 2001.

“I am so grateful for all the work Candace does to ensure a professional, genuine portrayal of the challenges faced by women employed in agriculture,” said Melissa Castillo, Director of Community Outreach for Kinston Community Health Center in North Carolina.

Photos from Ed Zuroweste's career
Ed getting his nose tweaked by a patient in the early 80s (left) and again decades later at a Honduras clinic (right).

Ed Zuroweste, MD

Ed’s 40-year career in health justice centered on mobile health and outreach to agricultural workers.

“Ed exemplifies what it means to practice the art of medicine. Truly devoted to his patients, he is a strong leader in improving health care for the mobile community. His life’s work focuses on improving working conditions and raising awareness of the dangers prevalent in agricultural work,” said Mary Englerth, former director of the Keystone Farmworker Health Program in Pennsylvania.

Ed’s previous positions include: Medical Director of Keystone Health Center, a large Community Health Center in Pennsylvania; Assistant Professor of Medicine at the John Hopkins School of Medicine; Tuberculosis Medical Consultant for the Pennsylvania Department of Health; and Special Medical Consultant for the World Health Organization. Ed received the Global Health Education Consortium's Christopher Krogh Memorial Award. He recently retired from MCN, after years as the Founding Medical Director.

“Right away, Ed made me feel comfortable and part of the team when I joined MCN. It’s so important in my position as a Health Network Associate to have such a solid and communicative relationship with MCN’s Founding Medical Director,” said Luis Retta, a former MCN Health Network Associate.

Read more about Ed's career in MCN's 35-year anniversary series here.

“I’ve worked with Ed for over 20 years, and I know him to be such a calm and reassuring presence during challenging times in the health field,” said Laszlo Madaras, MD, MPH, SFHM, MCN’s Chief Medical Officer. “Ed is someone you want to do right by.”