Sophina M. Calderon '11M (MD)
Dr. Sophina Manheimer Calderon provides medical care to disadvantaged populations in the United States and abroad. As a member of the Navajo Nation in Arizona, she was inspired to pursue medicine for her community that would improve access and health care quality. She is a family medicine physician at Tuba City Regional Health Care Corporation (TCRHCC) in Tuba City, a small town on the western end of the Navajo Nation in northeastern Arizona. She works in multiple clinics within TCRHCC, including Continuity Family Medicine, Same Day Urgent Care, Pediatric and Adolescent, and Medical Mobile. Dr. Manheimer Calderon also provides inpatient obstetrics labor and delivery services in a midwife provider role, managing all triage, deliveries, postpartum and newborn admissions, as well lactation consultations and newborn weight checks. She serves as the HIV officer for the hospital, providing care and education for both providers and patients in the community.
She earned her bachelor’s degree in mathematics at Dartmouth College in 2004 and completed premedical studies in 2005 at Bryn Mawr College. In 2006, she joined the University of Rochester School of Medicine and Dentistry as the only Native American minority of her class. She helped organize events for Native Heritage Month each November at the School, and gave lectures to bring awareness to Native American health issues and best practices for providing culturally sensitive care to Native people. She also worked with Finger Lakes Migrant Health Care Project, delivering screenings and education in migrant worker camps around the Sodus, New York area. She received a Community Health Fellowship grant in 2008 and served as a community health worker for the program, providing interpretation services, rapid HIV testing in camps, and preventative education classes. Dr. Manheimer Calderon also provided extensive obstetrics education for pregnant migrant worker women.
Dr. Manheimer Calderon’s work in a migrant clinic shaped her decision to specialize in Family Medicine and she earned her medical degree in 2011. She then joined the University’s Family Medicine Residency program with an emphasis in Global Health and Obstetrics/Maternal Health. She participated in medical brigades to Honduras where the residency’s objective is to prepare residents to care for underserved populations anywhere in the world. In 2014, Dr. Manheimer Calderon returned to Tuba City to work at TCRHCC. She is a member of several professional committees, serving on both the medical staff credentialing and patient education committees.
Dr. Manheimer Calderon and her husband, Martin, and their two young sons, Josue and Julian, enjoy exploring the Southwest and making trips to Mexico to visit the Calderon side of the family.