SoFi Recognizes More Healthcare Heroes Helping Their Communities

While you may have heard about Jose Perpignan, the winner of our recent Healthcare Heroes contest, you likely don’t know that we selected him from a huge pool of amazing candidates. More than 7,000 people nominated a healthcare worker they know or love, expressing their admiration, appreciation, and respect for the essential workers who are taking care of us in the midst of the pandemic.

Besides Jose’s story, several others really stood out to us. Below are the nominations that were submitted on behalf of these dedicated individuals (edited for clarity and brevity).

Asia Sullivan – Physician Assistant, MPH and SoFi Member – Los Angeles, CA

 

Asia is a primary care provider who primarily serves the LGBTQ+ community in Los Angeles. When the COVID19 pandemic struck LA, she quickly pivoted and turned her clinic into one of the surrounding area’s only COVID-19 testing sites. She worked closely with the laboratory to develop innovative methods and new materials to run validated, accurate COVID19 tests with only a 24-hour turnaround time.

Every day, Asia gears up in head-to-toe protective equipment and manages the clinic’s parking lot testing site, both administering COVID-19 tests, counseling her patients on how to stay safe, and managing the care of patients who contracted the virus. Asia has worked non-stop since the pandemic reached California, spending her weekends in an urgent care managing COVID-19 triaging and testing. She has gone out of her way to find affordable solutions to continue seeing her patients when over 60% of them lost their health insurance. She has offered to care for her patient’s children when they had the virus and couldn’t do it themselves. To say she has made an impact on our community is an understatement.

Christian Hommes – ER Physician Assistant – Nashville, TN

 

Christian and his wife are both frontline ER physician assistants working at a busy Nashville Hospital. Every day he provides life-saving care to multiple COVID-19 patients, knowing this could place himself and his family at risk. Christian’s son, Silas, is 3.5 years old and has Angelman syndrome, which causes seizures, lack of speech, and an inability to walk. Having a medically fragile child adds additional stress to the thought of bringing the virus home to his family.

Christian has volunteered time and physical labor towards tornado relief and spent thousands of dollars towards supporting local businesses and neighbors throughout the pandemic. Christian has helped raise over $75,000 in donations towards Angelman syndrome research in the past three years. He volunteers time and labor through his church in East Nashville to help local public schools.

There are more inspiring stories from the Healthcare Heroes Contest that we would like to share with you over the coming weeks. As they come in, we’ll update this post.

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Member Testimonials: The savings and experiences of members herein may not be representative of the experiences of all members. Savings are not guaranteed and will vary based on your unique situation and other factors.

Guest Participation: The individuals interviewed for this article were not compensated for their participation. Their advice is educational in nature, is not individualized, and may not be applicable to your unique situation. It is not intended to serve as the primary or sole basis for your financial decisions.

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