As a Muslim American, giving back to the community was a big part of Nehath Sheriff’s upbringing.
The 23-year-old and her family would often take on projects together such as visiting homeless encampments and volunteering at homeless shelters.
Through those experiences, the Sammamish resident sat down with people and got to know them beyond what they were facing. Sheriff learned that the people she met were often highly educated and their being homeless or living in a shelter was just circumstantial.
This sparked a motivation within Sheriff to pursue a career in medicine and apply what she has learned to her daily life. After graduating from Skyline High School in Sammamish in 2011, she attended the University of Washington (UW), where she graduated from in 2015 with a bachelor’s degree in public health. This fall, she will attend The George Washington University (GWU) in Washington D.C. to continue her studies in public health. After she earns her master’s degree there, Sheriff said she plans on attending medical school — hopefully at GWU or she may return to the UW.
Sheriff has recently combined her career aspirations with her background in community service to open a free clinic through the Muslim Community Resource Center (MCRC) at the Muslim Association of Puget Sound (MAPS) in Redmond.
The clinic has been a long-time goal for the MCRC and MAPS, the former of which Sheriff’s parents started.
Sheriff became involved after she worked at the Rainier Valley Community Clinic (RVCC) in Seattle and Sea Mar Community Health Center in Kent. While at these community clinics, she said she did a lot of health work with immigrant and minority communities. Sheriff wanted to bring that idea home to the Eastside as the area has similar needs with so many immigrants living here.
The MAPS-MCRC Community Clinic — which is partnering with RVCC — works on a sliding scale when it comes to pay. Sheriff said they accept patients with or without insurance, and those with insurance help float the costs of those without who may not be able to pay for health care. For more information, visit tinyurl.com/hxdox8d.
“If they need health care, they can come in and we will provide it for them,” Sheriff said, adding that they do not ask for anything for patients but if they have insurance, they will ask for identification, as well.
For now, Sheriff said the clinic offers just basic primary care. Some of the services the clinic offers include blood-pressure and diabetes checks, vaccines, physical exams, child well checks and heart health-related checks. They have an internal medicine physician, naturopathic physician, cardiologist and acupuncturist.
“All the providers are volunteering their time,” Sheriff said.
In addition, she said, there are also medical assistants volunteering their time.
Sheriff’s role as care coordinator at the clinic focuses on the logistics, making sure everything runs smoothly in terms of schedules, paperwork and more.
As of right now, Sheriff said the clinic is monthly, from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. on the third Sunday of each month at MAPS (17550 N.E. 67th Ct).
Their first clinic day was July 17 and 15 patients came in during the three-hour period. The demographics of their patients ranged from new immigrants, to the elderly who did not have insurance, to individuals who did have insurance.
“That one went really well,” Sheriff said, adding that it has been really exciting to have the clinic up and running and everyone worked well together to provide the best care possible for their patients.
The next clinic day is from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. on Sunday.
