Anjali Taneja
These days, with soaring medical costs and a lack of accessible treatment to many segments of the population, the bridge between “healthcare” and “healing” may seem infinitely wide, though, not for Dr. Anjali Taneja, the Executive and Medical Director of Casa de Salud, a nonprofit care facility that combines primary care models with holistic treatments. “I see my work as bridgework between healers and healthcare providers, and in building creative, independent models of community care and healing,” she tells GO. “I am passionate about the right to health and about the potential for healthcare to build power with communities.” The Albuquerque-based Casa de Salud is one such community, offering a diverse range of treatments including care for transgender persons, opioid addiction, and counseling along with services like acupuncture, reiki massage, and indigenous healing circles. But Taneja’s work goes beyond Casa de Salud, which she joined in 2015; she also works as an emergency room physician in a rural hospital in the Navajo Nation, providing services to indigenous communities. In her line of work, where progress can be difficult to come by, being open about who she is has been invaluable. “Being out has added an additional layer of resilience and resolve to the work that I do, building innovative health care systems in a traditionally more conservative (and white) landscape of health leaders,” she says. “It has also been a connecting point for patients I treat at Casa de Salud. Seeing their physician is ‘out’ has strengthened their trust in the clinic.” Among her distinctions, she is a Clinical Scholar with the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, a leadership program focused on health equity and community development. —RK
