Spotlight on Community Champions

As a nonprofit safety net healthcare provider, Marin Community Clinics is dependent on volunteers, donors, partner agencies, and other supporters – our Champions. With the ongoing and generous support of Marin residents, businesses, foundations, and health professionals, we are able to maintain and expand our essential services. The incredible success of our 2007-2008 Building a Healthy Future capital campaign, which resulted in new state-of-the-art clinic facilities in San Rafael and Novato, is a testament to the foresight and generosity of our community.

This page will provide a rotating spotlight on some of Marin Community Clinics’ most valued contributors.

Eliana Delgado, MD  

Dr. Delgado has been donating her time and expertise as a pediatric orthopedist at Marin Community Clinics for 17 years, making her one of the most senior of our volunteer specialists. She has been affiliated with UCSF Medical Center since 1989, and has specialized training in treating children's bone disorders. She was a trauma doctor at San Francisco General Hospital before serving a pediatric orthopedic fellowship at St. Louis Shriners' Hospital in St. Louis, MO. She continues to work with Shriners’ Hospitals in St. Louis and San Francisco.

A Bay Area native, Dr. Delgado received her undergraduate degrees from the College of San Mateo and San Francisco State University, followed by a graduate degree at the University of California at Berkeley. She trained in nursing and worked as an R.N. before earning her medical degree from UCSF, where she also completed her orthopedic surgery residency.

Dr. Delgado’s commitment to her community seems endless. In addition to her time devoted to the children at MCC, she volunteers in schools in San Francisco mentoring high school and college students who may be interested in nursing or other medical careers. She particularly concentrates on encouraging girls and minority students to reach for their highest potential in medical fields. And, along the way, she frequently visits schools all over San Francisco to lecture about sports safety, and injury prevention. She leads an educational program at UCSF for teenagers with back pain, and is one of that medical center’s experts on gait deformities in children. She is determined to improve lives in her community by sharing her knowledge and experience.

Pediatrician Lisa Leavitt has worked with Dr. Delgado for many years and has warm praise for her work with children. “She is very committed to our patient population and is a community-oriented doctor. She goes out of her way to be helpful in getting our patients what they need. She is knowledgeable in her field and her ability to communicate in Spanish is invaluable. We are grateful to Dr. Delgado for her many years of dedication and wonderful care of the pediatric patients of MCC.”

Kevin Harrington, MD

Dr. Harrington has had a long and colorful career as an orthopedic surgeon, and Marin Community Clinics has been fortunate to benefit from his expertise for the last four years. A native of San Francisco, and educated at Lowell High School, Yale University, and University of California, San Francisco, he served as a battalion surgeon for four years in the U.S. Army, treating many wounded soldiers during the Vietnam War. After returning to the Bay Area, his medical career spanning forty years included numerous visiting professorships at virtually every major medical school in the U.S., and many in foreign countries, as well as numerous academic and consulting appointments. He has even been a consultant to the NFL Players Association.

While his professional credentials are stellar, Dr. Harrington’s true passion is for giving back, using his extensive knowledge and expertise to improve the lives of people who have few resources. He and his wife Peggy, who is an anesthesiologist, have raised a son and four daughters – 2 lawyers, a nurse, a police officer and a salesman – and still found time to volunteer at Paul Newman’s Hole in the Wall Camps for kids with cancer, as well as at St. Luke’s Free Clinic, and Hospital Albert Schweitzer in Haiti. He loves to play basketball, and enjoyed coaching youth teams through the YMCA.

Dr. Harrington’s passion is obvious when he talks about the challenges of his work with Marin Community Clinics. When he recounts the many medical issues that our patients present, stemming from poverty and neglect, he struggles to find solutions. “The toughest challenge is persuading other surgeons to donate their time for these cases. Medi-Cal rarely covers surgeries, so they must be willing to work for free.” Even UCSF, he says, has not been able to help out much recently because of their own budget constraints. But he is undaunted and still believes that by giving, he can make a difference.

According to Chief Medical Officer Dr. Georgianna Farren, “Dr. Harrington has ventured beyond the clinical by meeting with community physicians to help solve the access challenges that our patients face. He is gracious, loves to teach anyone, and compassionate with patients.”