Reimagining Pediatric Care: How One Nonprofit is Setting a New Standard for Health Equity

Robyn Riseberg, MD, always wanted to better the lives of others. After studying psychology with plans for a sports psychology path, a post-graduation trip to Southeast Asia ignited her interest to help underserved populations. That experience, followed by work at Planned Parenthood in New York City, led her to medical school, a pediatrics career, and to entrepreneurship, as the founder of the pioneering non-profit Boston Community Pediatrics.

For 15 years, she worked as a pediatrician in different settings caring for children from underserved communities and minority populations. But she saw firsthand the access to care challenges many families continued to face, despite the world-famous healthcare institutions in Boston. Determined to do more, she launched Boston Community Pediatrics as the first nonprofit pediatric private practice in Massachusetts.

“Even today in this city, in the world’s leading hub of healthcare, there are thousands of families unable to access healthcare,” said Riseberg. “[This is] exactly why I started Boston Community Pediatrics in November 2020 in the middle of the pandemic.”

Since then, her practice has been following through on its mission to change the way healthcare is delivered to children in need. In 2024, the practice received the Massachusetts Nonprofit Network’s Excellence in Innovation Award.

“We’re bringing income and racial equity to all patients especially to those who have Medicaid by providing them with the highest quality care that is culturally competent and puts the patient at the center of that care,” said Riseberg.

Providing Whole Patient Care for Children

Boston Community Pediatrics offers typical primary care services within a 30-to-60-minute visit with a pediatrician. Additionally, patients receive mental health care when needed in coordination with in-house mental health clinicians.

“[They] deliver care together with the pediatrician. So, I’m going into someone’s therapy appointment to titrate medications and change medications,” said Riseberg. “Also, what that does is let families and kids know that mental health and physical health is absolutely connected – so connected that we’re delivering the care together.”

The practice also offers two parent support groups, one which offers parents the opportunity to share their experiences through virtual meet ups. The other, created in collaboration with the Boston Child Study Center, offers in-person sessions to teach parents techniques to help children develop emotional regulation skills and improve parent-child relationships.

Additionally, the practice helps families who are faced with social determinants of health by connecting them with housing, food, utility support, childcare, and services provided by government programs like WIC and SNAP, as well as community-based organizations.

“We also have a number of after school programs. We have a cooking class where we deliver food ahead of time to families, and the families or children cook on Zoom or in person. [They] have a healthy fruit or vegetable at every meal and they are able to deliver that food to their family,” said Riseberg.

To provide all these services to its 1,600 patients, the practice has 22 staff members including pediatricians, a pediatric nurse practitioner, mental health clinicians, medical assistants, care navigators, and administrators.

“We also have a number of staff who are bilingual and bi-cultural, which is really important when you’re taking care of patients, that they see themselves reflected in the staff,” said Riseberg.

She said everyone on the team knows that the patient always comes first.

“We treat the whole patient and center the patient in everything that we do,” said Riseberg.

Turbulent Times Breed Uncertainty, Greater Need for Healthcare Philanthropy

Riseberg said government cuts and changes are directly affecting her practice.

“We had a federal grant [for which] we got an email at 9 a.m. on a Wednesday morning saying the grant was over at 12 p.m. that day. So, we are having to pivot very quickly in this moment to make changes that do not affect patients and do not affect our staff,” she said.

To keep services available, she is trying to secure unrestricted government grants and fundraising more. She is also leaning on relationships with other non-profits like Life Science Cares that invest in healthcare and fighting poverty.

“The BCP model only works because of the power of philanthropy. Medical reimbursements only cover about 25 percent of this very comprehensive preventative healthcare practice. That means 75 percent comes from philanthropy,” said Riseberg.

While many non-profits are having to close their doors or lay off staff, she said philanthropy support is allowing her to keep staff. Still, she said, “we are seeing that people are afraid. Our staff is afraid. Our patients are afraid.”

Many patients treated at the clinic are undocumented, and Riseberg has witnessed how the current climate has directly affected them.

“We had a [patient] who didn’t come to an appointment and one of our pediatricians called to check on why the patient didn’t come in and her mom said, ‘Well, her dad got picked up by ICE today,’” said Riseberg.

Her patients are reporting a higher need for resources like food and housing due to protections being taken away.

“These are stories happening right here in our city and to our families so we are having to invest in more services to support them,” she said.

She brought on a medical partnership lawyer who visits the practice once a month to help direct staff on how to support patients and their families.

A Call for the Scientific Community to Stick Together

Because the current landscape has taken away an investment in the scientific process and in public health, Riseberg said the scientific community needs to stand together stronger than ever.

“[Our] patients and families rely on us as healthcare professionals to be a trusted resource,” she said. “We talk about the power of the pediatrician: who is the medical provider people trust the most? The person who takes care of their kid, so by putting concerns into people’s minds that is not based on any data or scientific research, we are really creating a healthcare system that is not [only] filled with people who are not trusting their healthcare providers but who are weary of them.”

Hence, she said more investments in and more partnerships between those who support researchers and providers is needed for the greater good.

For her part, she plans to continue to redefine health and healthcare and hopes that in the future her model of care will be the standard of healthcare for all kids. As she stated on her website:

“We are going to figure out how to bring BCP to hospitals and health systems and into more of our communities. We are going to figure out how to teach our next generation of doctors that bureaucracies that stifle innovation are not the systems we should be working in. We are going to show healthcare that there is another way - the BCP way.”

Portions of this story were derived from Riseberg’s presentation at the BIO International Convention in June 2025.

• Cared for 1,602 patients during 7,415 visits

• 5,324 bags of groceries & prepared meals

• 19,902 hygiene & period products

• 12,805 diapers & wipes

• 9,910 pairs of underwear

• Thousands of clothing items

• 547 Uber rides

• Source: Boston Community Pediatrics Impact Report 2024.