Sienna Dugan ’20, Hunt Institute Associate

Sienna Dugan ’20 joins the Hunt Institute as an Associate, bringing with her a passion to provide resources to countries and regions that lack medical care.

Sienna Dugan is a Medical Coordinator of One World Surgery, formerly an Epidemiologist for the Texas Department of State Health Services, and an Epidemiologist for the Tarrant County Public Health department. Previously, Sienna worked in the Hunt Institute as an Undergraduate Research Analyst. She continues to volunteer to support other Undergraduate Research Analyst as a mentor.

In the late summer of 2021, Sienna began her role as a Medical Coordinator of One World Surgery on location in Honduras. One World Surgery works to transform lives by providing access to high-quality surgical care globally. OWS funds and operates a world-class surgery center located on the ranch of our partner, Nuestros Pequeños Hermanos™ which is home to over 500 abandoned and disadvantaged children. At OWS are dedicated to helping patients lacking the resources and access to receive world-class surgical care, as well as empowering hundreds of physicians, nurses and volunteers in the US contribute to make a positive impact in global health.

Since 2012, Sienna volunteered on multiple medical mission trips to China, El Salvador, Guatemala, and Ethiopia as well as her hometown, Los Angles, California working alongside medical professionals to help save the lives of children with no other options.  At an early age, Sienna and her family started to host kids in their home as they were in the US receiving life saving surgeries.  Whether it was holding her phone over the operating table so Dr. Gopi Manam could finish stitching up the hole in two year old Selina Hewiot’s beating heart when the power went out in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, or talking her family into hosting 3 year old named Erica from Guatemala with, not a cleft palate, but a double cleft face and hydrocephalus tumor because no one else would take her into their home and care for her during her extensive surgeries, her experiences have shaped her into a caring and compassionate advocate for social justice.

When asked what motivates her to do impact work she replied, “I believe the best way to lift yourself up is to lift up those around you. I can’t think of anything more rewarding than being able to work in a field where my job is helping others accomplish their dreams.”

Sienna Dugan ’20 is alumna of Southern Methodist University and the Hunt Institute. While a student at SMU, she worked as a Research Analyst in the Hunt Institute to develop an international poverty alleviation program in order to help promote a resilient humanity and was influential in piloting the program by working on a research project that promoted health in the refugee camps in Rwanda titled Assessment of Rwanda Refugee Camps in the Context of the Villagization Process. She co-authored Bridging the Gap in Diagnostics a broader impact report on the subject of a low-cost and portable point-of-care device for humanitarian and health applications. In addition, she served as the Philanthropy Chair of her sorority, Pi Beta Phi, as well as spending time on a water reallocation program designed to benefit the underprivileged community of the Piuris people, a Native American Pueblo in Taos, New Mexico. Sienna holds a Bachelor of Arts in Health and Society and a minor in Global Development and Psychology.  She was an Engaged Learning Fellow and a recipient of the Caroline M. Jones Scholarship, the Cowels Scholarship, and the Opportunity Scholarship.

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