ChrisAnna Mink is a pediatrician at the St. John’s Well Child and Family Center and Harbor-UCLA Medical Center in Los Angeles, where she focuses on health care for children in underserved communities. Before participating in the Zócalo/The California Wellness Foundation event, “How Do You Fix a ‘Bad’ Neighborhood?” she talked in the Zócalo green room about what she liked most about the neighborhood she grew up in and why she doesn’t do karaoke.
Q: What word or phrase do you use most often?
A: Hakuna matata. [Laughs.] Sadly.
Q: What’s hanging on your living room walls?
A: Some glass fish. Some funky square art blocks. And a 3-D puzzle of St. Basil’s Cathedral. My son was born in Russia, and he’s really into Russian things.
Q: What’s the last habit you tried to kick?
A: Being a slug, but I don’t really want to give it up.
Q: What did you love most about the neighborhood you grew up in?
A: I grew up in a small town in Zanesville, Ohio, and looking back, my favorite thing about it was that everybody belonged to everybody. So if I got into trouble, my grandma knew before I got home, which also meant that I was safe.
Q: What are you keeping in your garage that you should have thrown out already?
A: I have my research papers from 1994. I can’t throw them away.
Q: If you could have any superpower, which would you chose and why?
A: My son and I have actually had this discussion. He wants to fly. I don’t want to fly. I think if I have any superpower, it would be to be kind all the time. It would help.
Q: Who taught you how to ride a bicycle?
A: My grandpa, and he is the cutest man on the planet.
Q: Where do you come up with your best ideas?
A: Interestingly, it’s while I am trying to fall asleep at bedtime. I do a little download every day, and somehow I find solutions to something that’s been bothering me.
Q: What dessert can you not resist?
A: Hot fudge sundaes. That’s an easy one.
Q: What song are you most likely to choose at karaoke?
A: I don’t do karaoke very much to protect those around me. When I do sing with everybody, I’m most likely to choose a Disney tune. Those are the ones I’m most likely to know the words from.
*Photo by Aaron Salcido.
