Staggers does what she can to make up for what's lacking in the lives of the teens she treats. She routinely hugs her patients when she sees them (after asking their permission, of course). "I'm known as the 'Huggy Bunny' around the hospital," she says. "For some of these kids, coming here provides the only physical contact in their lives that has no strings attached. So in this practice, we let the kids know that we love them. The message is, 'we may not love what you do, but we love you.'"

Dr. Staggers (center) and staff.

David Breland, a UCSF pediatrician who worked with Staggers during his residency and for four years after that, admires her ability to talk to teenagers and win their trust. "If she disagrees with them, she will put them in their place," he says, "but in a way a good friend who cares about you would do. After meeting a kid just twice, she'll know her name the next time she comes in."

In a society that often mistrusts and fears its teenagers, Staggers's respect for the kids she treats is striking. "I like that they're in my face ... I can't say one thing and do another. I like it that when I'm wrong they catch me," she says. "I can't ever get stagnant, because these kids are watching me, keeping me honest."

But she frets about the messages kids are exposed to every day: "Social pressures have grown worse for teenagers in the years I've been practicing," she says. "I see more drugs, more poverty, more confusion about the value of life. Many of the kids I see don't place any value on their own life, which means they don't value other peoples' lives, either. These kids are supposed to be our future, but many of them won't live to be adults."

Still, many do make it. "There are some amazingly resilient teens out there," she says. "Kids who—no matter what you throw at them—they come back and do well." For some kids, particularly African Americans, Staggers is a role model. They, too, become determined to make a difference. "They'll say to me, 'You talk about non-violent resolution of conflict, but when I go home and turn on the TV, the first thing I see is the fighting in Iraq.' They think adults have made a mess of things, and they want to do things differently."

To help them, Staggers co-founded an internship program at Children's Hospital called "Faces for the Future," which provides support to underrepresented minority students who want to work in the health care field. The three-year program, established in 2000, offers interns training, academic and psychosocial support, and mentoring. Of the first group to complete the program, 92 percent went on to college. Staggers also helped establish health clinics at two Oakland high schools, McClymonds and Castlemont, which are both located in areas with the highest health care disparities in Alameda County. These clinics have become national models for school-based health care.

Staggers's passion for her work springs in part from a sense of her own good fortune. As a child, her close-knit family gave her confidence and encouragement. Today, she cherishes her time with her three children and her husband, an artist whom she calls "my anchor." Her own experience fuels her belief in the power of human connection to transform a life: "All the studies show that to succeed, a child needs at least one person in life who loves and supports them unconditionally," says Staggers. "Every kid needs someone who will always be there, and it doesn't have to be a parent. But many kids don't have that."

"It’s all about love," she says.

Constance Matthiesson is a San Francisco–based journalist

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