Dr. John Peoples is a general pediatrician at Central Oregon Pediatrics Associates whose dedication to the well-being of the community goes far beyond his work in the office. Now going into his 17th year at COPA, Peoples has mastered working with children in the medical setting, especially those with complex medical and developmental needs.
While his employer praises Peoples specifically for his capabilities with complex patients, Peoples humbly assigns the credit to his team.
“COPA is an amazing place,” he says, “and I’m incredibly lucky to work for an organization that been around for 50 years that is supportive, that I can learn from my colleagues, that is an amazing place to work.” He shares that, “one of the things that really has been impactful in helping our complex care families is that we have a care coordination team, so that’s complex care nurses, community health workers, care coordinator, as well as an amazing referrals team, and they are so helpful at helping families navigate through just what can be a morass of difficult things to deal with.”
“As we look at health care right now, with the Medicaid cuts coming in 2027 as a result of H.R. 1, I think it’s going to be really important that we advocate around supporting primary care.”
While his immediate role in the office is undoubtedly important, Peoples feels that, “pediatrics is 50% social work, meaning, we really need to be working to meet families and making sure they have what they need to be successful.” He shares that, “a lot of times that’s not necessarily doing all the health care stuff, it’s making sure that medications are paid for. We do anything we can possibly do to help with housing and security… addressing food insecurity, things like that.” Peoples enjoys that part of his job, and feels that it is “one of the neatest, most interesting parts of being a pediatrician.”
This interest in the social work aspect of pediatrics likely comes in part from the time Peoples spent working in San Diego. After graduating college, Peoples took time away from school to help run a developmental screening program for foster children. Peoples says he, “really love[d] the day-to-day of working with kids, assessing their development and then trying to figure out what we were going to do to help move them into the appropriate services.” He explains that this included, “making sure they had the supports they need, developmental services, things like that,” and that this line of work was profoundly impactful for him. “The balance of that job was really neat, because…we did clinical work, and the developmental assessments, but then we also were advocating for services at the county level in San Diego, and so it was really an inspirational job,” he said. “I went to medical school, I knew I wanted to work with children, just because I had those role models and those people that had really been mentors to me in San Diego.”
Peoples describes pediatrics as “in general, a pretty happy profession,” but shares that he especially appreciates having the ability to watch children become adults. “One of my favorite… visits in my job is when I watch a child from birth grow up, and then at a certain age… they come in and they’re just grown up,” Peoples explains. “It’s really incredible… they kind of look you in the eye and it’s like, ‘I don’t need the parent here, we’re going to talk about my health, it’s all good.’” These moments are impactful. “It’s really neat, because you just watched this kiddo for their whole life and then you…see them turn into that adult form of themself.”
Beyond his work at COPA, Peoples volunteers his time to serve on the Central Oregon Independent Practice Association, a board of approximately 700 doctors that advocates for the needs of independent practices in the area. Furthermore, for nine years he served on the board of the Oregon Pediatric Society, advocating for children’s access to health care at the state level and being a lead voice in various pediatric legislative issues. He now works with the advocacy committee for OPS, continuing to speak out for children’s medical care.
“I think that one of the most important things we can do is provide access for all kids to come in for health care,” Peoples tells the Source. “We have a really great advocacy committee at the state level with a lot of really amazing people doing this work. And I think that as we look at health care right now, with the Medicaid cuts coming in 2027 as a result of H.R. 1, I think it’s going to be really important that we advocate around supporting primary care, so those people that are caring for Medicaid patients.”
Peoples explains that this volunteer advocacy work “help[s] motivate you for the day-to-day,” sharing how, “a lot of what we do is a little bit in the weeds, where you’re working on the details of a child and family’s health care on a day-to-day basis, but that advocacy piece really helps…. [to] look at the big picture.” Peoples feels that, “especially with legislative advocacy, we can affect so many children’s lives with a bill, and a law that gets passed,” and that this external work reminds him why he works to support his Oregon and Central Oregon communities.
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