Connected Leadership: National Hispanic Heritage Month

Celebrate Hispanic Heritage Month!

At Wellpath, we embrace the diversity of our team members as a great organizational strength. We champion their individual success, as well as their contributions to our success as an organization. We hope you learn something new today and encourage you to share these stories with your team members!

Carlos J. Finlay – a Cuban-born epidemiologist, Dr. Finlay was the first published researcher to theorize that mosquitos carried and transmitted yellow fever. His pioneering research on yellow fever transmission is credited as the foundation for controlling the spread of yellow fever via mosquito population control.
José Celso Barbosa – Dr. Barbosa was the first Puerto Rican to earn a medical degree in the United States. After returning to Puerto Rico, he offered medical care across the island and championed an early form of employer-funded health insurance. He also provided medical care to soldiers on both sides of the Spanish-American war, and served in the first civilian-led government in Puerto Rico.
Sarah Stewart – born in Mexico, her family was forced to flee to the US during the Mexican Revolution in 1906. Dr. Stewart was a member of the NIH and helped develop the gangrene vaccine, saving countless lives during WWII. She was credited with discovering the polyomavirus in 1953. Her research demonstrated that cancer-causing viruses could spread from organism to organism.
Severo Ochoa – a Spanish-born physician and biochemist, Dr. Ochoa’s research focused generally on protein synthesis, glycolysis, and intermediary metabolism. Dr. Ochoa was also a joint winner of the 1959 Nobel Prize for the discovery of the mechanisms of RNA and DNA synthesis.
Ildaura Murillo-Rohde – a Panamanian psychiatric nurse, Ms. Murillo-Rohde founded the National Association of Hispanic Nurses in 1975. She was the first Hispanic nurse to receive a PhD from NYU and focused her work on Hispanic cultural awareness in nursing practice.
Helen Rodríguez Trías – a Puerto Rican pediatrician and professor was the first Latina president of the American Public Health Association. Dr. Rodríguez Trías is credited with helping to expand public health services for women and children in minority and low-income populations across the world.
Rodolfo Llinás – a Colombian neuroscientist has published over 800 scientific articles on various neuroscientific topics and introduced the concept of thalamocortical dysrhythmia to modern neuroscience. His extensive research also includes the study of the electrophysiology of neurons in multiple brain structures.
Antonia Novello – a Puerto Rican physician and public health administrator, Dr. Novello was the first woman and first person of Hispanic descent to serve as the Surgeon General of the United States from 1990-1993. During her time as Surgeon General, she focused her work on the health of women, children, and minorities, as well as underage drinking, smoking, and HIV/AIDS.
Nora Volkow – this Mexican-American psychiatrist is the current director of the National Institute on Drug Abuse. Dr. Volkow’s imaging research on the brains of people addicted to drugs has helped to clarify the mechanisms of drug addiction. This research has been instrumental in informing how modern medicine addresses drug abuse and addiction disorders.

This list is by no means all-inclusive; we’ve only looked at some of those individuals who have contributed to the medical community. However, the Hispanic and Latin American communities have made incredible contributions to engineering, technology, civil rights, music, art, and more. We’re grateful for their inventions, research, and discoveries that have led to improved medical care for all, including the patients we serve.

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Connected Leadership is Wellpath’s ongoing leadership education series published by Ann Hatcher, Wellpath’s Chief Human Resources Officer