Targeting health disparities: From laredo to the nation

Growing up in Laredo, Texas, Dr. Ramirez dreamed of traveling and going to new places and meeting new people—so she thought she might want to be a flight attendant. Fortunately, her high-school biology teacher opened up her eyes to science. Ramirez worked hard to get a college degree. And having seen factors associated with a limited-resources community—few parks, lack of health food, low access to health care—Ramirez grew passionate about improving the health of underserved Latinos. She started working in regional health planning and Laredo. Buoyed by strong mentors, she went on to get a master's and a doctorate in public health. Since then, over the past 30 years, Dr. Ramirez has directed more than 100 research programs focused on human and organizational communication to reduce chronic disease and cancer health disparities affecting Latinos, including cancer risk factors, clinical trial recruitment, tobacco prevention, obesity prevention, and more. She is currently a professor of epidemiology and biostatistics at The University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio, where she also is founding director of the Institute for Health Promotion Research, which researches health disparities among minorities. But her career trajectory doesn't end with research; she also has become an influential mentor and trainer of more than 200 aspiring health professionals, helping yield the next generation of Latino scientists and researchers.