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During the 1960's, the social movements such as civil rights and affirmative action opened the doors of higher education to the Hispanic community. A critical mass of Hispanic students entered the realm of the social elite in the United States. By the 1970's the first Hispanic led health care student organization had been established for about 3 years - the National Chicano Health Organization, based in Denver. In the mid-70's the leaders started medical student organizations in various regions - La Raza Medical Student Association in California, the Mexican American Medical Association in Texas, the Boricua Health Organization in the Northeast.
In the 1980's in California, Dr. Elena Rios and other core medical students founded the California Chicano/Latino Medical Student Association and aspired to a national coalition. This same core group developed the Supernetwork recruitment project in the state and the technical assistance to the Chicago medical students who developed the Latino Midwest Medical Student Association. In 1987, the Presidents from the regional groups were bought together with an Advisory Board (Jorge Girotti, University of Illinois, Chicago, Margie Beltran, University of California Davis, a rep from New Jersey Medical School, and Elena Rios, Santa Clara Valley Medical Center Medicine Intern) to form the National Network of Latin American Medical Students. The national network was introduced to Washington, DC in 1990. In 1992, a conference occurred in Los Angeles, that consisted of 3 different meetings - the California Hispanic medical students, the physicians and the national network of medical students to meet a Federal government, national and state organizations' health leaders. In November, 1992 physicians were invited to meet with President Clinton's transition team and in 1993, they continued to meet with the White House. Dr. Rios was appointed as Coordinator, National Health Care Reform Task Force Outreach Groups and developed a network of Hispanic health experts. By the end of the year, the National Hispanic Medical Association was introduced at a national meeting. In 1994, the Board of Directors incorporated the association as well as its educational 501c3 arm, the National Hispanic Medical Foundation (changed in 2000 to the National Hispanic Health Foundation) and met with a strategic planner and met with the Congressional Hispanic Caucus to serve as a resource. At the end of the year, Dr. Rios was hired by the DHHS Office on Women's Health as Advisor of Regional and Minority Women's Health, where she remained for 4 years. NHMA strategic planning meetings were supported by Dr. Ciro Sumaya, Administrator of the Health Resources and Services Administration and in March, 1995 convened its first Advisory Committee Retreat and Reception honoring Dr. Jo Ivey Boufford, Principle Deputy Assistant Secretary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and Dr. Sumaya for their leadership for the DHHS "Hispanic Agenda for Action" Initiative. NHMA then conducted five Regional Meetings of physicians in 1995-1996 in Chicago, Los Angeles, New York, San Antonio, and Miami. Subsequently, the Advisory Committee met in September 1996 to develop the goals and first strategic plan. In 1997, NHMA introduced its First Annual National Conference in Washington, DC to focus on Hispanic health. Over the past seven years, the conference has increased from 100 to 1000 participants who represent physicians, government and private sector health experts and medical students. During that year, Dr. Rios met with Dr. Boufford, who became the Dean, Robert F. Wagner Graduate School of Public Service, New York University, to plan the development of NHMA's first leadership program, the NHMA Leadership Fellowship. In 1998, the Federal government panel discussed the "Hispanic Agenda for Action" initiative of DHHS and a recommendation was made to partner with the NHMA. Thus, the Board agreed to solicit support for the leadership program, an NIH research network, and a medical student mentorship program. With successful funding from HRSA, NIH and the Office of Minority Health, Dr. Rios was hired as the first part-time employee in 1998 and hired staff in 1999. In mid -2000, an organizational development consultant was hired. In 2000, the Board decided to partner with the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration and venture into media and public relations with the development of a media training program for the Advisors and Fellows as well as a Hispanic Health Breakfast Series co-hosted by the Congressional Hispanic Caucus - Congresswoman Lucille Roybal-Allard in Los Angeles, Congressman Ciro Rodriguez in San Antonio, Congressman Luis Gutierrez in Chicago, Congresswoman Nydia Velazquez in New York that met with the Vice Presidents and News Directors and other media management of CBS, NBC, ABC, Fox, Univision, Telemundo and the major English and Spanish newspapers. The requests for NHMA physician participation have increased through this effort. The Federal partners of NHMA include HRSA, OMH, the Office on Women's Health, NHTSA, Congressional Hispanic Caucus. The private sector conference sponsors were brought together in 2000 to form the Corporate Advisory Council to the NHHF. By 2002, NHMA partners expanded to health Foundations - the Commonwealth Fund (Hispanics and Lack of Insurance Seminars), the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (2002 Summit), the California Endowment (Capitol Hill Briefing Series and the National Hispanic Health Coalition), the California Healthcare Foundation (Conference) and the NHMA Foundation Board of Directors decided to move forward with discussions to affiliate with the Wagner School, NYU. Also, in 2002, the NHMA and the Congressional Hispanic Caucus co-sponsored the "National Hispanic Health Leadership Summit" in August in San Antonio with the DHHS, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and other partners from foundation, pharma and national organizations in addition to Senator Frist, Senator Hutchison, and others who nominated 170 health experts to develop a consensus set of recommendations to improve health programs in America. The phenomenal report of that Summit will soon be on this website. In 2003, NHMA continued to share its office and management staff with the Hispanic-Serving Health Professions Schools, Inc. Dr. Rios served as President and CEO for NHMA and CEO for HSHPS. The Board of Directors of both NHMA and NHHF were expanded. A major accomplishment was the awarding of a Congressional earmark and plans got underway for developing the Hispanic Health Professions Leadership Network - the National Association of Hispanic Nurses, the Hispanic Dental Association, the Latino Caucus of the American Public Health Association, the Association of Hispanic Health Executives, the HSHPS, and local Hispanic medical societies to improve Hispanic health of the country. The 2003 priority was to build sustainable partnerships for the NHMA. We continue to welcome your participation. |
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