My Lessons in Leadership

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My leadership journey has been diverse and momentous, stemming from a heritage focused on hard work, family and service. I would be remiss to not acknowledge that my parents chased the American Dream and they would say, they and I found it! 

Born into a working class “blue collar” family in Miami, Florida, I was the first born of  Hispanic immigrant parents, a factory worker and a clerical worker, from Cuba and Ecuador. I grew up in Southeast LA County ( Bell and Cudahy ), attending public school, which I ‘quit’ after 2 weeks of kindergarten because NO ONE spoke like me… I was a Spanish speaking student in an English-only class in 1963.I actually ran away from school at age 5, (causing the biggest panic one could), but that event  taught my parents a big lesson and I agreed to learn English ( although I was convinced it was NOT a language).

My focus on a medical career became clear when at the age of 13, I was diagnosed  with Non Hodgkins Lymphoma, being treated at the City of Hope. I revered those  pediatric oncologists and through the years that followed, they inspired me with their  compassion, wit and skill. I will never forget them. I would never again take my life for granted. I wanted my time on earth to matter.  

After high school, I matriculated to Point Loma College (San Diego). Having no material advantages except a wonderful family, I put everything I had into school, graduating magna cum laude and entering UCSF Med School (’83) and went to Stanford for my pediatric residency. 

As many of you can relate, true “leadership” is something that others recognized in you, rather than the ego driven self-declarations of the political class.  It is the result of experiences and actions.  

There are three critical experiences that taught me lifelong lessons in leadership that I would like to share :

-First, recognizing that the privilege of being a physician came with profound personal obligations: serving those who had less, were disadvantaged or without a voice in society. That drove my work with orphans in the 1980’s. During my residency years, I began following the calamitous wars evolving in Central America. Through my church, I heard of the need for help in Guatemala with children being orphaned in large numbers.  I went to the Guatemalan highlands working in a former summer youth camp, where I saw the face of human suffering and tragedy up close and personal.  

I spent the next 6 years traveling back and forth to Guatemala, helping to rebuild the lives and identities of little ones whose families were massacred in the Rabinal region. Carrying vaccines, medical supplies and bringing in workers to San Miguel Chicaj. 

Those were tough and meaningful early career years, but I wanted to bring skills I learned as a physician to those who needed it most. I traveled throughout the region (“Las Verapaces”) taking dentists, lab workers, and physicians. The images and  experiences were deeply impactful, in some cases traumatic, as I witnessed the cruelty  and unjust nature of the human experience. But it ingrained in me my own responsibility as a physician and doctor. Not a day that goes by that I forget those beautiful little Mayans, the innocents caught in the trauma of civil war.  

My journey has also taken me to Cuba, Argentina and Romania. Being involved in medical relief work has been an impactful part of my personal story. It’s about serving, helping and making a difference.  

-My second lesson in service and leadership revolved around the local community. I saw that one of the major barriers was access to health insurance and helped found the Children’s Health Initiative which provided insurance to EVERY child in San Luis Obispo County.  While passage of the ACA ended that program, it taught me the power of convening and moving groups together in unison to achieve a result. 

-The third and greatest test was working on international pharmaceutical standards with the United States Pharmacopiea (USP). I volunteered with the  organization as the CMA rep and became the President of the USP Convention. I was tasked with convening 400 separate organizations in a quinquennial convention which created policies to guide American pharmaceutical policy. Balancing  the various interests from industry to academia to consumer groups to government required the patience of Job and thick skin! 

One more thing: Running for public office also taught me a BIG lesson—the skill-sets required to win elections do not often intersect with the skill-sets of good governance, which may explain a lot of what we see in political life.  

I don’t write these things proclaiming some inner virtue or piety, or to play to the vanity-compassion expressions that are so tiresome, but to say that our life journeys provide a mosaic of experience which create the skills needed to lead effectively.  

And in a nutshell, I bring these experiences and skills with me, to serve you and our patients as your next CMA President-elect.