Motto: “Good science and good sense”

Antonia was born in Fajardo, Puerto Rico, in 1944. Although her father died when she was young, her mother emphasized the value of education and hard work. She was diagnosed with congenital megacolon, which she had to live with 18 years before surgery. This experience caused her to want to study medicine to ensure nobody would have to experience what she did. She graduated high school at 15, received her Bachelor’s in 1965 from University of Puerto Rico in Rio Piedras, and received her Doctor of Medicine degree from the University of Puerto Rico School of Medicine in 1970. Antonia did her residency at Georgetown until 1976 and afterwards began as a pediatrician with her own private practice. She then joined the Public Health Service at NIH in 1979 working with arthritis, metabolism, and digestive diseases. Antonia earned a masters in public health from Johns Hopkins in 1982, as well as a doctorate in public health in 2000. In 1990, she was appointed by George H. W. Bush to Surgeon General, being the first woman and the first person of Hispanic heritage to hold the position. Antonia focused on the health of women, children, minorities, underage drinking, smoking, and AIDS. She left the position in 1993, later working for UNICEF, the New York State Department of Health, and Disney’s Children’s Hospital.