Elena V. Rios, M.D., M.S.P.H.

Elena V. Rios serves as president and CEO of the National Hispanic Medical Association, (NHMA), representing Hispanic physicians in the United States. The mission of the organization is to improve the health of Hispanics. Rios also serves as president of NHMA’s National Hispanic Health Foundation affiliated with the Robert F. Wagner Graduate School of Public Service, New York University, to direct educational and research activities.

Rios also serves on the National Hispanic Leadership Agenda and the Partnerships for Prevention Boards of Directors, the American Medical Association Commission to End Health Disparities, and is co-chair for the Hispanic Health Coalition. Rios has lectured and published articles and has received several awards on health policy, including awards from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, the Congressional Black, Hispanic, Asian and Native American Caucuses, American Public Health Association Latino Caucus, Association of Hispanic Health Executives, Minority Health Month, Inc., and Hispanic Magazine.

Prior to her current positions, Rios served as the advisor for Regional and Minority Women’s Health for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Office on Women’s Health from November 1994 to October 1998. In 1992, Rios worked for the State of California Office of Statewide Health Planning and Development as a policy researcher. In 1993, Rios was appointed to the National Health Care Reform Task Force as the coordinator of Outreach Groups for the White House. Rios has also served as president of the Chicano/Latino Medical Association of California, adviser to the National Network of Latin American Medical Students, member of the California Department of Health Services Cultural Competency Task Force, Stanford Alumni Association and Women’s Policy Inc. Boards of Directors, and the AMA’s Minority Affairs Consortium Steering Committee.

Rios earned her B.A. in human biology/public administration at Stanford University in 1977, M.S.P.H. at the University of California School of Public Health in 1980, her M.D. at the UCLA School of Medicine in 1987, and completed her internal medicine residency at the Santa Clara Valley Medical Center in San Jose and the White Memorial Medical Center in East Los Angeles in 1990, and her NRSA Primary Care Research Fellowship at UCLA in 1992.