Meet Antonia Novello! Born in Puerto Rico, Antonia Novello studied at the University of Puerto Rico and Johns Hopkins University and then became a pediatric nephrologist. After finding the emotional toll of direct patient care wasn't for her, she joined the U.S. Public Health Service in 1979 and held various roles at the National Institutes of Health throughout the 1980s, including as the coordinator for AIDS research. Her work on pediatric AIDS caught the attention of the White House and in 1990 then President George H.W. Bush appointed her Surgeon General, making her the first woman and the first Hispanic to do so. As Surgeon General she led several major public health campaigns in efforts to improve health conditions and access to medical care, especially for women, children, and minority populations. She helped launch early childhood health initiatives, promoted immunization and childhood injury prevention and worked on campaigns to tackle underage drinking and smoking, as well as ...