Raúl Ruiz

Congressman Raúl Ruiz was born in Zacatecas City, Mexico, and grew up in Coachella, California. His parents were farmworkers. Ruiz was student body president of Coachella Valley High School and graduated magna cum laude from the University of California, Los Angeles, before attending Harvard Medical School. He was the first Latino to receive three graduate degrees from Harvard: doctor of medicine, master of public policy, and master of public health. “My success wasn’t mine,” Ruiz told the Los Angeles Times. “It was my community’s that believed in me; it was my parents’ who sacrificed their comfort so we could have an education.”

After completing his residency, Ruiz became an emergency physician at the Eisenhower Medical Center (now known as Eisenhower Health), a nonprofit hospital in the Coachella Valley. “My heart and soul was in the community, with my patients, with the people in the greatest need for health care and facing the greatest barriers,” he told Pitt Med magazine. Recognizing the physician shortage crisis there, he started a premedical mentorship program for young aspiring doctors.

Knowing the profound effects of income, race, and educational status on his patients’ health outcomes, Ruiz saw a run for Congress as the best next step. “I’m not against speaking publicly and having passion for something,” he said. “One of the cardinal beauties of America is that we have the freedom to do so.” He was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives in 2012 and continues to serve California’s 25th congressional district today.