Dr. Amelie Ramirez: Tackling Latina Breast Cancer Disparities

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Dr. Amelie G. Ramirez, director of Salud America! at UT Health San Antonio, discussed Latina breast cancer in a livestream interview for the Alamo Breast Cancer Foundation at the San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium on Dec. 7, 2020.

Watch the full interview (in Spanish).

Amelie Ramirez for San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium event on Latina breast cancer — Amelie G. Ramirez (left) discussing Latina breast cancer with Dr. Barbara Segarra-Vazquez on the livestream.

Ramirez has led Latina-focused breast cancer research for over 20 years.

She has studied patient navigation, genetic testing, clinical trials, quality of life, and survivorship issues.

“Cancer prevention is a critical way to save people’s lives today,” said Ramirez, who also hosts the biannual Advancing the Science of Cancer in Latinos conference. “If we applied what we know works through prevention, we could reduce cancer by half.”

Dr. Ramirez & Her Healthy Equity Research

Ramirez is an internationally recognized health disparities researcher at UT Health San Antonio. She is professor and chair of Population Health Sciences, director of the Institute for Health Promotion Research, and associate director of cancer outreach and engagement at the Mays Cancer Center.

Amelie Ramirez Latino Health Champion 2018 — Dr. Amelie G. Ramirez

For more than 30 years, Ramirez gained experience developing research and communication models to improve Latino health locally and nationally.

She currently directs the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation-funded Salud America! national multimedia program to empower its vast network of 300,000 community leaders to drive healthy policy and system changes to promote health equity and support for Latino families.

Ramirez also directs Quitxt, a bilingual tobacco-cessation service for young Latino adults using mobile-phone text messages, funded by the Cancer Prevention and Research Institute of Texas

She has trained/mentored more than 250 Latinos in health fields. She also leads the National Cancer Institute-funded Éxito! training program to help master’s-level students and professionals pursue a doctoral degree and research career focused on Latino cancer.

Dr. Ramirez & Her Service, Recognition

Ramirez is an elected member of the National Academy of Medicine.

She also is a member of the National Advisory Council on Minority Health and Health Disparities of the National Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities, a Susan G. Komen Scholar, and is on the prize jury for the Fries Prize for Improving Health Award and the Elizabeth Fries Health Education Award. Ramirez also is currently serving on the board of directors for the CDC Foundation.

In Texas, she is on the San Antonio Mayor’s Fitness Council and is Board President of the The Academy of Medicine, Engineering and Science of Texas (TAMEST).