Physician and public health advocate Dr. Antonia Coello Novello, M.D. made history in 1990 when she was instated as the first woman and first Hispanic to serve as Surgeon General of the United States. She held the position from 1990 to 1993.
Novello was born in 1944 in Fajardo, Puerto Rico. As a child, she suffered from a painful colon condition called congenital megacolon that should have been surgically treated when she was eight years old. However, it would be another ten years before she received surgery. The experience led her to pursue medicine in order to minimize the suffering of others.
Novello graduated from the University of Puerto Rico with a Bachelor of Science in 1965 and a Doctor of Medicine in 1970. She served her pediatric internship in Ann Arbor at the University of Michigan Medical School, where she was the first woman to be named the "University of Michigan Pediatrics Department Intern of the Year."
Novello spent two years in private practice as a pediatrician, but the emotional turmoil of caring for critically ill children drove her toward the public health field to help the broader population. In 1978, she joined the National Institutes of Health (NIH), where she would spend her entire career, rising to Deputy Director of the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD). While serving as Coordinator for AIDS Research for the NICHD, the White House took notice.
Novello was sworn in by Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Connor to serve as the 14th Surgeon General of the U.S. Public Health Service on March 9, 1990. During her tenure, she focused on the health of women, children, and minorities, improved AIDS education, and initiated campaigns to combat underage drinking and smoking.
When she left the post of Surgeon General in 1993, Novello became a representative for the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF). She then went on to become a visiting professor of health policy and management at the Johns Hopkins School of Hygiene and Public Health, served as Commissioner of Health for New York, and worked at the Florida Hospital for Children in Orlando, where she retired in 2014 as the Executive Director of Public Health Policy.
Novello accumulated multiple awards throughout her career, including the Public Health Service Commendation Medal, the Legion of Merit, and The James Smithson Bicentennial Medal.