Antonia Coello Novello was born in 1944 in Puerto Rico and raised by her mother after her father died when she was young. She suffered from a chronic illness as a child but became a driven student and went on to receive multiple medical degrees. Novello had a career in pediatrics and public health research before becoming the first female and Hispanic Surgeon General of the United States in 1990, focusing on issues like smoking, drinking, immunization and minority health. After her term ended in 1993, she continued advocating for children's health internationally and in New York.

1. Antonia Coello Novello
The “doctor for all Americans”
By Maggie Birkel

2. Childhood
• Antonia was born on August
23, 1944 in Fajardo, Puerto
Rico to Antonio and Ana Delia
Coello. When she was eight
her father died and her mother
was left to care for her and her
two siblings. Novello was also
born with congenital
megacolon, a disease in which
you have an abnormally large,
malfunctioning colon. Because
of the disease Antonia was
chronically ill and had to be
hospitalized frequently.

3. • Though the disease caused her much pain it was also
a source of inspiration. As a result of it Novello was
exposed to issues with the medical system and “she
emerged from her ordeal with self-confidence and
compassion as well as a determination to ease the
sufferings of others by becoming a physician.”

4. Education
•
Antonia was always a bright
student, constantly pushed and
encouraged by her mother who
was first the principal of her
elementary school and then the
principal of her high school.
Novello once said of her mother,
“She would say, "Education is the
reason by which we exist, and I
will make sure that the best
teaches you, because public school
is a good system." She made sure
of that. All my life I almost felt
that my grades were not mine,
that my grades were a product of
my mother making sure that I was
educated by the best.”

5. College
•
Novello graduated from high school
at the age of 15 and then entered the
University of Puerto Rico in Rio
Piedras as a premedical student. After
obtaining her B.S. degree in 1965,
entered the university's medical
school in San Juan. Then in 1970,
after earning her M.D. degree, she
married Joseph Novello and the two
moved to Ann Arbor, Michigan to
continue their Medical training at the
University of Michigan Medical
Center. While there Novello received
the intern of the year award in 1971.
Her education then went on to include
courses and/or training at Georgetown
University Hospital and Johns
Hopkins University School of Public
Health. Then in 1982 she received a
certificate for her work at the John F.
Kennedy School of Government at
Harvard University.

6. After College
•
In 1976 Novello opened her own
private practice in Springfield,
Virginia, specializing in pediatrics
and nephrology. But Novello
soon abandoned the practice
because as she put it “when the
pediatrician cries as much as the
parents [of patients] do, then you
know it's time to get out.” So she
instead became a project officer in
the artificial kidney and chronic
uremia program at the National
Institutes of Health in 1978.
Novello quickly rose through the
ranks and in 1986 she became the
deputy director of the National
Institute of Child Health and
Human Development for the next
four years.

7. Surgeon General
• At this point in her life,
Novello felt she had
reached the pinnacle of
her career but on October
17, 1989 she was proved
wrong when President
George Bush nominated
her to be the next Surgeon
General. Which she
became on March 9,
1990. Not only this, she
became the first woman
and first Hispanic to hold
the position.

8. Surgeon General cont.
• During her time as surgeon
general, which lasted three
years, Antonia focused her
attention on smoking,
drinking, domestic violence,
the immunization crisis,
AIDS, and injury
prevention. She also made
the country more aware of
the problems facing children
and teenagers, women, and
minorities.

9. After Surgeon General
•
After Novello stopped being
surgeon general she did not end
her fight to help others. She
became the United Nations
Children’s Fund (UNICEF)
Special Representative for Health
and Nutrition from 1993 to 1996.
Then in 1996, she became
Visiting Professor of Health
Policy and Management at the
Johns Hopkins School of Hygiene
and Public Health. Most recently,
in 1999, she became
Commissioner of Health for the
State of New York.

10. When she was chosen
to be surgeon general,
Novello told Tonya E.
Wolford of Hispanic, “I
hope that being the first
woman and minority
surgeon general ... enables
me to reach many
individuals with my
message of empowerment
for women, children, and
minorities.” When her
term ended in 1993, many
people believed she had
done just that.

11. Bibliography
• “The Glass Ceiling Biographies - Antonia Novello” 19
November 2003. <
http://www.theglassceiling.com/biographies/bio23.htm>
• “Antonia Novello, M.D. Biography” 20 November 2003. <
http://www.achievement.org/autodoc/page/nov0bio-1?rand=7526
>
• “Antonia C. Novello (1990-1993)” 19 November 2003. <
http://www.surgeongeneral.gov/library/history/bionovello.htm
>
• “Historia - Novello, Antonia” 19 November 2003 <
http://www.liquidleaf.com/historia/novello.html>
• Latino Americans. New York: Macmillan Library Reference,
1999. 251-254

12. The End