Board of Directors

Dr. Jaime Torres | Dr. Olveen Carrasquillo | Juan A. Figueroa Esq | Annette B. Ramirez de Arellano, DrPH | Walid Michelen, M.D.

Jaime R. Torres DPM, MS — President

Dr. Jaime Torres is currently Associate Director of Consultative Services at Coler-Goldwater Specialty Hospital in New York City. In 2005 he founded, and is national coordinator of, the coalition Latinos for National Health Insurance. The coalition, comprised of Latino leaders from various fields, advocates for a single payer national health insurance program that would cover every person from the time they are born, regardless of immigration status.

In 1983, Dr. Torres received his Doctorate of Podiatric Medicine from the New York College of Podiatric Medicine and earned his Master of Science degree from Long Island University in 2000. In that year he also completed the Leadership Fellowship Program of the National Hispanic Medical Association Program and the NYU Wagner Graduate School of Public Service. He served in the Advisory Board of the National Hispanic Medical Association (NHMA) from 2000 to 2006. He is currently the NHMA's representative for the National Diabetes Education Program (NDEP), which is sponsored by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and the Centers for Disease Control (CDC).

In 2006 he was asked by the American Podiatric Medical Association (APMA) to become their spokesperson for their campaign "Descubras sus pies" which teaches Latinos how to prevent foot ailments that come as a result of diabetes. He was interviewed in TV and radio nationally as part of the campaign.

Dr. Torres is also an Associate at the not-for-profit Aesthetic Realism Foundation in New York City, where the education founded by the philosopher, poet and historian Eli Siegel is taught. He is co-author of Aesthetic Realism and the Answer to Racism (Orange Angle Press 2004) and a frequent speaker on topics including racism, the uninsured, and healthcare policy issues. Additionally, he has authored articles which have been printed across the United States in both Spanish and English, concerning ethics and the healthcare system, in which he discusses the central question in ethics as stated by Siegel: "What does a person deserve by being a person?"

Olveen Carrasquillo, MD, MPH — Vice President, Policy Director

Dr. Carrasquillo, co-founder of LNHI, is a Puerto Rican born physician who was raised in the Bronx. He graduated summa cum laude from the Sophie Davis School of Bio-Medical Education at City College, and subsequently obtained his MD degree from the New York University School of Medicine. He completed a three-year internal medicine residency at Columbia-Presbyterian Medical Center and then completed Harvard's two-year General Medicine Fellowship and obtained an MPH from the Harvard School of Public Health.

He was recently appointed as Chief of Division of General Internal Medicine at the University of Miami School of Medicine. Before that, he was in the faculty of Columbia University's College of Physicians and Surgeons as an Associate Professor of Medicine, Health Policy and Community Partnerships.

His areas of research include minority health, health disparities health insurance, and access to care. His research has been published in a variety of journals including the New England Journal of Medicine, Journal of the American Medical Association, and American Journal of Public Health. Dr. Carrasquillo is a former Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Generalist Faculty Scholar and is currently the Principal Investigator (PI) and director of the Columbia Center for the Health of Urban Minorities- a $6 million project funded by the National Center for Minority Health and Health Disparities. He was the PI of Columbia's HRSA funded Faculty Development in Primary Care General Medicine Fellowship Program and was director of the Community Liaison core of the Columbia Center for the Active Life of Minority Elders.

Dr. Carrasquillo is active in various organizations, including numerous current and past leadership roles in the Society of General Internal Medicine, Physicians for a National Health Program and the National Hispanic Medical Association. At Columbia he also serves on the Internal Medicine Residency Admissions Committee and is very active in minority recruitment.

Juan A. Figueroa — Vice President

Juan A. Figueroa joined the Universal Health Care Foundation of Connecticut, as its first president in 2003, assuming responsibility for all Foundation operations. The Foundation is a statewide organization with assets totaling more than $50 million.

Universal Health Care Foundation seeks to expand health coverage and serve as a catalyst for changes in health policies and the health care system in Connecticut. Prior to assuming the helm at the Foundation, Mr. Figueroa served as president and general counsel of the Puerto Rican Legal Defense and Education Fund in New York City (PRLDF).

During his nearly 10-year tenure at PRLDF, Mr. Figueroa saw the organization through significant changes including the doubling of its budget, the addition of a policy unit and expansion of the organization's work in Puerto Rico. He also served as an adviser to the Clinton Administration on affirmative action, judicial appointments and Latino public affairs.

In 1988, Mr. Figueroa was elected to the Connecticut General Assembly where he served as a state representative from Hartford's third district for two and a half terms. A former assistant attorney general for Connecticut, Mr. Figueroa has also served as a staff attorney for the Connecticut Commission on Human Rights and Opportunities.

Mr. Figueroa, a former columnist for the Hartford Courant, is a popular public speaker and frequent guest on public affairs programs, nationally and locally. He serves on the boards of Connecticut Council on Philanthropy, The Fairfield Community Foundation and on the Steering Committee of the Progresso Latino Fund.

Mr. Figueroa earned his law degree from Santa Clara University in California and has a B.A. from Macalester College in Minnesota. A native of Ciales, Puerto Rico, he also has an honorary doctorate degree from the City University of New York's Law School and has taught law at New York University Law School.

Annette B. Ramirez de Arellano, DrPH

Dr. Ramirez is a researcher with the Public Citizen Health Research Group in Washington, DC. She is a graduate of Mount Holyoke College (AB, political science), Yale University (city planning), the University of Puerto Rico (health planning), and the Mailman School of Public Health of Columbia University (DrPH, health policy). She has taught at the University of Puerto Rico and Hunter College, and worked with both government and community-based organizations in Puerto Rico and New York. She has published widely in the areas of health policy, women's health, Latino health, and the history of public health.

Walid Michelen, M.D. — Treasurer

Dr Michelen is Chief of Staff of GENERATION PLUS/NORTHERN MANHATTAN NETWORK, a network of healthcare facilities of the New York City's HEALTH AND HOSPITALS CORPORTION, which includes Harlem, Lincoln, Metropolitan Hospitals, Renaissance, Morrisania, Belvis Ambulatory Care. He obtained his medical degree from Cornell University Medical College, which was followed by a Residency Program in Social Medicine at Montefiore Hospital Medical Center. He is also the Chairman of the Board of Board of Alianza Dominica.