Paul
Ramos
(1941-2000)
Who was he?
A staunch advocate of affordable health care and social justice. As founder and Executive Director of Betances Health Center, Paul worked tirelessly on behalf of the people of the Lower East Side - and beyond - to meet the desperate need for accessible quality health care and social services. Paul founded Betances in 1970, and initially ran the agency out of a makeshift office above a pickle factory, delivering health services from a mobile medical unit. Largely through Paul's determination and hard work, Betances found a permanent home on Henry Street in the Lower East Side, one of New York City's most diverse immigrant communities, where it has become one of the leading comprehensive primary care facilities serving poor and low income community members. Paul guided Betances' accomplishments and status as an early provider of "culturally competent, holistic" care long before the terms became buzzwords over the center's four decade history. Over the center's three decade history, many came to see Paul as a modern day incarnation of the agency's namesake, Ramon Emeterio Betances, a 19th century Puerto Rican physician and poet known as the "Father of the Poor", who received a medical degree in Europe and then returned to Puerto Rico to found a hospital, defend the island against a cholera epidemic,
PRIMARY CARE PROVIDERS
Bina Berkovich
Craig Metroka
Dennis Peng
Maria Cellario
Diane Rhoden
Ania Atioubelli
SPECIALISTS
BOARD OF DIRECTORS
Patrick Perkins
Arturo O'Farrill
David Garza
Brian Jones
Pamela Roberts
Betty Nadby
Rita Pabon
Mildred Zeno
Linda Harrison
Michael Hall
Thai Phong
Jane Draimin
Renata Shiloah
Elmer Castro
Sandy Luo
Santos Rivera
Efrain Candelaria
This health center receives HHS funding and has Federal Public Health Service (PHS) deemed status with respect to certain health or health-related claims, including medical malpractice claims, for itself and its covered individuals.
For more information, see http://www.bphc.hrsa.gov/ftca