NOVELLO, ANTONIA

born Aug. 23, 1944, Fajardo, Puerto Rico ne Antonia Coello physician and public official, the first woman and the first Hispanic to serve as surgeon general of the United States. Antonia Coello suffered from a painful colon condition from birth until she underwent corrective surgery at age 18. This experience influenced her to train as a physician in order to help minimize suffering in others. After completing both her undergraduate work (1965) and her medical training (1970) at the University of Puerto Rico, she married Joseph R. Novello, then a navy flight surgeon and later a psychiatrist, author, and medical journalist. The couple moved to Ann Arbor, Michigan, where she did her internship and residency in pediatrics, followed by a fellowship in pediatric nephrology, at the University of Michigan Medical Center. She then completed a fellowship at Georgetown University Hospital in 197475 (and later joined the teaching staff) and earned a master's degree in public health from Johns Hopkins University in 1982. Novello joined the staff of the National Institutes of Health in 1978, rising to the deputy directorship of the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development in 1986. In 1982 and 1983 she also served as a congressional fellow on the staff of the Labor and Human Resources Committee, advising the legislators on bills dealing with such health issues as organ transplants and cigarette warning labels. In 1990 President George Bush appointed her surgeon general of the United States. As head of the Public Health Service, she promoted an antismoking campaign and improved AIDS education and worked for better health care for minorities, women, and children. She left the post of surgeon general in 1993 and became a representative for the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF), where she continued to address children's health issues.