SACRAMENTO, Calif. (KERO) — California Governor Gavin Newsom appointed Dr Diana Ramos to the role of California Surgeon General on Thursday, August 25. The position was open following the resignation of California's first appointed Surgeon General, Nadine Burke Harris, earlier this year.
“California’s Surgeon General has a pivotal role in driving focused solutions to tackle the root causes of our most pressing health challenges and inequities,” said Newsom in a press release. “Dr. Ramos is a distinguished leader in medicine and a trusted public health expert who brings a lifetime of experience protecting and promoting the health of vulnerable communities. I look forward to her partnership in advancing urgent priorities for the state on women’s health, mental health, addressing the gun violence epidemic, and more as we continue our work to lift up the health and well-being of all Californians.”
Ramos, 55, is the Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Gami-Fi Health and currently sits on multiple boards in various roles. She is the Secretary of the National Hispanic Medical Association Executive Board, Co-Chair of the Women’s Preventive Services Initiative Implementation Committee and the American Medical Association's ACOG Delegation, Chair of the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists District IX, and an Executive Board Member of the California Maternal Care Quality Collaborative. She also is currently serving as a Public Health Administrator at the California Department of Public Health’s Center for Healthy Communities, an Adjunct Assistant Clinical Professor at the University of Southern California Keck School of Medicine, and a Per Diem Physician at Kaiser Permanente.
Previously, Ramos served as Director of Reproductive Health at the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health’s Maternal, Child and Adolescent Health Division. She also was Senior Regional Medical Research Specialist at Pfizer Inc., a Staff Obstetrician at Clinica Humanitaria, a Public Health Medical Officer at the California Department of Public Health, and the Chief Medical Officer at Alpha Medical Center Inc..
The role of the Surgeon General in California was established by Newsom in 2019 as part of his "California for All" plan. “No state has more at stake on the issue of health care. California must lead,” said Newsom in 2019. “We will use our market power and our moral power to demand fairer prices for prescription drugs. And we will continue to move closer to ensuring health care for every Californian.”
