About Us

The National Hispanic Health Foundation (NHHF) (501c3) was established in 1994 in Washington, DC, by Elena Rios, MD, MSPH, MACP, and a core group of physicians who met at the White House Health Care Reform Task Force meetings. The mission of the Foundation is to transform the health care system through leadership, educational, and research to improve the health of Hispanics. In 2003, with the support from a Congressional Earmark of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus, Senator Arlen Specter and Congressman Regula, Rios developed the National Hispanic Health Professional Leadership Network (HHPLN) and the HispanicHealth.info to educate our networks. In 2005, NHHF became affiliated with and located at the Robert F. Wagner Graduate School of Public Service, New York University, and then moved to the New York Academy of Medicine. Recently, NHHF moved its office to Washington, DC. The same group of physicians established the National Hispanic Medical Association to bring Hispanic physicians and medical students together to develop health communications with its partners.

NHHF Leadership Fellowship for mid-career physicians was started in 2012 and currently has support from Centene/Health Net for California physicians. NHHF is expanding the program to be national soon to continue to place leaders at top decision-making positions in the public and private sectors. 

NHHF education activities include its interdisciplinary focus on Scholarships for Hispanic health professional students with our partner sister national organizations as well as health communications campaigns for a diverse Public Health workforce and culturally relevant social media information about Hispanics and health issues such as obesity, cholesterol, smoking, environmental justice, vaccines and more. 

In 2021, NHHF, with its Corporate Advisory Board, developed the National Center for Hispanic Health Research and started a Diversity in Clinical Research Symposia at the NHMA Conferences in March 2022-24 and a Webinar Series that continues with support from Johnson & Johnson, Amgen & EQBMED. We plan to expand to a Research Mentoring program for Latino medical students interested in clinical research for Latinos this year. We work with our partners to expand our efforts to improve the health of Latinos across the nation.