Ralph A. Alvarado (born April 30, 1970) is an American physician and politician and is currently serving as the 15th Commissioner of the Tennessee Department of Health. He served as a member of the Kentucky Senate representing the 28th District from 2015 to 2023. Upon taking office, he became the first Hispanic person elected to the

Kentucky General Assembly The Kentucky General Assembly, also called the Kentucky Legislature, is the state legislature of the U.S. state of Kentucky. It comprises the Kentucky Senate and the Kentucky House of Representatives. The General Assembly meets annually in ...

. His father is from Costa Rica and his mother is from

Argentina Argentina (), officially the Argentine Republic ( es, link=no, República Argentina), is a country in the southern half of South America. Argentina covers an area of , making it the second-largest country in South America after Brazil, th ...

. He assumed office on January 1, 2015, serving until January 6, 2023, when he would resign to accept the role of commissioner. Alvarado was born in

San Francisco, California San Francisco (; Spanish for " Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the fourth most populous in California and 17th ...

and raised in Pacifica and

San Jose, California San Jose, officially San José (; ; ), is a major city in the U.S. state of California that is the cultural, financial, and political center of Silicon Valley and largest city in Northern California by both population and area. With a 2020 popu ...

. He graduated from Bellarmine College Preparatory in San Jose in 1988. He graduated from Loma Linda University in California in 1990 with a

Bachelor of Science A Bachelor of Science (BS, BSc, SB, or ScB; from the Latin ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for programs that generally last three to five years. The first university to admit a student to the degree of Bachelor of Science was the University o ...

degree in biology and completed an MD from the same university in 1994. He completed his

residency Residency may refer to: * Domicile (law), the act of establishing or maintaining a residence in a given place ** Permanent residency, indefinite residence within a country despite not having citizenship * Residency (medicine), a stage of postgra ...

at the University of Kentucky Chandler Medical Center. He spoke at the 2016 Republican National Convention. He sponsored a 2017 medical malpractice bill that was later struck down by the

Kentucky Supreme Court The Kentucky Supreme Court was created by a 1975 constitutional amendment and is the state supreme court of the U.S. state of Kentucky. Prior to that the Kentucky Court of Appeals was the only appellate court in Kentucky. The Kentucky Court of ...

for obstructing access to the courts. Alvarado was chosen by Governor Matt Bevin to be his running mate in the 2019 Kentucky gubernatorial election. The Bevin-Alvarado ticket lost the general election on November 5, 2019, to the Democratic ticket of

Andy Beshear Andrew Graham Beshear (born November 29, 1977) is an American attorney and politician who has served as the 63rd governor of Kentucky since December 2019. A member of the Democratic Party, he is the son of the 61st governor of Kentucky, Steve B ...

and

Jacqueline Coleman Jacqueline Coleman (born June 9, 1982) is an American educator and politician serving as the 58th lieutenant governor of Kentucky since 2019. She has worked as an administrator, high school teacher, and high school basketball coach. Coleman is a ...

. On November 22, 2022, Tennessee Governor Bill Lee announced that he had appointed Alvarado commissioner of the Tennessee Department of Health. Alvarado would resign from the Kentucky Senate on January 6, 2023, and become the 15th Commissioner of the Tennessee Department of Health on January 16, 2023. A special election will be held on May 16, 2023, to fill the 28th Senate District vacancy created by Alvarado's resignation.

References

External links

Profile at the Kentucky Senate website
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Alvarado, Ralph 1970 births 21st-century American politicians American people of Argentine descent American people of Costa Rican descent American politicians of Costa Rican descent Hispanic and Latino American state legislators Republican Party Kentucky state senators Living people Loma Linda University alumni People from Pacifica, California Politicians from San Francisco People from San Jose, California People from Winchester, Kentucky Physicians from Kentucky