María Isabel Rodríguez (born November 5, 1922) is a Salvadoran physician, academic, and government official. In 1956, she became one of the first group of four women to enter the Legislative Assembly. From 1999 to 2007, she was the rector of the

University of El Salvador The University of El Salvador (UES) is the oldest and the most prominent university institution in El Salvador. It serves as the national university of the country. The main campus, Ciudad Universitaria, is located in the capital of San Salvador ...

. She was appointed El Salvador's

Minister of Health A health minister is the member of a country's government typically responsible for protecting and promoting public health and providing welfare spending and other social security services. Some governments have separate ministers for mental heal ...

in 2009, a position she held until 2014. She is currently the Presidential Advisor on Health and Education.

Early life

Rodríguez was born in

San Salvador San Salvador () is the Capital city, capital and the largest city of El Salvador and its San Salvador Department, eponymous department. It is the country's largest agglomeration, serving as the country's political, cultural, educational and fin ...

, El Salvador, on November 5, 1922. She earned her medical degree from the

in 1949 (despite being warned by the dean against joining such a "man's profession"). She completed postgraduate degrees in cardiology and physiological sciences in Mexico. In 1954, she returned to her alma mater and began a career as cardiovascular physiologist and

biomedical Biomedicine (also referred to as Western medicine, mainstream medicine or conventional medicine)

researcher.

Political career

In May 1956, she was elected to the Legislative Assembly, one of the first four women to enter the Legislative Assembly. However, she resigned from the Legislative Assembly in January 1957. In 2009, she was appointed Minister of Health of El Salvador. Rodriguez has been credited for her role in establishing healthcare reform in that country. At the end of her term in 2014, she was named Presidential Advisor on Health and Education, working to achieve universal health coverage and universal high-quality education in her country.

Academic career

In 1967, she was appointed Dean of the Faculty of Medicine of the University of El Salvador, a position she held until 1971. She left El Salvador in 1972 after the university faced military intervention (part of the run-up to the

Salvadoran Civil War The Salvadoran Civil War () was a twelve-year civil war in El Salvador that was fought between the government of El Salvador, backed by the United States, and the Farabundo Martí National Liberation Front (FMLN), a coalition of left-wing guer ...

). From 1972 to 1994, Rodríguez worked as a consultant for the

Pan American Health Organization The Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) is a specialized agency of the United Nations (UN) in charge of international health cooperation in the Americas. It fosters technical cooperation among member countries to fight communicable and non ...

World Health Organization The World Health Organization (WHO) is a list of specialized agencies of the United Nations, specialized agency of the United Nations which coordinates responses to international public health issues and emergencies. It is headquartered in Gen ...

, supporting the Representative Office in developing teaching and research centres, as well as health and science programs, in Latin American countries, including Mexico, the Dominican Republic, and Venezuela. From 1985 to 1994, she worked as a consultant for the International Health Training Program, based in Washington, D.C. In 1994, Rodríguez returned to the University of El Salvador as an advisor and professor in the Faculty of Medicine. Over the course of her career, she authored over one hundred publications in the fields of biomedicine,

medical education Medical education is vocational education, education related to the practice of being a medical practitioner, including the initial training to become a physician (i.e., medical school and internship (medical), internship) and additional trainin ...

international health International health, also called ''geographic medicine'', '' international medicine'', or ''global health'', is a field of health care, usually with a public health emphasis, dealing with health across regional or national boundaries. One subset ...

primary health care Primary health care (PHC) is a whole-of-society approach to effectively organise and strengthen national health systems to bring services for health and wellbeing closer to communities. Primary health care enables health systems to support a pe ...

, and university policy. In 1999, she was elected rector of the university, a position she held until 2007. She was the first woman to hold this position.

Awards and honours

In 2015, the Pan American Health Organization/World Health Organization named her a Public Health Hero of the Americas, their highest distinction. She has been awarded honorary doctorates from at least 12 universities, including the

University of Guadalajara The University of Guadalajara () is a public university, public research university located in Guadalajara, Mexico. It was originally established in 1586 and officially founded on 12 February 1791 as the Royal and Pontifical University of Gu ...

and

Central American University Central American University may refer to: *Central American University, Managua *Central American University, San Salvador José Simeón Cañas Central American University (), also known as UCA El Salvador, is a private Catholic university with ...

. María Isabel Rodríguez was featured i
Shaping The World
an art exhibition of artistic photography by Theo Chalmers in which the Pan American Health Organizatio
presents artistic photos of public health leaders
who seized research for health to improve health and health equity. Her photo i
available here

Personal life

Rodríguez currently lives in San Salvador, El Salvador. She

turned 100 A centenarian is a person who has reached the age of 100. Because life expectancies at birth worldwide are well below 100, the term is invariably associated with longevity. The United Nations estimated that there were 316,600 living centenarian ...

in November 2022.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Rodríguez, María Isabel 1922 births Living people Salvadoran physicians People from San Salvador University of El Salvador alumni Academic staff of University of El Salvador Health ministers of El Salvador Women government ministers of El Salvador Members of the Legislative Assembly of El Salvador Revolutionary Party of Democratic Unification politicians 20th-century Salvadoran women politicians 20th-century Salvadoran politicians 21st-century Salvadoran women politicians 21st-century Salvadoran politicians Salvadoran women centenarians