On March 9, 1990, Antonia Novello was sworn in as Surgeon General of the United States. Novello was the first woman and the first Hispanic to serve as Surgeon General. The Surgeon General is the head of the Public Health Service Commissioned Corps, and the government’s leading spokesperson on matters of public health. The Surgeon General is nominated by the President, and must be confirmed by a vote in the Senate.

Novello’s career in health services was lengthy and varied. She worked for the National Institutes of Health in the National Institute of Arthritis, Metabolism and Digestive Diseases division. She was later the Deputy Director of the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD), where she focused on pediatric AIDS. This focus was what caught the attention of the White House.

Novello was appointed Surgeon General by President George Bush and began her tenure on March 9, 1990. Novello focused her attention on the health of women, children, and minorities. Most of her attention was on the youth of the country. She worked to promote immunization of children, spoke out strongly against underage drinking, repeatedly rebuked the tobacco industry for their attempts to appeal to children, and worked to fight childhood AIDS. Novello left the office of Surgeon General in 1993 under the administration of President Bill Clinton. She served as Commissioner of Health for the State of New York from 1999 to 2006.

Novello’s career ended much worse than it began. In 2009, Novello was charged in a 20-count indictment with theft of government services, defrauding the government, and filing a false instrument (i.e. knowingly presenting a false document to be filed with a government agency). However, Novello is still remembered for the work she did for children and the doors she opened for women and Hispanics.