Maria Gomez

Maria Gomez, founder/CEO, Mary’s Center for Maternal and Child Care, Washington, D.C. immigrated to Washington, D.C. from Colombia with her mother at age 13. As she trained to become a nurse, she was inspired to seek innovative ways to deliver culturally appropriate primary care services and to give back to her community. The result is Mary’s Center, established in 1988 as a health center to provide prenatal and postpartum care primarily for Latino women in Ward 1. Through Maria’s tireless, committed dedication, Mary’s Center now provides health, educational, and social services to families across the D.C. metropolitan area with linguistic, social and economic needs that would otherwise go unmet. Mary’s Center has two full-service centers in the District of Columbia and one in Maryland, in addition to a mobile health unit. Its annual budget has grown to $19.8 million and serves more than 18,000 individuals a year.