What is Antonia Novello?
{{BLP unsourced|date=October 2012}} {{Infobox officeholder | name = Antonia Novello | image = VADM Antonia Novello.jpg | order = 14th | title = [[Surgeon General of the United States]] | term_start = March 9, 1990 | term_end = June 30, 1993 | president = [[George H. W. Bush]]<br/>[[Bill Clinton]] | predecessor = [[James O. Mason]] | successor = [[Robert A. Whitney]] | birth_date = {{birth date and age|1944|8|23}} | birth_place = [[Fajardo, Puerto Rico]] }} '''Antonia Coello Novello''', M.D., (born August 23, 1944) is a [[Puerto Rican]] [[physician]] and [[public health]] administrator. She was a vice admiral in the Public Health Service Commissioned Corps and served as fourteenth [[Surgeon General of the United States]] from 1990 to 1993. Novello is the first woman and first [[Hispanic people|Hispanic]] to serve as Surgeon General. Novello was married to former U.S. Navy flight surgeon and psychiatrist, Joseph R. Novello. ==Career== Novello served as Commissioner of Health for the [[New York (state)|State of New York]] from 1999 to 2006. ===Public Health Service=== In 1979, Novello joined the Public Health Service. Her first assignment was as a project officer at the [[National Institute of Arthritis, Metabolism and Digestive Diseases]] of the [[National Institutes of Health]] (NIH). From 1976, she was a [[pediatric]] (doctor for children) at [[Georgetown University]] Hospital. During her years at NIH, Novello worked on a Masters of Physical Health degree from the [[Johns Hopkins School of Hygiene and Public Health]]. She finished her degree in 1982. In 1986, Novello became the Assistant Surgeon General grade in the PHSCC and the Deputy Director of the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD). In this role, she became interested in children with [[AIDS]]. Novello was a big help in the planning of the Organ Transplantation Procurement Act of 1984. She did this when she was working at the [[United States Senate]] Committee on Labor and [[Human resourc