Sister’s death put Latino student leader on path to family medicine

“That’s what I want to do anyway, so it was a good fit for me,” said Cortez, a National Health Service Corps scholar and fourth-year student at Augusta University’s Medical College of Georgia. “I want to be a doctor who can be a useful asset for Hispanic and Latino patients. I want to be able to utilize Spanish on a daily basis and advocate for my patients’ needs when they might not be able to do it themselves. I want to let my patients feel they are being heard and help those who have traditionally been put to the side.”

The son of Mexican immigrants, Cortez was in high school when his 8-month-old sister died of complications related to Edwards’ syndrome.

“That experience opened my eyes,” he said. “I saw my parents going through that, dealing with disparities in care and access to care. That drew me into medicine. I wanted to be an individual who could bridge that gap.”

After graduating from Dalton State College with a biology degree, Cortez spent two years working as a medical scribe for Kelly Rodney Arnold, MD, at Clinica Médicos. That family medicine practice in Chattanooga, Tennessee, is open every day, and offers patients of any insurance status a wide range of services, including procedures, labs and imaging, at a fraction of the market price.

After that experience, Cortez entered medical school knowing he wanted to be a family physician.

“I really enjoyed the doctors I worked with,” he said. “I saw the relationships they had with patients, and I really enjoyed that aspect of family medicine. I saw a wide array of medical problems. As a family physician, I can be very useful to my community and take care of anyone’s problems.”

Cortez serves as the AAFP’s student liaison to the Latino Medical Student Association (LMSA). In that role, his responsibilities include strengthening collaboration between the Academy and LMSA and contributing to planning FUTURE. 

Earlier this month, he participated in a panel discussion about family medicine at the LMSA National Conference in Chicago.

“I’ve connected with other student leaders who are passionate about family medicine,” said Cortez, who has held multiple leadership roles within LMSA and is co-chair of the organization’s 2026 Southeast Regional Conference. “I put myself in a space where I can grow my interest in family medicine. I like that when I meet other Latinos interested in family medicine, I can share resources and get them excited and help them grow into leadership as well.”

It’s a packed academic year for Cortez, who is on schedule to graduate next spring with a medical degree and a master’s degree in public health and is participating in the National Resident Matching Program.

“I hope to train somewhere that will prepare me to treat a broad variety of things and help me grow,” he said. “I’m getting my master’s degree because I want to help not only my patients but also be involved in the community outside of my practice.”