UAMS Resident Honored at 18th Annual LULAC Gala
| Cesar Hurtado, M.D., a third-year family medicine resident at the Northwest Regional Campus of the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences (UAMS), was recently honored at the 18th annual LULAC Education Fund Gala on Nov. 3 at The Chancellor Hotel in Fayetteville.
LULAC provides local Hispanic youths with educational opportunities through scholarships and education programs. To date, the local LULAC organization, known as LULAC Council 754, has awarded over 543 scholarships totaling more than $567,800.
Each year, the current scholarship recipients are invited to attend the gala and meet the community that is supporting their education efforts.
“When choosing someone to recognize at our annual gala, we want to ensure it is someone our scholarship recipients can relate to,” said Sheyla Mireles, key coordinator at LULAC. “Many of our recipients are facing financial struggles and still continue to pursue a higher education, very much like Dr. Hurtado experienced in his past.”
Hurtado was born in Mexico and moved to the U.S. at the age of 9. He graduated from Rogers High School and has an associate degree in paramedic science from Northwest Arkansas Community College (NWACC) and a bachelor’s degree in biology from the University of Arkansas at Fayetteville. He graduated medical school from Ross University School of Medicine before becoming a UAMS resident. He also worked as a paramedic for Central EMS in Fayetteville for eight years and as a paramedic field evaluator at NWACC for four years.
“Cesar has persevered in realizing the American Dream,” said Linda McGhee, M.D., family medicine residency director at the UAMS Northwest Regional Campus. “He will be a valuable asset to the people of northwest Arkansas.”
“We identified Dr. Hurtado as one of the best examples of somebody who has worked his way up from the bottom and has been successful in achieving his goals,” Mireles said. “We believe our recipients will benefit greatly from hearing about Dr. Hurtado’s work both past and present with the goal of inspiring them to continue pursuing higher education even during hard times.”
LULAC Council 754 was founded in 2001 by a group of professional Latinos in NWA who were concerned about the absence of an effective voice for Latinos in the area of education and economic opportunity.
UAMS is the state’s only health sciences university, with colleges of Medicine, Nursing, Pharmacy, Health Professions and Public Health; a graduate school; a hospital; a main campus in Little Rock; a Northwest Arkansas regional campus in Fayetteville; a statewide network of regional campuses; and eight institutes: the Winthrop P. Rockefeller Cancer Institute, Jackson T. Stephens Spine & Neurosciences Institute, Harvey & Bernice Jones Eye Institute, Psychiatric Research Institute, Donald W. Reynolds Institute on Aging, Translational Research Institute, Institute for Digital Health & Innovation and the Institute for Community Health Innovation. UAMS includes UAMS Health, a statewide health system that encompasses all of UAMS’ clinical enterprise. UAMS is the only adult Level 1 trauma center in the state. UAMS has 3,485 students, 915 medical residents and fellows, and seven dental residents. It is the state’s largest public employer with more than 11,000 employees, including 1,200 physicians who provide care to patients at UAMS, its regional campuses, Arkansas Children’s, the VA Medical Center and Baptist Health. Visit www.uams.edu or uamshealth.com. Find us on Facebook, X (formerly Twitter), YouTube or Instagram.###