Dr. Herminia Palacio was appointed deputy mayor of Health and Human Services Tuesday. It's a major position that puts her in charge of a multi-billion dollar healthcare system and a social service network that serves some of the most vulnerable populations in the city. Palacio spent 10 years in Texas serving as the public health director for Harris county,which includes Houston, and did AIDS research in San Francisco.
But she began her life in the Bronx. Her father was a shoemaker and bus driver and her mother worked as a seamstress and later a token booth clerk. Her mother also suffered from mental illness and was twice evicted from her home. Palacio said her mother would often refuse encourage. These experiences inform how she’ll approach the city’s homeless crisis, or she told WNYC's All Things Considered Host Jami Floyd.“It’s not an academic exercise for me. Had I not been there,my mom would’ve been homeless for certain,” Palacio said. “So it really erased the line for me. There’s no such thing as 'those people.' I recognize that this is all us.”
Source: wnyc.org