AALOS Presidential Welcome

Greetings, and welcome to our American Association of Latino Orthopaedic Surgeons (AALOS) website.  I am Ronald Navarro, MD, and I have served as AALOS President since April 2024.  I am grateful for the AALOS Board’s belief in me, and I am truly energized for the moment in time we are in. I'd like to thank Dr.s Santos, Sierra and Herrera for their time on the board and welcome new members, Dr.s Payares, Silva & Quirarte as well as new medical student members, Francisco Narro Garcia and Ana Zepeda Gutierrez.

There are record numbers of orthopaedic residents of Latino descent, and the interest in orthopaedic surgery by Latino medical students is surging. In part, this is due to the support of AALOS and its programming.  I am deeply committed, as is our Board and non-physician executive team, to seizing this incredible growth moment we are in. While working to recruit more attending members as well as all potential resident members, we are asking our attending members to recommit to an overarching AALOS mission “to empower Latino orthopaedic surgeons and advance Latino musculoskeletal health.” Our vision is “a world where the Latino community moves without pain.” We spent time on a strategic planning weekend 2 years ago to build these foci and a work plan with goals that are now playing out as we originally envisioned.

We have been working hard in the last 3 years to make our external facing visibility more prominent, build on our medical student programs (Unidos and new Mentor/Mentee Program as well as our successful Pathway to Residency Program) and create more programs for orthopaedic residents (Avance now and Fuerza Resident Bootcamp soon). We are soon to develop programming for young attendings too (Acsenso). We have raised significant funds recently for both operational improvements and the aforementioned strategic plan that will enable us to forge ahead in the next years in a cohesive and deeply professional way, so that we can deliver for our next generations of Latino patients and physicians.

We have seen growth in membership and programs and vitally grants to help drive our growth. We have delivered on our first bylaws that help dictate our work as a professional organization and look forward to welcoming more of you into our association. We are delivering on our strategic plan too. We are building a committee structure too. Our time is now!!

We are also deeply committed to enhancing the value proposition of membership. Special thanks to the collective Board and our Staff as well as a number of deeply committed medical students & residents (you know who you are!), all of whom have been so supportive of our re-imagining of the future of AALOS. Let’s continue this vital growth - “Todos Juntos” or all together!