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Gabriel Velez Offering help where it’s needed
To help prevent healthcare inequity from affecting communities, she �aunched one of the first �ovid� 19 testing sites at the start of the pandemic. She is currently serving on the city’s Racial Equity Rapid Response Team, and on the Illinois Latino Covid19 Initiative.
Vera has been with the hospital for almost 20 years. His attitude and can-do spirit are contagious. When the Covid-19 pandemic began, he took initiative to increase cleaning for all the transportation vehicles.
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Organization: Elite Welding Corp.
Gabriel Velez is president and owner of Elite Welding Corp., a mobile welding repair service. What makes the company different is that it’s one of very few companies offering mobile welding services to Chicago and Illinois.
He speaks in whatever language a patient wants, and he has been educating the community, promoting masks and other PPE, to keep people safe. When he heard that many people were facing food insecurity, exacerbated by the pandemic, he stepped helped deliver food to patients’ homes.
CARMEN
VERGARA
Chief Operations Officer
Welding is a craft in high demand, and Velez’s objective is to spread awareness as it continues to grow. He is excited with all that he and his team have accomplished, and the goal is to add more service vehicles to the area and train more dedicated individuals.
Esperanza Health Centers
With 10 years of experience in this field, he is proud to say Elite Welding is a family business for many years and generations to come.
Vergara is the chief operations officer at Esperanza, which operates four clinics on Chicago’s southwest side. She grew
Vergara-Rodriguez is a tripleboarded-certified physician in internal medicine , psychiatry and addiction medicine with more than 15 years’ experience as a multispecialty HIV provider in the Cook County Health System. She has a particular focus on Spanish-speaking groups, and she has led several social service grants to improve the health outcomes of underserved populations including Mexican immigrants, the LGBTQ population, people living with HIV, and people living with substance use disorder and/or mental illness.
