HAZLETON, Pa. — Dr. Tammy Torres recalls growing up in Brooklyn, New York, surrounded by her Puerto Rican family. Torres' mother migrated to the United States in the late 1940s, during the Great Migration, when the largest wave of Puerto Ricans came to the country in search of work.
Her mother was one of 12 siblings. While many returned to the island, her parents decided to stay.
"While it was difficult, they did manage to get themselves established. There was a better life in New York for us," said Torres.
Torres says her mother always emphasized the importance of education, sparking her goal of attending nursing school. She says she committed to it when she was only 14 years old.
"That was a pivotal point for me. So my mother developed cancer early on, and so they discovered that she had stage four cancer, cervical cancer," Torres recalled.
Torres served as her mother's primary translator during her fight with cancer. This was when she realized she needed to understand everything she was being told, drawing her interest in medicine. The life-saving care her mother received inspired her to help others in the same way.
Starting as a bedside nurse and working her way up, Torres realized she did not fit the leadership mold at the time. She says she knew she would have to work ten times harder than her peers to achieve her goals.
After years of hard work and dedication, she is now Dr. Tammy Torres, President of the Lehigh Valley Health Network Hazleton campus, a position not historically held by Latina women.
"So, I knew in order to become a CEO and a president, I had to make it impossible for someone to turn me down," Torres said.
Torres excelled in her nursing career at Long Island University and later received her Doctor of Nursing Practice from Drexel University. She made sure to check off all the boxes to make it difficult for anyone to stand in the way of her ambitions.
Torres says she knew that, with a leadership position, she could directly impact a larger community, specifically the Hispanic community and the wider community that she is so fond of in the city of Hazleton.
Now, she's working to inspire the next generation of healthcare leaders. She reminds every Latina like her to work for their dreams and make it impossible for someone to tell them no.
"Follow your dreams. Yeah, just keep on it because it will come to fruition. You just have to be dedicated and focused to get there. There's no roadblock any of us can't overcome."