Ramon Resa, MD

Dr. Ramon Resa is a father – and a pediatrician, keynote speaker, blogger, and author who speaks and writes from the heart about the most important concerns of parents today.

He’s passionate about helping families cope with children’s health issues, especially the early signs of later disease, such as obesity, diabetes, and heart disease, and the dangers to children and teens of stress-filled, over-programmed lifestyles.

At age 3, Ramon was put to work picking cotton and oranges in the fields of Central California. Today, he’s a successful pediatrician. After completing medical school, he returned to the same rural area where he grew up. There, for the past 20 years, he’s been treating poor and underserved children much like the child he was.

Ramon’s personal story of his journey from “farmworker boy to pediatrician,” as told in his forthcoming memoir, has inspired and informed parents and children, educators, teachers, counselors, medical professionals, and business groups across the country.

He’s living proof of how perseverance, resilience, hope, and education can give meaning to a life, and give life to our communities.

Find Ramon’s blog at http://ramonresamd.com/ and learn why “Education empowers you to fulfill your dreams – no matter what obstacles you face.”

WATCH RAMON'S KEYNOTE SPEAKING VIDEO

Purchase OUT OF THE FIELDS: My Journey from Farmworker Boy to Pediatrician

Abandoned by his single mother, who had 5 children before she turned 20, Ramon grew up in an environment of poverty, violence, physical and sexual abuse, alcoholism, and total disregard for education.

His often lonely and frustrating struggle began in elementary school, when his teachers awakened him to the dream of getting an education.

It wasn’t easy. Ramon had to face and overcome low self-esteem, a speech impediment, recurring depression, racism and prejudice, and counselors who tried to push him into wood-shop courses. Even his grandparents tried to kill his dream, insisting that he should get a factory job and pay them back for taking him in.

But Ramon triumphed, armed only with a stubborn belief in himself and the refusal to admit that the odds were stacked against him. After graduating from UC Santa Cruz, he attended UC Irvine Medical School, did his pediatric residency at UC San Francisco, and opened his private practice.

Ramon and his wife Debbie have two college-educated children, a daughter and a son.