Veterans’ Health Care Chief Makes National Top-25 List
By Travis E. Poling, San Antonio Express-News
Apr. 14–Jose Coronado, the longtime leader of veterans’ health care in South Texas, has been named one of the top 25 minority health care executives by a national medical publication.
Coronado is director of the South Texas Veterans Heath Care System, a regional entity formed in 1995. Previously, he was director of the Audie L. Murphy VA Hospital, which he still oversees.
Modern Healthcare magazine selected the executives for their leadership success, ability to bring about change in the industry, and their roles outside their organizations, such as being mentors to other minorities in the field.
“You can’t help but be flattered,” Coronado said of his selection.
He is the only South Texan on the list and one of five Hispanics. Three executives selected for the honor are Asian, and 17 are African-American.
Coronado also is chairman of the Veterans Affairs’ Graduate Healthcare Administration Training Program of residencies and fellowships at the VA.
A native of Benavides, a small town 77 miles from Corpus Christi, Coronado taught school after earning a master’s degree in public school administration and science. But a summer job at the VA hospital in Houston led to a career that has spanned 46 years.
He was the first Hispanic in the VA to be promoted to the level of associate director of a hospital. In 1975 he became director of the newly built Audie L. Murphy Hospital in San Antonio.
Hispanic health care executives are still few and far between because they have difficulty finding opportunities to rise above mid-level management and often seek careers in other industries, said George Zeppenfeldt-Cestero, president of the Association of Hispanic Healthcare Executives.
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