Vanessa Salas

I moved here from Venezuela in 2006 barely knowing English, and today I teach intro computer science at Cuesta College, I’m a mom of two crazy boys, a web developer, and board member of a nonprofit aimed at helping healthcare. Life changes quick!

Frankly, when my husband, Sam told me about the Osler Symposia my first reaction was terror. We had just decided to trim our social media and cut out any projects that seemed too time consuming or high risk in our lives, so we could focus on our boys and our business “Pre-R.” I also struggled to feel interested in making doctors happier in medicine. It seems like such a first world problem. In my home country, where most of my family remain, people are killing themselves for lack of food and medicines. Most would give anything to live here, let alone practice medicine.

But Sam has his ways and here I am. If my work helping the Osler Symposia can help bring good people together, who then build systems that make healthcare healthier, and that may even extend beyond the borders of US healthcare, then I’m all in!