FIU doctor honored as one of South Florida’s most influential business women

Dr. Yolangel “Yogi” Hernandez Suarez, associate dean for Graduate Medical Education at the Herbert Wertheim College of Medicine, has been honored by the South Florida Business Journal as one of South Florida’s most Influential Business Women of 2012.

Dr. Hernandez Suarez poses with her award.

SFBJ picks 25 women each year for the honor. The “fabulous females,” as the journal calls them, include executives from FedEx, AutoNation, Holland & Knight LLP, and FPL. “Those chosen as this year’s honorees have gone above and beyond in achieving for our community and for their companies,” say SFBJ editors.

Hernandez Suarez, who is also the chief medical officer of the FIU HealthCare Network, and associate professor of obstetrics and gynecology, has spent a career building bridges between academia and the community to create value for patients and students alike. Born and raised in New York City, she attended Swarthmore College and the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. She trained in obstetrics and gynecology at the University of Iowa Hospital and Clinics. And then, mid-life, she earned a master’s in business administration (with specialization in health administration and policy) at the University of Miami School of Business.

Asked by the SFBJ to identify her role model as an influential businesswoman, Hernandez Suarez said she always looked up to her mother, who left Cuba as a teen to attend college in the United States, was a secretary in the New York City headquarters of the United Presbyterian Church and retired as the senior executive of Women’s Mission.

“She was, and is, an unstoppable force for social justice for women,” Hernandez Suarez said. “She told me I could achieve anything with the right education and perseverance, and that it was my responsibility to ‘leave the planet better than I found it’. That passionate drive has been the foundation of my professional career.”