Venus Ginés is a 27-year breast cancer survivor who survived cancer for the second time in 2017 after 25 years of survivorship. Venus retired last year as a faculty member at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, Texas, having taught cultural competence and health literacy as well as conducted research on Latino medical mistrust.

From her personal experience with cancer and her sister’s untimely death from cervical cancer 9 months after diagnosis, Venus founded Día de la Mujer Latina (DML), Inc., in 1997, as a national non-profit organization that celebrates its signature Health Fiestas in 40 states, Puerto Rico, and the Dominican Republic provides the medically underserved Latina community with culturally and linguistically proficient health education and early detection screening for chronic diseases provides culturally tailored preventive programs for Latino teens and patient-centered navigation

Venus has also trained 3,312 Promotores/Community Health Workers (P/CHWs) in Texas alone and is a State-Certified Instructor of P/CHWs, with DML being the first approved bilingual Texas State-Sponsored Certification Training Program. She chaired the Department of Health and Human Services National Promotores Initiative and has conducted P/CHW training for City of Houston employees and Austin’s Paramedics and, more recently, for employees of a federally qualified health center. Venus has trained many Promotores nationwide and in Latin America on key core competencies as they relate to underserved and underinsured communities. She develops bilingual training curriculum on subject matters that affect Latinas disproportionately such as Dispelling Myths and Rumors about Women’s Cancers, STDs, and Patient-Centered Care. The Autonomous University of Baja California Sur in Mexico will use Venus’ Promotores Curriculum as part of its 2019 Fall Training Program under Public Health.