When Jorge A. Ramallo, MD ’14, MPH ’14, began his studies at Yale School of Medicine (YSM) in 2009, the career focus he would choose, LGBTQ+ health care, did not yet exist as an established area of practice. In the absence of formal training opportunities, Ramallo created his own program.
“I had to do a deep dive into the literature, find mentorship, and create my own path in many respects, to be able to become an expert in this field and contribute to its advancement.”
Since then, numerous fellowships and other training opportunities have been created, and Ramallo has gone on to become a leader locally and nationally. In 2022, he established the first LGBTQ+ primary care practice in Northern Virginia. Later this year, he will become the president of GLMA: Health Professionals Advancing LGBTQ+ Equality, the world’s largest and oldest association of LGBTQ+ doctors, nurses, and other clinicians.
Preparation for leadership
After graduating from Yale in 2014 with degrees in medicine and public health, Ramallo completed his residency in internal medicine and pediatrics at the University of Illinois - Chicago. In 2019, he entered the HIV Clinician Scholars Program at the Midwest AIDS Education Center in Chicago. He then served as a physician and HIV medical director at the Sixteenth Street Community Health Centers in Milwaukee - the largest community health center in the state
In 2022, Ramallo became the inaugural medical director of the Inova Pride Clinic in Falls Church, Va., which has grown quickly and now provides care to approximately 3,000 patients. The clinic has five physicians, two of whom are full-time, along with nurses, medical assistants, mental health clinicians, and a clinical pharmacologist.
Ramallo says that bias against LGBTQ+ patients leads some to avoid doctor visits and neglect their health. “By creating a dedicated medical home, we can help encourage members of this community to get the care they need,” he said when the clinic was announced. The clinic provides a full range of primary care services, including preventive care, health screenings, and chronic disease management.
New alumni role
Ramallo, 40, has also taken on a leadership role in alumni matters at YSM. Elected last June to a two-year term on the AYAM Executive Committee, he has been active in engaging with prospective students, in particular the alumni panel at Second Look Weekend in 2024 and alumni meetups with prospective students in the greater Washington, D.C., area in 2025. He joined the AYAM committee in part because of his interest in understanding how the school’s century-old educational philosophy, the Yale System, is manifested in the current era. “It’s one of the traditions where alumni can help to ensure that although things continue to evolve and change, the core mission and values of the school continue to be the same.” Ramallo served as president of the Class of 2014.
He credits the Yale System and its tradition of self-directed learning for making his own career possible. “I thought it was intimidating at first because I was used to a lot of structure. I had never been exposed to a system in which you were responsible for your own learning in many respects, and which provided so many resources to do whatever it is you want to do with it.” While a medical student, he was able to study health policy in-depth, earning an MPH degree at the School of Public Health. There he met his future husband, Israel M. Labao, MD, MPH ’14, a psychiatrist who also practices in the million-member Inova system.
At Yale, he found mentors like health policy expert Howard Forman, MD, MBA, a radiologist, and Michael O’Brien, MD, PhD, a surgeon and anatomy professor, both of whom demonstrated that as an openly gay physician and faculty member “you could be confident, be yourself, thrive, and be successful.” Ramallo’s thesis project with advisor Trace Kershaw, PhD, department chair and Susan Dwight Bliss Professor of Public Health, explored the development of intervention programs aimed at increasing HIV testing rates among men who have sex with men using then-new social networking technologies such as Facebook and Twitter.
An optimist with drive
Ramallo’s journey to Yale and his current life started in Bolivia, where he lived until the age of 14. His family emigrated to the United States and settled in Springfield, Va. He spoke no English but quickly learned. “It required very rapid thinking, building up skills, and catching up on classes if you wanted to graduate on time, finish high school, and apply for college.” Four years after arriving in the U.S., he began his undergraduate studies in public health at George Washington University.
The family’s relocation to America was an abrupt transition but one that shaped him— “having to have that drive for self-determination, to be like ‘No, I’m not going to let this get in my way. I will achieve this goal.’”
And that attitude ultimately has been passed on to his patients. “When we’re having those difficult conversations, when coverage is denied for hormone treatments or surgery, when Medicare is no longer covering telemedicine and they have no transportation, I remind them that our community has gone through many struggles, not that long ago, and despite it all, we persevered and were able to get through it together. This, too, shall pass.”
Ramallo feels that the best use of his energy is in creating a space where patients can receive excellent primary care in an affirming environment. And he says, he can’t help being an optimist.
“I have to be optimistic because being a pessimist is not really a choice right now,” he says. “We can’t just flounder and let things happen.”