I met Dr. Resa a dozen years ago at a National Speakers Association event for authors and speakers who were seeking to learn how to pitch their story to national news media. I was the national television news member on a panel of media types providing insight and coaching to the group. Dr. Resa was in the audience at the event. Each member of the panel gave a short talk, followed by a Q&A. During my Q&A time Dr. Resa asked me to critique his pitch headline, “My Journey from Farmworker Boy to Pediatrician”.
I’ve covered hundreds of news stories touching on a wide variety of issues during the many years I spent working in national TV news. None of this prepared me for hearing what Dr. Resa had to overcome. How could any child agriculture worker, let alone an abandoned one, become a doctor? As he told me more about his journey, I realized his was a story that must to be told to the widest audience possible. It’s a truly inspiring story of overcoming extreme hardship. It shines a spotlight on the flawed metrics our society uses (which influences all of us) to predict who will and will not be successful in life. It’s beyond timely at this moment in our world because it can change the narrative about Hispanic and Latinos and migrant laborers especially. We are finding this his story is one among many in the Latino community. We’ve met and continue to meet others with a similar background have gone on to contribute to our world (see high profile appearances).
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