Dr. Manuel Roberto Calderon Pinzon, physician and public health leader, recognized as distinguished alum by UCLA Fielding School of Public Health

Dr. Manuel Roberto Calderon Pinzon, a public health leader with more than 30 years of service across more than 20 countries, has been inducted into the UCLA Fielding School of Public Health’s “Alumni Hall of Fame” for 2025.

“Public health took me across more than 33 nations, serving with international organizations, NGOs, and the World Health Organization in Central America and the Caribbean,” said Calderon Pinzon, who earned his master of public health (MPH) from UCLA Fielding in 1984. “But beyond titles and borders, what I treasure most are the thousands of lives touched—the children, mothers, families, and communities whose health and dignity were strengthened through programs created with compassion, innovation, and hope. Serving vulnerable and marginalized populations has been the honor of my life.”

In December, seven distinguished graduates of UCLA Fielding were recognized for their work since graduation as having a major impact on public health, in Los Angeles and globally. Calderon Pinzon’s career includes service as vice minister of public health in Guatemala and as a senior advisor for HIV/AIDS in Central America and the Caribbean for the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) and World Health Organization (WHO).

Those elements of his work were cited by his brother, Dr. Mario Ricardo Calderon (MPH ’84 and a 2015 Hall of Fame inductee), who nominated Calderon Pinzon for the honor, explaining that his brother’s service as a public health official in Guatemala ended because he refused to turn a blind eye to financial corruption.

“He was pushed to authorize a $6 million payment for vaccines that had never been purchased. Most professionals - under that level of pressure - would yield. Roberto did not,” Calderon said. “Integrity has a cost, but it also builds a legacy. What Roberto teaches us is this: public health is not only a scientific discipline. It is an ethical discipline; a leadership discipline; and a courageous discipline.”

Calderon Pinzon earned a doctor of medicine (MD) from the University of San Carlos in Guatemala, before his MPH from UCLA Fielding in 1984. The latest honorees join a list of more than 90 UCLA Fielding School of Public Health alum, ranging from the classes of 1963 to 2019. Nominees are considered by a committee made up of the UCLA Fielding Public Health Alumni Association Board and serving faculty members.

That legacy, of all UCLA Fielding Hall of Fame inductees, is key to the enduring impact of the school on public health around the globe, said Dr. Ron Brookmeyer, dean of the UCLA Fielding School of Public Health and a distinguished professor of biostatistics.

“We are living in a time of unprecedented challenges and uncertainties for universities and for public health, and organizations like the Public Health Alumni Association are more important now than ever,” Brookmeyer said. “Whether your career is well-established or if you’re just starting out - your presence here today strengthens our collective resolve to improve public health in Los Angeles, in California, and beyond."