Dr. Ramon Resa, M.D. Biography

Growing up as a farmworker in a family of 15, RAMON RESA never imagined he could become a doctor. Abandoned by his single mother, who had 5 kids before she was 20, he grew up in an environment of severe poverty, neglect, and a total disregard for education. At the age of 3, he was picking cotton in the fields of central California.

It was Ramon’s elementary-school teachers who opened his eyes to the idea of education and awakened in him the dream of going to college and becoming a doctor.

It wasn’t easy. He had to overcome low self-esteem, a speech impediment, recurring depressing, prejudice, discouragement, and even opposition from his grandparents, who wanted him to get a factory job and pay them back for taking him in when no one else wanted him.

But Ramon persisted and eventually fulfilled his dream. For the past 20 years, he’s been in private practice in the same California farm region where he grew up. “I see myself in my of my young patients who come from farm-worker families as I did,” he says, “and my mission is to be a role model who cares for their minds and spirits as well as their bodies.”

Ramon is in demand as a public speaker. His presentations inspire, encourage, and educate everyone who has ever hoped for a better life -- and will show them how to achieve it and inspire others as well.

Ramon and his wife, Debbie, have two college-educated children. His son has just enrolled for medical school after graduating from Stanford.