Remembering Dr. Emma

	Dr. Emma, longtime mentor, trainer and physician

During 15 years with Socios En Salud, Emma Rubín de Celis Talavera juggled the roles of researcher, educator and social justice advocate. But she always held one distinct title for those around her: mentor.   

Known simply as Dr. Emma, the longtime director of projects for SES acted as both a friend and informal advisor to her colleagues, including SES founder Jaime Bayona. Dr. Emma died Thursday in Lima, just one day before the organization would celebrate 15 successful years of work bringing health to Lima’s poorest residents.

Throughout both her career and her time with SES, Emma focused her efforts on furthering social justice at a grassroots level, working with children and new mothers on issues of nutrition and education. Colleagues who saw Emma in action considered her to embody the ideals and goals professed by SES and Partners In Health.

As a consultant for the Panamerican Health Organization and a member of the Board of Directors of the World Health Organization’s Social and Economic Research Committee of Vector-Borne Diseases, she fought to break away from biomedical paradigms, seeking a deeper analysis of the social, economic, political and cultural aspects that surround and condition the existence of disease. 

With degrees from Catholic University of Peru, Catholic University of Louvain, Belgium and University of Nijmegen, Holland, Emma trained professionals, technicians and collaborators in the health field as an instructor at several universities and in the Department of Public Health.