Meet Connie Mariano, the White House Doctor!
by May T. Mediano
July 15, 2010
Eleanor “Connie” Mariano, the first Filipino-American to become a Rear Admiral in the US Navy, the first female director of the White House Medical Unit, as well as the first military woman appointed as the White House Physician has an impressive list of “firsts”.
Born in 1955, Connie Mariano travelled at the age of two to the United States with her family. Born to a father in the US Navy, she grew up in Hawaii and California. After graduating cum laude from the University of San Diego earning an undergraduate degree in Biology, she joined the US Navy in 1977 and earned her medical degree from the Uniformed Services University of Medicine in 1981. From reaching the rank of Rear Admiral in the navy, she rose to the position of White House physician providing medical service for two presidents, George H.W. Bush and Bill Clinton. Now retired from the navy in 2001, she is now with the Mayo Clinic of Scottsdale, Arizona and has founded the Center for Executive Medicine, a concierge medical service in North Scottsdale.
BBC attended the book launching of Dr. Connie Mariano in Glendale, CA. The book titled, “The White House Doctor,” My Patients were Presidents – a Memoir, is a book looking into the lives of the Presidents through the eyes of our very own, Filipino American doctor who served 9 years in the White House.
