RAMON TALLAJ, M.D.
FOUNDER & CHAIRMAN
SOMOS COMMUNITY CARE
LIFETIME
ACHIEVEMENT
AWARD
Dr. Ramon Tallaj is the Founder and Chairman of SOMOS Community Care, a non for profit physician-led network
consisting of over 2,500 diverse community doctors dedicated to providing quality, preventative care to nearly 1
million New Yorkers. The organization focuses on outreach that includes low-income, immigrant communities of color
across New York City. Dr. Tallaj’s organization proved an even greater community resource in the depths of the
COVID19 crisis. SOMOS Community Care was responsible for the operation of over 70 trilingual COVID-19 testing
sites during the pandemic’s first wave when urban access to testing was nearly impossible.
Dr. Tallaj has led his SOMOS network throughout the darkest days of the pandemic by testing over 1 million people,
vaccinating over 1.46 million New Yorkers against COVID-19, and feeding over 2 million meals to food-insecure
neighbors in local churches, schools, public housing, and Yankee Stadium. Dr. Tallaj’s success in providing accessible
healthcare for immigrant communities of color during a period of extreme medical crisis can be attributed to his
foresight to create a national model for equitable healthcare that places linguistic and cultural competency first in the
poorest immigrant communities throughout the country.
Dr. Tallaj’s work includes numerous humanitarian missions over the course of his career, including a delegation of
bilingual SOMOS network physicians from New York to Puerto Rico in the immediate aftermath of Hurricane Maria.
Dr. Tallaj continues to promote, share and implement resources that provide quality preventive healthcare for those
in need.
A former health official, Dr. Tallaj hails from the Dominican Republic.