There’s a quote by Dr. Martin Luther King that especially resonates with Dr. Wilma Wooten, San Diego County’s health officer.
“Dr. King once said that of all the forms of inequality, injustice in health care is the most shocking and inhumane,” Wooten said Thursday night.
Those words have guided her mission to serve the residents of San Diego County, she said.
“I awake every day with the goal of helping all communities attain their full potential and well-being,” she said.
Wooten was honored with the 2021 Dr. Martin Luther King’s Human Dignity Award for her leadership as the county’s public health officer during an unprecedented pandemic that has claimed the lives of 2,005 people in the region.
The Jackie Robinson Family YMCA, which serves residents of southeastern San Diego neighborhoods, hosted the award ceremony Thursday night as an online presentation, for health safety reasons. Usually the annual event takes place at a hotel in Mission Valley, filled with community members, nonprofit leaders and elected officials.
YMCA organizers said hosting the event online provided an opportunity for more San Diegans to participate in the celebration.
Assemblywoman Shirley Weber, who recently was nominated to be California’s next Secretary of State, gave the event’s keynote speech. Weber is a former recipient of the Human Dignity award.
She said last year’s racial justice events and protests and the ongoing pandemic have brought to light inequalities and injustices. Those issues will not disappear on their own, she said, and require action from people who refuse to be complicit.
“We have to speak up, we have to stand up and we cannot let any small thing go by, because any small injustice becomes a major injustice, because a seed is planted and, I can guarantee you, it will grow,” Weber said.
Wooten has served as the county’s public health officer since 2007 and worked for the county’s Health and Human Services Agency for 20 years.
She grew up in Thomaston, Ala. and attended Spelman College in Atlanta. She graduated from the University of North Carolina School of Medicine in 1986 and completed her residency at a hospital in Washington, D.C.
She moved to San Diego in 1986 to complete a residency in preventative medicine at San Diego State University. She worked for UC San Diego before the county.
Wooten’s courage to make science-based decisions throughout the pandemic was praised in her award nomination. During the most recent surge of COVID-19 cases, Wooten has remained adamant about keeping schools and most non-essential businesses closed, despite backlash and criticism.
Previous honorees include Jackie Robinson Family YMCA board member Dee Sanford, YMCA Vice President for Mission Advancement Michael Brunker and Rufus Dewitt, the first African American executive director in the YMCA association.
There were musical performances by the MLK Choir and singer Rebecca Jade.
