From September 15 to October 15, PCOM joins others around the country in observing Hispanic Heritage Month. This important celebration honors the histories, cultures and contributions of Hispanics and Latinos everywhere. Here, PCOM highlights three Latina members of the Office of Human Resources.
A proud first-generation college graduate with bachelor's and master's degrees from the University of Georgia, Kimberly Lopez made sure that her internship experiences in college matched her passions: local and state government policy, as well as diversity, equity and inclusion. Graduating with her Master of Public Administration in 2022, Lopez's first job is equity coordinator at PCOM, based at PCOM Georgia.
“Walking in my first day, I was like, ‘We're all women? Not even that, we're all women of color?’ It was just perfect,” Lopez said of her supervisor, Alina Torres-Zickler, and her Human Resources colleague Maricela Montijo-Davis, with whom she shares Mexican heritage. “How much better can it get?”
Lopez's family lives in Texas, about a half hour from the border with Mexico, and her family has roots in Michoacán and Matamoros. In assisting students with accommodations, Lopez will routinely speak in Spanish, especially if it is a student's first language, to enhance comfort and support.
“Those conversations always hold a special place in my heart because I can't imagine the anxiety they must have felt, even though we're there to help break down those barriers,” Lopez said. “I was gifted this ability to speak in Spanish and have this identity to be this support system for them. The added element of yes, I am a first-generation graduate, also breaks down those barriers.”
Born and raised in Cumming, Georgia, Lopez is from a large family. She is active in UGA's Latino Alumni Council as its event chair, volunteers at the schools of her niece and nephews, and is an avid reader.
Continuing a tradition from childhood, Maricela Montijo-Davis still speaks in English to her parents—who migrated to Southern California from Mexico in their early 20s—while they respond in Spanish.
“It was very much that my parents wanted us to speak English so they would learn it, so we spoke English to them and they spoke Spanish to us,” Montijo-Davis said.
Now PCOM's assistant director of Employee Engagement and Culture, based at PCOM Georgia, Montijo-Davis started her career as a medical assistant, where she met a doctor of osteopathic medicine (since then, she has sought DOs for her own health care). From there, she managed a church, finished her college degree as a nontraditional student, and moved to Georgia to be closer to her sister and to raise their children together.
Since joining PCOM Georgia, she has become active in the College and University Professional Association for Human Resources, recently joining the Georgia chapter’s board. Through her work on training and development at PCOM and statewide service, Montijo-Davis challenges assumptions.
“There are assumptions that employees know what the norms are in our higher ed culture,” she said. “It’s great to come more from a place of empathy and say, ‘Let me walk you through this and let me train you on what those norms are.’”
Outside of her profession, Montijo-Davis is a booster for her son's high school football team, and she mentors underserved women and girls through Atlanta GLOW. She also implemented mock interviews for high school students at PCOM's annual Opportunities Academy summer program.
“I didn't have that resource, so I love being able to give them that advice,” she said.
A Puerto Rican New Yorker who grew up in the Hudson Valley, Alina Torres-Zickler was the first of her four siblings to attend college.
“I went into higher ed and never looked back,” she said of her more than 20-year career. “It just clicked for me. It was where I saw the lenses of my personal and professional world meld.”
Torres-Zickler joined PCOM in 2018 from West Chester University, drawn in part to the College because her best friend since first grade is a DO, and her primary care physician is a PCOM graduate. Her focus: expanding access to services.
“Our HR team is very diverse, and we work really hard to see each other as we are but also see all of the community members at PCOM as that whole person so they can do their best as a student or as an employee,” she said. “And that keeps me here as an employee—that heart and that devotion.”
Torres-Zickler said the Equity and Title IX team seeks to ease processes for employees and students, especially those in distress, in order to help them ultimately be successful.
“That just gets to the heart of the work that I do: Service and care,” she said.
Outside of PCOM, Torres-Zickler is a Girl Scouts leader to help children find their voices and make change through community service and leadership, no matter their age. She emphasizes to her scouts and her own children that “you can make a difference whether you're 30, 50, 80 or 10.”
For the past 125 years, Philadelphia College of Osteopathic Medicine (PCOM) has trained thousands of highly competent, caring physicians, health practitioners and behavioral scientists who practice a “whole person” approach to care—treating people, not just symptoms. PCOM, a private, not-for-profit accredited institution of higher education, operates three campuses (PCOM, PCOM Georgia and PCOM South Georgia) and offers doctoral degrees in clinical psychology, educational psychology, osteopathic medicine, pharmacy, physical therapy, and school psychology. The college also offers graduate degrees in applied behavior analysis, applied positive psychology, biomedical sciences, forensic medicine, medical laboratory science, mental health counseling, physician assistant studies, and school psychology. PCOM students learn the importance of health promotion, research, education and service to the community. Through its community-based Healthcare Centers, PCOM provides care to medically underserved populations. For more information, visit pcom.edu or call 215-871-6100.
Brandon Lausch
Executive Director, Strategic Communications
Email: brandonla@pcom.edu
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