About us

Rafael Lantigua, M.D. is the Director, Office of Community Service Programs; Associate Dean for Community Service and Professor of Medicine, Columbia University Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons. Since coming to Columbia in 1980, he has a distinguished record of working to improve the health of aging minorities. He was the driving force behind CALME, the Columbia Center for the Active Life of Minority Elders, which supported research to reduce health disparities affecting minority elders and established an important bridge between Columbia researchers and the neighboring community. Dr. Lantigua also helped start the Columbia Center for the Health of Urban Minorities to shift community based-research from studies for the community to studies with the community. He is currently a primary care physician and clinician educator at the Associates in Internal Medicine (AIM) Clinic at Columbia University Irving Medical Center. Dr. Lantigua earned his Medical Degree at the Autonomous University of Santo Domingo in the Dominican Republic.