Danielle Laraque-Arena

Early life and education Danielle Laraque-Arena was born along with two brothers in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, daughter of Paul and Marcelle Laraque. Her grandparents ran a pharmacy, and her grandfather was a physician. Her father was a poet, activist, and critic of Haitian president François Duvalier. He fled Haiti for Spain in 1960 when Duvalier's police were targeting political dissidents. He then immigrated to the United States in 1961; Marcelle joined him in 1962, and their children and a grandmother joined them soon afterward, when Danielle was 7 years old. The family lived in Queens in New York City. There her father initially worked as a parking attendant at New York University and her mother became a clerk at the United Nations.

Her father took night classes to earn a bachelor's degree and took a job at Fordham Preparatory School, teaching Latin and Spanish. His position afforded Laraque-Arena tuition free enrollment at Fordham University, which she attended for two years.

In the mid-1980s, she joined Columbia University's faculty, where she worked at Harlem Hospital during the US's AIDS epidemic. succeeding Gregory Eastwood as the first woman to be president. and Co-chair the Governor of New York's Task Force on Maternal Mortality and Disparate Racial Outcomes. She currently serves on the board of Prevent Child Abuse America, Women in Medicine Legacy Foundation (of which she is President), and Vaccinate Your Family (of which she served as Chair).

Personal life Laraque-Arena is married to Luigi Arena, a retired radiologist.