Half of the 28 years that Beatriz Leon York has been with Mercy Care was as a volunteer, and the other half has been as a full-time employee. In 1991, after her mother’s diagnosis with breast cancer, Beatriz Leon York saw a need at Saint Joseph’s Hospital, which led her to volunteer at Mercy Care. Mercy Care was just getting its start in outreach, newly approaching regions like Doraville where large Hispanic populations reside and were in need of bilingual outreach. Every Tuesday for about 14 years, you could find Beatriz translating for doctors and manually registering patients at the Doraville health center.

In 2005, Beatriz decided to make her place at Mercy Care permanent. Over the past 14 years of her employment, she’s worked her way from the front desk to a medical office specialist, office supervisor, clinic supervisor, and finally as the clinic manager for Chamblee. Through decades of service and on-call translations, Beatriz provided a voice for patients and bridge for doctors that make our mission possible.

“I’ve always enjoyed helping people, and I found my niche in that with Mercy Care’s mission. I was able to help people using the fact that I’m fluent in two languages – and do this back at a time when translation and services for the Latino population was limited.” – Beatriz Leon York, Chamblee clinic manager