Filipino-American pediatrician, Dr. Jennifer Mijares-Zimmerman, has won the Democratic nomination for the congressional seat of Florida’s 1st district.
Zimmerman, widely known as Dr. Z in the Santa Rosa Country, has been a pediatrician in the United States for nearly 20 years and is espousing better healthcare, public education, and cleaner environment in her platform for her congressional run.
Dr. Z told WearTV.com of her realization as she won the Democratic primary:
“The number one thing I have learned is that people actually listen to your truths. If you speak from the heart and you speak the truth people will appreciate that and that is what my campaign was based on. That there is love not hatred that we can work together because one of my hashtags is not only this woman can but together we rise.”
Mijares-Zimmerman immigrated to America 25 years ago after she earned a medical degree at the University of the East and an undergraduate degree in Zoology from the University of the Philippines.
The Filipino doctor completed her residency training in Pediatrics at Long Island Jewish Medical Center in New York. In 1997 she established her practice in Florida.
Dr. Z traces her leadership as “inspired by her mother’s determination and success.” She recalls helping her mother Corazon take care of her 5 siblings while the family matriarch completed her own high school studies and earned her college degree with honors – despite expectations of being a stay-at-home mother.
The pediatrician also recalls her father James, a fisherman orphaned at 6 years old and became a guerilla fighter and a prisoner of war during World War II.
Dr. Z is married to her American husband Jay, and has 3 children.
