As a child, I had to go to the hospital several times. There, I got to know a very independent and feminist female paediatrician, who eventually became one of my role models. I wanted to become like her growing up, so I decided to become a doctor.  In med school, I decided to become a geriatrician to help older patients, and during my residency I met an inspiring hepatologist, Prof. Pierre-Emmanuel Rautou, who introduced me to the interesting field of liver science. In the end, my story is a succession of role models who shaped my life and career.

I don’t think that I ever lost out on an opportunity because I’m a woman. I have also been lucky enough to be surrounded by very thoughtful and feminist men and women during my studies, and throughout my career in the hospital and in the lab.

However, to be able to navigate this world shaped by men, I probably had to prove myself and work harder than any man. Now that I have been raising my own child for almost 1 year now, I must admit that I am feeling this gender gap, even if my companion is of great help. I must prioritise, accept to lose some opportunities, and reorganise my time. But I have never been as fulfilled as I am now, and my career is still moving in the direction I want it to.

Of course, there is a lot of work left to do to reach gender equality. The success of a woman should not depend on the will of great and feminist companions, husbands, chiefs of department, or heads of lab. A woman should be able to succeed on her own – while being a mother if she desires – which right now is unfortunately very difficult. The real issue is that women must act like men to succeed because our society is still shaped by and for men.

A real solution would be to modify the system so that it meets the needs of women’s lives. Women don’t necessarily have to act like women and have kids, for example, but they should be able to choose to be and become whomever they wish. The flexibility of the system is key here. To reach that, every piece of the current system needs to change – from institutions, policies, and mentalities. The goal is that your gender should not be relevant at all to what you want to achieve.

If I had to give a piece of advice to any woman or girl willing to pursue a career in science: Be perseverant. Follow your passion and never forget that there is no limit to your ambition. During my studies, some people told me: “You can’t be a medical doctor and a basic scientist while having a family. You shouldn’t do that.” The funny thing is that they were being said by men trying to do the same. These comments questioning my ability to pursue my career as a woman motivated me even more to prove them wrong.  Finally, choose well your mentors, as well as the people who surround you in your personal and professional life.

I have been involved with ALEH since 2010. At that time, I was lucky to obtain a scholarship to attend an EASL School of Hepatology in Barcelona. This scholarship was coordinated by Dr Cardenas and Dr de Franchis. It was a great experience. Since then, I took part to different activities organised by ALEH. This had a great impact on my academic career. First as coordinator of the Young Investigators Committee and then as the Secretary General. During this time, I was able to coordinate some multicentre projects and got involved with different hepatologists from the region. This experience allowed me to understand better the different realities and needs we have in LATAM. 
Any hepatologist who is interested in pursuing an academic career, sooner or later, will know about EASL, especially nowadays with social media. EASL provides excellent resources to keep yourself updated with the latest advances in the field of hepatology. I personally intend to attend the EASL Congress every year and I regularly check the Journal of Hepatology and JHEP Reports.  

I believe that ALEH and EASL can interact in many ways. We already support each other in our annual meetings and through collaborative efforts like the Global Liver Summit together with AASLD and APASL. Each society has and important role in their own regions, but we still need to work together to have a global impact as we did with the Viral Hepatitis Elimination Consensus.  

For instance, we could promote and sponsor educational programmes for those taking their first steps in hepatology and facilitate the creation of collaborative groups in common areas of interest. 

I joined ALEH in 2015, when I became the Executive Director of the Association. ALEH has opened me a whole new world and has been very relevant to my career. It gave me the opportunity to meet many interesting and brilliant people as well as many new places. But most importantly, I feel honored to work with people involved in the medical field and that give such meaning to my life and my work. 

 From my first day working for ALEH, I was introduced to EASL and have always seen it as an example to follow. EASL always the reputation of being very well-organised and with a sustained growth and I had the opportunity to verify that this was true on multiple occasions.  

 I would like the collaboration between ALEH and EASL to be every day stronger, to have fluid communication, to be trusting and to know that we count with one another so that our joint projects and plans work out with ease and success for both EASL and ALEH. 

Since I became General Secretary in the meeting held in the Dominican Republic in 2018, my relationship with ALEH became closer and it was a turning point for starting networking with colleagues from all Latin-American countries.  

ALEH had a great impact on my career in terms of networking and scientific collaborations with fellow colleagues from Latin-American countries. Besides, being a member of the ALEH board of directors gave me opportunity to bond with members from our sister societies such as EASL.  

I became an EASL member after I came back from my Fellowship in the USA, 20 years ago. Since then, I have attended several EASL meetings which allowed me to improve my relationship with the association and gave me the opportunity of active participation in mutual collaboration, with suggestions and ideas.  

I am glad to say that EASL and ALEH have a very good relationship! EASL has been a great supporter of our scientific activities. In the future, I think we could try to set up more collaborative multicentric studies.