Luis Velasquez, MD, Director of Pediatrics at the Joseph P. Addabbo Family Health Center, joined the pediatrics medical care team in 2010. He graduated Cum Laude from the Sophie Davis School of Biomedical Education at the City College of New York and thereafter, from SUNY Downstate College of Medicine. His post-graduate training includes Preliminary Medicine at Staten Island University Hospital, Anesthesia and Pediatrics at SUNY Downstate Medical Center. He also took courses in Medical Health Administration at Bellevue University.
During his tenure at Addabbo, Dr. Velasquez has served as an Eclinical works (EMR) SuperUser, Member and Co-chair of the Addabbo Risk Management Committee, Chairman of the Quality Assurance and Improvement Committee, Acting Chief Medical Officer and Associate Medical Director. Among his many credentials, Dr. Velasquez holds Certifications in Ambulatory Care Level 1 and 2 Risk Management, Opioid Prescribing Program 1 and 2, Infectious Control, Advanced Cardiac Life Support (ACLS), Pediatric Advanced Life Support (PALS) and Neonatal Advanced Life Support (NALS) and Conscious Sedation. Among his many organizational memberships, he is a Diplomat, American Board of Pediatrics, a member of the International Pediatric Association and the American Academy of Pediatrics.
Dr. Velasquez was born and raised in Bushwick, Brooklyn, in a closely-knit but not affluent family. His dad worked in a factory making beach umbrellas and his mom was a stay-at-home mom so she could be there him and for his sister. He remembers “growing up not necessarily having everything everyone else did including access to medical care.” Because of his upbringing, Dr. Velasquez feels a special connection to many of his pediatric patients at Addabbo.
He enjoys working at Addabbo because he enjoys helping others and making a difference in the lives of Addabbo children – one child at a time. He enjoys watching his patients grow up, year after year, and become individuals. Combining his love for biology and children, Dr. Velasquez believes that his career as a pediatrician is the very best of both worlds.
He speaks fluent Spanish and English, a “teeny” little bit of Arabic and in his spare time, enjoys landscape and portrait sketching, watercolor, creative writing, nature, horror/occult and Sci-Fi fiction, multi-cultural music and foods, travel and sightseeing.
