Medical Director

Diane Lorence grew up in San Francisco.  While attending the University of California at Berkeley, she heard of an organization that fit her perfectly: Amigos de las Américas.  Diane had wanted to be a doctor since she was four years old and had studied Spanish all through grammar school and high school.  While at Cal, although she had a pre-med curriculum, her major was Spanish literature.  She found the Marin Chapter of AMIGOS and trained as a chapter volunteer throughout the whole school year.  In the summer of 1976 she took off for the mosquito coast of Nicaragua.  While flying to her community on the rehabilitated paratrooper plane of the Nicaraguan Air Force, Diane whispered a promise to herself,  "When I'm a doctor I'm going to come back and do something to help AMIGOS!"  The summer was spent in sweltering conditions, collecting hordes of mosquito bites, but Diane was affected for life by the warmth and spirit of the Nicaraguans, especially the children. Over the summer with her AMIGOS partner, the two young women gave over 3500 vaccinations!

Medical school at the Medical Academy of Warsaw and Family Practice residency in Williamsport, Pennsylvania then intervened for 6 and 3 years respectively, not to mention the addition of two sons to her family.  Upon moving back to the Bay Area, it did not take long for Diane to get that inevitable call from AMIGOS: "Can you help out in some capacity?"  What that meant in this situation was the founding of a San Francisco chapter where she served as Medical Director for 3 years from 1986-1990.  The boys were young, just 1 and 2 years old, but Diane was on a mission and indoctrinated them wirh AMIGOS from the start, even brainwashing them with the Texas Star Ruby Reds during their formative years!  In 1990, Diane went on her first Board trip to Ecuador led by Margaret Guerrero and vowed to recycle through AMIGOS once more in the future.

In the fall of 2001, right after 9/11, the time had arrived to see if AMIGOS could once again be part of the Lorence family.  Having been afraid to breathe a word of praise for the worthy organization as it could very well be the kiss of death for a 16 year old, she gently suggested that Dominic, then 16, go to one of the orientations to hear the returning vols tell about their experiences.  In 5 minutes flat, Dominic was sold and served as a volunteer in Paraguay in 2002, with Alex later to follow as a volunteer in Costa Rica in 2004.  In the meantime, Diane served as the East Bay chapter Medical Director for 3 years, joining the International Board of Directors in 2003, and becoming the Medical Director for the International Board in 2005.

Diane is a Family Doctor in private practice in Walnut Creek California and hopes to send a third  generation family member to AMIGOS in the next 25 years!