Curious, Compassionate, Dependable
After Princeton, Esteban Fuertes graduated from the University of Puerto Rico School of Medicine in 1989. He started his residency training in general surgery, but changed paths after a patient told him during rounds, “You should be a psychiatrist [because] you’re the only one who talks to us.” He changed paths, finishing his adult residency in 1993 and additional training in child and adolescent psychiatry in 1995. He has worked in public service ever since, mostly in New York, with an almost 10-year detour to California. There, he and his partner, Alan, became one of the first couples to marry during the brief window prior to the passage of Proposition 8. They returned to the East Coast nearly a decade ago and Fuertes continues to work for the New York State Office of Mental Health, currently at the children’s inpatient unit at the Greater Binghamton Health Center.