February 13, 2019
Page 15
Foster Care Provider Guilty
C ontinueD from p age 3
eral government for foster care
services in the black community,
including hiring and screening
foster parents for community
placements, compensating foster
parents for services and placing
foster children in residential or
group homes.
From 2009 through 2015,
Ayala exercised sole and com-
plete control over the Give Us
This Day finances, officials said.
No other employee or board
member had access to the or-
ganization’s bank accounts or
statements during this time.
With no internal controls in
place, Ayala wrote checks, used
the foster home’s debit card and
withdrew cash at will, using the
organization’s bank accounts as
her own, authorities said.
Additionally, she used the mon-
ey to fund other business ventures
including a media company and
Big Mary’s, a fish and ribs restau-
rant in Portland, and to purchase
and flip a commercial property,
officials said.
In total, Ayala was found guilty
of stealing nearly $1 million. As a
result, her employees, foster par-
ents and foster children in her care
suffered tremendously, officials
said. Children from the residential
center and house managers com-
plained about a lack of basic ne-
cessities, including but not limited
to food, toiletries and cleaning
supplies.
Ayala will be sentenced on May
29 by U.S. District Court Judge
Marco A. Hernandez.
A Long History of Health Disparities
C ontinueD from p age 5
icans in medicine, the National
Medical Association.
Forty years after Williams made
history by performing one of the
first open-heart surgeries in the
US, African American physician
Dr. Myra Adele Logan became the
first woman to perform the proce-
dure in 1943. It was thought to be
the ninth time the procedure had
been performed worldwide.
Dr. Charles Drew pioneered
methods of storing blood plasma
for transfusion and organized the
first large-scale blood bank in the
US during World War II. Drew,
who was African American, helped
develop a blood storage program
at the American Red Cross but
resigned shortly after officials
segregated the blood of African
Americans. He later became chief
surgeon at Freedman’s Hospital
and the first black examiner for the
American Board of Surgery.
In 1993, Dr. Joycelyn Elders
became the first black female phy-
sician appointed as US Surgeon
General by President Bill Clinton,
who previously, as governor of
Arkansas, appointed her as direc-
tor of the that state’s Department
of Health in 1987.
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