bigcitysmalltown with Bob Rivard Bob Rivard

This week’s guest is George Hernandez, who retires as the longtime CEO of the University Health System, officially known as the Bexar County Hospital District, the only locally owned hospital and outpatient clinic network. Hernandez has led the district for 19 years, a period time that saw remarkable growth in both facilities and services beyond the south Texas Medical Center. 

This week's guest is Mario Lopez, a wounded warrior who served deployments to both Iraq and Afghanistan. He survived critical injuries from a roadside bomb in Afghanistan, which brought him to The Burn Center at the San Antonio Military Medical Center at Fort Sam Houston. After years of surgeries and recuperation, Mario has gone on to write a book about his experiences, and he is a self-taught artist whose work now hangs at the very military installation here where he was treated.

This week’s guests are Erika Borrego, the CEO of Corazón Ministries, and her colleague Brittney Ackerson, the Day Center Director and recovering addict who experienced homelessness in her own life before finding her way back to good health and a purpose-driven life. Their work serving the hardcore homeless population in San Antonio is transforming lives.
 
Listener discretion is advised; this episode discusses substance abuse and rape.

This week’s guest is Victor Reyna, vice president for business banking at Amegy Bank in San Antonio, who also serves as president of the Asociación de Empresarios Mexicanos in San Antonio. AEM, or The US – MX Business Association, as it is known in English, helps Mexican business professionals achieve success in the United States, and assists U.S. citizens interested in doing business in Mexico. As both countries experience presidential elections this year, Victor discusses San Antonio's special relationship with Mexico, cross-border trade, and the city's place as a second home for tens of thousands of Mexican nationals. 
This week's Last Word: It’s Time for City Council to Shut Down the Horse Carriage Trade 

Belinda Román, Ph.D., is an Associate Professor of Economics at St. Mary’s University. Locally, Dr. Román is also Secretary/Treasurer of the San Antonio Business and Economics Society, and has conducted impact studies for the SABÉR Research Institute, an economic development think tank dedicated to researching regional economies and their development, with a focus on assisting the San Antonio Hispanic Chamber of Commerce. Earlier this year, the Wall Street Journal named Román as the most accurate of all the economists it tracked in 2023. Listen as Dr. Román discusses how she brings humanity to her economic practice.   
 

How did the South Texas Medical Center become San Antonio's leading smart jobs engine over the last 25 years? This week’s guest is Jim Reed, the recently retired longtime chief executive of the San Antonio Medical Foundation, which led that extraordinary growth in the medical, health care and biscoences sectors. During his tenure managing the development of hundreds of acres to the growing medical center, it became home to the region's greatest concentration of hospitals, clinics, medical office complexes, and retail businesses and residential units serving and housing many of the nearly 90,000 medical center workers. Economists today say that nearly one in five gainfully employed San Antonians now work in these sectors.