Judge Nelson Diaz’s career has not only seen him blaze trails for Latinos in law and all of Philadelphia, but also, especially later in life, use those experiences to teach businesses (large and small) and individuals how to improve and be best in their industries.

That’s exactly what Diaz did on Thursday, Aug. 19, when he visited BioTek reMEDys in New Castle, Delaware to offer advice to its Specialty Infusion Pharmacy Services Team.

BioTek reMEDys’ specialty is as an infusion pharmacy, which offers both compound prescriptions for patients and those administered through needle or catheter. The firm was opened in 2011 to meet the growing need for more specialized prescription services, and has since expanded nationwide.

Diaz’s presentation at the company was meant as an inspiration for staff to shoot higher in their service capabilities by better understanding some of the communities less served by traditional health systems that interact with BioTek reMEDys. He also hosted a book signing for his autobiography, Not from Here, Not from There/No Soy de Aqui ni de Alla.

The former Philadelphia judge, who was the city and state’s first Latino judge, spoke about his upbringing in West Harlem, New York City, after moving there with his parents from Puerto Rico.

Rather than buckling and giving in to the bad influences of his environment, Diaz found baseball, faith and relied on the unending support of his mother to forge ahead towards a successful academic career at St John’s University.

Diaz followed his first degree up with the first of many barriers he’d break in his career by becoming the first Puerto Rican to ever graduate from Temple University’s Beasley School of Law.

From there, Diaz found himself in rare air and used his position to fight for a number of issues on behalf of Philadelphia’s Latino community, and reformed the city’s courts, housing and education in the process.

After becoming the city and state’s first Latino judge, Diaz went on to serve as general counsel in the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development under Henry Cinseros in the Clinton administration. 

He returned to Philadelphia to serve as City Solicitor under Mayor John Street and later, would run for mayor of the city in 2015. Diaz is currently a senior attorney at Dilworth Paxson.

The Latino trailblazer faced discrimination at every step of his journey, and it was the center of his conversation with BioTek reMEDys staff. Rather than focus on the negative, Diaz’s message was one of finding a way to make things better.

“I think you must hold your head up high and focus on how you can contribute. Don’t let those things be stumbling blocks along the way,” he said.