About the Camp Director

Maria E. Franco, MD

Dr. Maria Franco was born and raised in Bogota, Colombia. She is a citizen of the United States. She went to Medical School in Nuestra Señora del Rosario School of Medicine in Bogota, Colombia. She did a mandatory rural social service as a general practitioner in the Hospital San Francisco in Cundinamarca, Colombia. She was a pediatric resident in the Children’s Hospital Lorencita Villegas, Nuestra Señora del Rosario School of Medicine in Bogota, Colombia. Then she did an externship at the Division of Pulmonology at the Miami Children’s Hospital in Miami, Florida. She did her Pediatric Pulmonology Fellowship in St. Christopher’s Hospital for Children in Philadelphia, PA. and her PL-3 Pediatric Residency at Allegheny University for the Health Sciences, Hannemann Pogram, Philadelphia, PA in order to fulfill requirements for the American Board Of Pediatrics. She was the Chief Resident in Pediatrics at Crozer Chester Medical Center, Philadelphia, PA.

Dr. Maria Franco is Board certified in Pediatrics and Pediatric Pulmonology. Since 1997 she is an Attending in the Pediatric Residency Program and Pediatric Intensive Care Fellowship at Nicklaus Children’s Hospital where she is also part of the Division of Pediatric Pulmonology.

Dr. Franco was the Asthma program director from 1998 to 2005.  She has been the Director of the Cystic Fibrosis Center since 2006 and was the coordinator of the New Born Screening for Cystic Fibrosis for the State of Florida from 2007 to 2012.

Dr. Franco is in the Board of Directors of the Nicklaus Children’s Hospital since 2009.

She has done volunteer work as a Pediatric Intensivist and pediatrician with “Operation Smile” since 1997 to 2011 and is a Voluntary Clinical Faculty Member of the Florida International University College of Medicine since 2008.

Dr. Franco became the Director of The Dr. Moises Simpser VACC Camp in October 2017.