About HERO

Five figures carrying large buckets toward the water

Who Are We?

HERO began with a simple question:

“Will you help us?”

Our organization was begun by a small group of people who wanted to “give back”. We were aware of our fortunate lives and of those far less fortunate than us. We began as a grassroots medical team that served in the remote mountains of Honduras. We are now comprised of a diverse group of volunteers which gives us the ability to serve more people in many more ways.

What Do We Do?

Dancing child with his tongue out

Mission

Our mission is to provide medical care, dental care, nutritional support, vision testing and eye glasses, animal health (thus human health), sustainable projects such as solar cookers, wind towers, solar energy, etc. We want to educate the people who live in disease and poverty striken areas of the world and we want them to live more fulfilled healthier lives. We bring spiritual support and guidance to those in need. We are an approved 501(c)3 non-profit organization and your generous donation is tax deductible.

The Team

Dr. Julia Williams

Julia Williams, MD is the founder of Humanitarian Efforts Reaching Out (HERO). After traveling to Honduras to assist with a medical clinic in a small mountain village, she was committed to developing her own 501c3 non-profit organization.  In 2007, HERO was born. Since that time, the organization has grown from a team of 5 to now over 300 volunteers. HERO has traveled to 4 Underdeveloped Nations on multiple occasions. They have provided medical and dental care, veterinary care, immunizations, eye glasses, alternative power sources (wind and solar), clean water projects, solar hot water, solar cookers, new home construction, nutritional support, clothing and much more.

Dr. Williams is originally from Maryland and attended the University of Maryland School of Medicine. She did her post-graduate training at San Bernardino County Medical Center in Family Medicine before settling in Sedona, Arizona in 1990. She worked for 32 years as an ED physician before retiring. She practiced as a primary care physician and hospitalist in Winslow after that until 2020. She continues to work as a hospice physician and has done that for the past 15 years. She enjoys her volunteer work at the Sedona Arts Center as a pottery studio assistant and has been an accomplished ceramist for the past 24 years. Dr. Williams is an avid traveler and spends several months a year exploring the continent in her RV as well as international travel. She has also bred and trained golden retrievers in the past as companion animals. Dr. Williams is committed to “Giving Back” by helping build healthy, sustainable communities in Underdeveloped Nations through the work of her non-profit, HERO.

placeholder.png

Dr. Julia Williams

HERO Board Member

Lisa Griel

Lisa's passion for helping people was instilled in her by her grandmother. She has always flourished deep-seated connections with those 8 or 9 decades old. She had been in caring professions as a caregiver to the elderly and working simultaneously in the dental field until she got the opportunity to go to India with H.E.R.O. in 2010. She found herself overwhelmed with passion, commitment and service to helping others. When she came back from that trip she immediately enrolled in prerequisites for nursing school. She is now a nurse in Yavapai County and very much looking forward to a time when we can travel and continue to give compassionate care to those in need.
placeholder.png

Lisa Griel

HERO Board Member

Dr. Elaine Rankin, Psy.D

Dr. Elaine Rankin holds a doctorate degree in Psychology and a Bachelor of Science Degree in Nursing. She has been a member of the HERO team for over a decade working behind the scenes, and traveling to Central America and India to help provide medical care and join other sustainability projects. Her life-long passion for working with people and her love of travel have led her to serve in Mexico and Fiji in the past and continue to inspire her to touch the lives of those in need through HERO's continuing efforts around the world. Elaine currently works as a behavior specialist with children who have experienced trauma.

placeholder.png

Dr. Elaine Rankin, Psy.D

HERO Board Member

Sheila Mackell

Dr. Mackell completed her undergraduate education at the University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia. She went south to the University of Virginia, Charlottesville, for medical school, then west to the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF), for pediatric training.

Dr. Mackell has traveled extensively and has worked as a pediatrician in numerous Latin American and Asian countries. She studied tropical medicine at Walter Reed Army Medical Center, Washington, DC, and at Cayetano Heredia Institute of Tropical Medicine in Lima, Peru, and earned a certificate in tropical medicine and clinical travelers’ health. She practiced pediatrics and travel medicine at Kaiser Permanente in Oakland, California, for 12 years before moving to Northern Arizona. Since 2002, Dr. Mackell has been in group practice at Mountain View Pediatrics in Flagstaff, Arizona. She is an active member of the International Society of Travel Medicine , current leader of the Pediatric interest group, a fellow of the American Academy of Pediatrics and a member of the ASTM&H.

Dr. Mackell has authored several text chapters and articles on various topics in pediatric travel medicine. In addition, she has lectured extensively on travel medicine and international adoption. While COVID-19 has changed travel, she continues to be an avid skier, hiker and rafting enthusiast on the Colorado River.

placeholder.png

Sheila Mackell

HERO Advisor

Ricardo Gonzales

Ricardo Gonzales is the construction consultant for HERO. “Ricky” has traveled to Nicaragua and India with the team. He has “McGyvered” the exhaust system at the Tibetan Refugee camp in India using his 30 years of maintenance experience to create a more safe kitchen/dining environment. He has worked on our alternative power source projects, installed solar power and solar hot water systems, hand dug a well, and worked on home construction, among other things. HERO collaborates with Ricky to design and execute these important projects that improve the lives of those we serve.

placeholder.png

Ricardo Gonzales

Construction Consultant

I appreciate everyone’s kind and generous support of HERO for all of the humanitarian trips we have completed. It is your “Giving Back” and your open hearts that make all of this possible. The starving child who has nutrition, the ill mother who is now well, the clean water that the villagers drink, the hot meal families eat and so much more is because of YOU!!! You have opened your hearts and you have responded in a most kind and compassionate way. Thank you from all of us at HERO and on behalf of all of those you have and will help.

— From Dr. Julie —