Dr. Rafael Lantigua received his MD degree from the Universidad Autónoma de Santo in 1972. He completed his residency in internal medicine at Lincoln Hospital, where he also served as a chief resident. After completing an endocrinology fellowship at the Rochester University School of Medicine in 1980, he joined the Division of General Medicine at Columbia as a faculty member. Since 1994 he has served as Associate Division Chief of the Division of General Medicine and as Medical Director of the Associates in Internal Medicine (AIM) practice. He is a member of the Admission Committee of Columbia University Medical School and member of the Internal Medicine Residency Selection Committee. Since 1995, he has represented Columbia University at the American Medical Association (AMA) Section on Medical Schools. In 2010 he served on the AMA Executive Committee. From 2005-2010 he served as a member of the Board of Scientific Counselors of the National Institute on Aging (NIA).

He has been actively involved in research on issues that affect the quality of life in minority populations. From 1988-94 he served as co-investigator in a large scale community-based New York State Department of Health Program at Columbia to promote awareness and education of cardio-vascular disease in the Washington Heights-Inwood community. From 1998-2008 he served as the principal investigator in the National Institute of Aging-funded Columbia Center for Active Life of Minority Elders (Resource Center for Minority Aging Research). Since 1999 Dr. Lantigua has served as Deputy Director of the Taub Institute for Research on Alzheimer’s Disease and the Aging Brain, Columbia University. He has published more than 60 medical articles in peer-reviewed journals.

Dr. Lantigua is co-founder and previously was Chairperson of the Board of Alianza Dominicana, Inc., the major community based organization serving the Dominican Community in the United States. He is Co-founder and former Chairperson of the Board of the Northern Manhattan Coalition for Immigrants Rights. He has served in multiple Boards of non-for profit organizations such as the Puerto Rican Legal Defense Fund, Puerto Rican/Hispanic Institute for the Elderly, the Latino Commission on AIDS, and National Hispanic Leadership Agenda.