Dr. Richard Joe Ybarra, MD

A health care provider with roots in "the barrio" and Baylor College of Medicine, plus four decades of a deep dive in the medical experience, Houston-based Dr. Ybarra (pseudo name Dr Ybavago) is the owner of Emergence Medicine. A Texas pioneer in the freestanding emergency center movement, his specialties include emergency medicine, population health medicine and revolutionary medicine. As a child, initially growing up in East Los Angeles, his artful expression was centered around poetry. While that would later evolve to acrylic on canvas, a medium he continues to focus on today, it anchors and expands on his writing, which stems from the humanities, psychology, philosophy and spirituality. From DrY's perspective, there's never been a separation of science and art - both are blended in his evolving artistic expressions. For anybody young of mind, heart and spirit, his "soul art" - in the style of Kandinsky and Rothko - will resonate as an inspiration to live life (or death) to its fullest.