{"id":463858,"date":"2026-09-14T23:42:09","date_gmt":"2026-09-14T23:42:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/463858\/"},"modified":"2026-09-14T23:42:09","modified_gmt":"2026-09-14T23:42:09","slug":"2026-change-maker-honoree-dr-rolando-figueroa-roberto","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/463858\/","title":{"rendered":"2026 Change Maker honoree: Dr. Rolando Figueroa Roberto"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The Sacramento Bee and Nehemiah Leaders Programs are celebrating this year’s 60 Change Makers. Join them at our gala at 5:30 p.m. on Tuesday, Oct. 13 at the Grand Sheraton in downtown Sacramento. Buy tickets at sacramentochangemakers.com<\/a>. <\/p>\n

Early in Dr. Rolando Figueroa Roberto\u2019s career, he learned that there is joy to be found in the world of healthcare.<\/p>\n

He worked at Camp Goodtimes, a summer program for children with cancer, and an Easterseals camp, where he worked with children who had muscular dystrophy and spinal muscular atrophy. As a biology student at UC Irvine, he volunteered at the university hospital, where he copped to some \u201cunsanctioned\u201d wheelchair races.<\/p>\n

\u201cI just thought, \u2018What a great vocation \u2014 to take care of other humans,\u2019\u201d Roberto said.<\/p>\n

Just before starting medical school, Roberto visited his uncle, a neonatologist who ran the largest neonatal intensive care unit in Guatemala.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe was a kind man, with a good heart, who wanted to give back to his country,\u201d Roberto said. \u201cIt just seemed like a great career \u2014 to devote your life to the care of others.\u201d<\/p>\n

Nowadays, Roberto is \u201cDr. Ro,\u201d to his patients, and chief of pediatric spine at Shriners Children\u2019s Northern California. The hospital treats about 175 major pediatric spine cases per year, sparing patients from pain, and in some advanced cases, degraded lung function.<\/p>\n

\"Changemaker Changemaker Dr. Rolando Roberto, chief of staff of orthopedics, medical director of the pediatric spine program and an orthopedic spine surgeon at Shriners Children’s Northern California, poses for a portrait on Friday, July 10, 2026, in Sacramento PAUL KITAGAKI JR. pkitagaki@sacbee.com <\/p>\n

Roberto\u2019s patients have gone on to become cheerleaders, dancers and skaters. One just finished training to become a firefighter. For Roberto \u2014 himself a skier, swimmer, runner and backpacker \u2014 it\u2019s a rewarding proposition.<\/p>\n

On a recent afternoon, a hand-drawn thank-you card was taped to the whiteboard in Roberto\u2019s office, from a foothills patient with severe scoliosis. A Spiderman sticker covered most of the doctor\u2019s badge, affixed there by a patient. As he circulated through the hospital, Roberto greeted one of his patients, and asked: \u201cAre you having fun today?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a lot of fun, making rounds here,\u201d Roberto said. \u201cThey can play. They can go to school. It\u2019s actually enjoyable for most. It sounds rotten, but kids are pretty resilient. And they seem to have a ball. There\u2019s a lot of joy in taking care of kids, and particularly helping them through a very stressful period of time in their life.\u201d<\/p>\n

Related Stories from Sacramento Bee<\/p>\n


\n \"Profile
\n <\/a><\/p>\n

Annika Merrilees<\/a><\/p>\n

The Sacramento Bee<\/p>\n

Annika Merrilees is a business reporter for The Sacramento Bee. She previously spent five years covering business and healthcare for the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Sacramento Bee and Nehemiah Leaders Programs are celebrating this year’s 60 Change Makers. Join them at our…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":463859,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[121,123,122],"class_list":["post-463858","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sacramento","tag-sacramento","tag-sacramento-headlines","tag-sacramento-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/463858","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=463858"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/463858\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/463859"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=463858"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=463858"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=463858"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}