Maribel de la C. Ponce de León Mola

She was born in Las Tunas, daughter of working-class parents. She completed primary education and part of secondary education in public schools in her native province, finished her secondary studies on scholarship at the Pablo de la Torriente Brau school in the capital, where she also completed her pre-university studies at the Instituto Héroes de Yaguajay.

Upon completing her first year of pre-university studies, in response to a call from the Revolutionary Armed Forces, she performed three consecutive years of Voluntary Military Service in unit 3545 of the Western Army, as an operator of a 37 mm anti-aircraft artillery piece; she was among the first women in the country to perform this task.

In 1970 she began her medical studies in the capital, obtaining by ranking a vertical internship in Otorhinolaryngology, ORL, graduating in 1976.

Once graduated, she worked as a general physician in ORL functions at the "Carlos Manuel de Céspedes" Hospital in Bayamo, Granma.

She returned to the capital in 1968 and completed her residency in ORL at the "Calixto García" Hospital, graduating as a First-Degree Specialist in 1980 with excellent academic results.

She was assigned to the Marfán Pediatric Hospital and while there in 1981, in collaboration with the Biotechnology Center, she began studies and trials of treatment with Leukocyte Interferon in Laryngeal Papillomatosis, whose results led to the establishment of a national program with this treatment for that disease.

She worked at Marfan Hospital until 1984, during that period she was Head of the Surgical Service of that institution, she also received postgraduate training in Otosurgery with Professor Bernardo Sandó at "Fajardo" Hospital and in Audiology at "Calixto García" Hospital.

By competitive examination she won a position to work in Audiology at "William Soler" Pediatric Hospital in 1984, she was also vice surgical director of the hospital. She was head of the Audiology and Clinical Neurophysiology service of that hospital from its creation until she moved to work at the Center for Neurosciences of Cuba (CNC) in 1998.

Since 1984 she worked in the organization, implementation and operation of the Cuban Program for Early Detection of Hearing Disorders, which she directed from 1986 to 1999; during that period she actively collaborated in the clinical validation of medical equipment and software for objective hearing evaluation.

She worked at the CNC until 2002, when she moved to the Hearing Complex of Ciudad Habana, where she worked as an Audiologist and was its director until she retired in 2007.

Since 2007 she has worked at the National Association of the Deaf of Cuba, currently she is a professor at the National Center for Training and Development of the Deaf, she has worked directly with this association for 20 years.

In 2007 she began collaborating and continues providing Audiology consultations at CIMEQ Hospital.

She was a founder of the Cuban Cochlear Implant group, worked as an audiologist for it from 1998 to 2007 and directed it until 2005.

She actively participated in studies on hearing disability conducted in the Cotorro Municipality of Ciudad Habana and Río Cauto in Granma.

In 2005 she graduated as a Second-Degree Specialist in ORL and in January 2006 she acquired the category of Auxiliary Professor, being recognized for 30 years of seniority in pre and postgraduate teaching.

In the 1991-92 academic year she tutored a thesis from the Faculty of Defectology of the Enrique José Varona Higher Pedagogical Institute. During the years 2004-05 she worked in the direction and development of the Plan and Program of Audiology studies for the Bachelor's degree in Health Technology in the specialty of Speech-Language Pathology, Phoniatrics and Audiology.

She developed the plan and program for the course Notions of Audiology for Technicians in Cuban Sign Language Interpretation in 2007.

She has taught to date 32 national courses and training sessions on Audiology and 2 international ones in Spain and Colombia.

She has received 20 national courses and training sessions and 10 international ones in Spain, Colombia, Mexico and Argentina, related to her work in Clinical Audiology and Cochlear Implant.

She has 108 scientific presentations at national events and 30 at international events in which she has even participated in expert panels; in 2008 she was appointed vice president of the Scientific Committee of the V Ibero-Latin American Congress on Hearing Loss in Rosario, Argentina.

During her years of work she has belonged to and worked in the following National Advisory Groups, Scientific Societies and Commissions:
Member of the Cuban Society of ORL.
Member of the Cuban Society of Clinical Neurophysiology.
Member Cuban Society of Speech-Language Pathology and Phoniatrics.
Honorary Foreign Member of the Argentine Medical Association.
Member of the Scientific Commission of the National Association of the Deaf.
Member of the National Commission of Experts "Physical and Mental Aptitudes in Children".
Member National Group of Otorhinolaryngology.
Head of the National Audiology Group (1995-2007).
Member National Group of Cochlear Implants for Deaf-Blind and Deaf Children (1998-2007).

She has made 15 publications in Scientific Journals and in 2004 published a book.

Recognition Received:
· Collaboration provided during her stay in the Speech-Language Pathology Service of Ramón y Cajal Hospital. Madrid, Spain, 1988.
· Program for the Detection of Hearing Deficit. Main Result at the level of the Higher Institute of Medical Sciences. Ciudad Habana, 1990.
· Screening of Hearing Defects in Ciudad Habana. Main Result at the level of the Higher Institute of Medical Sciences. Ciudad Habana, 1990.
· Assimilation and modification of a screening test to detect early language disorders (ELM). Main Result at the level of the Higher Institute of Medical Sciences. Ciudad Habana, 1990.
· Development of Technologies and Equipment for the diagnosis of Brain Diseases and their applications. Recognition at National Level as a Research Result of the Five-Year Period 1986-90. Academy of Sciences of Cuba.
· Early Screening of Hearing Defects. Annual Award for Scientific-Technical Merit. Result already applied of greatest contribution to social development. Ministry of Higher Education, 1991.
· Certificate for unrelenting work in research activity in the sphere of Medical Sciences. Union Committee of Science. William Soler Hospital. Ciudad Habana, 1993.
· Recognition for outstanding work at the Second Latin American Scientific Conference on Special Education. Minister of Education. Ciudad Habana, 1993.
· Recognition for outstanding participation in care for our disabled. I Congress of the National Association of the Deaf of Cuba. Santiago de Cuba, 1998.
· Recognition for participation in the study on Hearing Disability in the Population of Cotorro Municipality. Municipality Public Health, Cotorro, 2001.
· Recognition for participation in the study on Hearing Disability in the Population of Cotorro Municipality. National Association of the Deaf of Cuba, Cotorro Municipality, 2001.
· Recognition for participation in the study on Hearing Disability in the Population of Río Cauto Municipality, Granma province. Center for Neurosciences of Cuba, 2002.
· For the value of her Human and Scientific work. For her Contribution to the execution of the Cochlear Implant Project in Deaf and Deaf-Blind Children. Minister of Public Health, 2006.
· For her dedicated work and contributions to the integral development of the deaf community, ANSOC, 2006.