For the last 10 years, he has taught medical students through his position as assistant clinical professor in the Department of Family Practice and Community Medicine at the University of Texas Medical School in Houston. After two students who had completed rotations in his clinic nominated him, the university gave Niño the Distinguished Alumni award in 1999. In 2000, Niño began bringing even more medical students into his clinic by participating in the Texas Statewide Preceptorship Program.

As he has done in his community, Niño has served the academy well and will likely do so for many years to come. He sits on the academy board of directors, representing the Harris County Chapter of TAFP, where he served as president in 1996. In 2000, he was named the Harris County Chapter Physician of the Year. He has chaired the TAFP Minority Health Affairs Committee and now he heads the Section on Special Constituencies. He is also a delegate to the Texas Medical Association and a diplomat to the American Board of Family Practice.

According to Espinosa, his patients love him. “It’s hard to go grocery shopping with him because people see him all the time,” she says. “They want to stop him and say, ‘It’s Dr. Niño! It’s Dr. Niño!’ It’s like he’s a celebrity or something.”

State Representative Fred Bosse has been Niño’s patient for many years, and he applauds Niño and Espinosa for their support of community events and the “countless hours” they dedicate to civic and youth activities. “[Niño is] probably the most respected practitioner of the healing arts in East Harris County,” Bosse writes in a letter supporting Niño’s nomination for TAFP Physician of the Year.

So how does such a mild-mannered and seemingly meek fellow gain such notoriety and clout? Niño has a way of getting things done. Through his various positions and his membership in service organizations like Rotary International, he has built relationships with community and business leaders. When alerted to a concern or a problem, Niño puts the right people together to create a solution. “I like to keep my eyes and ears open,” he says. “I sort of remember things, like who works where and who does what.”

That’s how the Galena Park Independent School District in Niño’s community got a much-needed school-based clinic. According to Niño, the district had tried for some time to find support for a clinic. Around 19,000 children attend schools in the vast district, and many of them come from poor, working-class families. There’s no public transportation in the area and without money or a car, it is very difficult to get out of the neighborhood. Many of the families simply walk wherever they have to go. “It’s like a little third-world country out here,” Niño says, and before the clinic was built, when a child became ill or needed a vaccination, getting to a doctor could be quite a challenge.

Espinosa tutored students at a middle school in the district, and she and Niño would take the students bowling on occasion. “I could see the kind of kids that lived here,” Niño says. “They are nice kids and low income, and when [school officials] came up to me about the clinic, I knew exactly where they needed to put it — right here in this community.”

Niño knew the person in charge of school-based clinics for the hospital district and he knew the superintendent of the school district, so he put the two together. “With the help of my rotary club and the local newspaper, we sort of urged the community to start a letter writing campaign to the hospital district and asked them to make a clinic out here.”

These days, families line up outside the clinic each morning at 7 a.m. “It’s packed, every day,” says Ofelia Garza, principal of Cloverleaf Elementary School where the clinic is located. According to her, absenteeism at the school has dropped significantly since the clinic opened.

Linda Smith, MSN, a pediatric nurse practitioner at the clinic says they sometimes see 350 sick kids a month. They give a lot of vaccinations, perform well baby checks and measure lead levels in the students. Almost all of the staff is bilingual, and they keep Medicaid and CHIP applications at the desk. The clinic has become one of the busiest in the Greater Houston area.

“If it weren’t for that fellow, this place wouldn’t be here today,” Smith says of Niño, who serves as physician consultant for the clinic. For his part in opening the clinic, the local chamber of commerce named him Citizen of the Month.

Niño joined the Northshore Chapter of Rotary International in 1989, after a patient nominated him for membership, and since then he’s held every office in the club. In 1994 he was named Rotarian of the Year. “Usually, the Rotary Club members are the movers and shakers,” he says. “That’s how I get to meet the presidents of the banks and the superintendents of the schools, the representatives and the judges.

“You know, I’m doing service in my office all day long, so why stop there? In the Rotary Club, I can do things after office hours, on the weekends and I can touch other people that I can’t touch through my practice,” Niño says.

A few years back, a local boy’s home called Youth Reach Houston, where Niño sometimes makes calls, needed a building to store supplies. From time to time, the Rotary Club would help them out by donating some money, so the administration of the home asked for a donation. Niño knew the club could give the money to the boy’s home, but he also knew he had a homebuilder in the club who could get the building materials at a discount. And he knew there were some electricians and construction workers in the club. So Niño rounded up the Rotarians and set them to task. “We got the president of a college out there tacking up tar paper and other guys on the roof shingling,” Niño says, and the boys got their new garage.

“It blew us away how quick they could work,” says Kurt Williams, director of Youth Reach Houston. “They threw in together and did it in a Saturday.” He says it’s been a blessing to have Niño available for the boys, many of whom have gang- and drug-related issues and need strong role models. “It’s good also just to call him a friend,” Williams says.

In the year since Niño was named TAFP Physician of the Year, he’s been working to better the vaccination rate for the Houston area. “I’ve decided to select that as my platform, you know, like Miss America has a platform,” he says. Niño chairs the Polio Plus Committee for his entire Rotary district, a group of more than 50 clubs comprised of more than 2,000 Rotarians. He uses that position as well as the TAFP award to open doors for promotion of the Vaccine for Children Program, sponsored by the Texas Department of Health. He has contacted each of the district’s Rotary chapters to arrange for TDH to give presentations on the program at chapter meetings. He’s even given a few presentations on the subject himself.

Niño also works with the U.S. congressman representing his district, Rep. Gene Green, to put on an annual Immunization Day event. “[Niño] has channeled the resources of the Northshore Rotary Club to assist us at each location, supplying volunteers and much-needed school supplies,” Green writes in a letter of support for Niño’s recent nomination for the AAFP Physician of the Year Award.

Each year at the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo, Niño volunteers his time to the Go Tejano Committee, which sponsors a day featuring the rich Latino heritage of the rodeo. Of course, Niño takes this relationship one step further. Through his participation with this committee and his membership in the Harris County Chapter of TAFP, the two entities have come together to form the Invest in Care for Tomorrow Program, which offers mentoring and scholarships to minority students interested in medicine. Niño has mentored several students through this program, some of whom have gone on to become the first physicians in their families.

And the list goes on. For the last 19 years, Espinosa has sponsored a troop of Girl Scouts, and she and Niño are life members of the organization. Espinosa calls her husband the troop “do-dad.” He helps when they go camping and he puts on programs for the girls. He’s the camp doctor for all of their day camps.

Because the couple wants to interest the girls in science and math, they have created what they call the “Mad Scientist” routine. Niño puts on a tattered lab coat and his “Mad Scientist” name badge, and then he mixes boric acid, white glue and food coloring to make slimy “goop.”

“He’s got so many talents,” Espinosa says. “He does so much for me behind the scenes, and whenever I need money or something, he’s there, ‘How much?’” Niño enlists the scouts at the snow cone stand at Rotary Club fundraisers, and he says that since the members see the girls and interact with them, the club is eager to support the Girl Scouts with whatever they need.

“Well, both of us have been bitten by the volunteer bug,” Espinosa says, “and we know how good it feels to give back … I know part of it is because we don’t have a family — we don’t have children.” She says they made a decision not to have kids because they like the way life is with just the two of them. They like the freedom — that and Niño doesn’t like anyone messing with his stuff, according to Espinosa.

There is so much more to tell. Niño was instrumental in forming a family practice department at East Houston Regional Medical Center. He attends school events like band concerts and he mans the concession booth at sports events. Niño works the hot dog stand at Lion’s Club gatherings. He and his wife even donate first aid kits, flashlights, pens, paper, tissue and more to Cloverleaf Elementary School so that each classroom is equipped with a bucket of supplies in case an emergency or a fire drill suddenly forces the kids to exit the building.

Aside from everything else, what Niño does most is practice medicine. His soft voice and mild confidence suits him well for the task. He spends a couple of hours each day outside his practice with his patients in the hospital.

“He’s the best doctor there is on the hill, and I’ll say that right to his face,” says Edith Vance, an 83-year-old patient of Niño’s at East Houston Regional during his rounds one day. The next day, doctors would amputate her left leg above the knee, and Niño had dropped by to comfort her and allay her fears.

“You’re going to be there with me, right?” she asks.

“I’ll be there, I’ll watch out for you.”

“I’m depending on you and the good Lord,” she says.

In his 10th grade advanced classes, Niño says teachers would frequently ask students what professions they wanted to pursue. He says everyone talked about how hard it must be to be a doctor. For Niño, tests and schoolwork were easy, and he didn’t want to be bored, so he decided he wanted to be a doctor. “It’s the stupidest reason I can imagine to be a doctor,” he says.

He started working with patients in his third year of medical school and he loved it. “People tell you everything,” he says. “I’m nosy. I want to know everything.” When he was in residency, the hospital admitted a kid who had hurt his leg on some farm equipment. He spoke only Spanish, so the attending physician enlisted Niño’s help. Niño visited his patient everyday, and he says they built a bond.

When the doctor in charge was explaining treatment options to the boy’s family, they looked to Niño for a sign of approval. The attending physician noticed. “You’re already a doctor,” he told Niño.

“I thought, ‘this is fun. I can do something for these people.’ There’s not too many jobs that all you do is good for somebody else. You may not see the results, but you know in your heart you are helping.”

Part of what makes a candidate for the Physician of the Year Award is the willingness and selflessness it takes to become a part of a community and not just an inhabitant. For Niño and Espinosa, the community — the families of Channelview and Galena Park, the boy’s home and the Girl Scouts, the line outside the clinic at Cloverleaf Elementary and the people walking from place to place — these have become their children, their family.