Dr. Manuel Penton completed medical school and residency training in pediatrics at the University of South Florida. He completed a fellowship in pediatric infectious diseases at SUNY Downstate Health Sciences University in Brooklyn, New York. Toward the end of his tenure in Brooklyn, the COVID-19 pandemic began and he helped care for adults and children affected by the coronavirus. Later, Dr. Penton worked in public health in San Francisco as a staff physician at the city’s tuberculosis clinic.