Meet Rubi Gasca: UTEP’s 2023 College of Health Sciences Gold Nugget Recipient

Published September 11, 2023                                                                                              By Julia Hettiger

If you’re like most El Pasoans, you can remember where you were when the first positive COVID-19 test was reported in the borderland on March 13, 2020. What you might not know is that the woman who administered the test is Martha “Rubi” Gasca, a UTEP clinical laboratory sciences graduate and this year’s College of Health Sciences Gold Nugget awardee.

“Rubi is a deserving College of Health Sciences Gold Nugget because she not only gives back to UTEP, her alma mater, but she has protected hundreds of thousands of lives in El Paso and the surrounding area by being responsible for the COVID testing in the Paso del Norte region during the pandemic,” said William Robertson, Ph.D., dean of the College of Health Sciences. “She is a great ambassador of UTEP and the College of Health Sciences, a person of incredible impact and altruism who continues to contribute to the education of the next generation of clinical laboratory scientists.”

Just like our lives were forever changed, so, too, were the lives of health care workers like Gasca, who after recording that first positive test that fateful Friday, spent 26 straight days working to protect our community’s health in the early days of the pandemic – just one of the many ways she has supported El Pasoans in her storied career.

“I want to say about two o’clock was when I first got the positive, and then I reran the patient a second time to confirm,” Gasca said. “And my boss came by and said, ‘You do realize that by you declaring this a positive, it’s going to change. Everything is going to change.’ And I guess that’s kind of when it hit me. Everyone’s relying on my result for this, and I remember the mayor was there, the city manager, the Office of Emergency Management, the Director of Public Health and my boss – they were all there and reading that result. It was surreal.”

Working for the Laboratory Response Network with the City of El Paso’s Department of Public Health, Gasca was on the frontline of the pandemic, helping to ensure El Pasoans had access to tests and that information such as positive test results was available to the public as quickly as possible. She was also instrumental in designating UTEP as a testing site, helping to further expand access to testing.

As a public health worker, her job was focused on emergency management and emerging diseases at a time when a new disease was completely shifting our known way of life. Gasca’s dedication to her community and the support of her coworkers kept her going. But the hardest part for her was coming home to her two daughters every day after work and having to maintain distance for a reason they were too young to understand.

“I’d get home, and they’d want to hug me,” Gasca said. “I couldn’t. Not being able to show my fear to them was the hardest part. But then waking up at six in the morning to go back to work and knowing what I had to do for the community, that’s what kept me going.”

Gasca always knew she wanted to help people. She originally planned to become a doctor and was even accepted to the pre-med program at the University of Arizona. However, she decided to change course and enrolled at UTEP as a health promotion major. It wasn’t until she’d attended a career fair at UTEP that she learned about the clinical laboratory science field, which is dedicated to performing various molecular and biological procedures to aid the diagnosis and prevention of diseases.

“It dawned on me that [clinical laboratory sciences] was really the avenue I wanted to go medical-wise because I’ve wanted to be a doctor my whole life, but I’m pretty introverted,” Gasca said. “So being able to help people on the backend of it or behind the scenes was more my vibe.”

But just because it wasn’t medical school didn’t mean the clinical laboratory sciences program wasn’t challenging. Taking courses like hematology, infectious diseases and labs dedicated to studying bodily fluids, students are challenged to better understand the way human bodies operate and respond to various diseases.

“They let us know it was going to be an intense program,” Gasca said. “You have to give it your all, but they gave us a lot of guidance and opportunities to meet with study groups and professors.”

As part of the program, students must also undergo preceptorships, which Gasca describes as a long, tough job interview.

“From day one, they’re watching everything you do,” Gasca said. “You have to go in there enthusiastic and ready to learn. A lot of students right out of graduation get hired at a lot of these hospitals [conducting the preceptorships]. It’s really cool we have the opportunity to showcase who we are and learn our profession while still being in school.”

As a graduate, Gasca remains connected to the UTEP community. She frequently speaks on various topics to classes within the clinical laboratory sciences program and also performs preceptorships for current students, guiding them through the “tough interview.”

After graduating from UTEP, Gasca worked as a medical technologist with the El Paso Children’s Hospital and with a small, rural hospital in Eagle Pass, Texas, about two hours outside of San Antonio. Switching gears to a more public health-related role, Gasca was hired by the City of El Paso to perform Zika testing before being hired by the Laboratory Response Network, a branch of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. It was there that she helped the community respond to the pandemic and where she received her nomination for the Gold Nugget Award, given to alumni who have excelled in their professions, given back to their communities and alma mater, and who serve as role models for current and future Miners.

When Gasca received the call that she had been chosen for the award, she found herself in a state of disbelief.

“When [Dean Robertson] called, I couldn’t believe it,” Gasca said. “It was humbling. It took me a while to accept it because I felt like there are people that have done way more than me, who really deserved the award.”

Reflecting on the past three years, the challenges brought on by the pandemic, and the work and dedication Gasca put into her role, she no longer feels this way.

“Now, I’m trying to own it because I’m looking back at everything I did,” Gasca said. “I’m telling myself over and over again, ‘Yes, I did that. Yes, I did that.’”

To learn more about this year’s Gold Nugget awardees, please visit https://www.utep.edu/newsfeed/2023/utep-announces-2023-distinguished-alumni-gold-nugget-awardees.html.