ElevateMeD Scholar: Dante Puntiel

Meet Dante Puntiel

ElevateMeD Scholar 2025-26

Dante Puntiel shares the devastating outcomes that underserved communities face when they lack access to preventative care and how it fuels his determination to advocate for them and make a difference.

• Hometown: Perth Amboy, New Jersey

• Medical Education: Temple University Lewis Katz School of Medicine

• Undergraduate Education: Rutgers University - Newark in Biology

• Current Career Plan: Work in a career where I am able to split my time between the Intensive Care Unit, community engagement work, and mentorship.

• Specialty Interest: Emergency Medicine

• I am most proud of co-founding The Learning Garden, a community-based initiative that provides fresh produce to patients at a local HIV clinic and nearby food pantries. What began as a small garden has expanded into a sustainable program that engages local high school students and includes weekly health education materials featuring nutrition facts and culturally relevant recipes. Leading this project from the ground up has taught me how to build partnerships, engage underserved communities, and address the root causes of health inequity. It continues to be a reminder that meaningful change in medicine often starts outside the clinic walls.

• You might be surprised to know that I used to want to be a marine biologist, with a specific fascination for sharks. As a kid, I’d spend hours researching different species and collecting shark teeth, trying to identify which species each tooth came from based on its shape and size. I was captivated by how much you could learn from a single tooth—how it reflected a shark’s diet, behavior, and evolution. While my path eventually led me to medicine, that early curiosity and love for discovery has never left me.

• ElevateMeD is… more than just a scholarship program—it’s a powerful platform for empowering the next generation of diverse physician leaders. ElevateMeD recognizes that financial support is just one piece of the puzzle; true transformation comes from mentorship, representation, and a commitment to equity in medicine. By investing in students who are historically underrepresented, ElevateMeD is actively working to reshape the future of healthcare—one that is more inclusive, compassionate, and reflective of the communities we serve. To me, ElevateMeD represents opportunity, support, and the belief that our lived experiences are not obstacles but assets in medicine.