Stylized image of Dr. King with text: NYU's 19th annual MLK Week, February 5-9

2024 Award Recipient

Headshot - Luis Belén

Luis Belén

Chief Executive Officer, National HIT Collaborative for the Underserved, Inc. (NHIT®)

Luis Belén (CAS '98) is a health and health policy executive leader with experience catalyzing change at the highest levels of government and industry by building coalitions, influencing policy, supporting entrepreneurship, and implementing solutions at the intersection of technology and health equity.

Belén is the executive director of the National HIT Collaborative for the Underserved, Inc. (NHIT®), a 501(c)3 non-profit organization established in 2008 by the Federal Government. NHIT is the nation’s preeminent organization focused on achieving health equity and building thriving communities through catalyzing the development and use of health information technology through the organization’s five pillars: workforce, innovation, policy, research, and community.

He is responsible for leading the NHIT Care Campaign® in Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands’ stakeholder engagement efforts with the White House, Capitol Hill, and public/private/community partners; NHIT’s national initiatives; and key convenings such as the NHIT summits, congressional briefings, and the Community Transformation Forum. Belén leads the collaboration with Amazon Web Services and Tyler Technologies, which launched the NHIT Data Fusion Center to tackle and translate social determinants of health data into actionable insights. He also manages the partnership with Sanitas, which established “The Alliance” in 2021 to offer a comprehensive model of healthcare that provides health equity, compassion, and well-being to patients in underserved and rural communities.

Belén co-created and co-founded Grupo21 in 2020 and the Telehealth Equity Coalition in 2021, and also co-founded HIMSS Latino in 2011. He served on the Morehouse School of Medicine’s Trans-disciplinary Collaborative Center’s Health Information Technology Policy Advisory Board under the leadership of Former United States Surgeon General David Satcher. He also served on the Health IT Policy Committee’s Consumer Workgroup, and the Health Datapalooza Steering Committee.

Belén obtained his Bachelor of Arts degree from New York University and attended the A Better Chance program in Swarthmore, PA.


The Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Humanitarian Award is annually presented to a humanitarian within the NYU community who embodies and exemplifies the characteristics promoted by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.—"a vision of peace, persistence in purpose, and inspirational action." The recipient must be an NYU alumnus or alumna, or a current NYU faculty or staff member.

The 2024 Humanitarian Award recipient will be celebrated during NYU MLK Week (February 5–9) and honored at the University-Wide Event on Thursday, February 8, 2024.