Congratulations to LCOE Faculty member, Dr. Robert Rodriguez, for being named the Research Director and Inquiry Advisor for the San Joaquin Valley Program in Medical Education (SJV PRIME). SJV PRIME is a tailored track at UCSF School of Medicine for medical students who are committed to ensuring high quality, diverse and well distributed medical care to improve health for populations, communities and individuals in California’s San Joaquin Valley.

"A second-generation Mexican American, Dr. Robert Rodriguez grew up in the border city of Brownsville, Texas. After the University of Notre Dame and Harvard Medical School, he completed a combined Emergency Medicine/Internal Medicine residency at UCLA and a Critical Care Medicine fellowship at Stanford. He joined the UCSF faculty in 2004 and currently serves as a Professor and Associate Chair of Research in the Department of Emergency Medicine.

Dr. Rodriguez’ research focuses on emergency health care access for underserved populations, especially immigrants, homeless persons and communities of color. Throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, Dr. Rodriguez led national research teams examining the effects of the pandemic on the mental health of frontline providers, vaccine hesitancy, and the disproportionate effects of the pandemic on underserved populations. During the first wave of the pandemic, he returned to his hometown to help in the ICU with a catastrophic surge of COVID-19. He has served on the Biden/Harris COVID-19 Advisory Board and as an advisor to the Congressional Hispanic Caucus. He was named the American College of Emergency Physicians Humanitarian of the Year for California in 2021."