Alicia Fernandez

Alicia Fernandez, MD is Professor of Medicine at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) in the School of Medicine, Department of Medicine. She serves as Associate Dean of Population Health and Health Equity for the UCSF School of Medicine and is a general internist at Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital (ZSFG). Dr. Fernandez is the founding Director of the UCSF Latinx Center of Excellence and the director of the Latinx and Immigrant Health Research Program at the UCSF Action Research Center (ARC) for Health Equity, also at ZSFG.

Dr. Fernandez's research expertise includes language and literacy barriers in healthcare, Latinx health, immigrant health, health care equity in chronic disease (particularly diabetes), and racism in medicine. Her work focuses on understanding social drivers of health and developing strategies for reducing health disparities through systems-level and community-based approaches. She has published extensively on these topics with over 100 publications in high-impact journals.

Her recent publications demonstrate a strong focus on language barriers in healthcare settings, digital health equity, and social determinants of health. The research spans multiple disciplines including internal medicine, public health, and implementation science, with particular attention to vulnerable populations and health disparities across numerous clinical settings from surgery to obstetrics to chronic disease management.

• Elected to the National Academy of Medicine in 2024
• Appointed to the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force in January 2025
• Board of Governors, Patient Centered Outcomes Research Institute (PCORI) (2014-present)
• Distinguished Professor of Health Equity, Society of General Internal Medicine Annual Meeting (2020)
• Thomas N. Burbridge Award for Public Service, UCSF (2021)
• COVID Heroes Award, California Senate District 11 (2021)

Dr. Fernandez has secured significant research funding from the National Institutes of Health, the Russell Sage Foundation, and The Greenwall Foundation. She has served on the American Board of Internal Medicine (ABIM) Board of Directors and has participated in advisory committees for numerous national health organizations. Her editorial work includes co-editing the Lange textbook, Medical Management of Vulnerable and Underserved Patients (2nd edition).

She leads the UCSF Latinx Center of Excellence, a HRSA and UCSF-funded initiative to increase academic diversity, and the Latinx and Immigrant Health Research Program at the UCSF Action Research Center for Health Equity, which generates actionable research to increase health equity and reduce healthcare disparities through evidence-based interventions.