Behnoosh Afghani

Behnoosh Afghani, MD is a Clinical Professor of Pediatrics at the University of California, Irvine School of Medicine. She holds leadership roles as Director of Fourth Year Medical Student Pediatric Rotations, Director of the Summer Online Research Program, and Director of the UCI CHOC Residency STAR Scholar Program. Her work focuses on medical education innovation and diversity initiatives.

Her research interests center on improving healthcare workforce diversity through structured enrichment programs. She pioneered the Summer Premed Program which exposed 418 high school students (19.4% underrepresented minorities) to medical school experiences from 2012-2014, demonstrating high program satisfaction (89% evaluation completion rate).

Key contributions include publishing impactful work on cascading mentorship models and program evaluation metrics. Current efforts emphasize scalable educational programs that foster belonging and professional development for underrepresented students.