Maria Garcia-Jimenez, MD, MHS

Dr. Maria Garcia-Jimenez, MD/MHS, is in her final year of hematology/oncology fellowship at UCLA David Geffen School of Medicine and serving as the Chief Fellow. She attended the UC Berkeley/UC San Francisco Joint Medical Program for medical school and obtained a Master of Health Science along with her Medical Degree. As a Mexican immigrant, her career in medicine has always been guided by seeking opportunities to contribute to eliminating health disparities, especially for racial/ethnic minority and limited English proficiency patients. Through her master’s thesis work she became particularly interested in cancer health disparities and medical oncology. She is actively involved in cancer health equity research addressing disparities for racial/ethnic minority patients with cancer in end-of-life care and clinical trial participation. She is a recipient of the Robert A. Winn Career Development award. With the support of this award she is developing culturally appropriate, patient centered interventions and cancer center level interventions that will improve access to and enrollment in clinical trials by Latinx and limited English proficiency patients in Los Angeles County. Her clinical interests include gynecologic cancers and breast cancer. She will be staying at UCLA and the Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center after graduation from fellowship to continue her research, and cancer health equity work, while caring for patients at Olive View Medical Center (OVMC) and serving at the OVMC Director of Oncology Research. Through patient care, researcher, leadership, and community engagement she aims to promote cancer care access and self-advocacy among Latinx and Spanish-speaking patients.