Professor of Medicine
M_MED-ZSFG-DGIM

Alicia Fernandez, M.D., is a Professor of Medicine at UCSF and a general internist at Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital. She also serves as the Associate Dean of Population Health and Health Equity for the UCSF School of Medicine. Dr. Fernandez is the founding Director of the UCSF Latinx Center of Excellence, a groundbreaking initiative funded by HRSA , UCSF and philanthropy to promote academic diversity and support the success of Latinx medical professionals. Additionally, she leads the Latinx and Immigrant Health Research Program at the UCSF Action Resource Center (former CVP), where her team focuses on generating actionable research to advance health equity and reduce healthcare disparities.

Dr. Fernandez’s research centers on healthcare equity, with a particular emphasis on understanding how language, literacy, and cultural barriers impact outcomes in cardiometabolic disease care, patient experience, and patient-clinician trust. Her work has been supported by numerous funders, including the National Institutes of Health, the Russell Sage Foundation, and The Greenwall Foundation. She is also an editor of Medical Management of Vulnerable and Underserved Patients, a textbook in the Lange series that addresses critical issues in caring for low-income populations.

Nationally, Dr. Fernandez contributes her expertise through service on the Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute (PCORI) Board of Governors and the American Board of Internal Medicine (ABIM) Board of Directors. She has also participated in NIH and Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) study sections, as well as advisory committees for leading organizations such as the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and the National Academy of Medicine. In 2024, Dr. Fernandez was elected to the National Academy of Medicine, a recognition of her contributions to medicine and public health. She was appointed to the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force in January 2025.

Publications

JAMA Health Forum

Physician–Public Health Practitioners—The Missing Academic Medicine Career Track

Kirsten Bibbins-Domingo, PhD, MD, MAS; Alicia Fernandez, MD

Health Literacy and Power.

Health literacy research and practice

Paasche-Orlow MK, Schillinger D, Weiss BD, Bickmore T, Cabral H, Chang P, Bailey SC, Dewalt DA, Fernandez A, Fransen M, Leung A, McCaffery K, Meade CD, McCormack LA, Protheroe J, Parker R, Rothman R, Rubin D, Rudd R, Sørensen K, Von Wagner C, Wolf MS, Yin HS, Ownby RL

Research in the Sociology of Health Care

"It's not the doctor - it's me." How self-blame obscures language and other structural barriers to diabetes care mong low-income Latinos with limited English Proficiency.

Chaufan C, Fielding H, Chesla C, Fernandez A.

Educacion Medica

Residentes de primer ano de Medicina Interna: distribucion horaria de las tareas

Majdalani M, Mejia R, Fayanas R, Fernandez A, Perez-Stable EJ

Heart Failure

Anticoagulation in Patients with Heart Failure and Atrial Fibrillation

Fernandez A and Goldschlager N