School of Medicine News - A Community-Based Medical School for the 21st Century

“The Embodiment of Our Mission”: Antonio Garcia, MD

Erika Klein — Mon, 24 Feb 2025 00:00:00 -0800

Every day in the office is different for Antonio Garcia, MD, a family medicine physician in Riverside and an alumnus of UC Riverside School of Medicine. “One day, you’re treating a teenager, the next thing you know, you’re removing a skin tag or doing an abscess drainage, and next you’re talking about diabetes,” he said. “People think family medicine is boring, but it's a lot of fun because you get to see a wide variety of things.”

SOM Alum Joins 47th Season of Survivor

UCR SOM Staff — Tue, 17 Sep 2024 00:00:00 -0700

Becoming a Mentor, a Mother, and a Physician

Erika Klein — Thu, 30 May 2024 00:00:00 -0700

Growing up as an undocumented immigrant, Violeta Covarrubias feared going to the doctor with her family in case the visit led to deportation. After obtaining her American permanent residency as a teenager, Covarrubias enrolled at UCLA as an undergraduate, where she volunteered in hospitals and noticed patients in similar situations.

Researching Health Issues in the Salton Sea--and Finding Solutions

Erika Klein — Wed, 29 May 2024 00:00:00 -0700

When Keziyah Yisrael, biomedical sciences class of 2024 began working on PhD research focused on the Salton Sea, she had no idea that the project would become an enduring passion and the likely basis for her career.

From the SOM IT Department to a Biomedical Sciences PhD

Erika Klein — Thu, 23 May 2024 00:00:00 -0700

As a high school student, Pedro Villa, PhD, began dreaming of a career in medicine after his grandfather was diagnosed with cancer. Yet just as he was set to receive his bachelor’s degree from UC Riverside in 2012, financial and caregiving challenges blocked his path toward medical school.

Limon-Rocha Named Chair of SOM Admissions Committee

Ross French — Wed, 30 Aug 2023 00:00:00 -0700

Peter Igarashi, MD to Return to UCR to Provide Keynote Address at Commencement and Hippocratic Oath Ceremony

Ross French — Wed, 05 Apr 2023 00:00:00 -0700

Class of 2023 Profile: Aislyn Oulee

UC Office of the President Newsroom — Thu, 16 Mar 2023 00:00:00 -0700

Reposted from the University of California news story profiling California's Next Doctors, which includes students from all of medical schools. Inequality can be hard to hide in Aislyn Oulee’s chosen field, dermatology. Having grown up in São Paulo, Brazil, Oulee frequently encountered people on the streets with debilitating skin ailments; left untreated, they were both painful and a source of shame and social stigma.

Class of 2023 Profile: Skylar Rains

UC Office of the President Newsroom — Wed, 15 Mar 2023 00:00:00 -0700

Reposted from the University of California news story profiling California's Next Doctors, which includes students from all of medical schools. Throughout Skylar Rains’ early childhood, her mom struggled with a chronic illness, and Rains spent a lot of time shuttling back and forth with her to the doctor. She was nine when her mom passed away during surgery.

Hernandez Receives Predoctorate Fellowship from American Heart Association

Ross French — Wed, 14 Dec 2022 00:00:00 -0800

Love & Research

Ross French — Tue, 20 Sep 2022 00:00:00 -0700

During one of the first meetings after Stephanie Guardado joined the UC Riverside School of Medicine’s Biomedical Sciences Ph.D. program from Cal Poly Pomona in 2016, one of her  faculty members casually mentioned that there was a chance that the students might be sitting in the room with their future spouse. Stephanie remembers quietly scoffing at the idea. To be fair, she was technically correct as it was a full year before her now-husband Edward Vizcarra joined the program in 2017.

Persevering Through Loss to Serve Other Veterans

Erika Klein — Wed, 01 Jun 2022 00:00:00 -0700

This piece is part of a series highlighting members of the School of Medicine’s 2022 graduating class. Seeing a doctor extract fluid from the lungs may not attract most people to medicine, but the thoracentesis procedure fascinated U.S. Navy veteran Maria Guerrero. “He knew where to put the needle without puncturing the liver or the diaphragm, all without imaging,” Guerrero, a pre-nursing student at the time, recalled. Intrigued by the doctor’s knowledge of anatomy, she decided to go to medical school. However, her route was both indirect and challenging.

Antonio Garcia, Class of 2020

Ross French — Thu, 28 Feb 2019 00:00:00 -0800

Antonio Garcia, one of 12 children, is in his third year at the UCR School of Medicine. Garcia, who grew up in Anaheim, Calif., thought he would be a professional boxer like several of his siblings, but a program for gifted students at his high school set him on the path to college at University of California, Irvine. There, a chance encounter with a group called Chicanos and Latinos for Community Medicine pointed him toward a doctor’s degree.