Congratulations to Hedieh Matinrad, MD, who will serve as the new Associate Program Director for our Hospice and Palliative Medicine Fellowship. Hedieh brings to this role a proven dedication to trainee education and wellbeing and an exceptional commitment to diversity, equity, inclusion and belonging that continues to be a top priority for our fellowship program.

Hedieh completed all of her higher education and training at public institutions in California, graduating first from the University of California, San Diego with a major in physiology and neuroscience and continuing on there for medical school. She subsequently did her internal medicine residency at the Santa Clara Valley Medical Center and was part of the Social and Global Medicine track. Hedieh received multiple teaching awards during her time as a resident and was chosen to serve as a chief resident. We were fortunate that Hedieh chose to join us at UCSF for her HPM fellowship training, at the end of which she was voted HPM fellow of the year by the internal medicine residents. We were thrilled when Hedieh accepted our offer to join the faculty in the DPM on the inpatient service.

Since joining the faculty last year, Hedieh has demonstrated her exceptional administrative and leadership skills and commitment to DEI through diligent and collaborative outreach to groups that are underrepresented in medicine to provide opportunities for early palliative care exposure. She has also helped to promote DEI values in our fellowship selection process. This year she received a Cambia DPM Endowed Fund for Palliative Care Innovation to start a new program for undergraduate students who are underrepresented in medicine to get extensive palliative care clinical shadowing and mentoring experience over the summer.

Hedieh will be a wonderful addition to our fellowship leadership team to support our exceptional fellows, improve our already outstanding program, and continue to work to expand our diverse pool of applicants.