Dr. Martha P. Vega is a physician-scientist with expertise in global health, global surgery, rural health, and mobile health. She completed her medical training through the Universidad Autónoma de Guadalajara’s international medical program in partnership with New York Medical College. Her commitment to mobile health took shape during medical school, when she volunteered with programs delivering free primary care to rural and marginalized communities in Mexico. Motivated by a deep commitment to research and global health, she subsequently earned a Master of Medical Sciences in Global Health Delivery from Harvard Medical School. There, she strengthened her research expertise through original work examining barriers to surgical care in rural communities across Ecuador’s Andean, Amazonian, and coastal regions. Her findings informed policy recommendations aimed at expanding surgical access in these communities.

A defining milestone in her global health career was her selection as a Paul Farmer Global Surgery Research Fellow with Boston Children’s Hospital and Harvard Medical School’s Program in Global Surgery and Social Change. In this role, she focused on expanding access to surgical care in low- and middle-income countries. As a member of the Lancet Commission on Global Surgery’s Management Working Group, she developed geospatial maps depicting nationwide access to anesthesia and surgical services in countries across Africa, Asia, and Europe. In Ecuador, she led research initiatives with the Cinterandes Mobile Surgery Foundation and participated in missions that delivered free surgical care to rural and remote communities through a mobile surgical unit. She has also cultivated and managed international partnerships among local communities, governmental and nongovernmental stakeholders, and academic institutions to advance research and public health initiatives. Her work has been published in scientific journals and presented at prominent national and international conferences.

Martha’s dedication to serving vulnerable and Indigenous communities is rooted in her upbringing and undergraduate education at UC San Diego. Born in Lima, Peru, where she spent part of her childhood, and visiting her grandmother’s Andean town of Tantará in Huancavelica Province gave her an early understanding of the close relationship between poverty, illness, and suffering. Inspired by her Indigenous heritage, she conducted ethnomedical research in partnership with Indigenous communities in Mexico and Peru, documenting medicinal plant use and traditional healing practices.

Extensive fieldwork across diverse settings and populations has further refined her research and career objectives.

“Patient care extends far beyond the walls of a consultation room or operating theater. Political decisions, social structures, and the built environment directly shape the health of individuals, families, and communities. The EMPH program will equip me with expertise in healthcare policy, financing, and management to address health disparities more effectively. Advancing health justice for underserved communities requires confronting the structural violence embedded in our healthcare system through evidence-based, clinically sound, and culturally informed research and policymaking.”

Martha immigrated to Los Angeles, where she was raised. She now returns to the University of California with a renewed commitment to serving her community. Through the Executive Master of Public Health (EMPH) in Health Policy and Management at UCLA’s Fielding School of Public Health, Martha is developing the expertise needed to address persistent health disparities in California’s historically underserved communities.