Monica Vela MD, FACP

Monica Vela, MD is a Professor of Medicine and Director of the Hispanic Center of Excellence at the University of Illinois College of Medicine. She also serves as Associate Editor for JAMA Open. She is the former Associate Vice Chair for Diversity and Associate Dean at the University of Chicago Pritzker School of Medicine. She has spent the last 16 years directing a required course for first-year medical students entitled, "Health Disparities: Equity and Advocacy," which provides a structural competency foundation and advocacy training. Her coursework is the only course in the extant literature shown to improve the diversity of medical school applicants and improve the cultural climate among medical students.

Dr. Vela has been selected by Pritzker students for a Favorite Faculty Award 9 times since 2010 for her teaching. Her research spans medical education on health disparities and care of limited-English proficiency patients, as well as diversity in the medical profession. In 2012, she won the American College of Physicians' National Award for Diversity and Access to Care. In 2014, she was awarded the Society of General Internal Medicine National Herbert Nickens Award for Diversity and Minority Health as well as the inaugural Alpha Omega Alpha Fellow in Leadership Award. Also that year, she was awarded the University of Chicago Distinguished Faculty Award for Community Service. She was awarded the 2019 University of Chicago Diversity Leadership Award and was honored during the University's annual Martin Luther King, Jr. commemoration.