Meet Dr. Arthur Gomez, COM’ s new Senior Associate Dean
On the face of it, the appointment of Dr. Arthur Gomez as Senior Associate Dean responsible for helping to lead the new CDU MD program seems like a perfect fit. His family background alone is a textbook example of a people who encountered debilitating healthcare disparities. Those experiences spurred him to become a distinguished physician and champion of people affected by the varied social determinants of health that plague most urban communities.
Both of Dr. Gomez’ s grandparents were Mexican immigrants who met in the Florence-Firestone neighborhood bordering South LA and South Gate. Grandma was a nanny and grandpa a gardener when they met. Their quest for a better life initially took them to the Bakersfield area where they worked as farmworkers. Later, they returned to Florence- Firestone. Dr. Gomez’ s Mom and Dad met in the vicinity and the extended family lived at 60th Street and Holmes Avenue, in the deep‘ hood.
The family subsequently moved to Orange County looking for the proverbial better life, where young Arthur and his two brothers experienced bullying as the only brown children in the neighborhood. But, as Dr. Gomez notes, some solace was provided by a supportive family physician who counseled his father to stand up for himself on the job, a courageous choice for an itinerant welder.
That bit of wisdom resonated, as did Dr. Gomez observing the counter of that experience in the form of indifferent physicians who treated his grandmother for a brittle form of diabetes.“ She had a very complicated regimen of medications that were never well explained to her because the physicians did not speak Spanish. Consequently, by not fully understanding the proper treatment protocols, she contracted blindness, which ended her dream of successfully operating the family restaurant. That circumstance, in combination with my mother’ s own trial of having developed Parkinson’ s later on, really gave me the impetus to be a physician,” noted Dr. Gomez.
He attended UCI undergrad and the UCLA School of Medicine. His residency was conducted at the VA Medical Center Residency Hospital.“ At UC Irvine, I was a biology major. And at that time, I was very interested in an academic career in research. I did research under the tutelage of Dr. Luis de la Maza, a Spaniard who did pathology research. I really enjoyed the molecular nature of the work. We created clones from DNA. I also started volunteering at the UCI Medical Center in the emergency room.
“ And through these experiences, both with the sciences and my volunteer experiences in the emergency room. I ended up translating a lot for Spanish speaking patients in the emergency room. I really enjoyed that. I decided to apply to medical school. I got into UC Irvine but I also got into UCLA and I thought,‘ well, UCLA sounds kind of interesting’, and would be a good way as in a person in their 20s even though culturally we like to be close to our family.
“ I ended up really enjoying my time in family medicine,
CDU College of Medicine | PG. 6