Monica Vela, MD
Director, Hispanic Center of Excellence
Professor of Medicine, Department of Medicine, Division of Academic Internal Medicine and Geriatrics
Department of Medical Education, Department of Medicine
Contact
Address:
801 West Taylor, Chicago IL 60612
Office Phone:
Email:
About
Dr. Monica Vela joined the University of Illinois College of Medicine in 2021. She is a tenured Professor of Medicine in the Department of Medicine and the Department of Medical Education. She serves as Director of the Hispanic Center of Excellence. She is a HRSA-funded investigator and is an Associate Editor for JAMA Network Open where she directs a Health Equity Editorial Fellowship. She is a member of the AAMC Committee for Holistic Review and served the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education as an Equity Matters Program facilitator.
She is the former Associate Vice Chair for Diversity and Associate Dean at University of Chicago Pritzker School of Medicine. She has delivered over 100 invited regional and national presentations and published over 50 peer reviewed articles related to physician workforce diversity, health equity, and medical education in such journals as JAMA, Lancet, New England Journal, Pediatrics and Academic Medicine. Her work has been cited in the Supreme Courts writ Fisher vs University of Texas at Austin and the more recent writ Students for Fair Admissions, Inc v. President and Fellows of Harvard College (the most important writs to date on the use of race in admissions processes in higher education).
Major awards include the 2012 National Award for Diversity and Access to Care, American College of Physicians, 2014 National Nickens Award for Diversity and Minority Health, SGIM, 2014 AOA National Fellow in Leadership Award (Inaugural), 2014 Distinguished Faculty Award for Community Service and Advocacy, University of Chicago, 2017 University of Chicago’s Biological Science Division Distinguished Senior Faculty Award: Diversity and Inclusion, 2019 UChicago Campus Wide Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Diversity Leadership Award, 2019 Phil De Chavez LMSA National Mentor of the Year Award, and the University of Chicago Pritzker School of Medicine Favorite Faculty Teaching Award selected by 14 distinct graduating classes at the University of Chicago in 15 years.