José Alberto Arévalo, M.D., has received the California Medical Association (CMA) Foundation 2013 Ethnic Physician Leadership Award. He was presented with the award last night during the association’s annual awards gala at the Marriott Hotel in Anaheim.

Dr. Arévalo is a board-certified family physician who has founded many programs designed to recruit, retain and support Latino doctors and health professionals. While Dr. Arévalo served as Director of the Medical Student Education Program within the University of California, Davis School of Medicine Department of Family Practice, he established the Minority Initiative Program, which offered peer mentoring and workshops to minority students in medical school.

He was also the lead administrative physician for Clinica Tepati, a student-run health care clinic serving Spanish-speaking Latinos in Sacramento County. While in medical school, he helped form California La Raza Medical Association, an organization that encourages Latinos to apply to medical school. He is currently the Medical Director for Sutter Independent Physicians in the Sacramento region.

Raised in San Antonio, Texas, Dr. Arévalo graduated from the University of California, Berkeley and Stanford Medical School. He completed his residency in family practice at the University of California, San Francisco. His first experience in the medical field was during the Vietnam War when he trained as a U.S. Navy Hospital corpsman.

Dr. Arévalo is the president and founding member of Latino Physicians of California. He is the immediate past president/chair and founding member of the Sacramento Latino Medical Association. He is also immediate past chair of the California Medical Association Foundation’s Network of Ethnic Physicians Organizations and the president-elect of the Sierra Sacramento Valley Medical Society.

Dr. Arévalo was the first winner of the California Latino Medical Association Lifetime Achievement Award for Outstanding Contributions to Latino Health Issues. He was selected as the Champion of Health Professions Diversity Award by the California Wellness Foundation and the winner of the Leadership in Hispanic Health Award given by the National Hispanic Health Foundation.