UCSF School of Medicine Names Michael W. Peterson, MD, as Associate Dean at UCSF Fresno

Fresno, CA – Michael W. Peterson, MD, has been appointed associate dean of the UCSF Fresno Medical Education Program, effective April 1, 2016. He has served as interim associate dean since January 1, 2015. Dr. Peterson has been chief of medicine at UCSF Fresno for the past 14 years, and he serves as vice chair in the Department of Medicine at UCSF. His clinical and research focus is in pulmonary and critical care medicine. In his role as associate dean, Dr. Peterson will oversee the continued development of the clinical and academic programs of UCSF Fresno.
Dr. Peterson came to Fresno in 2002 from the University of Iowa College of Medicine, where he worked for twenty years and held the Dr. William and Sondra Myers Family Professorship. Peterson was recruited to UCSF Fresno as the Valley Medical Foundation Professor of Medicine, UCSF Fresno Chief of Medicine and UCSF Vice Chair of Medicine.
During his tenure in Fresno, he has overseen the growth of the Medicine Residency Program from 45 trainees to its current 68 trainees and the development of seven subspecialty fellowships, with 37 current fellows in training. He also successfully led the fundraising effort to build out the UCSF Fresno Clinical Research Center, which opened in 2013.
He received both his undergraduate and medical degrees from the University of Minnesota and completed his residency in internal medicine at the University of Wisconsin. He is a Fellow of the American College of Physicians and the American College of Chest Physicians and a leading member of the California Thoracic Society, the largest state organization of lung specialists in the United States. He was also a founding member, councilor and president for the Association of Chiefs and Chairs of Medicine. He is a consummate physician and teacher and has won numerous awards in both areas, including being named one of America’s Best Doctors every year since 2010.
The UCSF Fresno Medical Education Program was created as a regional campus of UCSF in 1975 with the support of the California Legislature and the Veteran’s Administration to address the severe shortage of physicians in California’s San Joaquin Valley.  The program celebrated its 40th anniversary in 2015. Currently, it trains about 250 medical residents and 50 subspecialty fellows, along with more than 250 medical students, who spend time in the valley to work with rural patients and patients in a variety of clinical settings from large hospitals to small clinics. Faculty members at UCSF Fresno provide direct patient care to thousands of San Joaquin Valley community members.
UCSF Fresno also works with a number of partners to prepare a pipeline of underrepresented students for careers in health and medicine and to conduct medical research involving health issues that impact Valley residents.

“I have every confidence that Dr. Peterson will lead UCSF Fresno with vision, vigor and commitment. He will continue to be a trusted leader within the Department of Medicine and the school. Please join me in congratulating Dr. Peterson on his appointment,” stated Talmadge E. King, Jr., MD, Dean, School of Medicine| University of California San Francisco (UCSF).

Dr. Peterson also serves on the Board for California Health Sciences University.
About UCSF Fresno: UCSF Fresno Medical Education Program, established in 1975, plays a substantial role in providing health care to residents of California’s San Joaquin Valley and training medical professionals in the region. UCSF Fresno is the San Joaquin Valley’s largest physician training program. Annually, UCSF Fresno currently trains approximately 250 medical residents (medical school graduates who are training under senior faculty physicians prior to practicing on their own) in eight specialties, 10 oral and maxillofacial surgery dental residents, 50 medical fellows (physicians who are completing training beyond residency) in 17 subspecialties and about 300 medical students (students in the process of earning medical degrees) on a rotating basis. One-third of the physicians trained by UCSF Fresno stay in the region to provide UCSF care in the Valley. Thanks to the expertise of faculty physicians at UCSF Fresno, in many cases, travel outside of the region is no longer necessary for patients seeking specialty medical care.  UCSF Fresno faculty and medical residents engage in a broad spectrum of research addressing health issues pertinent to the Valley. UCSF Fresno faculty and residents also care for the overwhelming majority of the region’s underserved populations. In addition, UCSF Fresno helps prepare middle, high school and college students for careers in health and medicine through a variety of pipeline programs.
For more information please visit:
http://www.fresno.ucsf.edu/
http://www.fresno.ucsf.edu/ahec/
http://www.fresno.ucsf.edu/latinocenter/
http://www.fresno.ucsf.edu/pharmacy/
http://www.fresno.ucsf.edu/sbi/
About UCSF: UCSF is a leading university dedicated to transforming health worldwide through advanced biomedical research, graduate-level education in the life sciences and health professions, and excellence in patient care. Founded in 1864 as a medical college, UCSF now includes top-ranked graduate schools of dentistry, medicine, nursing and pharmacy; a graduate division with world-renowned programs in the biological sciences, a preeminent biomedical research enterprise and top-tier hospitals, UCSF Medical Center and UCSF Benioff Children’s Hospitals. Please visit https://www.ucsf.edu/ for more information.