April 8, 2021

We are delighted to announce the appointment of Felipe D. Perez, MD, Clinical Assistant Professor of Anesthesiology, as Stanford School of Medicine’s inaugural Assistant Dean for Diversity in Undergraduate Medical Education within the Office of Diversity in Medical Education (ODME).

A board-certified anesthesiologist and pediatric anesthesiologist, Dr. Perez is widely recognized for his unwavering commitment and multifaceted approach to cultivating diversity, equity, and inclusion. Throughout a career marked by public health policy leadership, he has conducted innovative health disparity research and served as a dedicated mentor to countless medical students and early-career physicians.

At Stanford, Dr. Perez founded and helps lead the Stanford Anesthesiology Diversity Council and also serves as the Anesthesiology Liaison to the Office of Faculty Development and Diversity. As part of his efforts to affect change more broadly, he chairs the California Society of Anesthesiologists’ Legislative Affairs Committee and founded its Justice, Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion Committee. He also serves as the communication director for the Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Committee of the Society of Pediatric Anesthesia and is a fellow of the American Academy of Pediatrics.

In his research, Dr. Perez focuses on health equity and on medical education. He received the prestigious ODME Faculty Fellows Grant to study the associations of race and ethnicity with postoperative analgesic administration and pain scores at Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital Stanford. This work will help guide further investigations into how a child’s pain is assessed or treated after surgery. 

Dr. Perez is a gifted teacher who devotes considerable time to advising premedical and medical students, as well as residents and pediatric anesthesiology fellows. He is the co-director of the Anesthesiology Stanford Clinical Opportunity for Residency Experience (SCORE) program and is a steering committee member of the Leadership Education in Advancing Diversity (LEAD) program. In recognition of these efforts and more, Dr. Perez received the Gold Foundation Award for Humanism and Excellence in Teaching in 2015, earned the G. Brant Walton Resident Award for Teaching Excellence in 2018, and was named Pediatric Anesthesiology Faculty of the Year in 2020. He received his bachelor’s and MD degrees from Stanford University.

As Assistant Dean for Diversity in Undergraduate Medical Education, Dr. Perez, who began his appointment March 1, reports to Associate Dean for Diversity in Medical Education Reena Thomas, MD, PhD. The School of Medicine established the Office of Diversity in Medical Education last year to further existing efforts to build a more diverse medical workforce, amplify the core tenets of an inclusive community, and advocate for equity to support individuals from communities that are underrepresented in medicine.