Freddy Ferguson, MD

Hey people! My name is Freddy and I am honored to be presenting minority medical education issues as part of UCLA’s inaugural Minority House Staff Organization. I am originally from Greensboro, NC where I first was educated regarding the differences in medical (and other) treatment of minority individuals. As an undergraduate student at UNC Chapel Hill, I quickly joined the Bonners Leaders Program and worked in an underserved community as a tutor for their after school program. Here, my understanding of the health effects of race began to develop as I saw first hand how food insecurities contributed to family and community health disparities. This prompted my interest in family medicine which only grew as I started my medical training at the UCLA/Charles Drew Education Program.

As an outsider to the LA community, Drew was pivotal in my understanding of not only LA health disparities but the cultural context in which these disparities arose. I continued my social justice work through resident run homeless clinics, various research endeavors, and continuing to emphasize the importance of primary care and family medicine as a tool to help combat health inequalities.

The rich history (food, weather, and people) has taken root in me and I was so happy to have matched at UCLA to continue a lot of these efforts, now through the MHO. Through the Health System Equity Committee, we hope to expand UCLA services to those already marginalized and advocate for residents with like minded passions.

I also love cooking/baking, traveling around California and abroad, beach time, and riding my bike when I can. I am on the peloton so let me know if you wanna ride together sometime!