Jester Galiza, MD

Jester (He/him/his) is from ‘Ewa Beach, Hawai’i, which is on the island of ‘Oahu, and is a product of two Filipino immigrant rice farm workers. After graduating from Dartmouth College, he took a detour from pursuing a career in medicine when he discovered Teach For America (TFA) – Hawai’i, a program dedicated to social justice and educational equity. Through the program, he returned to his hometown, taught 10th grade math at his alma mater, and obtained a Master of Education. After teaching, he continued working for the program wearing multiple hats, from coaching new math teachers to facilitating sessions in diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI). Eventually, he found his way back to medicine and attended the John A. Burns School of Medicine at the University of Hawai’i, where he leveraged his passions for education and DEI to bring legislative advocacy, activism, and community engagement to the forefront of his and his classmates’ medical school education. 

Jester found Med-Peds through his passion for primary care. It was important for him to be able to advocate and manage the care for his patients with a wide variety and complexity of problems encountered in all stages of life. After residency, Jester aspires to be a primary care doctor in his home state of Hawai’i, serving disadvantaged populations and advocating for them through legislative advocacy and community engagement.

At UCLA, Jester is engaged with mEDI-pEDI (the Med-Peds EDI committee), the Pediatric Advocacy Council, the Pediatric Diversity Committee, and IM-REDI (Internal Medicine's resident EDI committee). He is currently working on creating an anti-racism curriculum for the Med-Peds program.