La Maestra Family Clinic, Inc. Program

Program Identity & Fit

La Maestra is a new, small FQHC-based family medicine residency (two residents per class) in San Diego built around a Federally Qualified Health Center's mission of caring for economically disadvantaged, medically underserved patients regardless of ability to pay. Training integrates medical, dental, behavioral health, and social services with dedicated street medicine and outreach experiences—mobile clinics, school-based programs, homeless outreach, sober living, and re-entry services—making social-drivers-of-health work a core, longitudinal curricular component rather than an elective. Scholarly work and quality improvement are present as expected components of training but are framed as supporting the community mission rather than as a research pathway toward fellowship or academic medicine. The program's small size, explicit wellness infrastructure, and inaugural-class status point to a personalized, mission-first training culture oriented toward producing community health center physicians and advocates.