Heather Whelan, MD

Professor

Heather Whelan is a Clinical Professor in Hospital Medicine at the San Francisco VA Medical Center/UCSF. She received her Bachelor’s Degree in Political Science and a minor in Russian Language at UC Berkeley, and her medical degree from UC Davis. She completed her residency in Internal Medicine at UCLA-Olive View. She then completed a 2 year program in medical education at New York University, receiving a Masters of Science in Education. She currently maintains clinical and educational roles. She served as a Bridges Coach 2016-2021, longitudinally teaching, mentoring and advising small groups of medical students throughout their time in medical school at UCSF. Since 2018, she has been a Faculty Career Advising Co-Director for medical students in the School of Medicine, advising medical students on career exploration, selection of career path and residency applications, as well as co-creating a longitudinal career development curriculum. In addition, from 2017-2022 she was a faculty trainer for the UCSF Diversity, Equity and Inclusion faculty and staff Ambassador trainings. She is actively engaged in medical education focused on climate change and health, including developing undergraduate curricula and collaborating on developing educational resources and courses for healthcare providers worldwide. Clinically, she provides direct care of medical and surgical patients and supervises residents on the medicine ward teams at the San Francisco VA. Her interests include mentorship; career development; diversity, equity and inclusion; climate change and health impacts, healthcare sustainability and climate justice.