Soma Wali, MD, FACP
Program Director
Since joining the faculty at Olive View-UCLA Medical Center in 1998, Dr. Wali has been passionate and devoted to the continual improvement and quality of medical education for medical students, residents, fellows and colleagues.
She received a Bachelor’s of Science degree in Psychobiology from the University of California, Los Angeles and her MD from the University of Illinois at Chicago in 1994. She completed residency training from 1994-1997 in Internal Medicine at the UCLA-Olive View Program; followed by one additional year as Chief Resident. In 1998, she accepted a faculty position and at the same time completed a two-year medical education fellowship at UCLA.
Dr. Wali served as Associate Program Director for the UCLA-Olive View Program from 2000 to 2003, after which she was asked to be program director. After assuming this role fulltime, Dr. Wali continually strives to improve medical teaching through the introduction of innovative new curricular, and clinical experiences.
Dr. Wali serves as the Inpatient Internal Medicine Clerkship Director for the UCLA 3rd year medical students at Olive View-UCLA Medical Center. Since assuming this responsibility in 2000, evaluations of medical students for this rotation have soared to the point that it is the highest rated UCLA 3rd year student clerkship in Internal Medicine 7 years in a row. As a result of her hard work, the Olive View-UCLA Medical Center inpatient and outpatient rotations are a favorite choice for UCLA medical students.
Since joining Olive View-UCLA Medical Center, she has been the recipient of multiple teaching awards from students and residents. In 1999, she received the UCLA School of Medicine Teaching Appreciation Award and the VA Sepulveda Medical Center Teaching Appreciation Award; in 2000 she received the best teacher award by residents. In 2004 she was the recipient of the Award of Excellence in Medical Education at UCLA, which is one of the highest honors given to a faculty. In 2005, she was recognized by the Society of General Internal Medicine with the Clinician-Educator Award, and award given to one educator per year in the State of California. The UCLA medical student graduating class of 2007 awarded Dr. Wali the Golden Apple Award of Excellence in Teaching. Dr. Wali has continually been one of the top three faculty members and who have been listed as “excellent teachers” by UCLA medical students system-wide in the clerkship. In recognition of her teaching success she was awarded the 2004 UCLA Award for Excellence in Education.
Dr. Wali is highly sought after as a lecturer. She has been invited to give several presentations at regional, national and international conferences with the American College of Physicians (ACP) and Society of General Internal Medicine (SGIM). Internationally, she has been invited to speak in Switzerland, Taiwan, Canada, and more recently in Melbourne Australia. In 2007, she was invited as a visiting professor to multiple hospitals in Japan.
Dr. Wali is actively involved with several ACP and SGIM committees. She has served as the ACP Chair of Associate Activities and has been a member on the Planning Committee for the ACP and SGIM regional meetings. In addition, she will be the Chair of the clinical Vignette Committee for the SGIM National Meeting Miami Florida for 2009 meeting. Since 1999, Dr. Wali has served on the Advisory Council under the Governor for the ACP Southern California Region I. She has been involved in the ACP Leadership Day, in which she travels with a group of residents to Washington, D.C. to lobby congress members on healthcare issues And Primary care issues. As a tribute to her hard work and dedication, 2005 Dr. Wali was the recipient of the SGIM’s California Regional Clinician Educator Award.
Dr. Wali continues to improve her clinical teaching skills as well as her leadership skills. In 2004 she was nominated and completed a healthcare executive training program at the Anderson School of Management at UCLA. In 2006, she was selected to complete a month long faculty development training program in clinical teaching at Stanford University.
Her current goals include clinical research as well as research in medical education, She has been involved in different research projects including “ obesity in diabetics”, “ Diabetic Group clinic” and most recently, she is the principle investigator on a clinical research project entitled: “ Gene Therapy and Wound Healing In patients with Diabetic foot Ulcer”. Olive View-UCLA Medical Center is one of five centers in the country involved in this exciting project. She is also involved in numerous medical education research studies, as she is striving to establish greater research opportunities for residents and medical students at Olive View-UCLA Medical Center.
