The First Black Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of the American Medical Association

Kirsten Bibbins-Domingo has been the next editor-in-chief of the Journal of the American Medical Association and the JAMA Network. She will be the first African American and the second woman to lead the journal.

Dr. Bibbins-Domingo is a professor and chair of the department of epidemiology and biostatistics at the University of California, San Francisco School of Medicine. She also serves as the medical school’s first vice dean for population health and health equity. Dr. Bibbins-Domingo is the co-founder of the UCSF Center for Vulnerable Populations at Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital and Trauma Center.

From health disparities to climate change, a number of global forces “shape how we think about health,” Dr. Bibbins-Domingo noted. “It’s the responsibility of a journal like JAMA and the JAMA Network to be able to put science in context of these broader forces. I think there’s never been a more important time for JAMA to be that trusted voice.”

Dr. Bibbins-Domongo added that JAMA has an opportunity to “not only help readers make sense of our changing world, but to communicate science and scientific discovery in a way that actually advances clinical practice, advances the health of all of our patients, and improves the health of the population nationally and globally.”

Dr. Bibbins-Domingo is a graduate of Princeton University in New Jersey, where she majored in molecular biology. She earned a master’s degree in clinical research, a medical doctorate, and a Ph.D. in biochemistry from the University of California, San Francisco.

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