Josephine Isabel-Jones '69, M.D.

---

Josephine B. Isabel-Jones '69, M.D., has been awarded the UCLA Carole E. Goldberg Emeriti Service Award for 2021-22 for her distinctive achievements in advocating for diversity, equity and inclusion.

In addition, Dr. Isabel-Jones is being awarded the Founders' Award by the American Academy of Pediatrics for 2021 at their national convention this month; read more about her career in this feature article from an official publication of the American Academy of Cardiology.

Dr. Isabel-Jones is proud to be an alumna (class of '69) of the Pediatric Cardiology Fellowship Program of the UCLA School of Medicine. She is proud also to have enjoyed the privilege of a 50-year career on the faculty of what is now the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA. She attributes much of her success to the strong support and the encouragement she has received from mentors who became colleagues, as well as the many students, residents and fellows who are now UCLA alumni. She was honored to have received the UCLA Medical Alumni Association's distinguished services award in 1996.

The UCLA Department of Pediatrics is embarking on a mission to establish an endowed chair in honor of Dr. Isabel-Jones with the objective of recruiting and encouraging a member of the faculty to continue the work she has started at UCLA.

From the announcement of the the Goldberg Emeriti Service Award:

Josephine B. Isabel-Jones, Professor Emerita of Pediatrics, retired in 2003 after a long career at the UCLA David Geffen School of Medicine (DGSOM) dedicated to empowering others, particularly those at a socioeconomic disadvantage, and has continuously championed equity, inclusivity and diversity at DGSOM. As a nationally recognized pediatric cardiologist, she has remained active in children’s healthcare at UCLA and in the wider region. Dr. Isabel-Jones has long been a popular teacher, continued to do rounds, received multiple awards such as the 2009 Lifetime Achievement Award from the Association of Black Women Physicians and provided mentorship over the 18 years since retirement, which has unequivocally shaped the careers of countless students of medicine. Post-retirement, Dr. Isabel-Jones’s service to the University has continued unabated. A brief selection of her prodigious activity includes serving as DGSOM Assistant Dean of Student Affairs, notably for the past 42 years; as an Instructor in the Problem Based Learning Program; as a member of numerous committees including an appointed member by Chancellor Block to the Moreno committee to examine diversity challenges, whose recommendations were issued in January 2021. She founded and chaired the first faculty diversity committee in DGSOM and developed the Intergroup Dialogue to Enhance Action on Diversity (IDEA) with workshops to address implicit bias in mentoring underrepresented minority and women faculty members. These were pioneering efforts and Dr. Isabel-Jones was years ahead of her time in her work on diversity and inclusion, and her work in providing medical assistance to children with congenital heart disease in the underserved global community has been an inspiration.