Dr. Martha Tesfalul (she/her) is a Perinatologist/Maternal-Fetal Medicine (MFM) physician and Assistant Professor at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF). She received her BA from Harvard University in Sociology, with secondary in Health Policy, and her MD from Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, with a scholarly concentration in Public Health and Service. Between her third and fourth years of medical school, she did a Doris Duke International Clinical Research Fellowship with the Botswana-UPenn Partnership focused on leveraging telemedicine to strength the healthcare system. Dr. Tesfalul has been living out UCSF’s U Can Stay Forever mantra as she completed OB/GYN residency, MFM fellowship and the Preterm Birth Initiative’s T32 Postdoctoral Research Fellowship there prior to becoming faculty.

As a clinician, Dr. Tesfalul works with individuals who are at-risk of having or have pregnancy complications and has a focus on diabetes, preeclampsia, preterm birth and sickle cell disease. OBGYN ultrasound is a critical part of her work. Her research and creative endeavors center patient experience, health systems strengthening and health equity. Dr. Tesfalul has done global health work in her family’s home country of Eritrea as well as Botswana, South Sudan, and Uganda, and she is currently serving as the Vice Chair of the Society of Maternal-Fetal Medicine’s Global Health Committee.