UCSF PEHSU: Our Team

BalmesDr. John Balmes is the UC Berkeley-UCSF Joint Medical program director. He leads the ongoing evolution of  curriculum while collaboratively managing the complex everyday process of ensuring a rich and innovative learning environment for diverse learners and educators. He is the Children’s Health Specialist for the UC Berkeley/Stanford Children’s Environmental Health Research Center.  He is also the Director of the Northern California Center for Occupational and Environmental Health and PI of the CDC/NIOSH-funded Northern California Education and Research Center.

Dr. Balmes received his MD from Mount Sinai School of Medicine in 1976. After internal medicine training at Mount Sinai and pulmonary subspecialty, occupational medicine, and research training at Yale, he joined the faculty of USC in 1982. He joined the faculty at UCSF in 1986 and at the UC Berkeley School of Public Health in 2002. He is currently Professor of Environmental Health Sciences (UC Berkeley School of Public Health) and Professor of Medicine at UCSF in the Divisions of Occupational and Environmental Medicine and Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine; he practices at San Francisco General Hospital. His major academic activities include his research laboratory, several collaborative epidemiological research projects in the US and abroad, and various advisory and editorial committees.  He is the Physician Member of the California Air Resources Board.