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Larissa Velez, M.D.

  • Professor and Vice Chair of Education, Emergency Medicine
  • Associate Dean for Graduate Medical Education
  • Distinguished Teaching Professor
  • Michael P. Wainscott, M.D. Professorship in Emergency Medicine
  • SWAT Past President
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“Lift those around you and allow them to shine.”

Contributions to STEMM

Dr. Velez is a leading emergency medicine provider in the Emergency Department (ER) at Parkland Memorial Hospital, “which is the busiest ER in the entire United States,” she said. “The ER is the safety net, and often the only interaction that some of our patients have with U.S. health care."

"I love how, in the ER, I am the one person to always be available to treat anyone, regardless of their circumstances.”

Within the Emergency Department, Dr. Velez “sees patients and teaches residents, medical students, and other health care workers.”

Dr. Velez’s research tackles many important health care issues, such as the barriers to health care access. She is motivated by a love for scientific learning.

“I always loved science, specifically biology. Learning how the body works has always been fascinating to me.”

Commitment to Mentorship

Outside of the ER, Dr. Velez is also the Associate Dean for the UT Southwestern Graduate Medical Education (GME) Program, one of the largest in the nation. In this position, her office helps nearly 200 training programs educate the next generation of “approximately 1,500 newly minted M.D.s for specialization in internal medicine, pediatrics, surgery, etc.” Dr. Velez noted that “helping train the next generation of emergency medicine physicians is a great professional privilege.”

Dr. Velez’s commitment to education future earned her a prestigious UT Southwestern Clinical Excellence Mentoring Award. This honor is bestowed on those who “demonstrate exceptional commitment and effectiveness as a mentor to health care providers.”

The UT Southwestern Difference

“I love my job in Emergency Medicine,” said Dr. Velez. “It is unpredictable – you never know what the day will bring, and you have to always be thinking and deciding. My 22 years at UT Southwestern and Parkland have been quite an adventure of growth and opportunities.”

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