Wilma J. Wooten, M.D., M.P.H. is board-certified in Family Medicine and has a master’s degree in public health. She received both professional degrees from the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, followed by residency training at the Georgetown/Providence Hospital Family Practice Residency Program in Washington, D.C. Dr. Wooten has been in San Diego for the past 16 years and practiced medicine as a faculty member in the UCSD Department of Family and Preventive Medicine for the first 11 years. She remains a volunteer Associate Clinical Professor in the Department and is an Adjunct Professor at San Diego State University, Graduate School of Public Health. Her research interests have focused on women’s health and included studies that assess risk factors and prevalence of cardiovascular disease in African-American women. She is currently a co-investigator on a grant from UCSD Project EXPORT looking at “Adipocytokines and Other Risk Factors for Coronary Heart Disease in African-American Women.”

Since March 2001, Dr. Wooten has been the Deputy Health Officer for the County of San Diego Health and Human Services Agency. Current responsibilities include quality assurance, special projects, media spokesperson, and health disparity activities. She functions as the medical director for the County’s HIV, STD, and Hepatitis Branch and serves as a County appointee to the HIV Community Planning Prevention Board. She is a member of the State Office of AIDS California African-American HIV/AIDS Coalition and works closely with the local regional constituent to this organization.

Dr. Wooten is President of the San Diego Society of the National Medical Association (NMA), Trustee of NMA Region VI, and Chair of the NMA Women’s Health Section. For the past five years, she has accompanied medical missions, organized by the Student National Medical Association (SNMA), to Ghana. Utilizing her public health background, she assisted students with the research and evaluation component of a HIV/AIDS Education and Prevention Program.