Rachel Pearson
Physician, writer, civic humanist
“I believe we succeed when we impact people who disagree with us.”
Leadership: Rachel Pearson is a pediatric physician at UT Health San Antonio and an assistant professor of medical humanities at UT Health San Antonio’s Center for Medical Humanities and Ethics.
She is also an award-winning author. Her 2018 book, No Apparent Distress: A Doctor’s Coming of Age on the Front Lines of American Medicine, was named an editor’s choice by the New York Times Book Review, and her essays have appeared in the New Yorker, Scientific American, the Guardian, and the Texas Observer.
Vision: As both a writer and physician, Rachel hopes to counter the false narratives of alienation and otherness that drive inequality. Her stories show the impact of inequality on the body and spirit, and center the humanity of children and families who are experiencing medical crises caused by violence, marginalization, and other forms of systemic injustice.