Maria Alonso Luaces

Professional Background

Dr. Maria Alonso Luaces is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Family Medicine at the University of Kansas Medical Center (KUMC) and the Director of the Office of Diversity and Inclusion at the School of Medicine.
Dr. Alonso’s work primarily focuses on the intersection of Education and Health. She works closely with communities and urban schools in Kansas to develop a strong pipeline to the health professions, serving more than 100 students per year. In the School of Medicine, she leads multiple efforts focused on the recruitment and retention of underrepresented students into the school.
Dr. Alonso is heavily involved in medical education. She serves as the Diversity Thread head for the curriculum, leads the Medical Spanish program and provides numerous educational sessions focused on language barriers, how to work effectively with medical interpreters and the effects of racism and bias in access and quality of care. The development of The Global Scholars Distinction Program and a summer Study Abroad Program in Spain focused on Medical Spanish and Public Health are just two examples of Dr. Alonso’s efforts to provide the KUMC community with opportunities to seek new perspectives, forester collaboration and graduate students who are prepared to serve ALL patients.

  • BS, Linguistics and Literature, Universidad de Santiago de Compostela, Santiago, Spain, Spain
  • MA, Language and Literature, The University of Kansas, Lawrence , ks
  • PhD, C&T, The University of Kansas, Lawence , KS

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