Wilma J. Wooten, M.D., M.P.H.
Principal Investigator, NMA Diabetes Education Program

Dr.Wooten 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 since 1989 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 has also been 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 a County of San Diego employee, working from 2001 to 2007 as the Deputy Health Officer for the County of San Diego Health and Human Services Agency. She became the County Public Health Officer in 2007. She is a San Diego First 5 Commissioner; Co-chair various committees, including the Leadership Council of the San Diego Childhood Obesity Initiative, Health Advisory Committee on Threats, and the Hospital Capacity Task Force; and is a member of the State Office of AIDS California African-American HIV/AIDS Coalition, working closely with the local regional constituent to this organization. As Public Health Officer, Dr. Wooten is committed to promoting health equity and quality of well-being; preventing disability, disease, and injury; and protecting the health of the residents of San Diego County.

Dr. Wooten is active at the national, regional, state, and local levels of the National Medical Association (NMA). She is the outgoing President of the San Diego Society of the NMA; Trustee of NMA Region VI, where she also services as Secretary of the NMA Board of Trustee; and prior chair of the NMA Women’s Health Section. From 2000-2005, she accompanied medical missions, organized by the Student National Medical Association (SNMA), to Jamaica and Ghana. During the five year period of the SNMA HIV/AIDS Education and Prevention Program in Ghana, she utilized her public health background to assist students with the research and evaluation component of this program.

Roslyn Douglas
Program Coordinator, NMA Diabetes Education Program