Alyssa Quinn

Alyssa (she/her/hers) grew up in South Florida and was the first in her family, alongside her twin sister, to attend college. At the University of Florida, she majored in Biology with a minor in French and spent much of her free time outside the classroom engaged in community service. She could often be found volunteering at the Florida Museum of Natural History, where she conducted research on moths and butterflies, or tutoring Burmese refugee children at a community center in Jacksonville, Florida.

After graduating, she moved to Boston in 2020 to pursue an M.S. in Medical Sciences at Boston University. There, she completed a thesis in reproductive endocrinology at Brigham and Women’s Hospital before staying at BU for medical school. During medical school, Alyssa developed a passion for gardening, community health, advocacy, and nutrition. She led a student nutrition and gardening group and was involved with Refugee Wellness, supporting refugee communities in Boston. Growing up in a low-income family shaped her commitment to caring for underserved communities and finding ways to connect medicine with advocacy and service.

Alyssa chose Med-Peds because she loves caring for patients across the lifespan and values the opportunity to build long-term relationships with patients through different stages of life. She is particularly drawn to caring for adolescents and young adults with childhood-onset chronic conditions as they transition from pediatric to adult care. To Alyssa, Med-Peds offers the ideal combination of comprehensive training, continuity of care, and the ability to care for patients with complex needs, especially in resource-limited settings.

She chose UCLA because of its commitment to advocacy and caring for vulnerable populations, as well as the breadth of its clinical training and unique Med-Peds opportunities. Ultimately, though, it was the people and culture that made UCLA feel like home. She could sense that UCLA values residents as whole people and encourages them to pursue the things they are passionate about.

As a resident, Alyssa is part of the inaugural HEALER program, a two-year interdisciplinary program focused on community-engaged care, health equity, advocacy, and leadership. She hopes to pursue fellowship, specifically hematology-oncology in the hopes of caring for pediatric patients with sickle cell or other hematologic disorders into adulthood.

Outside the hospital, Alyssa can usually be found hunting for the best iced latte, exploring LA’s food scene, scuba diving at Catalina Island, traveling, or watching an unreasonable amount of reality TV at home. Her favorite show to binge is Survivor.