Program: Health Sciences '15
Dr. Cristina Saez graduated with a BA in Kinesiology with a focus on Health Sciences in 2015. During her time at Rice some of her favorite memories included baton twirling for the Rice MOB, being a TA for Roberta Anding’s Nutrition course, and working with cadavers in Wendy Schell’s gross anatomy course.
After graduation, she stayed local and started medical school at Baylor College of Medicine. While there she was an active member of the Pediatric Student Association and participated in the Medical Ethics Track. Outside of class, she enjoyed mentoring younger students through the Anatomy Buddies tutoring program and the Peer Resource Network program (similar to O-Week groups). She still kept in touch with the Kinesiology Department and even helped teach undergraduate students in the gross anatomy course. During her later years, she helped develop a protocol within the Pediatric Rheumatology department at Texas Children’s Hospital to help adolescent patients prepare for the transition from pediatric to adult care. She knew from the beginning that she wanted to work with children and was thrilled to match to general pediatrics for residency, this time heading back home to Dallas, TX.
While training at Children’s Medical Center Dallas, she’s served the large diverse underserved population of DFW and the surrounding areas. Her patients and Latina roots inspired her to develop and deliver a curriculum for residents on cultural sensitivity as it relates to the Latino immigrant population, which she recently presented at the national Pediatric Academic Societies meeting in April 2022. She continued to develop her passion for transition by studying the perceived psychosocial benefits of a local medical camp for teens with lupus who were patients at Texas Scottish Rite Hospital. To no one’s surprise she ended up applying for pediatric rheumatology fellowship this past fall. She will be heading to Children’s Hospital Colorado in July 2022 to start her training. She’s looking forward to learning how to care for children with juvenile arthritis, lupus, and other multi-system inflammatory conditions while continuing to advocate for underserved populations.
