Jacqueline Cabral, a 2026 Pisacano Scholar, is a fourth-year MD/MPP (Master of Public Policy) student in the PRIME-LA program at the David Geffen School of Medicine and the UCLA (University of California, Los Angeles) Luskin School of Public Affairs. She is the proud daughter of Mexican immigrants and was raised in a single parent household. Growing up in an apartment complex where most of her neighbors were immigrants, Jacqueline witnessed how documentation status determined her community’s access to and experience of care, shaping her commitment to immigrant health and pursuit of family medicine.

In college, Jacqueline began to understand that health and policy were deeply interconnected among undocumented immigrant communities. Documentation status determined her loved ones’ insurance status, often resulting in delayed care and largely preventable chronic diseases. Status also came with language barriers and low socioeconomic backgrounds, shaping how providers treated them. While Jacqueline’s goal is to address inequities in immigrant health, her overarching purpose is to help patients like her family members feel seen and understood in health care settings.

During her time in medical school, the impact of policy on the health of immigrant communities has only become more pronounced. Families have had to make difficult decisions to keep each other safe during a period of heightened anti-immigrant sentiment – one of these decisions being delaying healthcare once again. Despite the challenges her community faces, Jacqueline has found hope in her community’s strength and learned that resilience is sustained through community. This principle has guided her work throughout medical school.

Living in a tight-knit community, Jacqueline learned that trust is built within a community that constantly “shows up” for one another, informing her commitment to addressing health inequities through community engagement and partnership building. Equipped with her training from pursuing a Master of Public Policy, Jacqueline has focused her efforts on preparing both medical students and patients with the information necessary to address the impacts of restrictive policies on health.

Learning about the repercussions of changing Medi-Cal eligibility policies, Jacqueline led her team, UndocuMed Students and Allies, in creating a partnership with case managers at a local federally qualified health center to host a policy advocacy effort where medical students equip patients with the information necessary to avoid losing coverage. Alongside her colleagues, Jacqueline also partnered with attorneys, policy analysts, and community organizers to co-develop the Immigrant Health, Healing, and Advocacy series, aiming to equip future providers across California with the tools to provide community-informed care to undocumented immigrant patients. Through these efforts, Jacqueline hopes to ensure that undocumented immigrant communities are centered in the fight for health equity and the right to health for all.

Jacqueline chose to pursue family medicine because it centers trust as the foundation for improving health outcomes while championing whole-person care, community engagement, and advocacy. Through her training in family medicine, she strives to become a physician who provides high-quality, community-responsive care to underserved communities. She dreams of creating medical-legal partnerships to ensure community members like her family feel seen and understood in health care.