Ali Al-Saleem

2025 Medical Student Scholars

Ali Al-Saleem is an Arab-American, first-generation, low-income student from Anaheim, California. He graduated magna cum laude from the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) with a Bachelor of Science in Human Biology and Society and Global Health. Ali aspires to build a career that integrates clinical medicine, advocacy for marginalized groups, research, and medical education. As an undergraduate, he served as a caseworker and clinical navigator with UCLA’s Mobile Clinic Project, a street-side clinic providing free acute and primary care to unhoused individuals across Los Angeles County. His research experiences span clinical trials on investigational drugs for fatigue among breast cancer survivors and emphysema among people living with HIV, a community-based nature intervention for youth with Adverse Childhood Experiences, and quality improvement initiatives within the Pediatrics Department at UCLA Mattel Children’s Hospital. Passionate about supporting marginalized youth, Ali also helped design a trauma-informed curriculum for a summer camp serving over 150 youth from Los Angeles County. To strengthen his clinical foundation, Ali worked for two years as an Emergency Department scribe and shadowed multiple inpatient and outpatient services at the UCLA Ronald Reagan Medical Center. As a medical student, Ali now co-leads the school’s chapter of Chicago Street Medicine, which delivers free healthcare to people experiencing homelessness. Ali is also the co-leader of several affinity and interest groups, including  the Internal Medicine Interest Group, the First-Generation, Low-Income Affinity Group, and the Middle Eastern and North African Affinity Group.