Julio Frenk

A fourth-generation physician whose paternal grandparents fled Germany in the early 1930s to build a new life in Mexico, Dr. Julio Frenk catalyzed his deep gratitude for the kindness of strangers into a lifelong mission to improve the health, education, and well-being of people around the world. 

Dr. Frenk became the seventh chancellor of UCLA on January 1, 2025, and also serves as a distinguished professor of health policy and management in the UCLA Fielding School of Public Health’s Department of Health Policy and Management. 

Prior to joining UCLA, he served as president of the University of Miami from 2015 to 2024, where he was also a tenured faculty member. From 2009 to 2015 he was the dean of the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health and the T & G Angelopoulos Professor of Public Health and International Development, a joint appointment with the Harvard Kennedy School of Government. He is the first Latino to lead these institutions of higher education. 

Frenk served as the federal secretary of Health of Mexico from 2000 to 2006. There he pursued an ambitious agenda to reform the nation’s health system and introduced a program of comprehensive universal coverage, known as Seguro Popular, which expanded access to health care for more than 55 million previously uninsured persons. In addition, he established a modern, transparent, and efficient regulatory agency, the Federal Commission for Health Risk Protection, which has served as a model for other countries.  

He was the founding director-general of the National Institute of Public Health in Mexico, one of the leading institutions of its kind in the developing world. He also served as executive director in charge of evidence and information for policy at the World Health Organization and as senior fellow in the global health program of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, among other leadership positions. 

He has served on boards of non-profit organizations, including the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, the United Nations Foundation, and the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation, as well as advisory boards of start-up companies. 

Chancellor Frenk holds a medical degree from the National University of Mexico, as well as a Master of Public Health and a joint Ph.D. in medical care organization and in sociology from the University of Michigan. He has received honorary degrees from eleven universities in the United States, Canada, Europe and Mexico. 

His scholarly production, which includes close to 200 articles in academic journals, as well as many books and book chapters, has been cited close to 38,000 times. In addition, he has written five novels for young people explaining the functions of the human body.  

Frenk is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the U.S. National Academy of Medicine, the National Academy of Medicine of Mexico, and El Colegio Nacional (the most prestigious learned society of scientists, intellectuals and artists in Mexico). He has received numerous recognitions, including the Clinton Global Citizen Award for changing the way practitioners and policy makers across the world think about health, the Bouchet Medal for Outstanding Leadership presented by Yale University for promoting diversity in graduate education, and the Welch-Rose Award for Distinguished Service from the Association of Schools and Programs of Public Health. In 2024, he was named one of TIME magazine’s top Latino leaders for his contributions to public health and higher education.