UCLA Fielding School of Public Health student Juan Ramon Delgado recognized for academic achievements

A UCLA Fielding School of Public Health student has been recognized for academic excellence at the school, ranked as among the top public health schools in the United States.

Juan Ramon Delgado, who graduated this month with a bachelor of arts degree in public health, received both the Jay S. Drotman Undergraduate Student Award and the Kim-Farley Family Award for Academic Excellence in Public Health at UCLA Fielding’s 2026 Student Academic Honors and Awards Ceremony. 

The Drotman award goes to one undergraduate student each year based on superior academic achievement, while the Kim-Farley award goes to undergraduate public health majors - both BA and BS programs - with the highest cumulative GPAs at the end of the winter quarter in their senior year; Delgado’s cumulative GPA at UCLA is 4.0, and he is both a Dean’s List and Honors College student. He will begin a master of public health (MPH) program in the fall at the University of California, Berkeley.

“In the long term, I aim to earn a PhD in epidemiology and lead research examining the intersection between structural violence and chronic and acute health outcomes,” said Delgado, who considers Monrovia, Calif., his hometown and received an associates of science degree at Pasadena City College in 2024. “I want to focus on underserved communities around Los Angeles, where I grew up, as I am committed to uplifting these communities by using epidemiology as a tool for justice.” 

The Jay S. Drotman Undergraduate Student Award was established to recognize the career of a promising young public health professional and student, while the Kim-Farley Award is funded by an endowment from Dr. Robert Kim-Farley, professor-in-residence with joint appointments in the departments of epidemiology and community health sciences at the UCLA Fielding School, and his spouse, Han Ju Kim-Farley, an MPH from UC Berkeley.

Along with his academic achievement at UCLA, Delgado has served as a researcher at Charles R. Drew University of Medicine and Science and the Veterans Administration Greater Los Angeles Healthcare System, both in Los Angeles, as well as the Stanford University School of Medicine’s Urologic Cancer Epidemiology Lab.

“The intent of these awards is to support our undergraduate students with interest in serving in public health agencies, who may often be first-generation college students, whether they are going on to a medical or doctoral program or not,” said Kim-Farley, a physician who served as director of the Division of Communicable Disease Control and Prevention at the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health from 2004-18. “It is really designed to support bringing the brightest of our students into the public health workforce, and Han Ju and I are very pleased that Juan, with his combination of academic excellence and research work, is one of this year’s honorees.”