"I'm a big supporter of the Central Valley. This is where I came from."

For Dr. Silvia Diego, that love for and loyalty to the region she calls home have been consistent throughout her life. She grew up in a small town outside Fresno, the daughter of parents who worked in the fields, and attended Fresno State. She was determined to remain in the community, but medical school ended up being the one exception. "Then I had to go away for medical school; I had no choice," she said. “There was talk of a medical school coming to the Valley, but it didn't come soon enough for me."

That gap between the Valley’s needs and offerings is the same shortfall Dr. Diego recognized, decades later, in UC Merced's efforts to train physicians of its own. It was the same ambition that drove her to become a doctor for her own community in the first place and inspired her to become a dedicated supporter of the university's medical education program, despite having no formal ties to the school.

"I truly saw this happen: the people who come back to the Valley and stay are the people who are from the Valley, who understand the Central Valley, the struggles, the life. They're the ones who stay the longest," she said.

Diego’s philanthropic generosity supports the BS to MD pathway and the San Joaquin Valley PRIME+ program, which prepare regional students for careers in medicine, with the goal of keeping them practicing close to home. Her daughter, Esmeralda, encouraged her to think beyond her own medical school alma mater and toward a cause closer to her heart. "Stanford doesn't need more money," Esmeralda told her. Diego agreed, and she chose to invest in a university still in the process of creating its legacy, including its mission to advance healthcare access and quality in its native region and throughout the state.

A Valley Doctor, By Design

After relocating to the Bay Area to attend medical school, Diego returned to the Central Valley to complete her residency in Modesto. She chose an unopposed family medicine program so she could focus on training without competing with other specialists as well as to be closer to her hometown community.

That decision became the foundation of a career spent almost entirely in service of the Valley. Diego spent 17 years with Golden Valley Health Centers, including eight years in a senior leadership role overseeing patient care across 20 clinics that together served more than 10,000 patients. In 2015, she and Dr. Lisa Gil founded Family First Medical Care, a Modesto practice offering general medicine, prenatal care, women's health and mental health services.

Along the way, she became a fixture of the region's medical community. She is a longtime member and past president of the Stanislaus Medical Society, a former member of the Doctors Medical Center Governing Board, and treasurer of Latinx Physicians of California, a statewide organization.

The Case for Growing Doctors at Home

Diego's giving is grounded in something she has observed firsthand over decades of recruiting physicians to the Valley, noting that the doctors who are most likely to stay are the ones who come from similar communities in the first place.

Interviews alone don't reveal that, she said. What more accurately predicts whether a physician remains is whether they truly understand the realities of life and medicine in the Central Valley. She says that people often ask her where the region is even located. "It's a wonderful place to be," she answers. "In the middle of nowhere, two hours from everywhere, but a great place to be."

That conviction is what drew her to UC Merced's medical pathway initiative, which recruits and trains students who already have roots in the Valley. It is a connection that is personal for Diego, who sees echoes of her own upbringing in many of the students the programs serve: first-generation college students, many the children of farmworkers, drawn to medicine by a desire to give back to the communities that shaped them.

"That's what connects us more than anything," Diego said of the students. "We want to serve our community."

A Family Legacy of Education

Diego was the first in her family to attend college and the only one to complete her education through medical school. That milestone shaped how she raised her own four children. Her son became a physician, one daughter became a dentist, another became an engineer, and the youngest is currently attending college and contemplating a career in healthcare. What mattered to Diego wasn't that they follow her into medicine, but that each pursued an education and put it to use.

Her son, Jose, who did choose to follow in her footsteps as a physician, has since made gifts to UC Merced in his mother's honor, a gesture Diego calls deeply meaningful. She credits her husband with first encouraging their son toward medicine.

A Message for Tomorrow’s Healthcare Leaders

This year marks a milestone for UC Merced, with the inaugural cohort of BS to MD students scheduled to complete their undergraduate degrees and becoming the first class to begin their medical training through the pathway program supported by Diego. Her advice to them is direct: Don't lose sight of what drew you to medicine in the first place.

"There's a lot of red tape, a lot of bureaucracy, a lot of rules and regulations," Diego said. "Don't get lost in that, and don't forget what medicine really is."

Diego also has great belief in the ambitions and commitment of these students, who began their journey at UC Merced with the explicit goal of serving their communities.

"I'm hoping that by supporting UC Merced and these medical students, we can increase the number of doctors who care for our community and who will stay here," Diego said.

"Every day I get up, I'm very happy to be a doctor," she added.

It’s a happiness she hopes will be soon shared by the next generation of UC Merced graduates.