Sergio Aguilar-Gaxiola, MD, PhD, MS

Dr. Sergio Aguilar-Gaxiola is a Distinguished Professor of Clinical Internal Medicine at the University of California, Davis, where he has served for nearly 21 years. He is the Founder and Director of the Center for Reducing Health Disparities, established 21 years ago to develop effective solutions advancing health equity and mental health equity. Under his leadership, the center has demonstrated measurable impact at the county, state, and national levels, particularly serving underserved and historically marginalized populations. Dr. Aguilar-Gaxiola has worked in higher education in California for 36 years and has practiced medicine for 36 years, with expertise in mood disorders, depression, anxiety disorders, substance abuse, meaningful community engagement, and trustworthiness in healthcare.

A pioneer in global mental health, Dr. Aguilar-Gaxiola is one of the founders of the World Mental Health Survey Consortium, an initiative of the World Health Organization, active since 2000. He coordinates surveys in Latin America and the Caribbean, including national mental health studies in Mexico, Peru, Colombia, Argentina, and Brazil, and collaborates closely with Dr. Ronald Kessler of Harvard, the world’s most published mental health researcher. He has chaired the National Academy of Medicine committee on assessing meaningful community engagement in health and healthcare policy and practice for nearly seven years and co-chaired the nationally recognized Principles of Community Engagement, published by the CDC in three editions, with the second edition downloaded 10 million times across 233 countries.

Dr. Aguilar-Gaxiola has developed and implemented innovative health service delivery models, shifting from a traditional “waiting mode” to a proactive “seeking mode,” bringing preventive screening and early intervention directly to communities. He serves on 15–16 boards nationwide and remains deeply committed to advancing health equity, mentoring successors, and shaping strategies that strengthen trustworthiness and meaningful engagement in healthcare. His career reflects a lifelong dedication to reducing health disparities, advancing evidence-based interventions, and improving outcomes for the most vulnerable populations.

• M.D., Autonomous University of Guadalajara, Guadalajara, Jalisco, Mexico 1977
• Ph.D., Clinical-Community Psychology, Vanderbilt University School of Medicine, Nashville TN 1986
• M.S., Psychology, Vanderbilt University School of Medicine, Nashville TN 1983
• Internship Psychiatry, UC San Francisco and San Francisco General Hospital, San Francisco CA 1986-1987
• Fellowship Psychiatry, UC San Francisco and San Francisco General Hospital, San Francisco CA 1986-1987

• American Public Health Association
• American Psychological Association

Dr. Aguilar-Gaxiola has published extensively in the mental health field, with many articles appearing in the American Journal of Public Health, including one recent publication. He has collaborated extensively with Dr. Ronald Kessler from Harvard, who is the most published researcher in the mental health field in the world with 1,200 articles, and many of Dr. Aguilar-Gaxiola's articles are co-authored with Dr. Kessler. He has authored 3 or 4 books, including one on depression in Latinos. He has written many book chapters, particularly in collaboration with Dr. Kessler. He was co-chair at the national level for the Principles of Community Engagement, second edition, published in 2011 by the CDC in both English and Spanish, which has been downloaded 10 million times from 170 English-speaking countries and 63 Spanish-speaking countries. He was also involved with the third edition released in 2025. He recently published a chapter describing his health service delivery model contrasting the 'waiting mode' with the 'seeking mode' and providing case examples. His CV, which is over 100 pages long, contains detailed information about all his grants, specific projects, and publications related to the World Mental Health Survey Consortium and his work coordinating national mental health surveys in Latin America and the Caribbean, including surveys in Mexico, Peru, Colombia, Argentina, and Brazil.