Diego Jesus Urbina, MD

Where are you from? Lima, Peru, and Worcester, Massachusetts.

What are your personal interests and hobbies? I love cooking, especially when I get to share my food with others, and being outdoors, either swimming, hiking, mountain biking or running. I am even learning new activities, like rock climbing. A passion that has stuck with me since my younger years has been music, from going to concerts to creating music with my more talented family. More than anything, I love doing these activities with my fiancée, my corgi and my cat.

What are your professional interests? Global health, rural medicine, wilderness medicine, One Health and advocacy.

Why did you choose U of A emergency medicine? As a U of A College of Medicine student, I have experienced firsthand the remarkable set of skills, knowledge and compassion that residents in the program have, which is developed by the passion for teaching, medicine and helping patients that comes from attendings and senior residents. I wanted a program that would well prepare me as an EM/Peds physician with teachers, mentors and peers that are truly a family to one another.

What is your favorite activity in Tucson or what attracted you to Tucson besides the residency program? The natural beauty all around Tucson, the community and the amazing food.

What are your nonmedical goals during residency? My nonmedical goals are to adopt as many animals as I possibly can, hopefully some goats and chickens along the way. I also want to take advantage of being in Tucson, exploring more of its outdoors and hopefully trying as many new restaurants as I can. I would also love to get my scuba diving certificate and be proficient enough at rock climbing so that I don’t look like a scared cat stuck on a tree.