Dr. Obi Emeruwa is the Translational Director of UCLA Biodesign and is a Clinical Instructor in the Division of Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA. He has a Specialty Training and Advanced Research (STAR) award through the Department of Medicine, which supports his PhD studies in the Department of Health Policy and Management at the UCLA Fielding School of Public Health in the Organizational Behavior and Implementation Science track. His research focuses on resource allocation and innovation in critical care. Obi is an inaugural alumnus of the UCLA Biodesign Innovation Fellowship Program, through which he has worked with a team of clinicians and engineers to develop novel technologies in neurocritical care. He is a co-investigator of a recently awarded grant from United States Department of Commerce to UCLA Health that aims to accelerate innovative technologies in response to the COVID19 pandemic as well as increase representation of underrepresented backgrounds in science and technology. Prior to UCLA, Obi completed his internal medicine residency and chief residency at New York-Presbyterian Hospital/Columbia University Irving Medical Center. At Columbia, Obi was heavily involved in quality improvement, serving as a vice chair of the hospital wide Housestaff Quality Forum and leading the Quality and Patient Safety Housestaff Forum during his chief residency. He also spent his time advocating for improving minority representation in academic medicine by leading the Lindenbaum-Thomson Society, a group of residents dedicated to promoting diversity in medicine. He was recognized for these efforts with the Kenneth A. Forde Diversity Alliance Resident Diversity Award from CUIMC. As an MD/MBA candidate, he was recognized as a Forbes Future Healthcare Leader at the 2012 Forbes Healthcare Summit. Obi is board certified in pulmonary disease and internal medicine by the American Board of Internal Medicine. He earned his MD from the Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons and his MBA from Columbia Business School. Prior to medicine, Obi earned his bachelor’s degree in biomedical sciences and engineering from Harvard University.