2026-2027 Fellow
Somiya Maheshwari, MD
Hello and welcome to the Kaiser Santa Clara Internal Medicine Residency!
I’m Somiya, the Community Medicine Fellow and Chief Resident for the 2026–2027 academic year. I grew up in sunny Southern California, specifically the Inland Empire. I attended the University of California, Riverside for my undergraduate studies in Biology and was fortunate to continue my medical education at the UC Riverside School of Medicine.
I was excited to move to the Bay Area for residency as it offers such a unique blend of diversity, culture, and opportunity, making it an incredible place to live and train. More importantly I was excited to train at Kaiser Santa Clara! During my interview experience, everyone was friendly – I could tell the culture at this program would be very welcoming and supportive. That has been my exact experience with the amazing co-residents and faculty; we build a strong community here at KPSC!
One of the things I value most about our residency is the emphasis on both outstanding clinical training and resident well-being. The 2+2 schedule provides an excellent balance between inpatient and outpatient medicine while allowing residents to explore a wide range of electives and pursue their individual interests. As the Community Medicine Fellow, I’ve also had the opportunity to work closely with community organizations and develop programs that address health disparities and improve access to care. Kaiser Santa Clara’s commitment to preventive medicine, population health, and serving our diverse patient community has been one of the most rewarding aspects of my training.
Outside of the hospital, there is no shortage of things to do. Whether it’s trying new restaurants, spending time with family and friends, exploring local farmers markets, hiking the many beautiful trails throughout the Bay Area, or taking weekend trips to the beach, wine country, or San Francisco, there’s always something to enjoy. Our residents often get together outside of work, and those friendships have become one of the most meaningful parts of residency.
Thank you for taking the time to learn more about our program. We are excited to welcome the next generation of residents and hope you’ll discover everything that makes Kaiser Santa Clara such a special place to train. Wishing you all the best as you begin this exciting journey!
Overview
The Kaiser Permanente Community Medicine and Primary Care Leadership fellowship based in Santa Clara (CMLF-Santa Clara) is designed to train Internal Medicine or Family Medicine physicians to become leaders in community medicine and primary care education, with the goal of enhancing care across all of the communities we serve.
Highlights
- Serve as Assistant Director of the Community Health Track for medical residents at Kaiser Santa Clara.
- Engage and partake in Kaiser Permanente’s Regional Leadership series as well as Santa Clara’s Local Leadership Development Group (LLDG)- a wide offering of lecture series and workshops to engender and foster leadership development.
- Mentorship from Medicine faculty as well as primary care leaders within the Kaiser organization- locally and regionally.
- Closely collaborate with core faculty of Internal Medicine Graduate Medical Education to hone skills in leadership while playing a vital role in curriculum development, faculty development, and recruitment.
- Care for patients and supervise residents and medical students at several community partners serving patients with a variety of sociocultural backgrounds.
- Develop and facilitate didactic sessions to residents and medical students in outpatient and community clinic settings.
- Care for patients and supervise residents and medical students delivering care in Kaiser Santa Clara internal medicine clinic.
- Supervise residents as they lead transformative forums and deliver educational presentations at our local homeless clinic.
- Mentored community projects and research opportunities.
- Opportunity to lead/serve on the KP Santa Clara LGTBQI Steering Committee driving mindful care tailored to the specific needs of our LGBTQI members.
- Opportunity to work with the financial team of one or more community partners to gain education around the logistics and finances of running a community clinic.
- Two-week health policy elective.
- Kaiser Permanente Santa Clara is one of 7 residency sites nationally that have been approved to certify residents in lifestyle medicine. The fellow is welcome to opt in to complete this curriculum during fellowship and qualify to sit for the American Board of Lifestyle Medicine (ABLM) boards.
- Optional funded international Global Health rotation.
- Optional 2-week medical Spanish course.
- Regional didactics with other Community Medicine Fellows.
Clinical Opportunities
In addition to varied clinical enrichment opportunities within Kaiser Santa Clara and its surrounding satellite clinics, CMPCL fellows will gain experience through stewardship at our partnered sites in the local community and globally.
Partner Community Clinics:
- Mayview Clinic, Mountain View
- Roots Clinic, San Jose
- BACH (Bay Area Community Health), San Jose
Partner Homeless Shelter: LifeMoves, San Jose
Global Health Opportunities:
- Zambia – University Teaching Hospital
- Da Nang – Da Nang General Hospital
- Tibet – Tibetan Delek Hospital
- Honduras – ENLACE foundation
- Ecuador – Cacha Medical Spanish Institute
- Guatemala – Hospital de La Familia
- Kenya – The Matibabu/Tiba Foundations
Community Advocacy and Community Project
The fellow will complete a scholarly project in community health. Topics may vary from quality improvement implementation at local community clinics, research project through Kaiser Permanente Northern California’s Division of Research, medical education, public health/health policy, or further enhancement of pipeline programs etc.
Fellows will have regular protected time to develop their projects, meet with mentors, researchers, community partners and other Kaiser Permanente community Health fellows in the region.
Fellows will be expected to actively participate in community initiatives, health fairs, advocacy and other activities that assist with Kaiser Permanente efforts to eliminate social health disparities. They will play an active and vital role in the development and recruitment of a physician team reflecting the diverse communities we serve.
Didactics
Fellows will meet regularly with other regional Community Medicine fellows for engagement in collaborative learning and teaching.
Fellows will serve as lead faculty in education to the staff in community clinics as well as residency education.