Daniel Derksen is the University of Arizona Health Sciences Associate VP for Health Equity, Outreach & Interprofessional Activities. He is a Professor in the Zuckerman College of Public Health with joint appointments in the Colleges of Medicine and Nursing.
Dr. Derksen was born in Phoenix, attended UArizona for both his B.S. (1979) and M.D. (1984) degrees, did his family medicine residency at the University of New Mexico (1987), and was on the UNM School of Medicine faculty for 25 years. He returned to UArizona in 2012. He was the 2019 College of Medicine Alumnus of the Year.
Dr. Derksen completed a Robert Wood Johnson Health Policy Fellowship in 2007-08 with U.S. Senator Jeff Bingaman (NM). He researched and drafted provisions to improve the supply and distribution of the nation’s health workforce enacted in 2010. Working for Governor Martinez in 2011-12 as Director, NM Office of Health Reform, he established their health insurance exchange, now known as Be Well New Mexico which currently has more than 45,000 enrollees.