OUR HIV EXPERTS

Dr. Dora Martinez is an accomplished Family Physician and Certified HIV Specialist passionate about HIV care and prevention. She holds a deeply rooted dedication to education and advocacy and is known for her inspiring approach with patients and colleagues. As a clinician practicing for over 15 years in the Rio Grande Valley, near the Texas-Mexico border, Dora was excited to use ViiV’s innovative products in her practice’s unique and underserved population. Her patients included those with late presentation/advanced HIV, multidrug-resistant HIV, chronic low CD4, and HIV with multiple comorbidities, and she served adult, pediatric, pregnant, Hispanic/Latinx, and uninsured populations. Dora’s experience with these patients was a powerful motivator to expand her reach as a ViiV Regional Medical Director. At ViiV, Dora is grateful for the opportunity to contribute first-hand to help improve HIV care, research, and advocacy for all people living with HIV.
 

Current Role

As a Regional Medical Director, Dora educates and forms relationships with patients, healthcare providers, and organizations that interact directly with people living with HIV. She seeks to understand their issues and applies her insights and experience to assist ViiV in creating relevant strategies and materials. As a recognized HIV expert for ViiV, Dora plays a key role in the planning, development, and delivery of educational campaigns and tools, and leads training for Medical Information and Field staff to ensure they are up-to-date on new products and complex issues. Dora’s role also allows her to pursue her love of teaching while reaching more people. Concurrent with her work at ViiV, Dora continues in her clinical practice at Valley AIDS Council (VAC) in the Rio Grande Valley of South Texas, providing treatment for people with and at risk of acquiring HIV.

Experience

In her most recent position before joining ViiV, Dora was Chief Medical Officer of VAC, the only AIDS Service Organization serving the Rio Grande Valley of South Texas. At VAC, she oversaw the Medical Department for three Ryan White-funded clinical sites and provided treatment for patients living with and at risk of acquiring HIV. Dora is also the former Clinical Director for VAC’s South Central AIDS Education and Training Center’s (AETC) local performance site.

Dora has helped advocate for patients as a member of the Texas Department of State Health Services (DSHS) HIV Medication Advisory Committee, the Texas DSHS HIV Clinical Panel, and the Texas HIV Syndicate, a state-wide leadership collaborative. She also helped organize the National Latinx HIV/HCV/SUD Conference focused on HIV, hepatitis C, and substance use disorder. In an earlier role, Dora was Associate Medical Director for Family Medicine and Family Physician at Su Clinica, a Federally Qualified Health Center (FQHC) providing services to over 1600 patients in Santa Rosa, Texas. Dora’s academic appointments include Clinical Assistant Professor of Family and Community Medicine at the University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio, Clinical Assistant Professor at the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley School of Medicine, and Clinical Professor in the Family Medicine Residency Program at Doctor’s Hospital at Renaissance in Edinburg, Texas.

Education

Dora received her medical degree from the University of Texas Health Science Center San Antonio – School of Medicine. She completed a Family Practice Residency at Valley Baptist in Harlingen, Texas, and an Integrative Medicine Fellowship at the Arizona Center for Integrative Medicine at the University of Arizona in Tucson. Dora holds a B.A. in Sociology and Studio Art from Rice University in Houston, Texas.

Personal Interests

Dora and her husband and four children live with two dogs, three cats, three birds, and many, many guppies in the Rio Grande Valley in Harlingen, Texas. Born and raised there, she is a second-generation physician appreciative of the struggles and barriers her Mexican-American parents overcame to become physicians and holds them as her heroes and role models. She is working towards her second-degree black belt in Tae Kwon Do, and enjoys Star Trek, Star Wars, and all things Halloween. Having majored in art, Dora also loves to create, including designing elaborate birthday cakes as a labor of love for her kids!