Lisa Lopez Snyder
March 17, 2025
Cindy Chang, BS ’84, MD ’89, Fellow ’93, knows what it’s like to be at the top of her game.
After all, there are so many “firsts” in her career: one of the first fellows in The Ohio State University College of Medicine Primary Care Sports medicine program, the first woman head team physician for an NCAA Division 1 football team (University of California (UC)-Berkeley), the first female chief medical officer for the U.S. at a Paralympic and then Olympic Games (2008 and 2012), and the first chief medical officer for the National Women’s Soccer League (2022).
And that’s not all. She mentors women physicians pursuing a career in Primary Care Sports Medicine, and is a champion for leadership focused on collaborative learning and training.
A Columbus, Ohio, native and a graduate of The Ohio State University College of Medicine, Dr. Chang went on to do her residency in Family Medicine at UCLA Medical Center. Afterward, she returned to Ohio State to complete a fellowship in the college’s Primary Care Sports Medicine program.
Today, Dr. Chang is a UC-San Francisco (UCSF) professor emerita with a joint appointment in the UCSF Department of Orthopaedic Surgery and the Department of Family and Community Medicine.
It was her own love of sports as well as tearing her ACL her first year of medical school and being under the care of physical therapists from what was then called the School of Allied Medical Professions (SAMP) — the precursor to HRS — that led her to pursue a career in sports medicine.
She relishes her fellowship year at Ohio State where she worked closely with athletic trainers and physical therapists. “We were really collegial,” she says. “We worked well as a team to provide well-rounded care for our athletes.” She stayed on as an assistant professor and served as an associate residency director of the Department of Family Medicine.
In 1995, she moved back to California to become the head team physician at Cal, and later at UCSF went on to establish a Primary Care Sports Medicine fellowship (2021) and help develop the Women’s Sports Medicine Center (2023) at UCSF, the first clinic of its kind in the Bay Area to focus exclusively on girl and women athletes. She credits much of her Ohio State education, training, teaching and team medicine experience with SAMP for employing the leadership skills she used to create those opportunities.
In February this year, Dr. Chang returned to Ohio State to speak at the first HRS Perspectives in Leadership series to develop transformative leaders. She applauds HRS Interim Director Jimmy Oñate for his vision to focus on supporting leadership to motivate HRS alumni, faculty, staff and learners to drive meaningful change.
“I think this effort’s great, because in the past health care providers have not received specific training to become leaders,” she says. “HRS has leadership that understands the importance of this, to develop a team culture that makes it a great place to work, learn, and attract and retain good people, and to know that your opinions are heard and respected.” It’s an effort that Dr. Chang herself practices in every role she serves, including as a mentor to physicians entering primary care.
“I’m proud that I was asked to be a part of it,” she says.