PROJECT: A peer specialist program that would complement existing jail diversion programs and improve care for people experiencing homelessness and criminal justice system involvement.

Dr. Salmaan Kamal, MD, was raised in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, and he attended Princeton University with a focus on global health and health policy. After graduation, Kamal worked as a policy associate at the National Coalition on Health Care in Washington, D.C., where he advocated for policy reform that improved value in the U.S. health care system.

Kamal attended medical school at the University of Alabama at Birmingham, where he led the student-run free clinic for the uninsured. He completed internal medicine residency and chief residency at UAB Hospital, where he revamped the advocacy curriculum and completed the Society of General Internal Medicine’s Leadership in Health Policy Program.

Kamal is currently a fellow of the UCLA National Clinician Scholars Program, a fellowship inspired by the Robert Wood Johnson Clinical Scholars Program that is committed to addressing the largest inequities in the U.S. health care system. He is passionate about improving care for people experiencing homelessness, people who use drugs, and people exposed to the criminal legal system.

Outside of work, he enjoys spending time outdoors with his wife and two-year-old daughter.