Peter Sokolove, MD

Peter E. Sokolove, MD, FACEP, is an Endowed Professor of Emergency Medicine and Chair of the Department of Emergency Medicine at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) School of Medicine. His career reflects sustained leadership focused on improving the quality of emergency care and advancing academic emergency medicine through education, research and health policy.

Dr. Sokolove has served as Chair of the UCSF Department of Emergency Medicine since 2013, assuming leadership during a formative period shortly after the department’s founding. Under his leadership, the department has experienced rapid growth across its clinical, research and educational programs. The department now spans five major academic teaching hospitals across northern California, including two children’s hospitals, and treats over 300,000 emergency department patients annually.

To ensure long-term programmatic and faculty support, Dr. Sokolove has established 15 endowed professorships and programs within the department, which has grown to include nearly 250 faculty, more than 100 residents and fellows and over 50 staff. In parallel, he has advanced the department’s research enterprise, achieving distinction in clinical and health services research that improves patient care and shapes health policy.

In addition to strengthening the department’s role as a core academic unit within the UCSF School of Medicine, Dr. Sokolove serves as co-chair of the UCSF Health Faculty Practice Advisory Committee and contributed to the development of an updated clinical funds flow model that supports more than $1 billion of annual revenue to the School of Medicine’s clinical departments. In 2025, he received the Holly Smith Award for Exceptional Service to the UCSF School of Medicine – the school’s most prestigious honor.

Prior to joining UCSF, Dr. Sokolove was Professor and Vice Chair for Academic Affairs in the Department of Emergency Medicine at the University of California, Davis, where he served as the Residency Program Director for more than a decade. He was honored by the Emergency Medicine Residents’ Association with both the Residency Director of the Year Award and the Joseph F. Waeckerle Founder’s Award.

Dr. Sokolove has lectured extensively on a wide range of topics and has received multiple national educational honors, including the American College of Emergency Physicians’ Outstanding Speaker of the Year Award, Rookie Faculty of the Year Award and National Faculty Teaching Award.

Dr. Sokolove has authored publications in clinical care, medical education and health policy. From 2012-2013, he was a Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Health Policy Fellow through the National Academy of Medicine in Washington, DC. During this time, he worked as health policy staff for the U.S. Senate Committee on Finance, focusing on Medicare physician payment system reform and nationwide implementation of electronic health records.

He is a past Chair of the Faculty at the UC Davis School of Medicine, serves on the Editorial Board of Academic Emergency Medicine, and has held numerous leadership roles within state and national emergency medicine organizations. He is a Past President of both the California Chapter of the American College of Emergency Physicians and the Association of Academic Chairs of Emergency Medicine (AACEM). In 2026, he was honored with AACEM’s Distinguished Service Award.