Rupa Marya

Rupa Marya M.D.
Education	Georgetown University School of Medicine
Medical career
Profession	Doctor, writer, activist, musician
Field	Hospitalist, social justice
Institutions	UCSF School of Medicine
Notable works	Inflamed: Deep Medicine and the Anatomy of Injustice
Website	https://rupamarya.org/

Rupa Marya is a doctor, activist, musician and writer based in San Francisco. She is a professor of Medicine at the UCSF School of Medicine^[1] and co-author of the book Inflamed: Deep Medicine and the Anatomy of Injustice (with Raj Patel).^[2]

Marya was born in California to immigrant Indian parents. Her childhood was spent in the US, France, and India.^[3] She attended the University of California San Diego, earning degrees in theater and molecular biology, before attending medical school at Georgetown University. It was during her residency at UCSF that she began writing and performing music.^[4]

Marya has said her sense of justice was awakened in childhood as she witnessed class differences in India, and learned about colonization and genocide perpetrated against Native Americans in the United States.^[5] She is involved in numerous organizations working at the intersection of social justice and health, including the Do No Harm Coalition^[6] and Deep Medicine Circle.^[7] She was recognized in 2021 with the Women Leaders in Medicine Award by the American Medical Student Association. She was a reviewer of the American Medical Association's Organizational Strategic Plan to Embed Racial Justice and Advance Health Equity. In 2019, Marya was among the physicians appointed by Governor Newsom to the Healthy California for All Commission.^[8][9]

She is the composer and front-woman of the band Rupa & the April Fishes^[10] and was a lead plaintiff in the lawsuit that brought the song "Happy Birthday to You" back to the public domain.^[11][12]

In the wake of the Israel–Hamas War, Marya has been accused of antisemitism in her posts on social media. She defended a comment by activist Saira Rao, who suggested that Zionist doctors and nurses posed a threat to patients of color. She criticized a Jewish colleague when he expressed doubts about a cease-fire resolution.^[13] In September 2024, Marya suggested in a post on X that a new UCSF med student may have participated in "the genocide of Palestinians in the IDF (Israeli Defense Force) before matriculating into medical school in CA" because he was from Israel. Marya was placed on paid leave pending an investigation.^[14][15]