Sara Garza, MD, FAAP, LSSYB

Associate Physician Well-being Advocate

Cook Children’s Physician Network

sara.garza@cookchildrens.org

Dr. Sara Garza is a general pediatrician whose love for the sacred relationships built in a primary care medical home and the provision of holistic care therein has led the way to a second calling.

Dr. Garza’s professional story is deeply influenced by her personal one. The diverse cultural milieu of her upbringing and myriad challenges of being a second-generation Cambodian-American fostered the type of grit and resilience one finds in many physicians and other healthcare providers. This sustained her through years of training, nearly 2 decades of clinical practice, and growth and loss within her own family.  However, this grit and resilience did not prevent her own struggle with the emotional exhaustion inherent to physician burnout.  In 2022, in response to both an intrinsic and external call to action, she stepped into the role of Associate Physician Well-being Advocate for the Cook Children’s Physician Network. Her life’s work is now devoted to improving physician well-being through system change.

Dr. Garza received her Bachelor of Science degree in Biology from the University of Texas at Dallas. She completed medical school and residency training at Baylor College of Medicine and Texas Children’s Hospital in Houston and she is an Assistant Professor of Pediatrics at the TCU Burnett School of Medicine in Fort Worth. When Dr. Garza is not serving in her professional capacity, you will probably find her with her husband and their four children trying to create meaningful memories.

“You can’t really know where you are going until you know where you have been.” –Maya Angelou