By Heriberto Perez–Zuñiga

RIO GRANDE VALLEY, TEXAS – SEPT. 4, 2025 – A first-generation college graduate and the first doctor in his family, Dr. Adrian Barrera’s journey to medicine wasn’t a straight path.

After earning his undergraduate degree in biology, he spent six years working in various jobs, including teaching, while battling self-doubt about whether medical school was even possible.

When he learned that the Valley was establishing its own medical school, he saw it as a sign.

"It's heartwarming," Barrera said. "It feels really good that I didn’t have to move away to make this happen. I was able to learn here, train here, and now practice here."

A Rio Grande City native, UTRGV School of Medicine Class of 2021 graduate, and now a newly minted psychiatrist through the UTRGV School of Medicine’s Psychiatry residency program, Barrera is the embodiment of a Valley-made doctor.

"UTRGV gave me a chance. They believed in someone local, someone who understood the community and wanted to stay and serve," he said. "I owe them so much."

VALLEY ROOTS

As a child, Barrera spent many days helping his grandfather tend to animals on his family’s ranch outside Rio Grande City. It was in those quiet, routine moments of feeding chickens or walking pastures that he developed an early interest in the life sciences, responsibility, and the human connection that would one day guide his work in psychiatry.

Now, with his residency complete, Barrera is preparing to begin his next step as a psychiatrist with a mission to break the stigma around mental health and make treatment more approachable for Valley families.

Barrera credits his UTRGV residency training for preparing him to take on that role. He especially valued the program’s smaller class size and close, one-on-one mentorship. 

“Class sizes in other programs can be huge, where you don’t get to know your attending physicians,” he said. “For us at UTRGV, the small class sizes meant more face time with faculty, more autonomy, and more flexibility to tailor my training.”

GME SUCCESS

Barrera is one of many physicians who have trained locally at UTRGV. Since 2016, the School of Medicine’s Graduate Medical Education (GME) program has prepared more than 400 residents across seven programs, including Internal Medicine, Family Medicine, Psychiatry and Surgery.

This summer, 38 more resident physicians completed their training, ready to begin serving communities in the Rio Grande Valley and beyond.

UTRGV residents train across more than a dozen clinical sites, such as UT Health RGV, Valley Baptist Medical Center and Knapp Medical Center. Other partners include Rio Grande Regional Hospital, Valley Regional Medical Center, Rio Grande State Center, Tropical Texas Behavioral Health, Su Clinica Harlingen, the VA Texas Valley Coastal Bend Health Care System and others. 

These programs are tailored not only to deliver high-quality, evidence-based training but also to meet the unique needs of South Texas communities, many of which face critical shortages in specialty care.  

“Our GME programs are vital to transforming health care in the Valley and beyond,” said Dr. Everardo Cobos, interim dean of the UTRGV School of Medicine. “We are not only training exceptional physicians but creating a pipeline of homegrown doctors who understand the culture, the language, and the unique health care challenges of the Valley.”

Dr. Fatimah Bello, program director of the UTRGV School of Medicine’s Internal Medicine residency program at Knapp Medical Center, emphasized how GME graduates are already making a difference in the communities they serve. 

“Our residents brought innovation to our clinics, leadership to our rounds, and compassion to our hallways,” Bello said. “They are the kind of physicians the world needs more of.”

GIVING BACK

For his part, Barrera hopes to pay it forward by returning as a community faculty member, training medical students and residents who share his passion for caring for the Valley.

“I’d be honored to give back,” he said. “UTRGV gave me my start. I want to help the next generation of doctors find theirs.”

As UTRGV marks its 10th anniversary this year, the mission set forth when the School of Medicine was founded is clearer than ever: to train and retain compassionate, talented physician leaders who reflect and serve the Rio Grande Valley and beyond.

"There are still lives to change. There are still residents to train. There are still a lot of stories left to write," Bello said.

And for Valley-made doctors like Barrera, the next chapter is just beginning.