UVA Medical Student To Pursue Law Degree
1L Himani Gubbi Aims To Craft Policies That Will Change Lives
If all goes as planned, Himani Gubbi will graduate with her cohort from the University of Virginia School of Medicine in May 2027. That day, she will also walk across the stage on the School of Law’s Holcombe Green Lawn.
The incoming member of the Law School’s Class of 2027 just completed her third year of medical school and will participate in the J.D.-M.D. combination-degree program that launched 10 years ago. She’ll devote the next two years to studying law, then will return to the Medical School before a final spring 2027 semester at the Law School.
Gubbi said she is driven by a desire to help lawmakers and physicians work together to make policy changes to improve the health of all.
“I want to become fluent in the language of codes and policies so I can read it, understand it and better advocate for change, utilizing my experience working directly with patients in the health care system,” Gubbi said.
Growing up in a family of scientists in West Palm Beach, Florida, Gubbi always knew she wanted to be a doctor.
For a middle school science fair, she tested which brand of hand sanitizer is the most effective against E. coli bacteria. She still uses the winning brand today.
Majoring in biology and political science while pursuing her undergraduate degree at the University of Florida, she conducted research in an ophthalmology lab. Through her research and studies in global health, she learned vitamin A deficiency is the leading cause of preventable childhood blindness.
“Issues like these can be prevented through policies that address food security, access to health care and education. Instead, we choose to remedy the problem after it happens,” she said. “I had to sit down with my own values and decide what I wanted from my career.”
Gubbi realized that to fully understand the modern health care system, she would need a better understanding of related social, cultural and environmental issues.
“I had to ask myself — do I want to be a practicing physician and have that be my niche, or do I want to make a different kind of impact?” she said.
As a sophomore at the University of Florida, Gubbi volunteered with the international humanitarian organization Global Medical Training in a traveling medical clinic serving marginalized communities in Los Santos, Panama.
“There were so many scenarios where I felt like we were able to help the patients, but only for a moment,” she said. She knew that their clinic would help patients as much as possible in a visit, but they may never again be seen by the doctors.
“It made me realize that I’m not satisfied as a physician just distributing a medication and then leaving,” she explained. “Sometimes physicians have to be OK with putting a Band-Aid on a solution — but that’s not something I felt as comfortable accepting.”
During her last two years in undergraduate school, Gubbi also volunteered with the Westside Samaritans Clinic in Gainesville. The student-led clinic provided free care to patients at or below the 200% poverty line.
Serving people in the state where she had grown up helped Gubbi see real-world examples of the health care system’s failings. As part of her patient intake duties, she spent many hours speaking with the clinic’s visitors and getting to know their stories.
“Seeing people in my own community struggle to achieve the basic right of health care is what set me on the course I’m on now,” she said.
She chose college classes that could help her better understand the obstacles indigent Americans face in accessing health care and volunteered with nearby community clinics and student organizations. Volunteering in Hawaii, she saw firsthand how domestic health care policies can change based on geographical and cultural contexts within the United States. All of it helped her prepare for medical school.
“Listening to patients is so important,” Gubbi said. “I came to realize just how necessary it is to take a step back from all the medical things going on in my mind, and to see and hear patients as people. That’s how I’ll better understand their stories and be better able to treat them.”
When she began applying to medical schools, she gave preference to universities that would allow her to complete a J.D.-M.D. combination-degree program.
“When I got my offer from UVA, I thought it was kind of perfect in that they had the combination-degree program. I would be able to apply to the Law School here and do it all in six years,” she said.
She was drawn to Virginia for its beautiful mountains and to Charlottesville for its close-knit feel.
“I love that when I walk out of my door, I’m almost guaranteed to run into someone I know — you seem to become friends with everyone here,” said Gubbi, who began her medical studies in 2021.
Since that fall, Gubbi has worked as a house coordination committee policy analyst for the American Medical Association and was named legislative chair of UVA’s AMA-MSV (Medical Society of Virginia) chapter her first year of medical school.
In that role, she read over policies submitted to the AMA’s policy framework. As part of one of the MSV’s “lobby days,” she spoke to state representatives about the policies the association hoped to implement, and saw a disconnect between lawmakers and physicians.
“For example, a senator could ask us something like, ‘What is the difference in the education of a nurse practitioner and a physician?’ That’s something that we as medical students live and breathe daily but is not necessarily front of mind for someone who’s dealing with policy areas such as the environment or transportation,” she said.
The experience made her interested in understanding where lawmakers are coming from and being able to better advocate for policies that will benefit patients in the long term.
“Historically, health care has changed so drastically as a result of the political and legal state of the nation,” Gubbi said.
A couple of years ago, she met law Professor Mimi Riley, who further stoked her interest in the Health Law Program and the field of bioethics.
“She really solidified my interest in applying,” Gubbi said.
She ran into Riley again at the Law School’s admitted students open house in March, and Riley was pleasantly surprised to see Gubbi pursuing her J.D.-M.D.
“She said, ‘A lot of students talk about doing the combination-degree program, but you actually did it,’” Gubbi laughed.
Gubbi said she was excited by the collaboration and community among the different graduate schools at UVA.
“Professor Riley was telling me about her recent Affordable Care Act conference involving Darden and law students. I felt like, wow, I want to be at UVA Law. Right in the center of these things.”
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Founded in 1819, the University of Virginia School of Law is the second-oldest continuously operating law school in the nation. Consistently ranked among the top law schools, Virginia is a world-renowned training ground for distinguished lawyers and public servants, instilling in them a commitment to leadership, integrity and community service.
