Mario F. Pacheco, M.D., is a Board Certified family physician who has provided comprehensive family care to medically indigent populations in northern New Mexico. He is the founding director of the Northern New Mexico Family Practice Residency Program, a rural training track in Santa Fe, NM sponsored by the University of New Mexico (UNM) School of Medicine. A 1986 graduate of the University of New Mexico School of Medicine, Dr. Pacheco completed his residency in family medicine at the University of New Mexico Department of Family and Community Medicine. He completed a fellowship in Health of the Public at UNM and subsequently worked as a community health center physician in Santa Fe for 10 years. He is a diplomat and fellow of the American Academy of Family Physicians. In 2000-2001 he was awarded a prestigious Robert Wood Johnson Health Policy Fellowship in Washington D.C. where he worked in the office of United States Senator Jeff Bingaman. He subsequently served as a District Health Officer for the New Mexico Department of Health prior to resuming the residency directorship in 2002. He currently serves patients at Pojoaque Primary Care and also serves as the Associate Vice Chancellor for Hispanic/Latino Health at the University of New Mexico Health Sciences Center. He has authored papers in the field of U.S.–Mexico border health, school-based health centers, and rural family medicine training. His main professional interest is exploring ways to improve health services access to rural and uninsured families. In 2006 he was the recipient of the University of New Mexico School of Medicine’s Distinguished Alumnus Award.