Jess Mandel, MD, FRCP, FACP, ATSF serves as the Kenneth M. Moser Professor of Medicine, Chief of the Division of Pulmonary, Critical Care, and Sleep Medicine, and Executive Vice-Chair of Medicine at UC San Diego. A native of the Chicago area, Dr. Mandel received his Bachelor of Arts in History from Brown University in 1986 and earned his Doctorate in Medicine from Baylor College of Medicine in 1991. He served as Intern, Resident, and Chief Resident in Internal Medicine at Beth Israel Hospital in Boston and completed fellowship training in Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine at Brigham and Women’s Hospital.
After joining the faculty of Harvard Medical School, Dr. Mandel served as Director of the Internal Medicine Residency Training Program at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center and established the hospital’s Pulmonary Hypertension Center. In 2001, he joined the faculty of the University of Iowa Carver College of Medicine, where he served as Assistant Dean in the Office of Student Affairs and Curriculum, and as Co-Director of the University of Iowa Pulmonary Hypertension Program. He also directed medical school courses in physiology and in medical humanities.
In 2006, he was appointed Associate Dean of the University of California, San Diego School of Medicine with responsibility for undergraduate medical education. In that position, he spearheaded a comprehensive review and successful redesign of its medical school curriculum and learning environment. In 2018 he became Vice-Chair in the Department of Medicine and Chief of the Division of Pulmonary, Critical Care, and Sleep Medicine at UC San Diego, and became Executive Vice-Chair in 2024.
Dr. Mandel has contributed publications related to pulmonary/critical care medicine, medical education and to pulmonary vascular disease. He has co-authored two books, one on pulmonary vascular disease and another on general pulmonary medicine, and serves as Pulmonary Vascular Disease Section Editor for UpToDate. He is clinically active in both inpatient and outpatient aspects of pulmonary and critical care medicine.
A physician “frontline provider” in the intensive care unit during the COVID-19 pandemic, Dr. Mandel also oversaw critical care surge planning for UCSD Health. In addition, he developed and led efforts to assist the Tijuana and Mexicali, Mexico medical communities in dealing with their surge of COVID-19 patients, including establishment of multi-disciplinary in-person and telemedicine collaborations and collection of charitable contributions to purchase lifesaving medical equipment.
Dr. Mandel lives in La Jolla, California with his wife, Meg Leopold Mandel.