UCSD Profiles

search, discover, network

Dr. Ignacio joined the Department of Surgery at UCSD School of Medicine in 2019 as a staff pediatric surgeon. He serves as the Trauma Medical Director/Surgical Director of Pediatric Intensive Care Unit at Rady Children's Hospital San Diego. He retired from the U.S. Navy with over 20 years of experience and has extensive accomplishments in graduate medical education, global surgery, military medicine, and pediatric surgery.

During his leadership in the military, CAPT(Ret.) Ignacio served as the Program Director for General Surgery at Naval Medical Center San Diego (NMCSD). Prior to this he served as the Associate Program Director, Division Chair of Pediatric Surgery, and the Uniformed Services University of Health Sciences medical student clerkship director at NMCSD. He is currently appointed as an Associate Clinical Professor in the Division of Trauma, Surgical Critical Care, Burns, and Acute Care Surgery.

Board Certified in both General Surgery and Pediatric Surgery by the American Board of Surgery, Dr. Ignacio is a member of American College of Surgeons, American Pediatric Surgical Association, American Academy of Pediatrics, Pacific Association of Pediatric Surgeons, International Pediatric Endosurgery Group, Society of American Gastrointestinal and Endoscopic Surgeons, Association of Military Surgeons of the United States, Pediatric Trauma Society, and Pacific Coast Surgical Association. He also serves as a consultant for the American Board of Surgery.

Dr. Ignacio has a strong interest in humanitarian missions and was selected as Director of Surgical Services (MERCEX 2010), Advance Team Lead surgeon, Designated Institutional Officer, and solo military pediatric surgeon in the Pacific Partnership 2012 humanitarian mission, which provided medical care to >100,000 patients in host nations and surgical care to over 800 patients in Indonesia, Vietnam, Cambodia, and the Philippines. He has also participated in civilian humanitarian missions in Central and South America. He currently volunteers as a surgical provider for annual humanitarian missions in Guatemala.

Dr. Ignacio has been an outstanding leader and mentor to residents, interns, and medical students. His impressive role as a surgical educator has been demonstrated by his numerous teaching awards: Arnold P. Gold Foundation's Humanism and Excellence in Teaching Award (2009), General Surgery Mentor of the Year Award (2010, 2012, and 2013), Allshouse-Jones Teaching Award (2010, 2013, 2015, 2017, 2018), Admiral Stitt Teaching Award (2012, 2016), and the Donald L. Sturtz Excellence in Teaching Award (2011) and the Naval Medical Center San Diego Master Clinician Award (2012). At the end of his program directorship, he was awarded the Outstanding Graduate Medical Education Program Director in 2018. In that same year, he became an inaugural associate member for the prestigious American College of Surgeons Master Surgeon Educators society.