Dr. Pearl Ma is a born-and-raised Iowa native, who moved to California and completed her Bachelor of Science and Doctor of Medicine at the University of California, Davis. Through her undergraduate studies at UC Davis, she found her passion in helping underserved and marginalized patients. She did her general surgery residency and fellowship training in advanced GI (minimally invasive) and bariatric surgery at the University of California, San Francisco-Fresno program. Dr. Ma performs general surgery and specializes in bariatric and revisional bariatric surgery for complications or weight recurrence.

She has a passion for teaching and a research interest, with publications in revisional bariatric surgery and multiple book chapters. She is a fellow of ASMBS (FASMBS) and FACS, has a focus practice designation in metabolic and bariatric surgery, and is obesity medicine certified. Her goal is to serve the Central Valley and continue educating the local physicians and surgeons in cutting-edge surgical techniques and compassionate patient care. Dr. Ma teaches UCSF residents as an assistant clinical professor of surgery and fellows at ALSA MIS bariatric fellowship. She is serving as co-chair for the diversity and inclusion committee for ASMBS, sub-committee chair of the ASMBS surgical mentoring program, and on the ASMBS program committee, bariatric surgical training committee, state and local chapters committee, the SAGES metabolic and bariatric surgery committee and consultant for the national surgery testing standards for focus practice designation certification in bariatric surgery. Dr. Ma does peer reviews of manuscripts for major bariatric research journals.

Dr. Pearl Ma is the current president of the California/Nevada chapter of the American Society for Metabolic and Bariatric Surgery. She is passionate about treating obesity as a chronic disease and abolishing stigmas associated with obesity.

Dr. Ma has been honored with multiple UCSF-Fresno Resident Excellence in Teaching Awards, Leon S. Peters Foundation Resident of the Year Award, ASMBS Distinguished Service Award and the Treatment of Obesity and Research (TREO) Foundation 2023 Rising Star Award for demonstrating an outstanding job in patient care, research project success and community advocacy. Recently, she started her running journey and loves spending her free time at Disneyland with her husband and two mischievous young children.