Professor of Pediatrics, Executive Medical Director of Quality & Safety, Benioff Children’s Hospitals, Interim 

Here is what Deborah’s nominator had to say about her:  

“Deb Franzon is an incredible clinician, medical director of the PICU, and a cheerleader for her colleagues. She is passionate about her work, about advancing the care of our patients through quality improvement, and is an advocate and is a mentor, a coach, a sponsor, and a friend to the rest of us, especially the younger faculty in our division.” – Efrat Lelkes 

Overview of Journey at UCSF:

Deb joined the UCSF faculty at UCSF in 2016 after an 11-year career at Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital, Stanford where she served in a variety of leadership roles including Interim Division Chief for Critical Care and Medical Director of the Pediatric Intensive Care Unit. Deb completed her undergraduate work at UC Berkeley, studying environmental sciences and completed medical school, pediatrics and critical care training at UC San Diego/Rady Children’s Hospital. Deb has served in a variety of leadership roles since joining UCSF including Medical Director of the Pediatric Transitional Care Unit, the Divisional Quality Director as well as the PICU Medical Director. She has been co-leading a BCH SF/Oakland pediatric critical care quality initiative to address screening, preventing and treatment of delirium in the ICU for which she and her team were awarded a 2021 UCSF Caring Wisely Award. At UCSF, Deb co-chairs the HS Clinical Promotions Committee and serves as the Departmental Proxy on the Credentials Committee. Nationally, she serves on the Society of Critical Care Medicine ABCDEF Liberation Committee as well as the Quality and Safety Committee. 

Do you have a favorite song?  If you had to choose an anthem, what would it be?   

Probably Beast of Burden by the Rolling Stones, huge fan and twice in my medical career I’ve flown to attend a Rolling Stones concert at night and fly back early the next morning to work once while a medical student at UCSD I flew to the Oakland Coliseum and 20 years later I flew from SF to Seattle to join my best friends from college…Mick still had the moves, even after having heart surgery. They had a fans choice song that changed each night on their playlist and that night –Beast of Burden was the fans choice—voted on earlier that day—it was karma to see it performed live-we were really excited! 

What advice would you give yourself early on in your career to a woman entering your field today?   

The best advice I got I will pass on to younger colleagues, in particular women with competing demands for work, life family---where you are right now is just a chapter in your life, it isn’t the whole story.  Every chapter has an ending where a new one starts. Working really hard now and leaning in or taking time off for kids now or passing on that opportunity right now is just a chapter that you can end and start a new chapter when you are ready. Realizing that where I was in a moment wasn’t the forever plan was really inspiring and freeing for me to push on or step away when needed at different times in my life. 

Can you tell us about an important role model or mentor in your life?  

Easily, was the Medical Director who inspired me to go into critical care medicine, trained me and hired me as a colleague, Dr. Brad Peterson at Rady Children’s Hospital at UCSD.  He taught the fundamental value of being at the bedside and “asking the patient the question.”—that every small adjustment in care or intervention has a consequence and we need to be perceptive to see how the patient responds. He taught me all things critical care and also modeled the way as a dedicated, committed, hard-working clinician. He passed away in 2021 and I am proud to honor his legacy as one of his trainees. 

What do you like to do outside of work?  

I love the 3 Ps in my life: My people (family-husband and 2 children and friends, my pug Rocky, and my Peloton—love a good 20 min groove ride with Cody Rigsby or Emma Lovewell