Dr. Dowling joined the UCLA Family Medicine department in November 1998 as the chairman. He previously served as the chairman and Program Director of the Harbor/UCLA Family Medicine Residency program for eight years. Prior to that, he served 2 1/2 years as the residency director of the Family Medicine training program at Brown University in Rhode Island. His previous experiences ranged from a 3 year assignment in a Cesar Chavez/United Farm Worker clinic and government sponsored rural migrant health center on the Mexico-California border, to a 7 year stint as Associate Chairman of the Family Medicine Department at Cook County Hospital, Chicago. Interested in the issues of border health, he was involved as a visiting professor of community medicine in a community health epidemiology project and a pesticide poisoning prevention program at Universidad Autonoma, Zacatecas, Mexico. Appointed by Louis Sullivan in 1991, Dr. Dowling served 3 years on the National Advisory Council on the National Service Corps and currently serves on the State Primary Care Task Force. Dr. Dowling is board certified in Family Medicine and in Preventive Medicine / Public Health, and holds a CAQ in Geriatrics. His interests include health policy and politics, care of the underserved, and border health issues.

Dr. Dowling holds a Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of Toledo. He earned his Medical degree from the Medical College of Ohio, his Masters of Public Health from the University of Michigan and completed his residency at Cook County Hospital in Chicago, Illinois.