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A first-of-its-kind scientific collective in San Diego is working to understand the relationship between breast milk and medication
Milk bank Technician NICU milk Human Breastfeeding Study UCSD
A few years ago, when my firstborn was seven months old, I developed an incredibly itchy rash on the back of my legs. Soon, red blisters extended over the back side of my body, covering me neck-to-toe.
It wasn’t easy to get my condition diagnosed. In fact, I still don’t know for sure what ails me. Physicians and dermatologists I consulted all shrugged with a look of pity in their eyes, offering a shot of corticosteroids with some antihistamines.
Until I told them I was breastfeeding.
Then they walked back their recommendations, changed medications, and advised me to take lower doses. With just a topical steroid and an over-the-counter dose of Benadryl, my rash took months to clear.
I wasn’t alone in this confusing medical purgatory. According to a 2017 study, more than 70 percent of women who breastfeed or pump their milk take some form of medication during lactation. Yet, a lack of research on the effects, dosing, and safety of medications remains a real issue for those who breastfeed—and for their babies.“
The majority of [medications] are not tested in the maternal-infant space,” says Lars Bode, director of the Human Milk Institute (HMI), a UC San Diego–based institution recently created to fill that gap. “That puts us in this dilemma. We have hardly any information about many [medications] out there that we know moms take.”
Human Milk Institute technician
Photo Credit: María José Durán
As a tandem-breastfeeding mother of two, both under four years old, I wanted to find out why it’s so hard to identify what medication is okay to use while lactating.
Studies have proven that breastfeeding is good for babies and good for moms (although not the only option to raise a healthy baby). But so far, the biological composition of breast milk and its extensive benefits have been widely understudied.
HMI gathers a wide array of pre-existing institutions within the UC San Diego campus to combine their individual efforts to expand our understanding of human milk. One of them, Mommy’s Milk Human Milk Research Biorepository, is the first-ever research database of human breast milk. Another, the Center for Community Health, seeks to improve lactation accommodation and equity. The University of California Health Milk Bank is one of only 31 nonprofit milk banks in North America, and the Larsson-Rosenquist Foundation Mother-Milk-Infant Center of Researcher Excellence focuses on better understanding the components of human milk. The Lactation and Perinatal Education Program at UC San Diego Extended Studies offers clinical lactation education to professionals.“
This is something we need to tackle from all kinds of different angles and disciplines,” Bode adds.
He believes that San Diego is setting a global example in the field of breastfeeding. “We have a community that’s very passionate [about lactation research] and the clinicians, researchers, and educators that, for years, have done this [work] in their own way,” he says.
UC Health Milk Bank Human Breastfeeding Study UCSD
Photo Credit: María José Durán
In 2018, the Federal Task Force on Research Specific to Pregnant Women and Lactating Women recommended the then-secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services identify and address these gaps in knowledge.“
To date, exclusion [of pregnant and breastfeeding people from research] may be motivated by concern about the possible harms of medication use during pregnancy or lactation,” reads the task force’s report. Their last meeting was in 2020. After this effort died down, a bill was introduced to Congress in 2022 to try to revitalize it, but it’s had little success so far.
That’s where Mommy’s Milk Human Milk Research Biorepository—part of HMI’s research arm —comes in. This lab collects milk samples from lactating people who are already taking medication in hopes they will amass enough samples to be able to produce a study.“We were established 10 years ago with the idea that we needed [more research on the effects of medicine on pregnant and lactating people], and it’s not that difficult to get it,” Mommy’s Milk director Christina Chambers says. “It’s just [about having] the will and the resources to do it.”
In an effort to understand this issue and help be a part of its solution, I decided to donate my own breast milk. In May of this year, I arrived at the Mommy’s Milk offices in San Diego’s Birdland neighborhood next to Mary Birch Hospital (where my first daughter was born).
Kerri Bertrand, the research manager at the UCSD Department of Pediatrics, showed me around their space. Construction was underway in their lab at the time, and their temporary equipment consisted of two huge floor-to-ceiling freezers, a small fridge to keep samples cold, and a makeshift station where a lab technician transferred breast milk to pipettes.
After the tour, Bertrand took me to a small room to pump my own milk. “You are agreeing to participate in a breast milk biorepository. We’re going to request a breastmilk sample to be stored for research purposes,” Bertrand told me as she handed me a hospital-grade milk pump. She asked me questions about my pregnancies, lactation, drug use, exposures, and my children.
While the breast pump gently tugged on my nipples, extracting the milk, I took notes and considered how I might help thousands of people with this simple, everyday act.Just like me, more than 3,000 people have already signed up to participate in this effort. “The interest in doing this is overwhelming,” Chambers says. “It’s just incredible.”
Although there have been few large research studies on this subject, San Diego–based, international board–certified lactation consultant Rachelle Markham explains that there exists some information to help parents make informed decisions about breastfeeding and medication.
In fact, in 2013, a study by the American Academy of Pediatrics declared that most psychotropic therapies, narcotics, immunizations, drugs to treat substance abuse, and foods to boost breast milk production are safe to take or consume while breastfeeding. “Many mothers are inappropriately advised to discontinue breastfeeding or avoid taking essential medications,” the study reads.
HMI also contributes to spreading the available information through LactMed, a free online database. “LactMed [is] a trusted resource about medications and breastfeeding, and it’s widely used,” Chambers explains—but not all parents, or even all doctors, know about it.“
The little bit of data that we have, clinicians often don’t know it exists,” Bode adds.
Human Breastfeeding Study UCSD High Protein Milk NICU babies
While researching this story, I looked up the safety of corticosteroids and antihistamines, the medications that should have been prescribed to me for my hives. I was dumbfounded when I read that, according to the HMI’s LactMed database, they are both safe.
Prednisone, a commonly used corticosteroid, appears in low amounts in breast milk. Similarly, all antihistamines are considered safe to use during breastfeeding, as minimal amounts are excreted in human milk.
The amount of itching and pain that I could have avoided had my doctors been more informed about what medications are safe while breastfeeding is something that keeps me up at night.
Other parents have faced similar situations. “Yesterday I fielded four calls from people who were told that they had to stop breastfeeding or pump-and-dump over medications that were completely safe,” Markham says. “But that’s what their doctors had told them.”
There’s still a lot left to learn.
Chambers says that, even today, it’s rare for the FDA to require that pharmaceutical companies conduct lactation-related studies before a new drug hits the market. In fact, 90 percent of clinically approved medications do not have appropriate drug labeling information for those who are pregnant and lactating.
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Over my three-and-a-half years of breastfeeding, I’ve examined many a pill label, wondering at the med’s safety. Recently, a quick search in my medicine cabinet revealed a generic bottle of ibuprofen with a warning on it: “If pregnant or breastfeeding, ask a health professional before use.” According to the HMI’s LactMed database, however, the medication is “a preferred choice as an analgesic or anti-inflammatory agent in nursing mothers.
”Confusion about what pill to take is not the only consequence of the lack of research and information about taking medication while lactating.“
Research has shown that people with highest rates of postpartum depression are those who wanted to breastfeed but were unsuccessful,” Markham says, explaining that many feel sad or disappointed that their plans were derailed for reasons out of their control. “[Breastfeeding] is a big relationship to have to change for medication.”
Mommy’s Milk repository also receives milk samples to conduct this vital research from the UC Health Milk Bank, the clinical arm of HMI. Director Lisa Stellwagen explains that sometimes their donor milk cannot be used to feed babies, and then the milk is transferred to the research biorepository.
“People want their milk to go to good use, so we can learn more about human milk,” Stellwagen said as we toured the state-of-the-art facilities located inside the San Diego Blood Bank facilities on Gateway Center Ave.UC Health Milk Bank collects donor samples and distributes them to NICUs, a life-saving measure to premature, low-birth-weight babies who could develop sepsis. “There’s more than 600 elements in human milk, there’s so much more to know, and we have to work together to find out,” Stellwagen said.“
Why hasn’t there been an effort to understand human milk beyond nutrition and maternal health?” Bode continues. “It’s still mind-boggling.”
His own research dives into oligosaccharides found almost exclusively in human breast milk. “We found that some of these sugars reduce inflammation in a way that could be therapeutic for people with arthritis or who have had a heart attack.”
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For Bode, human milk has been underestimated. “We’ve been told that formula is just as good, the perfect alternative [that] has been pushed for the last few decades, and there’s a lot more marketing force and financial resources to push the alternative.
”The HMI is currently looking for community partners and sponsors. “We want to make sure that the work we do here is not only grounded in the community, but also that we work with the community and solve problems together, first here in San Diego but really globally.”
María José Durán is a bilingual, Emmy and Golden Mike award-winning journalist with two decades of experience across two continents and three countries. She’s interested in all things motherhood, border life, intersectional feminism, and lifestyle.
"The Distinct Modernism of San Diego" tells the story of how some architects pioneered their own style in 20th-century San Diego
San Diego is just out here minding its own business. It’s long been cast as Los Angeles’s less ambitious sibling—the chill one, the one who shows up late for dinner reservations in flip-flops with a few provocative opinions. Architecturally it’s often cast the same: secondary, derivative, a footnote to California modernism that seems to begin and end with the Stahl House (Case Study House #22). LA has Pierre Koenig, Craig Ellwood, John Lautner. San Diego has the original fish taco.
But this version of the story is redacted, metaphorically speaking.
While the jazz hands of Hollywood and its hills cast a spell on historians and architecture buffs, San Diego had, and has, its own quiet evolution: It invented and reinvented itself through homegrown modernism, beginning with The Allen House (1907) in Bonita by Irving J. Gill.
“The biggest misconception is that San Diego was following Los Angeles,” says Keith York of Modern San Diego, one of the city’s top guides to modernist architecture. “Those who consider Rudolph Schindler and Richard Neutra as the fathers of Southern California Modernism often fail to recognize the outsize influence Gill and his buildings had on their work.”
A new book, The Distinct Modernism of San Diego—written by Mark Hargreaves and Hallie Swenson, published by York—focuses on eight architects who were born, raised, or built their careers in San Diego. It illustrates how the city wasn’t hosting weekend warrior architects on side quests. It was a staging ground for a less look-at-me modernism from luminaries like Gill, Lilian J. Rice, Richard Requa, Lloyd Ruocco, Frederick Liebhardt, Kendrick Bangs Kellogg, Sim Bruce Richards, and Cliff May.
“Absent the backstabbing competition for projects, a collegial group of architectural peers collaborated and maintained lasting friendships with one another as they designed in response to the temperate climate and slower economy,” York says.
Largely unknown until the mid-1960s, Gill is a marquee name today. He arrived here from the East Coast at a moment when San Diego was still defining itself, which gave him the freedom to invent something new, experiment, rebel.
Instead of imposing the flourishes and frills of the time, he considered San Diego’s climate, light, landscape, history—the joie de vivre—and designed for this place. “[Architects of the west] must have the courage to fling aside every device that distracts the eye from structural beauty, must break through convention and get down to fundamental truths,” he once said, a sentiment that nails the un-ornate, total lack of pretension that’s defined San Diego people and culture.
And, lo, did Gill fling: His flat roofs, clean lines, and almost no ornamentation—though not necessarily modernism in the Eames or Eichler sense—foreshadowed what would later be called minimalism. Gill eventually became synonymous with the Los Angeles narrative, but broader architectural histories overlook the fact that his most progressive designs happened here.
Another key to San Diego’s architectural movement was Lilian J. Rice, who often worked behind the scenes with little credit. She was one of only about 10 women in America licensed as architects at the time. Even though she died from cancer at 43, she somehow managed to complete an estimated 170 projects in the region, many in Rancho Santa Fe.
Born and raised in National City, Rice also wasn’t importing ideas. She shaped her own based on her understanding of this region and her commitment to protect the natural environment. Her work has been categorized as Spanish Colonial Revival, but she wasn’t reviving as much as she was refining a style suited to our border region—serene, mirroring nature, beautiful.
“San Diego architects were designing for a way of life, not just a look,” says York.
Like Sim Bruce Richards, who was his own way of life. While Gill stripped away ornamentation and Rice focused on the peace of open spaces, Richards came along several decades later and went full emo. By then, modernism had grown deep roots; its steel-and-glass structures took themselves very seriously. Richards came to party.
An eccentric, unpredictable man with half a face (part of his jaw was removed following a bone infection when he was a child), his life was a jalopy of adventures. He was opinionated and passionate about design, music, texture—and he created what he called a “sensuous environment.” He wanted his clients and their guests to feel the spaces as much as to be in them, appealing to the visual, tactile, nasal (“a cedar house smells good”), auditory (“acoustically superior”), even taste. “Though, I‘ve never had a client lick my houses,” he once wrote.
Organic, woodsy, textured, aromatic—if you ever find yourself in a Sim Bruce Richards house, a licking impulse might not seem so outrageous.
Gill, Rice, Richards and the other architects in Distinct Modernism built a legacy in San Diego that resonates nationally. And the work of these heavy hitters isn’t stuck in an inaccessible collectors realm: This October, homes by Kellogg and Liebhardt will open to the public as part of the La Jolla Modernism Home Tour—an opportunity to experience it not as a museum relic or magazine image (ahem), but as something alive.
Modernism in San Diego was never about glamour or an intention to be iconic. What transpired here is more nuanced, more ingrained with a less shouty aesthetic. A very San Diego aesthetic.
We asked 12 golf pros from across the county to choose the city's top holes to create the "Dream 18"
At the top of a golf swing, the world settles into a hush. Anyone within 50 yards kindly shuts up in reverence. Steady heartbeats tuck inside the sound of the wind. Time stands still.
Or—panic sets in, a thousand warnings from coaches and YouTube tutorials prattle through your brainpan. You wonder if a good walk prepares to be ruined.
On descent, the club rearranges air particles as it slices on a perfect or unwise line toward an earth so green, it seems like AI. The iron face meets the ball, and the satisfying or unsettling thwack echoes across the fairway like a nonviolent gunshot or a cry for help. Breath catches, curse words load in the prefrontal cortex. Eyes squint to follow the hard-to-see projectile zip majestically through the air or bounce lamely along the ground like a failed hurdler.
Sometimes it goes a couple hundred yards in the right direction, other times a couple yards into uncaring swamps. Golf’s beautiful and hard as hell.
Mindfulness and stillness reign over speed and might—which goes against most basal American instincts regarding sport. Its quiet, serene mocking of our human abilities is what brings so many of us to the life-long process of sharpening the skill. Because who hasn’t stared at the most beautiful parks and lawns in the world and said, “How can I turn this into a game and win it?”
Luckily, San Diego has an abundance of courses to improve and curate self-doubt. The county is home to over 70 courses that attract the top golfers in the country. Some of the biggest names in the sport—Callaway, TaylorMade, Cobra, Titleist, Odyssey, Honma—are based here. Perfect weather never hurts. But San Diego golf courses also promise a smorgasbord of terrains: rocky canyons, hot deserts, and lush greens overlooking the expanse of the Pacific Ocean.
If you could take the 1,300-ish holes around San Diego and pick the very best ones to create your ultimate course, which would they be? We asked some of the top golf pros in the county to do just that. The result? San Diego’s Dream 18. Think fantasy football but for golf.
Just like any great course, our Dream 18 includes four par 3s, 10 par 4s, and four par 5s—everything from tricky dog legs and psychological tee shots to just pretty, pretty views. Once we had our list, we either asked the head golf pro what makes a hole so special, or other pros spoke on its behalf. Go ahead, tell us what we missed.
“One of the most iconic par 3s on the West Coast. The cliffside setting above the Pacific and the constant ocean breeze make it both beautiful and demanding.”
—Anthony Valverde, Director of Golf, The Crosby Club at Rancho Santa Fe
“It’s a downhill par 3 over water with a great view from the tee down to the green. It’s surrounded by bunkers as well, so it almost feels like an island green even though it’s not. What’s really cool is once you drive to the next hole, if you look back on No. 14, it’s a great view as well. One of the signature holes [at Santaluz].”
—Josh Rider, Head Golf Pro, The Santaluz Club
Hole 15
“Hole 15 is widely considered one of the best and most memorable holes on the course. At about 250 yards, it’s a long downhill with multiple tiers and panoramic views into the valley. It looks intimidating at first, but there are lots of recovery contours and the green is fairly large.”
—Editor’s Choice
“Sitting high above the green with views of the Pacific Ocean, this dramatically downhill par 3 requires the perfect club selection.”
—Mike Mulford, Director of Golf, Omni La Costa
“While it’s beautiful with the backdrop of the Batiquitos Lagoon and the Pacific Ocean, this finishing hole demands both precision and nerve. The water guarding the right side and fairway bunkers ahead create a visually striking, strategic tee shot, while the expansive green rewards a confident, well-placed approach. If you can make a par on this hole, you’ve played it very well.”
—Renny Brown, Director of Golf, Aviara Golf Club
“The 18th hole at Del Mar CC is a demanding par 4 with an elevated tee box. Water guards the right side of the green, and a player must hit a precise shot into this green.”
—Renny Brown, Director of Golf, Aviara Golf Club
“It’s a difficult 428-yard par 4 playing into the predominant west wind. The hole is post-renovation and the vegetation was trimmed back, so now it exposes a penalty on the right. It’s uncomfy at the tee but a good challenge. Plus, it’s the No. 1 handicap for [all players].”
—Chris Lungo, Head Golf Pro, Rancho Santa Fe Golf Club
Lili Kim is a content coordinator and writer for San Diego Magazine, with experience highlighting local businesses and communities. When not writing or shooting film, she is likely brewing her seventh cup of tea of the day or strolling along Sunset Cliffs.
A very human, very local, non-AI, actually experienced, sometimes weird, oddly specific list of awesome things to do in San Diego
As editors of a regional magazine, we often get asked: What are the best things to do in San Diego? While that answer often involves our favorite taco spot, a definitive ranking of each neighborhood with age-specific notes (head to PB if you’re under 25, grab drinks in Del Mar if you’re over 35), and which surf breaks are friendly to visitors, we figured it’s high time to memorialize our handpicked recs. Below are 101 very human, very local, non-AI, actually experienced, sometimes weird, oddly specific things to do in San Diego.
The annual event honors middle market companies creating jobs, scaling up, and investing in the region
San Diego is known for its startup culture and innovation economy, but what happens when the company moves beyond its early-stage years? The San Diego Business Impact Awards aim to answer that question, spotlighting the middle market businesses helping drive the region’s economy.
Hosted by San Diego Regional Economic Development Corporation (EDC) and JPMorganChase, the second annual awards celebration takes place on Thursday, July 23, from 4:30 to 7:00 p.m. at Scripps Research Auditorium. More than 200 executives, entrepreneurs, and business leaders are expected to attend the networking and cocktail event honoring some of San Diego County’s fastest-growing companies.
Businesses headquartered in San Diego County that have operated for at least two years are encouraged to submit their nomination by Thursday, June 18 at 4 p.m. Companies across industries—from technology and life sciences to tourism and consumer products, as well as pre-revenue startups—are eligible for recognition.
For EDC President and CEO Mark Cafferty, the event is as much about building connections as celebrating success. “We’ve had a longtime partnership with JPMorganChase; their work aligns with our efforts to support underserved communities and drive talent development,” says Cafferty. “And the networking was invaluable last year. I’m still in touch with people I met at last year’s awards.”
EDC is an independently-funded nonprofit that works directly with San Diego companies to help them grow the local economy, make the region as a whole more competitive, and attract and retain top-tier talent with quality jobs. Through EDC, companies can get help starting or expanding their business with support for things like site selection, permit navigation, and regulatory guidance, plus connections to local resources and potential business collaborators.
The San Diego Business Impact Awards began as an idea with one of EDC’s longtime strategic partners, JPMorganChase. The two organizations share a commitment to San Diego and are dedicated to bolstering middle market businesses.
“We’re blessed with a robust innovation economy and startup community,” says Aaron Ryan, San Diego Region Manager for JPMorgan’s Commercial and Investment Bank and vice chair of the firm’s’ San Diego Market Leadership Team. “But one of the segments of the business community we felt was overlooked was emerging middle market companies—the businesses that are no longer small but not yet large.”
Ryan says supporting those companies is critical as they scale and decide where to invest, hire, and grow.
San Diego’s high cost of living remains one of the region’s biggest business challenges, making talent recruitment and retention increasingly competitive. But local leaders point to the region’s quality of life, climate, and collaborative business community as advantages that continue to attract employers and workers.
“In order to support thriving households, there has to be enough high-quality jobs for people to be able to afford to live here,” Cafferty says. “Once a company grows and excels past that middle market point in their growth cycle, they become much more likely to pay higher wages and compete globally.”
Both Cafferty and Ryan proudly tout the unique collaboration that exists among San Diego County businesses. Bringing together top universities producing high-quality talent, cutting-edge research institutions, a robust military and defense presence, leading ocean science and environmental organizations, and a binational, cross-border identity creates a distinct business ecosystem that defines and strengthens the San Diego region.
Last year’s San Diego Business Impact Awards celebrated nearly 60 honorees from 49 industries, representing a total of 8,232 jobs across eight sectors, including: software and technology, healthcare and life sciences, consumer goods, professional services, finance, construction and manufacturing, defense, and hospitality and tourism. On average, honoree companies doubled their revenues over the previous year, employed more than 145 San Diegans each, and offered an average annual compensation of $192,415.
Top honorees included defense contractor Innoflight, environmental consulting firm Bancroft Construction Services, life sciences startup Element Biosciences, defense technology contractor GALT Aerospace, organic grocery store chain Jimbo’s, and biopharmaceutical company LENZ Therapeutics. During the event, Innoflight Founder and CEO Jeff Janicik held a fireside chat offering his insights on investing in the community and embracing San Diego culture.
This year, organizers hope to continue highlighting the middle market players driving economic impact across the region. Nominations are now open through June 18 at 4 p.m. Get your tickets to the San Diego Business Impact Awards celebration to enjoy drinks by Snake Oil Cocktail Co., light bites, live music, and networking.
San Diego architects and designers spill on the trends, textures, and ideas shaping the city's homes today
Craftsmans and Spanish Revivalists and mid-century modernists—why does San Diego have so many different architectural styles? What makes a home distinctly San Diego? What are the trends shaping the look of the city’s neighborhoods for years to come? We asked the experts: architects and designers honoring the past, crafting the present, and radically altering the future of San Diego living. They opened their portfolios, shared points of view, and treated us to snapshots of their latest work that speaks to the ideas they’re playing with. The result? Six trends, design choices, and a proposal to make local homes unique. Grab a lemonade and get a little inspo for your own place.
“Clients are now reaching for comfortable outdoor spaces that can be controlled for subtle shifts in the environment—heated covered porches, or patios with controlled louvered ceilings with integrated fans, lighting, heaters, and adjustable light.” –Mark Morris, Oasis Architecture & Design
“I think outdoor spaces in San Diego can be as useful or even more useful than indoor spaces. Relating to the site, view, [and] neighborhood can bring so much value and richness to a home.” –Bill Bocken, Bill Bocken Architecture & Interior Design
“After years of modern farmhouses—black windows, white houses, and gray walls and floors—natural tones are coming back. We are seeing a return to organic textures and more saturated color. Homes feel layered rather than stark.” –Susan Wintersteen, Savvy Interiors
“There’s a move toward homes that feel like every element has a purpose. I see a strong desire for warmth and natural stone, wood, organic textures with softer transitions, and materials that age well.” –Jen Pinto, Jackson Design & Remodeling
“I would like to see even more architectural integrity, fewer quick flips, and more thoughtful renovations that respect proportion, scale, and context. San Diego deserves homes that feel timeless, not transactional.” –Susan Wintersteen, Savvy Interiors
“We want to see people respecting the original character of their homes while re-imagining them for modern life, rather than erasing character in favor of quick transformations that look ‘cookie-cutter.’” –John Kavan, Jackson Design & Remodeling
“Homeowners are staying in their homes longer—some 15 or 20 years. That has shifted design away from trend-driven choices and toward architecturally driven spaces that are functional, cohesive, timeless, and designed to support daily life over decades.” –Jen Pinto, Jackson Design & Remodeling
“There’s a noticeable move away from literal ‘coastal themes’ and toward more layered, textural environments. San Diego homes today often feel cleaner, more architectural, and more personal.” –Julie Crosby, designer
“Today, the aesthetic is more refined but still rooted in ease. It is coastal without being cliché and modern without being cold. The throughline is light, air, and a relaxed sophistication that reflects how people actually live here.” –Susan Wintersteen, Savvy Interiors
“When you can live outdoors most of the year, architecture and interiors must support that. Large format doors, layered patios, durable materials, and seamless flooring transitions all stem from lifestyle.” –Susan Wintersteen, Savvy Interiors
“Nearly everyone wants to take advantage of the constant sunshine, so we see a huge desire for indoor-outdoor living, light and airy fabrics, organic materials that bring the feeling of nature into the home, and a desire to incorporate a relaxed, coastal lifestyle into everyday living.” –Lilli Fish, LS Design Studio
Lili Kim is a content coordinator and writer for San Diego Magazine, with experience highlighting local businesses and communities. When not writing or shooting film, she is likely brewing her seventh cup of tea of the day or strolling along Sunset Cliffs.
Some of the most famous natural environments in the city—from Balboa Park to Otay Mesa—have come from the mind of landscape architect Vicki Estrada
The woman who designed many of Balboa Park’s gardens was nine or 10 years old when the head of Bay Park Elementary decided the trajectory of her life. “I would draw little downtowns, and one day the principal came by and said, ‘Let me see that,’” recalls Vicki Estrada, founder of Estrada Land Planning. “I thought I was in trouble. But she said, ‘You’re going to be an architect.’”
A decade or so later, Estrada was at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo studying architecture. During a weekend trip to Cal Poly Pomona, she attended a lecture on landscape design. “‘Imagine the earth as a canvas,” she remembers the lecturer saying. “Architects put dots on the canvas. Engineers connect the dots. But you are the only ones who can paint the entire canvas.’”
Estrada continues, “Something clicked. I realized what makes a city great—it’s not that building or that building. It’s what happens in between: the public realm, parks, streetscapes.”
She graduated in 1975 and worked at various firms for a decade before founding her own. Eventually growing to a 25-employee company, Estrada Land Planning was tapped to handle the Balboa Park Master Plan and map out the 20,000 acres that would become Otay Ranch. She designed dozens of city parks and began volunteering for myriad arts and charitable committees.
She was one of San Diego’s most active and engaged civic leaders—but much of the city didn’t fully know her story. After decades of being publicly perceived as a man, Estrada came out as a trans woman during a 2005 interview with KPBS. No doubt, she’s visible now: Last month, she was named Woman of the Year by State Assemblymember Chris Ward’s office for her contributions to San Diego’s landscape.
Now 74, she continues to shape the look of the city, completing work on the Balboa Park Botanical Building’s $28 million renovation in 2024.
“I have shifted lately toward more of a nature-based design,” she adds. “If you look at an aerial photograph of San Diego, you see all this green; we have canyons. We have opportunity to really interface with nature. It’s my top priority—that, and the community, how people live, what their needs are. I think my job as a landscape architect to make San Diego as good as it can be.”
Amelia Rodriguez is a writer and journalist and winner of the San Diego Press Club's 2023 Rising Star Award and 2024 Best of Show Award, she’s also covered music, food, arts and culture, fashion, and design for Rolling Stone, Palm Springs Life, and other national and regional publications. After work, you can find her hunting down San Diego’s best pastries and maintaining her five-year Duolingo streak.
Scripps study shows that some patients may be able to taper their dose and maintain results
While glucagon-like peptide-1 (GLP-1) receptor agents have been used to treat Type 2 diabetes for more than 20 years, their recent emergence as weight-loss wonder drugs marked a new frontier in medicine. But their effectiveness has left some patients wondering what to do once they’ve reached their goal. Stopping the medication could mean regaining some, if not all, of the weight. A Scripps Clinic internal medicine physician recently conducted a small study of whether GLP-1 patients who had reached their goal weight could maintain that weight by taking their regularly prescribed injection every other week instead of weekly. Spoiler alert: 30 of 34 patients did. Read more about the study here and what that may mean as pharmaceutical companies roll out oral GLP-1s.
For more nutrition, wellness, and healthy living tips, sign up for the San Diego Health newsletter here.
