Carly Zapata is a palliative care doctor who provides consultations for hospitalized patients with cancer or other serious illnesses. She helps them with controlling symptoms as well as advance care planning. Zapata researches strategies to make advance care planning easier for both patients and doctors. She also studies how to promote self-care for doctors and ways to incorporate routine palliative care into oncology practices. Zapata earned her medical degree from Harvard Medical School and a master of public health degree from the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. She completed her residency in internal medicine at UCSF, where she served as chief resident.