LA JOLLA, Calif. – UC San Diego Athletics is sharing the perspectives of alumni scholar-athletes whose work in healthcare has been impacted by COVID-19. Today’s featured alumni is Dr. Steve “Mouse” Marks ‘82 of the men’s water polo team. Marks majored in Psychology and minored in Chemistry. While at UC San Diego, Marks was an All-American and was All-Conference in 1980 and 1981. Marks won a Silver medal with Team USA at the 1981 World Maccabiah Games.

Q: What is your job and where are you currently working?

Marks: I am a physician practicing pulmonary medicine, critical care and sleep disorders at the Phoenix VA medical Center. I am also core faculty at the University of Arizona College of Medicine in Phonenix in those disciplines. I teach medical students, residents and fellows.

Q: How is COVID-19 impacting the work that you do and your life outside of work?

Marks: Generally I have been going to work and coming home every day. Throughout my career in critical care medicine, I have been used to dealing with contagious infections and diseases. That said, we have had a heightened degree of concern. I provide daily care for patients with COVID-19. I manage the ventilators for those patients with respiratory failure. I perform invasive procedures on these patients when needed. I feel an extra responsibility to keep the physicians in training safe while they are learning.

I was sad for my daughter who graduated college recently; Summa Cum Laude with a perfet 4.0 GPA. She, like all the other graduates, did not get her chance to walk at graduation and be acknowledged for her achievements. I was disappointed to have to cancel a trip to Europe with some of my Triton teammates. In the long-term, the economic fallout from the pandemic may result in my having to work a few more years.

Q: What suggestions, advice, or words or encouragement do you have for our current-scholar athletes during these trying times?

Marks: Life's a roller coaster with ups and downs and you've got to love the ride. When something good happens or when something bad happens it's all part of the fun. Invest yourself in every experience whether good or bad and get everything out of it that you can. Once accepted into UC San Diego and being an athlete. you have seperated yourself from the pack. You have the meatl to weather whatever happens. The world will turn and better days are ahead.

"Alumni in Action" is an on-going series highlighting UC San Diego alumni in healthcare during COVID-19. Below are previous "Alumni in Action" conversations:

• Emily McQuaid ’14 (softball)
• Amy Leu ‘00 (women’s basketball)
• Nate Ford '15 (track and field)
• Kari Lyman ‘03 (women’s water polo)
• Melly Sani ‘87 (women’s tennis)

About UC San Diego Athletics
After two decades as one of the most successful programs in NCAA Division II, the UC San Diego intercollegiate athletics program begins a new era in 2020 as amember of the Big West Conference in NCAA Division I.  The 23-sport Tritons earned 30 team and nearly 150 individual national championships during its time in DivisionsIII and II and helped guide more than 1,300 scholar-athletes to All-America honors.  A total of 82 Tritons have earned Academic All-America honors, while 37 have earned prestigious NCAA Post Graduate Scholarships.  UC San Diego student-athletes exemplify the academic ideals of one of the world's preeminent institutions, graduating at an average rate of 91 percent, one of the highest rates among institutions at all divisions.