Daley graduated from UCSD School of Medicine in 1975. She joined the Comprehensive Health Center in southeast San Diego as an ambulatory pediatric fellow in 1979. She stayed for eleven years, becoming executive director of the Center before leaving in 1990 to join the faculty of the UCSD School of Medicine. Through her efforts, the Health Center is one of the sites students may choose as part of the Pediatrics Core Clerkship. As Assistant Dean of Student Development for the medical school, Daley is also participating in a number of middle and high school outreach programs to help students from disadvantaged backgrounds pursue health and science careers.
Retention is just as important as admission to medical school.
In programs like the Hispanic Center of Excellence, Daley works to retain students from nontraditional backgrounds. She is able to work with students and parents from a base of empathy. She moved from Panama to Los Angeles at age twelve. When I look at the kids on the playground at Hamilton, I really think of myself when I first came to this country. Raised by her grandmother in Panama in a one-room house without plumbing or electricity, she studied her lessons by the light of a kerosene lantern.