PHOENIX, AZ (TIP): Dr. Hiral Tipirneni, an Indian American emergency room physician and cancer research advocate, officially announced her candidacy for Arizona’s 8thCongressional District.

Hiral has dedicated her life to serving her community and is running for Congress to take on Washington special interests by putting the district’s residents first.

“I believe in solving problems and improving lives, which is all about people, not partisanship,” said Dr. Tipirneni. “That’s what I did in the emergency room, and I’m running for Congress to do the same,” she added.

Hiral has served the Phoenix area for more than two decades, first as an emergency room physician. Most recently, she joined the board of directors of the Maricopa Health Foundation, which supports the county’s public health care delivery system.

“I’m not a career politician,” Hiral stated, “But I’ve successfully worked with people from all walks of life, and I promise to bring that team oriented approach to working with Republicans and Democrats alike to get the results we need.”

Hiral came to America from India with her family at the age of three. Her family struggled at first, but Hiral’s father eventually secured a job in his field of structural engineering in Ohio, where she and her brother were raised in a blue-collar suburb of Cleveland. Hiral’s mother, a social worker, was the director of a downtown Cleveland senior center and initiated its Meals on Wheels program. Hiral often accompanied her mother, and it was then she began to feel the tremendous impact small acts of service can have on another person.

Following a childhood illness, Hiral was inspired to learn more about medicine and, after graduating from public school, she eventually earned her medical degree through an accelerated, competitive program at Northeast Ohio Medical University. A passionate problem-solver who thrives on working with a team, Hiral chose to pursue emergency medicine because of the wide variety of challenges it presented, and it allowed her to be the first point of contact for patients.

Hiral met her husband, Dr. Kishore Tipirneni, during her first year of medical school. After she served as Chief Resident of the University of Michigan’s Emergency Medicine program, Hiral and Kishore looked for a place they could settle down, practice medicine, and begin raising a family. They sought somewhere that reflected the Midwestern values they both learned growing up. They chose Phoenix.

Kishore joined a well-established orthopedic surgery practice and Hiral began working in the emergency department at Banner Good Samaritan downtown. She went on to serve in emergency departments at the Maricopa County Medical Center, Banner Thunderbird, and Abrazo Arrowhead hospitals – all while raising their three children in the Arrowhead community.

After losing her mother and nephew to cancer, Hiral directed her passion and problem-solving skills to evaluating and directing funding for cutting-edge cancer research. She now leads teams of researchers, clinicians, and patient advocates in the fight to treat and cure breast cancer, prostate cancer, and childhood leukemia.

Always invested in strengthening her community and improving its quality of life, Hiral initiated and was the lead organizer for a TEDx event about effecting positive change in the Northwest Valley. She also serves on a number of nonprofit boards of directors.