Family Medicine
Maria Portela Martinez, MD, MPH
GW Medical Faculty Associates
Dr. Maria Portela Martinez is a board-certified family medicine physician with GW Medical Faculty Associates in Bethesda, MD. She cares for the whole family — from young children to older adults — and sees patients in both English and Spanish. A native of Puerto Rico, she earned her medical degree at Ponce School of Medicine, completed her family medicine residency at Duke University Medical Center, and added a Master of Public Health from Harvard with concentrations in public health leadership and health policy.
Why patients choose Dr. Portela Martinez
With more than a decade of clinical experience, Dr. Portela Martinez pairs hands-on family medicine with a long career in improving access to care. She is passionate about serving vulnerable populations, teaching, and mentorship, and was named a National Minority Quality Forum 40 Under 40 Leader in Health in 2017.
Leadership & background
At GW she serves as Chief of the Family Medicine Section in the Department of Emergency Medicine and Medical Director of the George Washington Immediate Primary Care Clinics, working to expand access to primary care across the community. She is an Assistant Professor at the GW School of Medicine and Health Sciences, mentoring students in professional development and public health. Her earlier work includes leading primary-care training initiatives at the federal Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA), volunteer care at Unity Health Care, and an executive board role with the National Hispanic Medical Association.
Practice focus
Full-spectrum family medicine for all ages, with an emphasis on preventive and primary care and on equitable, accessible care for diverse communities.
Profile last fact-checked June 27, 2026. Information reflects publicly available sources and may change. Confirm details directly with the practice before booking.
How Dr. Martinez compares
Context from the 139 providers we track across Bethesda and Montgomery County.
The only provider we list offering health policy & equity
1 of the 130 providers who list their focus areas name health policy & equity.
Trained in Puerto Rico
1 of the 107 doctors whose medical school we record trained in Puerto Rico. 24 trained outside the United States altogether.
1 of 19 Spanish-speaking doctors
19 of the 139 providers in our registry (14%) practise in Spanish, across 6 specialties.
Medical school: Ponce Health Sciences University — Ponce, Puerto Rico, Puerto Rico.
Figures describe the 139 providers currently in the MyBethesdaDoctor registry as of August 2026 — a curated directory, not a census of every doctor in Montgomery County. How we build this list.
Where Dr. Martinez sits by experience
Dr. Martinez finished medical school in 2010, 16 years ago. Of the 135 providers in our registry whose graduation year we could verify, 112 finished earlier, 20 finished later, and 2 finished the same year.
1965–69
1 provider finished 1965–19691970–74
2 providers finished 1970–19741975–79
4 providers finished 1975–19791980–84
13 providers finished 1980–19841985–89
12 providers finished 1985–19891990–94
14 providers finished 1990–19941995–99
27 providers finished 1995–19992000–04
20 providers finished 2000–20042005–09
19 providers finished 2005–2009Dr. Martinez2010
2010–14
17 providers finished 2010–20142015–19
4 providers finished 2015–20192020–24
2 providers finished 2020–2024Among the 110 physicians we list, 98 finished medical school earlier — the median for that group is 1998.
All 12 bands
| Graduated | Providers |
|---|---|
| 1965–1969 | 1 |
| 1970–1974 | 2 |
| 1975–1979 | 4 |
| 1980–1984 | 13 |
| 1985–1989 | 12 |
| 1990–1994 | 14 |
| 1995–1999 | 27 |
| 2000–2004 | 20 |
| 2005–2009 | 19 |
| 2010–2014 — Dr. Martinez | 17 |
| 2015–2019 | 4 |
| 2020–2024 | 2 |
Figures describe the 139 providers currently in the MyBethesdaDoctor registry as of August 2026 — a curated directory, not a census of every doctor in Montgomery County. Based on the 135 of 139 profiles with a graduation year we could verify against a primary source; the remaining 4 are left out rather than estimated. How we build this list.
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