Leandrita Ortega, MD

Leandrita Ortega, MD
Site Director, Family Medicine

Dr. Ortega was raised in Santa Fe, NM where she graduated from Santa Fe High School. It was during her freshman biology class that she had an epiphany about her future plans and from then on, knew she would pursue a career in medicine. After completing her undergraduate training at Mount Saint Mary’s College in Los Angeles, CA with a major in biology and minor in psychology, she spent 2 years testing software being used as part of the Human Genome Project before being admitted to the University of New Mexico School of Medicine in 1998.

Dr. Ortega completed medical school in 2003 then relocated with her family to Tulsa, OK to join the In His Image Family Medicine Residency. Upon completion of residency in 2006, she and her expanding family moved to Ada, OK, a small town in the central part of the state, where she established Abundant Life Family Medicine. Dr. Ortega maintained this practice until 2013 when she took a position with the Central Oklahoma Family Medicine Clinic, a federally qualified rural health center in Konawa, OK.

During her last few years in OK, Dr. Ortega began to feel a pull back to her home state of New Mexico. In 2014, she accepted a position as an employed physician with CHRISTUS Health in Alamogordo, NM. After building a busy practice in Alamogordo, Dr. Ortega was approached by hospital leadership to spearhead the development of new family medicine residency. She is excited to begin this new chapter of her career with a greater emphasis on academic medicine, bringing to bear over 20 years of patient care experience as she heads up the training of new physicians to serve the people of Otero county and Southern New Mexico.

Dr. Ortega is married with 3 children. She enjoys reading for pleasure, going for leisurely walks, tinkers at painting, and enjoys spending time with friends and family. She teaches a variety of classes at her church and regularly participates in local outreach as well as international missions with trips to Albania, Cambodia, Ethiopia, Mexico, Haiti, and Nicaragua over the past 13 years.