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Our Physicians
At the UCLA Family Health Center, our physicians and clinical staff work together in teams that oversee the care of you and your loved ones. This means that every member of the team is knowledgeable about you and your health care. And working together, we bring a broad range of expertise and experience to bear on whatever health situations you may face.
In addition, our physicians are teachers and mentors to UCLA Family Medicine residents, who also participate as members of our clinical teams. How do our patients benefit? The emphasis our physicians place on training the next generation of family physicians means that every case, whether routine or critical, gets careful and thorough consideration. And because our physicians are involved in research, they bring knowledge of the latest treatment options, and the most effective techniques, to provide you with the best possible care.
Meet our clinical teams:
[Photographs by group, headed by Senior Faculty, followed by residents.]
John P. DiFiori, MD, FACSM
Dr. DiFiori is Professor of Clinical Family Medicine, and Chief of the Division of Sports Medicine. He received his medical degree from Temple University. He completed a residency in Family Medicine at Lancaster General Hospital in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, and received his fellowship training in Sports Medicine at UCLA. Dr. DiFiori is co-director of the primary care sports medicine fellowship program. He has been a team physician for the UCLA Department of Intercollegiate Athletics for more than 15 years, and currently serves as team physician for the Bruins’ football and men’s basketball programs. He serves as a medical consultant for the NHL Players’ Association, and is a member of the U.S.A. Gymnastics physician referral network. Dr. DiFiori has served on the Board of Directors for the American Medical Society for Sports Medicine, and is a fellow of the American College of Sports Medicine. He serves on the editorial boards of the Clinical Journal of Sport Medicine and Current Sports Medicine Reports. Dr. DiFiori's research interests include overuse injuries affecting children and adolescents, and preparticipation screening. He has authored multiple scientific articles, case reports, and book chapters on a variety of sports medicine issues.
Tom Donohoe, MBA
Tom Donohoe is an assistant adjunct professor of family medicine and is director and principal investigator for the UCLA/Pacific AIDS Education and Training Center (AETC) and is associate director of the UCLA Center for Health Promotion and Disease Prevention. He has worked in AIDS education and training for medical professionals since 1990 and has helped organize HIV/AIDS training programs in more than 20 states in the Republic of Mexico. Much of his current work focuses on training US HIV clinicians to better serve substance users and latino migrants living with HIV. In the past five years he has partnered with the UCLA Pacific Southwest Addiction Technology Transfer Center (PS ATTC) to develop HIV and Stimulants trainings for over 1,000 medical providers in California, Arizona, and Nevada. Tom has been honored for his volunteer work by more than a dozen Mexican cities, states and non-governmental agencies and received special recognition from Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa for his commitment and dedication to the field of HIV mental health and substance abuse and his work with the Los Angeles Ryan White HIV/AIDS Mental Health Task Force. In August, 2006 he received the national Ryan White Care Act AETC leadership award in Washington DC for his work on the US/Mexico Border.
Patrick T. Dowling, MD, MPH
Patrick T. Dowling, MD, MPH has been Professor and Chair of the UCLA Dept. of Family Medicine since 1998. He is a graduate of the Medical College of Ohio and the University Of Michigan School Of Public Health. He completed his residency training in Family Medicine at Cook County Hospital in Chicago under Jorge Prieto, MD and Michael Stocker, MD. He is board certified in Family Medicine, Preventive Medicine and Public Health.
Prior to joining UCLA in 1998, Dr. Dowling directed Family Medicine Residency training programs at Cook County Hospital, Brown University in Rhode Island and at Harbor-UCLA Medical Center. He has served on the National Advisory Council of the National Health Service Corps, as a Commissioner of Public Health for LA County and is presently a member of the Board of Trustees of the Drew University of Medicine and Science in South-Central LA. His professional interests involve linking graduate medical education to underserved communities as a means to improve access and reduce health outcomes disparities among racial and ethnic minorities. Further, his research interests include chronic disease management cross cultural and bi-national medicine and the integration of substance abuse treatment programs within primary care. He is presently involved in an innovative program to prepare bilingual (English-Spanish) International Medical Graduates (IMGs) to become eligible for licensure and residency training in California. He has believed that health care is a unique social goal and basic right since serving as Medical Director of the United Farm Workers Clinics (UFW) under Cesar Chavez in California’s Coachella and Imperial valleys.
Lillian Gelberg, MD
Dr. Gelberg is a family physician, health services researcher, and professor in UCLA’s Department of Family Medicine and School of Public Health. She is an elected member of the Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of Sciences, co-director of the UCLA Wireless Health Institute, and associate director of the UCLA Primary Care Research Fellowship. Her current research focuses on clinical trials to promote healthy lifestyle change in low income populations using leading behavior change methodologies supported by wireless technology. Over the past 2 decades, Dr. Gelberg has conducted community-based health services research to improve the health of our nation’s most vulnerable populations, and has developed the art and science of collecting data under the most difficult field conditions, including the shelters, meal programs, parks, streets, and busy community health centers of Los Angeles County. Dr. Gelberg has served as PI or Co-PI of more than 25 NIH funded grants, and has published over 100 articles and book chapters. She received the Academy Health 1995 Young Investigator Award and 1997 Article of the Year Award, 2001 Family Practice Excellence in Research Award from the California Academy of Family Physicians (first recipient), George F. Kneller Endowed Chair at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA (first recipient), and 2009 Society of Teachers of Family Medicine’s Curtis Hames Award which honors individuals who through the course of their career, have contributed in a major, outstanding manner to the development of family medicine research. Dr. Gelberg is an alumna of UCLA (BA biology ’77, MSPH public health/health services ‘97), Harvard University Medical School (MD ‘81), Montefiore Residency Program in Social Medicine (family medicine residency ‘84), and the RWJF UCLA Clinical Scholars Program (health services research fellowship ‘86) and Generalist Physician Faculty Scholars Program (faculty development award).
Heather Gillespie, MD, MPH
Heather Gillespie, MD, MPH, is Assistant Professor, Department of Family Medicine, Division of Sports Medicine. Dr. Gillespie joined the UCLA faculty in 2007 after completing her sports medicine fellowship training at Maine Medical Center in Portland, Maine. Dr. Gillespie obtained her undergraduate degree in biology from Brown University in Providence, RI followed by medical school at Duke University. She completed her family medicine residency at Thomas Jefferson University in Philadelphia before her fellowship training in sports medicine. She is a team physician for the UCLA Department of Intercollegiate Athletics and has a sports medicine practice at UCLA Santa Monica which includes patients of all ages with sports related injuries and medical issues. Additionally, she runs a pediatric sports medicine specialty clinic at Orthopaedic Hospital, in downtown LA, specializing in sports related injuries in children and adolescents. Dr. Gillespie is a member of the American Medical Society for Sports Medicine and the American College of Sports Medicine.
Benjamin Gilmore, MD
Benjamin Gilmore, MD, is an Assistant Clinical Professor in the Department of Family Medicine. He grew up in Oregon and Southern California and attended UCLA for undergraduate studies. He attended University of Michigan in Ann Arbor for medical school, and after a year of Psychiatry residency at Michigan decided to switch careers and pursue Family Medicine. He then completed his Family Medicine residency at UCLA, and during his final year planned and organized a health fair for underserved urban farmers in South Los Angeles. After residency he served a year as Chief Resident of the UCLA Family Medicine residency, and subsequently joined the department faculty in 2007. As faculty he has been active in helping to develop the resident didactic curriculum and coordinating the clinical clerkship for UCLA third year medical students at UCLA Family Health Center. His interests include resident and medical student education, hospital medicine, obstetrics, and underserved care. His personal interests include guitar, music composition, and international travel.
F.A. (Fred) Hagigi, DrPH, MBA, MEd
Fred Hagigi is Professor of Healthcare Management and Director of Global Health Initiatives in the Department of Family Medicine, and holds a joint appointment at the UCLA Anderson Graduate School of Management. His work focuses on operations management, marketing, accounting, and finance, and their integration with organizational strategy in the healthcare arena. He has organized and managed multi-specialty medical clinics, and has consulted both in the United States and across more than 50 countries on topics including healthcare finance, social return on investment, and medical systems design and management. He has worked closely with the Johnson & Johnson Management Development Institute (MDI) at the Anderson School to improve the operations of healthcare organizations in Africa. He has led the development of the Africa Emergency Medical Systems (EMS) Collaborative, a coalition of academic, private, and public stakeholders that, together with the Kenya Ministry of Health and the UCLA School of Nursing, is designing an emergency medical system for the West District of Nairobi. Dr. Hagigi received his degrees in Industrial Engineering/Management and Finance at the University of Utah; his MBA at Texas A&M University; his MPH and DrPH in Healthcare Management at UCLA; and his MEd in Higher Education and Organizational Change at UCLA. Dr. Hagigi was honored with the UCLA Academic Senate Distinguished Teaching Award in 2007. He is a member of the Upsilon Phi Delta and Delta Omega Honor Societies, and a senior member of the Institute of Industrial Engineers.
Keith Heinzerling, MD, MPH
Dr. Heinzerling received his BA in Human Biology and his MD from Stanford University. He completed residency in Internal Medicine/Primary Care at NYU Medical Center and Bellevue Hospital where he was Chief Resident in Medicine. He then completed the UCLA Robert Wood Johnson Clinical Scholars Program, during which he obtained an MPH from UCLA School of Public Health. Dr. Heinzerling’s current research and clinical activities are devoted to the discovery, development, and dissemination of effective medications for the treatment of addiction. He is the Principal Investigator on several clinical trials of potential medications for methamphetamine addiction and a study investigating possible genetic influences on response to anti-addiction medications. Dr. Heinzerling is the Medical Director for the UCLA Center for Health Promotion and Disease Prevention and the UCLA Hollywood Research Clinic.
Daniel Lee, MD
Daniel Lee, MD is an Associate Clinical Professor of Family Medicine at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA. He has been on the full-time faculty of the UCLA-Santa Monica Family Medicine Residency Program since 1994. Dr. Lee graduated from Baylor University with a BS in Physical Education in 1987 and he received his medical degree from the University of Texas-Southwestern Medical School in 1991. He completed his residency training at the UCLA-Santa Monica Family Medicine Residency Program in 1994. Additionally, Dr. Lee obtained a MA in Christian Apologetics from Biola University in 2002. In addition to practicing and teaching the full-scope of Family Medicine to residents and medical students, Dr. Lee also holds several other positions at UCLA. He is the Associate Director of the Primary Care College for the 4th year medical students at UCLA. He is a member of the Ambulatory Practice Clinical Associates. He is also the faculty advisor for the Family Medicine Interest Group at the medical school. Dr. Lee is also a long-standing member of the Pharmacy, Therapeutics, and Nutrition Committee at the Santa Monica-UCLA Medical Center and Orthopaedic Hospital. Dr. Lee has published numerous articles in primary care journals and textbooks. Furthermore, he occasionally does manuscript reviews for the American Family Physician journal and serves as an expert reviewer for the Medical Board of California. Finally, Dr. Lee is a long-standing volunteer attending at the Venice Family Clinic.
Rose Maly, MD, MSPH
Dr. Rose C. Maly is Associate Professor of Family Medicine. Dr. Maly received her BS in Biological Sciences and BA in Philosophy from UC Irvine. She received her MD from the UC Irvine College of Medicine and an MSPH from the UCLA School of Public Health. Dr. Maly did her residency in Family Medicine at UCLA, followed by a fellowship in Geriatric Medicine at UCLA. Her honors include the New Investigator Award from the American Geriatrics Society and appointments as a Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Generalist Physician Faculty Scholar and as an American Cancer Society Research Scholar for which she was the first to receive a research grant in excess of $2 million dollars from the American Cancer Society. Her research focus is on patient-physician communication and its impact on health-related quality of life and functioning, cancer survivorship, as well as quality of care. She has used a new diagnosis of breast cancer as a paradigm to highlight elements of patient-physician communication that are key in impacting these outcomes during a particularly vulnerable period in a patient's illness experience. Dr. Maly passionately believes that the patient-physician relationship itself is one of the most healing aspects of medical practice. She has particularly focused her research on special patient populations including the medically underserved, ethnic minorities, and the elderly that may suffer disproportionately from the consequences of poor patient-physician communication. Dr. Maly has a continuity practice in Geriatric Medicine at UCLA and teaches Doctoring courses for medical students which target topics not typically covered in a traditional medical school curriculum, including such areas as medical ethics, health care disparities, complementary and alternative medicine, and hospice and palliative care that are nonetheless critical to excellence and humanity in the practice of medicine.
Robert Maurer, Ph.D.
Dr. Maurer is a clinical psychologist and a behavior scientist with the UCLA Family Practice Residency Program. He received his BA from UCLA and his Masters and Ph.D from the University of Houston in 1972. He is also an Associate Clinical Professor at the UCLA School of medicine. His presentations o success have reached audiences as diverse as corporations, hospital patients and staff, theatrical companies, government agencies, and the US Navy. He has served as a consultant to Walt Disney Studios, the US Air Force, Canyon Ranch Health Spa, Habitat for Human, and BP. Dr. Maurer has appeared on ABC’s 20/20 in connection with his work on conflict resolution. A Los Angeles Times article profiled Dr. Maurer’s seminars on creativity and change, entitle, “One Small Step can Change Your life” was published in the fall of 2004. It is currently available in ten languages. Dr. Maurer has won the Navy’s civilian award for his course on negotiation skills. He has published articles in medical textbooks on suicide assessment and male stress.
Gerardo Moreno, MD, MSHS
Dr. Gerardo Moreno is Assistant Clinical Professor in Family Medicine and received his medical degree from the University of California Los Angeles, and completed his post-doctoral clinical residency training in Family Medicine at the University of California San Francisco. He received a Master of Science in Health Services from the UCLA School of Public Health and completed a post-doctoral research fellowship in the Robert Wood Johnson (RWJ) Foundation Clinical Scholars Program at UCLA. Dr. Gerardo Moreno joined the UCLA Department of Family Medicine research division in 2010. While an RWJ Clinical Scholar (2007-2010), Dr. Moreno received training in community-based participatory research (CBPR) and health services/outcomes research. His roots in California’s rural Central/San Joaquin Valley provide him with strong motivation and passion to conduct research of high value to patients and communities. He is interested in aging-related issues for those with chronic conditions and polypharmacy and the life trajectory of chronic disease among Latinos. He was awarded a National Institute of Aging (NIA/NIH) Paul B. Beeson Career Development Award in Aging (K23) to continue his community-partnered research. Dr. Moreno is a member of the Steering Committee for Community Engagement for the UCLA School of Medicine and Health System, and co-directs the Community Liaison Core for the NIH/NIA funded UCLA Resource Center for Minority Aging Research (RCMAR)/Center for Health Improvement for Minority Elders (CHIME). He is a co-investigator for the evaluation of a five year practice-based clinical pharmacist and health IT medication management program. He is also a co-investigator of a four year NIMHD funded (Group Health R01) research project that investigates medication adherence/treatment among patients with chronic conditions and language barriers. Dr. Moreno is also a recent recipient of a UCLA CTSI Community Engagement Research Program (CERP) pilot award. He has published studies that have increased our understanding of health disparities and the social determinants of health among Latinos. Dr. Moreno has also published on other important issues addressing physician workforce diversity and medical education; has a continuity clinic; and trains family medicine residents and medical students.
Aurelia Nattiv, M.D.
Dr. Aurelia Nattiv is a Professor in the UCLA Departments of Family Medicine, Division of Sports Medicine and Department of Orthopaedic Surgery in the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA. She is the Director of the Santa Monica-UCLA Osteoporosis Center and Co-Director of the UCLA Primary Care Sports Medicine Fellowship Program. In addition to serving as a team physician for the UCLA Department of Intercollegiate Athletics, Dr. Nattiv has served as a team physician and consultant for USA Track and Field, USA Gymnastics and the USOC. Dr. Nattiv received her medical degree at Washington University School of Medicine and completed her residency in Family Medicine at the Sonoma County Community Hospital, affiliate of UC San Francisco. She received her sports medicine fellowship training at the UCLA Primary Care Sports Medicine Fellowship Program.
Dr. Nattiv's primary areas of research and publications have been on the female athlete triad: disordered eating, menstrual dysfunction and osteoporosis. She has served as Chair of the American College of Sports Medicine most recent Position Stand on the Female Athlete Triad and edited a book, The Female Athlete. Other areas of research include assessment of risk factors for stress fractures in young athletes, non-pharmacological management of menstrual dysfunction in female athletes, and prevention and treatment of osteoporotic fragility fractures. Dr. Nattiv has served as an elected member on the board of directors for the American College of Sports Medicine and American Medical Society of Sports Medicine. She currently serves on the editorial board for the British Journal of Sports Medicine.
Martin Quan, MD
Martin Quan, M.D. is a Professor of Clinical Family Medicine and the Director of the Office of Continuing Medical Education, David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA. He has been a member of the UCLA faculty since 1980 and has held numerous positions in the past including Co-Director of the Predoctoral Program in Family Practice as well as Program Director of the UCLA Family Practice Residency Program. His primary research interest is in the area of performance improvement continuing medical education.
Michael A. Rodríguez, MD, MPH
Michael A. Rodriguez, MD, MPH, is Professor, Vice Chair of Research and George F. Kneller Endowed Chair in the Department of Family Medicine at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA). He is Co-Director of the Multicultural Research Network on Health and Health Care (http://www.multiculturalhealthcare.net/) and Associate Director of the UCLA Training Program on Addiction Medicine in Primary Care as well as the Primary Care Research Fellowship. Dr. Rodriguez completed his undergraduate training at the University of California, Berkeley, attended medical school at UCLA, and completed his residency at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF). He obtained his public health degree from the Johns Hopkins University School of Hygiene and Public Health, was a Robert Wood Johnson Clinical Scholar at Stanford University, and a Picker/Commonwealth Scholar at UCSF. He is a leading researcher and policy expert in the areas of the role of the healthcare system in addressing intimate partner violence and the healthcare needs of Latino populations across the age spectrum. He publishes and lectures internationally on the topics of violence prevention, medical education, quality improvement in primary care and health disparities with focus on immigrant and Latino populations. Dr. Rodriguez has been a violence prevention consultant with UNICEF, the Pan American Health Organization, and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, as well as served on the Institute of Medicine’s Committee on the Training Needs of Health Professionals to Respond to Family Violence. Dr. Rodriguez has expertise in the principles of community-oriented primary care and the development of initiatives and policies focused on improving the health status of individuals, families and communities. Dr. Rodriguez also trains UCLA faculty, fellows, residents and medical students while volunteering at a community health center serving uninsured patients in Los Angeles.
Steven Shoptaw, Ph.D.
Dr. Shoptaw is a licensed psychologist and Professor in both the Department of Family Medicine and the Department of Psychiatry and Biobehavioral Sciences at UCLA. He is Director of the Center for Health Promotion & Disease Prevention, which focuses on the prevention and treatment of chronic health problems, particularly addiction and HIV/AIDS. Since the early 1990’s, Dr. Shoptaw has conducted a series of clinical studies in community clinic settings, primarily on topics that involve the development of medical and behavioral interventions to treat substance abusers. As the Director for the Intervention Core for the UCLA Center for HIV Identification Prevention and Treatment Services, Dr. Shoptaw works with a team of colleagues to develop funded research on application of the next generation of technological advances (e.g., using cell phones, Internet) and biomedical approaches (microbicides, stem cells) to preventing HIV transmission. He is the Director of a NIDA-funded Center of Excellence on medication development for methamphetamine abuse. He is also the Site Director of a newly-funded HIV Prevention Trials Network study. Dr. Shoptaw eagerly seeks out opportunities to mentor new investigators interested in academic careers along these topics and has mentored more than a dozen pre- and post-doctoral students. He was recently awarded a T32 Training Program on Addiction Medicine in Primary Care by the National Institute on Drug Abuse. All of these experiences in conducting clinical trials in addiction medicine have shaped Dr. Shoptaw’s agenda in the Department of Family Medicine to integrating addiction medicine into primary care settings, particularly those clinics that serve low-income patients.
Carol Stewart, MD
Dr. Carol Stewart, Associate Clinical Professor began her education at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, earning her BS in Biology, Summa Cum Laude in 1986. She completed her combined BS-MD degree program at Albany Medical College, receiving her Doctorate in Medicine, Cum Laude in 1988. She returned to her hometown for residency, completing in 1991 her three years in Family Medicine at St. Elizabeth Hospital in Utica, NY. She stayed on as faculty there for the next nine years, ultimately serving as Program Director from January 1996 through her departure in early 2000. After two years as medical director of the South Central Family Health Center, as an assistant professor at USC, she migrated across town to UCLA, where she continues to serve as core faculty for our department’s Family Medicine Residency. She continues to practice full scope Family Medicine, including normal obstetrics and enjoys teaching these skills to residents and students, both at the bedside and through formal courses as a certified ALSO instructor (Advanced Life Support in Obstetrics). Dr. Stewart spends some of her spare time volunteering at the Venice Family Clinic, as well as the student-run clinics at the local homeless shelters. The rest of her free time is devoted to her three children and her Girl Scout troop.
Denise Sur, MD
Dr. Sur received her BA from UC Berkeley in Biology and her MD from UC Davis. After teaching for the family medicine residency at UMass, Dr. Sur joined the family medicine faculty at UCLA in 1991 where she now directs the family medicine residency and teaches UCLA medical students in multiple venues. Her areas of academic and clinical interest include immunizations in primary care, women's health, and care of underserved patients. Her personal interests include balancing her life as a wife and mother of four with her professional interests.
Derjung Mimi Tarn, MD, PhD
Derjung Mimi Tarn, MD, PhD is an Assistant Clinical Professor of Family Medicine at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA. Dr. Tarn obtained B.S. and M.S. degrees in Biological Sciences from Stanford University, and her medical degree from New York Medical College. She completed a Family Medicine residency at the University of Southern California-Presbyterian Intercommunity Hospital in 2002, where she was a Chief Resident during her last year. Following her residency training, Dr. Tarn went to UCLA for a National Research Service Award (NRSA) Primary Care Research fellowship. She also was a UCLA Specialty Training and Advanced Research (STAR) program fellow, and during her research training obtained a Ph.D. in Health Services with an emphasis in Pharmaceutical Economics at the UCLA School of Public Health.
Dr. Tarn’s research combines qualitative and quantitative skills to understand physician-patient communication about medications. She has developed tools to understand conversations about new and continued medications, and described a medication prescribing communication index. Her analyses, published in the Archives of Internal Medicine, Patient Education and Counseling, and American Journal of Managed Care, have demonstrated deficiencies in the ways physicians and patients communicate when patients receive new prescriptions. These findings have led to Dr. Tarn’s endeavors to develop behavioral interventions to improve prescribing education. To provide the groundwork for the intervention development, she conducted and analyzed focus group discussions with physicians, patients, and pharmacists. These results are reported on in the Journal of the American Geriatrics Society. Dr. Tarn currently is piloting a physician- and patient-targeted intervention to improve discussions when new medications are prescribed.
Daniel Vigil, MD
Dr. Vigil joined the clinical faculty of Family Medicine and Orthopaedic Surgery at UCLA in 2013. He received his medical degree from Harvard Medical School, completed residency training in Family Medicine at Kaiser Permanente, and received his Sports Medicine specialty training at UCLA. After his Sports Medicine Fellowship training at UCLA, Dr. Vigil joined the Department of Family Medicine at Kaiser Permanente-Los Angeles Medical Center where he established the Division of Sports Medicine and co-founded their Primary Care Sports Medicine Fellowship Program. Dr. Vigil currently holds faculty appointments in the departments of Family Medicine and Orthopaedic Surgery at UCLA. He also serves as a consultant in Musculoskeletal Medicine at Mid-Valley Comprehensive Health Center in Van Nuys, CA. Dr. Vigil is a team physician for the UCLA Department of Intercollegiate Athletics. He is a medical consultant for USA Track and Field and a member of the USA Track and Field physician referral network. Through his affiliation with USA Track and Field, he has been a team physician for several international competitions, including the World Championships, World Cup, Continental Cup and Pan American Games. He has also served as a physician at the United States Olympic Training Center in Chula Vista, CA. Dr. Vigil is a member of the Board Certification Test Writing Committee and Research Committee for the American Medical Society for Sports Medicine. He is also a member of the American College of Sports Medicine. Dr. Vigil's research interests include heat illness and dehydration, overuse injuries and pre-participation screening, and the use of musculoskeletal ultrasound in the treatment of sports-related injuries. He has conducted research in these areas and has authored scientific articles, case reports, and book chapters in these and other areas of sports medicine. Dr. Vigil's sports medicine practice at UCLA includes the evaluation of sports-related injuries and medical problems for patients of all ages. He also practices family medicine, providing care for patients with a wide variety of medical problems, as well as supervising medical students and residents.
Shirah Vollmer, MD
Dr. Vollmer attended UCLA as an undergraduate, medical student, adult psychiatry resident and child psychiatry fellow. She is an Associate Professor of Family Medicine and Psychiatry at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA. She is a board certified child and adult psychiatrist and she is a psychoanalyst. She has been at UCLA as a faculty member since June, 1991. In Family Medicine, she teaches the residents about assessment and treatment of psychiatric disorders. In Psychiatry, she teaches residents and fellows interviewing skills. She is on faculty of the New Center for Psychoanalysis. Dr. Vollmer serves on the Mental Health Advisory Board of the Venice Family Clinic. She is also an instructor at UCLA Extension where she teaches continuing education courses to psychologists, social workers and family therapists. Dr. Vollmer is a child, adolescent and adult psychiatrist and psychoanalyst in private practice in Westwood Village, California.
David Wallenstein
David Wallenstein is a general internist who specializes in palliative care (the supportive treatment of patients with life threatening and terminal illnesses) and in chronic pain management. Dr. Wallenstein, who is appointed in The Department of Family Medicine, is also a physician with The UCLA Palliative Care Service and works with The Sarcoma Program. He is also medical director for The Skirball Hospice Program at The Jewish Homes of Los Angeles and an instructor and preceptor in The UCLA Family Medicine International Medical Graduate Program. Dr. Wallenstein began his career in end of life care as an AIDS volunteer in the early 1980s, trained in clinical social work and after a career as a clinical social worker, decided to attend medical school. A Westwood native who attended UCLA’s lab school, UES, and The Cate School in Carpinteria, he is a graduate of both The College of The University of Chicago and of The University of Chicago School of Social Service Administration and received his medical degree from The University of Illinois at Chicago College of Medicine. Dr. Wallenstein trained in internal medicine at The University of Illinois Hospital in Chicago and in anesthesiology at The Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore before completing a fellowship in pain medicine and palliative care under the direction of Dr. Russell Portenoy at Beth Israel Medical Center in Manhattan. In his leisure time, Dr. Wallenstein is an opera and classical music afficionado who rescues dogs and is involved in various aspects of animal welfare.
Lynne Woo, RD, CDE
Lynne Woo, RD, CDE is a registered dietitian and certified diabetes educator. She graduated from California State University, Long Beach with a Bachelor's of Science in Dietetics and Food Administration in 1982 and has been the staff dietitian since 1993 for the UCLA Family Medicine Residency Program at the David Geffen School of Medicine and the UCLA Family Health Center. She educates the family medicine residents in nutrition counseling their patients as well as providing patients with medical nutrition therapy to improve chronic health conditions such as diabetes, dyslipidemia, hypertension, and obesity. She also administrates and conducts classes for the 8-week UCLA Healthier Weight Management Program.
Lacey Wyatt, MD
Dr. Lacey Wyatt graduated from UCLA medical school in 1994 and the UCLA School of public health in 1999. Dr. Wyatt is Board Certified in both Family Medicine and Preventive Medicine. She is currently an Associate Clinical Professor in the Department of Family Medicine at UCLA. She is also the Lead Physician at the UCLA Mid Valley Family Medicine Clinic and the Associate Residency Director of the Family Medicine Residency program. In addition to administrative duties at the clinic, 70% of her time is devoted to teaching and clinical care of patients with a range of health care problems. She teaches residents and medical students in the outpatient and inpatient setting. Dr. Wyatt is the Chair of Doctoring 1 a first year longitudinal course at the David Geffen UCLA School of Medicine. Here she instructs medical students in how to conduct a patient centered medical interview in the broader context of cultural humility and professionalism.
Dr. Wyatt is committed to caring for the underserved and teaching training health professionals the challenges and rewards of working with this population. At the Mid Valley Family Medicine clinic where she has a clinical practice and trains residents, the patient population is comprised of a heavily immigrant population, mostly Spanish speaking however more than 26 languages are used in the clinic. She daily must interact with patients from many different cultural and ethnic backgrounds. Dr. Wyatt uses her preventive medicine training to integrate the challenges of teaching prevention of chronic diseases to patients of different beliefs, faiths and cultures.
Leanne Zakrzewski, MD
Leanne Zakrzewski, MD, is a Clinical Instructor in the Department of Family Medicine. Dr. Zakrzewski, or Dr. Zak for short, grew up in Portland, Oregon and attended Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles, where she completed her undergraduate degree in biology. She then obtained her medical degree at Georgetown University in Washington D.C., and she completed her family medicine residency training here at UCLA, where she served as Co-Chief Resident in her final year. Dr. Zak joined the department faculty in mid-2011 and remains involved in resident education and recruitment. Her other academic interests include preventive care, obstetrics, and underserved care, and she works regularly at one of our partner clinics, a Los Angeles County clinic in Van Nuys. Her personal interests include music, discovering new restaurants, and enjoying our Southern California weather.
