About
Dr. Zima is Director of the UCLA Mental Health Informatics and Data Science (MINDS) Hub and Professor-in-Residence in the UCLA Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences. She is a child psychiatrist and health services researcher, with clinical experience caring for children and adolescents with depression and at risk for suicide as well as research experience to improve the precision of identifying targets to improve quality and equity of child mental health care. Dr. Zima’s research is dedicated to improving the quality of child mental health care, with priority placed on underserved and at high-risk child populations (i.e., homeless, foster care, juvenile-justice). In addition to identifying predictors of high unmet need, her research has expanded to include national pediatric hospitalization resource utilization and costs, adaptation of the modified Delphi Panel approach, validity of national quality measures, pediatric integrated care models, pediatric workforce development, and use of telehealth and mobile health technologies. She is uniquely qualified for this study because she was the lead developer of the Child and Adolescent Mental Health Disorders Classification System using ICD-9 and ICD-10 CM diagnostic codes for children. She is PI on a statewide evaluation of crisis intervention and school-based mental health programs funded by the Mental Health Service Act, Co-I on a five year NIDA R01 (PI: S. Hadland) examining identification, assessment, and treatment for opioid use disorders among adolescents and young adults using Medicaid claims data from 50 states, and Co-I on a study examining impact of legalization of cannabis in CA on mental health-related emergency department use among adolescents and adults. Her research has received all three national research awards from the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry (AACAP). In addition, she brings extensive experience in research mentorship. She is a 20-year member of the Faculty Executive Committee for the NIMH Child Intervention, Prevention and Services Research Institute (PI: N. Ryan), 4-year faculty member for the NIH (OBSSR) mHealth Summer Research Institute (PI: V. Shetty), Chair of the Mental Health Research Committee for the Children’s Hospital Association (mentors pediatric health services researchers), former Chair of the Research Pilot Awards Selection Committee for the American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry (AACAP), and long-standing mentor in the Robert Wood Johnson Clinical Scholars Program at UCLA that has become the National Clinical Scholars Program. She is the recipient of the 2024 Research Mentor Award from the American Psychiatric Association, 2024 cohort UCLA Faculty Mentoring Honorary Society, and the 2022 the Outstanding Research Mentor Award from her Department. Dr. Zima is a Member of the 2025 Child and Adult Core Set Annual Review Workgroup, Center for Medicaid and CHIP Services, National Academies’ Committee on the Pediatric Subspecialty Workforce and its Impact on Child Health and Well-Being, National Advisory Board, Enhancing Systems of Care for Children with Medical Complexity Coordinating Center and it’s Measurement & Evaluation Workgroup; Corresponding Member on the Committee on Quality and Performance Measurement of the American Psychiatric Association (APA), and Co-Chair of the Committee on Healthcare Access and Economics of the AACAP. She is also a Distinguished Fellow of APA and AACAP.
Languages
Education
Medical Board Certifications
Fellowship
Residency
Internship
Degree
Recognitions
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Super doctors, Southern California, 2024
- Super Doctors® Southern California, 2024
- Phi Beta Kappa
- Alpha Omega Alpha
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Hospital Affiliations
Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center
UCLA Santa Monica Medical Center
UCLA Mattel Children's Hospital
Research
Interests
- Child mental health services research
- Quality measures
- Child mental health informatics and data science
Publications
See google scholar for most recent updates
Insurance
- Aetna
- Anthem Blue Cross
- Blue Shield of California
- Centivo
- Cigna
- First Health
- Health Net of California
- Interplan (part of HealthSmart)
- L.A. Care
- MultiPlan
- UFCM Health System
- Prime Health Services
- Private Healthcare Systems (PHCS)
- TRICARE
- UnitedHealthcare
The list of health care plans above may not be comprehensive and could change.
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Recognitions
- Super Doctors® Southern California, 2024
- Phi Beta Kappa
- Alpha Omega Alpha
- Janet M. Glasgow Award, American Medical Women's Association award for “having graduated first in her class” in medical school
- Ginsberg Fellow, Law Committee, Group for the Advancement of Psychiatry
- CASSP Award, American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry
- Robinson Cunningham Award, American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, best research paper by an early career psychiatrist in the Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry
- Appreciation Award, Southern California Psychiatric Society
- Appreciation Award, Southern California Psychiatric Society
- Appreciation Award, APA Scientific Program
- Membership, American College of Psychiatrists
- Outstanding Research Mentor Award, UCLA Department of Psychiatry
- Early Career Health Services Research Award, American Psychiatric Association
- Fellow, American Psychiatric Association
- Catcher in the Rye Award, American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry
- Outstanding Mentor, Presidential Scholar Program, American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry
- Distinguished Fellow, American Psychiatric Association
- Outstanding Mentor, Jeanne Spurlock Clinical Fellowship, American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry
- Outstanding Mentor in Child Psychiatry, American Psychiatric Association
- Honorary Lecturer, 57th Institute on Psychiatric Services
- Rieger Award for Scientific Achievement, American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, annual award for “the most significant paper” in the Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry
- Top Women Southern California Super Doctors, Los Angeles Magazine (every year since 2008)
- Distinguished Fellow, American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry
- Elaine Schlosser Lewis Award for Research on Attention-Deficit Disorder, American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, annual award for the best paper published on ADHD in the Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry
- Member (IOM President Appointment) Institute of Medicine's Committee to Evaluate the Supplemental Security Income Disability Program for Children with Mental Disorders
- Nominating Committee (elected), American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry
- Winner. Code for the Mission Service Track: Focusing on Wellness in the Community (UCLA Annual App Contest)
- Nomination, Postdoctoral Mentor Award, UCLA Graduate Education
- National Advisor, American Academy of Pediatrics, Young Investigator Award Program
- Outstanding Mentor Award, American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry
- Member, Child and Adult Core Set Annual Review Workgroup, Center for Medicaid and CHIP Services (Nominated by APA, AACAP in 2019; reappointed 2020-present)
- Member, 2020 Medicaid and CHIP (MAC) Scorecard Workgroup
- Member, National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine’s (the Academies) Committee on the Pediatric Subspecialty Workforce and its Impact on Child Health and Well-Being (only child psychiatrist)
- Outstanding Research Mentor, UCLA Department of Psychiatry
- Genius Bar Award. Highest rated reviews (average rating 95%), Journal American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry
- Advisory Group Member, Partnership for Quality Measurement’s Endorsement and Maintenance (E&M) Management of Acute and Chronic Committee. Charge: Provide written feedback on the measures under review to help guide the recommendations group’s discussions during the endorsement meeting.