Ronald Brooks, PhD
Dr. Brooks is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Family Medicine who has been involved in HIV-related research and has provided training and technical assistance to providers involved in HIV medical care and prevention services for over 15 years. He is the Principal Investigator of the Health Resources and Services Administration, Special Projects of National Significance, Evaluation and Technical Assistance Center (ETAC) for the Use of Social Media to Improve Engagement, Retention, and Health Outcomes along the HIV Care Continuum Initiative which leads a multi-site evaluation and provides technical assistance to 10 demonstration sites funded across the country to implement this initiative. He is the Principal Investigator of a National Institute of Mental Health R21 grant to examine Pre-Exposure Prophylaxis (PrEP)- related stigma among Black and Latino men who have sex with men (MSM). In addition, he serves as a Co-Principal Investigator on a California HIV/AIDS Research Program-funded research study evaluating the use of social media in identifying and linking to HIV medical care and prevention services Latino MSM and as a Co-Investigator of the ETAC for the SPNS Outreach, Access and Retention among Latino/a Populations initiative. Dr. Brooks has extensive experience in providing training and technical assistance to multiple target populations (e.g., health departments, community-based organizations (CBO), and health clinics). He is currently a Capacity Building Assistance (CBA) provider on a CDC-funded CBA project providing training and technical assistance to state and local health departments across the country. In a previous grant, he also provided these services to community-based organizations across the country. He was the Project Director and Master Trainer of a 6-year state-funded training and technical assistance project focused on assisting health departments, community clinics, and CBOs in developing interventions for HIV-positive populations. Dr. Brooks was also a Master Trainer for a 3-year local health department-funded project on program evaluation which provided training and technical assistance to local CBOs in developing and implementing an evaluation of their HIV-related services. He is committed to undertaking social and behavioral research that will facilitate the adoption of biomedical HIV prevention strategies among minority MSM and other marginalized populations.
Adjunct Professor, Department of Family Medicine
Director (PI), UCLA//Pacific AIDS Education and Training Center (AETC)
Associate Director, UCLA Center for Health Promotion and Disease
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).
Dr. Heinzerling is Associate Professor in Family Medicine and Medical Director for the Center for Behavioral & Addiction Medicine (CBAM). His research and clinical focus is on the discovery, development, and dissemination of anti-addiction medications. He has a primary care-based Addiction Medicine practice at the UCLA Family Health Center - the first of its kind in Los Angeles. He is the Principal Investigator on a clinical trial of a potential medication to treat methamphetamine dependence and on a study investigating possible genetic influences on response to anti-addiction medications. 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. 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.
Assistant Clinical Professor in Family Medicine. Dr. Moreno attended the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA for his medical degree and completed his post-doctoral clinical training in Family Medicine at UCSF-San Francisco General Hospital. While at UCSF, he developed an interest in workforce and language access policy issues. He joined the faculty in 2010 after completing a post-doctoral research fellowship in the Robert Wood Johnson Clinical Scholars Program at UCLA. While a clinical scholar, Dr. Moreno received training in community-based participatory research (CBPR) and obtained a Masters of Science in Health Services from the UCLA School of Public Health. His roots in California's Central Valley provide him with strong motivation to conduct research that improves the health of vulnerable populations. Dr. Moreno recently conducted a study using principles of CBPR to investigate interpersonal care, self-care behaviors, and the quality of care among Latinos with diabetes, including migrant/seasonal agricultural workers, receiving care in a community/migrant health center. This experience introduced him to aging-related issues for those with chronic conditions and activated his interest in the life trajectory of chronic disease among Latinos. His current project focuses on exploring the relationships between physical activity and biological markers of health among elderly Latinos. Dr. Moreno has published on important issues addressing medical education, healthcare workforce, and language access issues; has a continuity clinic at the Mid Valley Comprehensive Family Health Center; and trains family medicine residents and medical students.
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.
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 also Executive Director of the Center for Behavioral & Addiction Medicine (CBAM). Over the past 20 years, Dr. Shoptaw has conducted a series of clinical studies in community clinic settings, primarily on topics that involve development and testing of medical and behavioral interventions to treat substance abuse and to prevent the spread of HIV. He works with a broad spectrum of partners from university, government and community settings. In addition, he maintains a regular caseload of patients and provides training and mentorship to students and postdoctoral fellows. In his career, he has been Principal or Co-Investigator of more than 40 research projects, most funded by the National Institutes of Health. Dr. Shoptaw's experiences have shaped his agenda in the Department of Family Medicine to integrating addiction medicine into primary care settings, particularly those clinics that serve low-income patients.
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.
Sean Young, PhD, MS is Associate Professor In-Residence in the Department of Family Medicine and the Executive Director of the University of California Institute for Prediction Technology (UCIPT) and Center for Digital Behavior (CDB). As Director of UCIPT, he coordinates research across UC campuses studying how social data and artificial intelligence/machine learning methods can be used to predict real-world events including disease outbreaks (e.g., HIV, addiction, prescription drug abuse), crime, and online security issues (e.g., cyberbullying). In his personal research, he studies how to use social technologies such as social media, wearable devices, and virtual reality technologies to predict and change people’s health behaviors among at-risk populations. He is the principal investigator of the Harnessing Online Peer Education (HOPE) studies, which have tested using the HOPE online community to change and improve people’s health behaviors. He also studies methods of using social “big data” and informatics to monitor and predict public health and medical outcomes, as well as the ethical related issues of using technologies and monitoring in public health and medicine. His clinical work for the Department of Family Medicine is focused on developing patient-centered technologies to increase patient engagement and improve health outcomes.
He received his PhD in Psychology and MS in Health Services Research from Stanford University where he researched behavioral and health decision making using technologies. During his graduate training he worked on creating 3D immersive games for space exploration testing as a user experience and human factors researcher at NASA AMES Research Center.
Dr. Hall is a Clinical Instructor and assists CBAM with it's research and treatment services. He is a licensed psychiatrist with a PhD in psychological anthropology. His current research efforts explore how the aspects of sexual identity mediate risk behavior or accessibility to HIV prevention interventions. He also provides clinical care to patients at multiple UCLA outpatient clinics. Dr. Hall obtained his PhD in psychological anthropology and his MD from UC San Diego and completed a postdoctoral fellowship with CBAM earlier this year.
