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.
Assistant Clinical Professor in Family Medicine. Dr. Yelba Castellon-Lopez attended the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA for her medical degree where she was part of the Charles R. Drew-UCLA Medical Education Program. Dr. Castellon-Lopez completed her post-doctoral clinical training in Family Medicine at the UCLA Family Medicine Residency Program. Throughout her career, Dr. Castellon-Lopez career interests have include addressing health disparities and improving the health of vulnerable communities in South Los Angeles. Dr. Castellon-Lopez joined the faculty in 2017 after completing a post-doctoral research fellowship in the Robert Wood Johnson Clinical Scholars Program at UCLA. During her time as a clinical scholar, Dr. Castellon-Lopez obtained a Master’s of Science in Health Policy and Management from the UCLA Fielding School of Public Health.
Dr. Castellon-Lopez was born in Nicaragua and immigrated to South Los Angeles where she grew up with her family. Her experiences growing in South Los Angeles have been her motivation to give back to her community and use research and policy as vehicles to improve the health of vulnerable populations. Dr. Castellon-Lopez is currently conducting a study in partnership with a Los Angeles DHS safety-net clinic utilizing a pharmacist-delivered shared decision making module to engage low income Latino patients in evidence-based diabetes prevention strategies. Dr. Castellon-Lopez's research interests include community based participatory research, the disease trajectory of diabetes, immigrant Latino health, workforce diversity, and health disparities. Dr. Castellon-Lopez sees patients at the UCLA Family Health Center and Venice Family Clinic where she also trains family medicine residents and medical students.
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
Assistant Adjunct Professor, Department of Family Medicine
Karen Duvall, MD, MPH is assistant adjunct professor in the David Geffen School of Medicine Department of Family Medicine. She was Director of the Preventive Medicine Residency Training Program for 8 years. Recently she helped develop and direct a new Population Health fellowship in the Department. Dr. Duvall is currently involved in developing a 3-year medical school curriculum that will lead directly into the Family Medicine Residency Program. Dr. Duvall received her BA from Johns Hopkins University, M.D. from the University of Arizona and MPH from the UCLA School of Public Health. She completed her residency training in General Preventive Medicine and Public Health at UCLA, followed by a fellowship in clinical nutrition. She is a Fellow of the American College of Preventive Medicine. Dr. Duvall has been Principal Investigator on clinical trials investigating the impact of screening tools in primary care on early identification of COPD. She has also been site PI for a multi-center clinical trial on the evaluation of breast ductal fluid in high risk women. Her research interests have included reducing the risk of breast cancer through preventive measures such as nutrition and healthy lifestyle as well as designing non-invasive detection methods that may identify women at high risk for developing breast cancer. Currently she is involved in research studying the microbiome of the breast.
Dr. Lillian Gelberg, MD, MSPH is a family physician, professor, and experienced health services researcher in the Department of Family Medicine at the UCLA David Geffen School of Medicine, Department of Health Policy and Management at the Fielding School of Public Health, and Office of Healthcare Transformation and Innovation of the VA Greater Los Angeles Healthcare System. She is an elected member of the National Academy of Medicine of the National Academy of Sciences. Dr. Gelberg has been PI or co-PI on over $38 million of research funding, published over 150 peer-reviewed papers, and mentored over 100 young investigators. Her work with low-income diverse patients of our federally qualified community health centers and homeless populations including Veterans and their families, and is advancing the national agenda to end homelessness and to promote healthy lifestyle change via integration of prevention into primary care - to reduce risky substance use, obesity and other metabolic diseases.
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.
Dr. Heinzerling is Associate Professor in Family Medicine and a member of 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 clinical trials of potential medications to treat methamphetamine dependence. He also provides training and technical assistance on addiction treatment to select California health centers as part of the Treating Addiction in the Primary Care Safety Net (TAPC) program. 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. Michael Li is Assistant Professor in the UCLA Department of Family Medicine. They serve as a Project Director on multiple studies under Dr. Shoptaw while developing their own research on the role of stress biology in the links between social adversity, substance use, and HIV in sexual minorities of color. Dr. Li received a Bachelor degree in Biological Sciences from UC Irvine, a Master of Public Health from Cal State Fullerton, and a PhD in Preventive Medicine from the University of Southern California. They also served as a postdoctoral fellow at CBAM prior to being promoted to a faculty position.
Dr. Rose C. Maly is Professor Emeritus 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.
Dr. Rodriguez is professor and vice chair in the UCLA Departments of Family Medicine and Community Health Sciences, founding director of the Health Equity Network of the Americas, and founding chair of the UCLA Minor in Global Health. His research activities focus on health equity and social determinants of health. He is a leading researcher and policy expert in the areas of intimate partner violence, social cohesion, quality of health care and health for immigrants and other groups across the age spectrum. He has published widely and consulted for the World Health Organization, UNICEF, the Pan American Health Organization, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and the Institute of Medicine. He is also a board member for the Blue Shield of California Foundation and Latino Coalition for a Healthy California. Dr. Rodriguez is currently Investigator of a NIH-funded project examining how state-level policies for immigrants impact their health and access to health care. He is also Co-PI for the UCLA University of California Firearm Violence Prevention Center. 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 masters in public health from the Johns Hopkins University School of Hygiene and Public Health, and was a Robert Wood Johnson Clinical Scholar at the Stanford-UCSF Program. Dr. Rodriguez collaborates with and mentors junior faculty and trainees in the US and Latin America.
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 and serves as the Vice Chair for Research in the Department of Family Medicine. He is also Executive Director of the Center for Behavioral & Addiction Medicine (CBAM). For more than 25 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 Professor of Family Medicine at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA. She is Vice Chair of the University of California systemwide University Committee on Library and Scholarly Communication (UCOLASC), and from 2018-2020 was Chair of the UCLA Committee on Library and Scholarly Communication. Dr. Tarn’s research expertise is in physician-patient communication in the primary care setting, primarily regarding medications and dietary supplements. Her recent work has focused on increasing the use of preventive health services in older adults, and on understanding patient perceptions about medications and reasons for nonadherence. She combines qualitative and quantitative research methods in her work, including audio recording of physician-patient interactions. Dr. Tarn is the recipient of the Family Practice Excellence in Research Award from the California Academy of Family Physicians, and of an Honorable Mention for the Society of Teachers in Family Medicine (STFM) Best Paper Award. Her work has been selected for Distinguished and Extended Paper talks at meetings of the Society of Teachers in Family Medicine and North American Primary Care Research Group. Her research is supported by the National Institutes of Health. Dr. Tarn earned B.S. and M.S. degrees in Biological Sciences from Stanford University, an M.D. from New York Medical College, and a Ph.D. in Health Services from UCLA. She also completed National Research Service Award (NRSA) Primary Care Research and UCLA Specialty Training and Advanced Research (STAR) fellowships at UCLA before joining the faculty in 2006.
