E. Dale Abel, MD, PhD
William S. Adams Distinguished Professor of Medicine
Chair and Executive Medical Director
Department of Medicine
David Geffen School of Medicine and UCLA Health
Dr. E. Dale Abel graduated with Distinction from the University of the West Indies School of Medicine and obtained a DPhil at the University of Oxford as Rhodes Scholar. He trained in Internal Medicine at Northwestern University, where he was chief resident and in endocrinology at the Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Harvard Medical school. Dr. Abel has had a distinguished career in endocrine and metabolism research. His pioneering work on glucose transport and mitochondrial metabolism in the heart guides his current research interests: molecular mechanisms responsible for cardiovascular complications of diabetes. His laboratory has provided important insights into the contribution of mitochondrial dysfunction and aberrant insulin signaling, to heart failure risk in diabetes. Recent work has focused on mitochondrial mechanisms that mediate inter-organ crosstalk that may influence the pathophysiology of insulin resistance and mitochondrial pathways linking metabolism with increased risk for atherothrombosis. He is an elected member of the American Association of Physicians (AAP), the American Society for Clinical Investigation (ASCI), National Academy of Medicine (NAM), and the American Clinical and Climatological Association (ACCA). Dr. Abel is the immediate past President of the Endocrine Society and President of the Association of Professors of Medicine.
Lisa J. Skinner, MD
Program Director Associate
Site Director IMS Resident Continuity Site
Clinical Professor, General Internal Medicine
Dr. Lisa Skinner is the Program Director of the internal medicine program and an Associate Professor of Clinical Medicine in the Division of General Internal Medicine. Originally from Missouri, Lisa lived in Chicago, New Jersey, and Alabama before finally settling in California. She obtained her undergraduate degree at UCLA and a Master’s in Social Welfare from UC Berkeley. Lisa then attended the Yale School of Medicine, where she earned her MD in 1999. She and her husband, Michael, couples matched at UCLA, and Michael has become a devoted Angeleno after having spent his childhood and early adulthood in the Northeast. In 2003, after a year as Chief Resident. Lisa became a hospitalist and Associate Program Director. She has spent the bulk of her clinical career practicing primary care at the Iris Cantor Women’s Health Center at UCLA and helped build the ambulatory continuity experience for the medicine residency. She teaches about women’s health, preventive medicine, clinical teaching, and the role of effective feedback for developing physicians. When she is not in the hospital, Dr. Skinner enjoys cooking, traveling, and exploring Los Angeles’ neighborhoods and restaurants with her family.
Mina Ma, MD
Associate Program Director
Director, UCLA Internal Medicine Residency Primary Care Program
Clinical Professor, General Internal Medicine
Dr. Mina Ma is the Director of the UCLA Primary Care Program as well as an Associate Program Director in the Department of Medicine Training Program. She grew up in the Bay Area and obtained her undergraduate degree at UC Berkeley, and then her medical degree from Boston University School of Medicine. She completed her internship, residency and chief residency at UCSF/Mount Zion where she stayed on as an Assistant Program Director before relocating to Southern California with her husband, an oncologist at UCLA. After joining the faculty in the Iris Cantor UCLA Women's Health Center, she found a natural transition back into medical education. As a clinician educator, she is passionate about promoting the development of the next generation of primary care clinicians and health care leaders. When she is not caring for her patients, she enjoys being with her family in the outdoors, lakeside camping or sierra skiing, and her new found love of scootering.
Neveen El-Farra, MD
Associate Program Director
Professor of Clinical Medicine, General Internal Medicine
Dr. Neveen El-Farra serves as an Associate Program Director in the UCLA Internal Medicine Residency Program and is a Professor of Clinical Medicine, Hospitalist Section- Division of General Internal Medicine at UCLA. A native of southern California, she obtained her undergraduate degree at the University of Redlands and then attended medical school at the Rosalind Franklin University of Medicine & Science where she earned her doctor of medicine degree in 2002. She completed her internship, residency and chief residency at UCLA Medical Center and subsequently joined the faculty at UCLA in 2006 practicing as a hospitalist. She has dedicated herself to teaching medical students and residents the art and practice of medicine and has been the recipient of several teaching awards, including the UCLA Academic Senate Distinguished Teacher Award. She served as the Associate Dean for Curricular Affairs at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA from 2014-2019. Her interests include medical education and promoting humanistic patient care.
Dr. El-Farra also serves at the Medical Director for International Services at UCLA Health, where she works with her team to coordinates tertiary/quaternary clinical care for international patients and engages in advisory work to bring the UCLA Health brand and our best practices to the global stage. In her time away from the hospital, Dr. El-Farra enjoys soul cycle, the beach, traveling the world, exploring all the fun things to do in Los Angeles and spending quality time with family and friends.
Christina Harris, MD
Associate Program Director
Associate Vice Chair, Dept of Medicine Office of Equity, Diversity and Inclusion
Associate Clinical Professor, General Internal Medicine
Dr. Christina Harris is an Associate Program Director of the internal medicine residency program and an Associate Professor of Clinical Medicine in the Division of General Internal Medicine. Originally from San Diego, she attended Harvard Medical School and completed a primary care track residency at NYP/Weill Cornell Medical Center in New York City. After 14 years on the East Coast she returned to Southern California in 2013 when joined the faculty at UCLA. She spends her clinical time seeing primary care patients at the West Los Angeles VA where she precepts regularly in the residents’ continuity clinic. Dr. Harris has spent much of her career focused on enhancing diversity and inclusion in medical training and also serves as an Associate Vice Chair for Equity, Diversity and Inclusion in the Department of Medicine. Outside of the hospital she enjoys playing basketball, fixing things around the house and playing games with her daughters.
Wendy Simon, MD
Associate Program Director
Associate Clinical Professor, General Internal Medicine
A San Francisco Bay Area native, Dr. Wendy Simon studied creative writing and biology at Stanford and obtained her medical degree from the University of California at San Francisco. She made a deal with her husband to spend three years training in Los Angeles while he completed a postdoctoral fellowship, but that deal expired in 2008 and she’s not only still here, but now uses articles in front of freeway numbers. You’ll find her attending on the wards as a hospitalist and leading quality initiatives in hospital medicine. In the residency program, she teaches medical simulation, quality improvement, practice performance feedback, and makes everybody write SMART goals. In the medical school, she’s the course chair for the Inpatient Medicine core clerkship. Outside of medicine, she’s a soccer mom of two boys and enjoys reading, cooking, and running.
Edward S. Lee, MD
Associate Program Director
Associate Clinical Professor, General Internal Medicine
Dr. Edward Lee is a hospitalist and an Associate Program Director of the internal medicine residency program. He spent most of his childhood in Texas and graduated with a BA in Mathematics and a minor in Business from Baylor University. He then attended medical school at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston. He and his wife couples matched to UCLA in 2007 and have never left Los Angeles. He served as chief resident in 2010 before joining the hospitalist section. His clinical time is divided between most of our inpatient sites, including Ronald Reagan, Santa Monica, and the VA. In addition to patient care, his academic and research interests focus on high fidelity simulation and cardiac arrest/resuscitation. He helped build our simulation curriculum, which now spans all three years of residency with multiple experiences for our trainees. Within the residency program, he’s probably best known for creating the yearly schedule, but he is more interesting than that! He enjoys spending time with his wife (an anesthesiologist at UCLA), playing random games with his two children, and running for exercise/stress relief.
Kelley Chuang, MD
Associate Program Director
Assistant Clinical Professor, General Internal Medicine
Dr. Kelley Chuang is a hospitalist at the West Los Angeles VA Medical Center. Born and raised in Colorado, she then moved all over the country – she obtained her undergraduate degree from Duke, taught high school science in Washington, D.C. and earned a Master’s degree in teaching, then moved to NYC to attend medical school at Mount Sinai. She moved to LA to complete her internal medicine internship and residency at UCLA, and finally decided to stay put. She served as a VA-based chief resident from 2017-2018. She spends her clinical time attending on general medicine wards at the West LA VA. She also serves as the VA site director for the UCLA Medicine-Neurology Preliminary program and co-chairs the Morbidity and Mortality Committee for the Department of Medicine at the West LA VA. Dr. Chuang is passionate about curriculum development in digital learning, clinical informatics, and clinical coaching for resident learners. Outside of medicine, you’ll find her hiking with her husband, reading her Kindle, balcony gardening, or playing video games.
Casey Kaneshiro, MD
Associate Program Director
Assistant Clinical Professor, General Internal Medicine
Dr. Casey Kaneshiro is an Associate Program Director of the Internal Medicine Residency Program and an Assistant Clinical Professor of Medicine. He was born and raised in Hawaii on the island of Oahu. He completed his undergraduate and medical school training at the University of Hawaii before moving to Los Angeles to complete his internship, residency and chief residency at the Cedars Sinai/VA Greater Los Angeles Internal Medicine Training Program. He spent 3 years as an Associate Program Director at Cedars Sinai before joining the program leadership team at UCLA. Clinically, you’ll find him at the West LA VA attending on the wards as a hospitalist. He is passionate about resident education, mentorship, and career development. He also chairs the Morbidity and Mortality Committee for the Department of Medicine at the West LA VA. Outside of the hospital you’ll find him either on the golf course, playing his ukulele, playing Pokemon, or cheering on his beloved San Francisco 49ers.
Neil Paige, MD, MSHS
Vice Chair for Education, VA Greater Los Angeles Medical Center
Clinical Professor of Medicine, Internal Medicine
Dr. Neil Paige received his medical degree from the Georgetown University School of Medicine. He completed his internal medicine internship and residency at the Stanford University Medical Center. He completed the Robert Wood Johnson Clinical Scholars Program at UCLA and received a Master’s of Science degree in Health Services Research from the UCLA School of Public Health. He has long been involved in residency education serving initially as Program Director for the VA Greater Los Angeles Internal Medicine Training Program and then as the Associate Program Director for the Cedars-Sinai/VA Greater Los Angeles Internal Medicine Training Program. He was an Associate Program Director for the UCLA Internal Medicine Residency Training Program from 2013-2021. He currently serves as Vice Chair for Education at the VA Greater Los Angeles Medical Center.
Jodi L. Friedman, MD
Vice Chair for Education, UCLA Department of Medicine
Clinical Professor, General Internal Medicine
Dr. Jodi Friedman, a native Californian, grew up in the San Fernando Valley. She earned her undergraduate degree from UC Santa Cruz and her MD from UC Irvine School of Medicine. She completed her internship, residency and chief residency at UCLA Medical Center. After serving as an Associate Program Director from 1995 to 2003, she was named as the Program Director for the Department of Medicine Training Program. During her 16 years in that role, she oversaw the expansion of the residency, developed our Pathway programs, and trained nearly 800 internists. In 2019 she handed over the reins as PD to serve as the Vice Chair for Education for the UCLA Department of Medicine. Her interests as a clinician and a teacher include women’s health, preventive medicine, and primary care. She also loves making guest appearances with the residency band, Ultrasound, at our Spring Retreat and spending time with her wife, kids, and two dogs.
