Find your care

We offer a full range of services to help people with MS live their highest quality of life. To learn more about our services, call 310-794-1195.

Meet our Clinical Team

Dedicated to providing world-class care, the UCLA Multiple Sclerosis (MS) care team is available between patient clinic visits to address concerns and provide advice, either through phone or electronic communication. As MS changes or progresses, the UCLA MS team will be with its patients every step of the way.


Physicians

Rhonda Voskuhl, MD is the Director of the UCLA MS Program, the Jack H. Skirball Chair in MS Research, and a Professor in the Dept. of Neurology. She is an internationally recognized expert in MS, focusing on translational work by moving from the bedside (clinical observations) to the bench (research) to the bedside (novel clinical trials). She has led four clinical trials for MS testing novel treatments based on results from research in her lab. She received the Berlin Institute of Health Excellence Award for Sex and Gender Aspects in Health Research for 2018, a global award recognizing excellence in all areas of health research (not limited to MS). She has been selected for the Keynote Kenneth P. Johnson Memorial Lecture for 2019 by Americas Committee for Research and Treatment of MS (ACTRIMS), the leading U.S. and Canadian organization for MS neurologists. Dr. Voskuhl's patient care focuses on the diagnosis of MS as well as on major changes in MS treatment management. She trains the next generation of MS researchers, including young faculty, postdoctoral fellows, graduate students and undergraduates..


Kevin Patel, MD is a specialist in multiple sclerosis, neuromyelitis optica and other neuroimmunological disorders with research interests in advanced imaging.

Kevin Patel, MD, Assistant Professor, Dept. of Neurology, is an expert in MS patient care. He joined the UCLA MS Program recently from Harvard where he had received a three year Postdoctoral Fellowship from the National MS Society. In addition to clinical MS patient care, Dr. Patel does neuroimaging studies in MS patients to determine how neurological pathway connections are disrupted, thereby suggesting a new biomarker for novel treatment trials in MS.


Eric Williamson, MD, PhD, joined the UCLA faculty as an associate professor in 2019 and he also serves as director of the West Los Angeles Veterans Administration Hospital's MS Center of Excellence. He earned his medical school degree from the Ohio State University's College of Medicine in 2007 and thereafter pursued a residency at the University of Chicago before completing a neuroimmunology fellowship at the University of Southern California and then serving on the faculty at the University of Pennsylvania. While Dr. Williamson’s primary focus is patient care, he is also intimately involved in trials and clinical research efforts to better treat patients with Multiple Sclerosis, serving as an investigator and examiner in a number of research studies. He has particular interest and expertise in conditions such as neuromyelitis optica, transverse myelitis, and infectious central nervous system diseases. Dr. Williamson's research interests have helped to better characterize and examining the potential risks and benefits of neuro-immune therapies. He has and continues to conduct research, lecture on, and write about a number of topics related to Multiple Sclerosis - including infections encountered in demyelinating disease, vaccinations in MS, and the use of monoclonal antibodies and other novel therapies in central nervous system illness.

Eric Williamson, MD, Associate Professor, Dept. of Neurology, is an expert in MS patient care. He joined the UCLA MS Program recently from the University of Pennsylvania where he was an Assistant Professor. He extends UCLA MS expertise to the Westwood Veteran’s Administration (VA), through a joint appointment. His expertise is in disease modifying treatment management in MS, including antibodies during treatment that may impact treatment efficacy and toxicity.


Callene Momtazee, MD, specializes in multiple sclerosis patient care and provides  MS expertise in consultative, diagnostic and management services  at the Olive View-UCLA Medical Center. She has particular interest in neuromyelitis optica (NMO), a variant of MS. Dr. Momtazee also provides robust service in training resident neurologists, and has been honored with formal teaching recognition for her efforts.

Callene Momtazee, MD, Associate Professor, Dept. of Neurology, specializes in MS patient care and extends consultative, diagnostic and management services from UCLA to the Olive View-UCLA Medical Center. She has particular interest in neuromyelitis optica (NMO), a variant of MS. She has also been involved in MS clinical trials at UCLA and co-authored a comprehensive review of pregnancy and MS in a major clinical journal.


Faculty

Allan Mackenzie-Graham, PhD, Associate Professor, Department of Neurology, is a neuroimaging expert in MS who is a faculty member in the UCLA Brain Mapping Center. He showed halting of brain atrophy in MS women in the estriol clinical trial and in MS men in the testosterone clinical trial. Dr. Mackenzie-Graham was the first to create a map of brain atrophy for each MS disability. He also showed brain atrophy in the most widely used MS model in the world, creating a tool to screen drugs to halt this atrophy.


Yuichiro Itoh, PhD, Associate Researcher, Department of Neurology, specialized in genetic analysis and bioinformatics. Dr. Itoh determines gene expression changes in each cell type in the brain in MS patients and the MS model, aiming to discover novel treatments to reverse abnormal gene expression in the brain in MS. His current work focuses on which gene expression changes in the brain are responsible for each MS disability.


Clinical staff

  • Marianne Araneta, LVN. This nurse schedules MS patients in the Dept of Neurology clinic and assists with follow up duties.
  • Mike Montag, BS, MS. This clinical trial coordinator for MS trials, also serves as the MRI technician for MS patients.