Leadership

Dr. Geschwind is the Gordon and Virginia MacDonald Distinguished Professor of Human Genetics, Neurology and Psychiatry at UCLA. In his capacity as Senior Associate Dean and Associate Vice Chancellor of Precision Health, he leads the Institute for Precision Health (IPH) at UCLA. In his laboratory, his group has pioneered the application of systems biology methods in neurologic and psychiatric disease, with a focus on autism spectrum disorders (ASD) and neurodegenerative conditions.

Dr. Lajonchere’s research has focused on disorders affecting the central nervous system with an emphasis on psychiatric genetics and translational medicine. She has held several academic and leadership positions including Director of the NIH Center for Genomic and Phenomic Studies in Autism at the USC Keck School of Medicine and Vice President of Clinical Programs for the science and advocacy organization, Autism Speaks. Dr. Lajonchere has worked in the field of autism for over a decade. 

Stanley F. Nelson, MD is the Dr. Allen and Charlotte Ginsburg Endowed Chair in Translational Genomics, and Distinguished Professor of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, Human Genetics, Pediatrics, Neurology, and Psychiatry in the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA. His work expanded genomic tool access on campus, implemented new approaches to improve rare disease diagnosis that has led to dozens of gene/disease discoveries, and improve clinical trial work for Duchenne. 

Dr. Krakow received her bachelor's degree from Arizona State University in Tempe and her medical degree from Chicago Medical School. After an internship and residency in obstetrics and gynecology at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, she completed fellowships in maternal-fetal medicine at Harbor-UCLA Medical Center and in research and clinical genetics at the UCLA Intercampus Medical Genetics Training Program.

Kitai Kim received training with Dr. George Daley at Children’s Hospital Boston, Harvard Medical School, where he investigated histocompatible parthenogenetic embryonic stem cells (pESC) and their genetic signatures (Science, 2007 and Cell Stem Cell, 2007). Consequently, he expanded his postdoctoral research to define the epigenetic memory of inducible pluripotent stem cells (iPSC) in mice and humans (Nature, 2010 and Nature Biotech, 2011).

The Dr. Allen and Charlotte Ginsburg Endowed Chair in Precision Genomic Medicine will be held by the newly appointed Chief of the Division of Clinical Genetics. This individual will also serve as Director of the Ginsburg Center. This chair is enabling the recruitment of a physician-scientist who will drive opportunities for collaborative research and technological developments in genomic medicine. A nationwide search is currently underway.