Leichtman-Levine-TEM Fellow and Scholars
Thanks to a generous commitment from Executive Advisory Board member Lauren Leichtman and her husband Arthur Levine, in 2018 the Iris Cantor-UCLA Women’s Health Center began to offer mentored research opportunities for students at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA. This program enhances the Center’s ability to perform research as well as provide guidance to the next generation of women’s health researchers. Students receive support to complete research, present their results, and network regionally and nationally with experts in women’s health. Research positions are available for third-year medical students at the David Geffen School of Medicine.
Jane Eisner, Anne Moss, and Rose Tarlow established the “TEM” endowment to support the development of women’s health research at UCLA. This endowment provides funding and support for our research mentors and trainees.
Leichtman-Levine TEM Fellow
Frederick Ferguson, M.D.
Frederick Ferguson ("Freddy") is a Los Angeles transplant from Greensboro, NC. He attended UNC Chapel Hill as a chemistry major and developed a love of social justice as he married his passions of physical and social sciences. After coming to the joint Charles Drew University/UCLA MD Program, Freddy became immersed into the LA community and its unique set of healthcare challenges. A growing dedication for advocacy of marginalized communities and addressing health disparities led Freddy to pursue a career in Family Medicine. His clinical training in the UCLA Family Medicine Residency only further fueled his passion for primary care, preventive medicine, and social determinants of health. Freddy began the UCLA National Clinician Scholars Program in 2023 to develop research, leadership, and communications skills to become a “change agent.” He hopes to use these skills to work with under privileged communities and community organizations to change lifestyle patterns in efforts to tackle obesity and diabetes in Black and Latinx communities.
Leichtman-Levine TEM Discovery Year Scholars
Olivia Scott
Olivia Scott is a Class of 2025 medical student in the UCLA/CDU Joint Medical Education Program. She grew up in Los Angeles, CA. Olivia completed her undergraduate degree at Harvard University, where she studied Human Evolutionary Biology.
Olivia plans to pursue a residency in Obstetrics & Gynecology, and she is very interested in working to improve reproductive health outcomes for Black women. Throughout medical school, Olivia has worked supporting research efforts of the Charles R. Drew Black Maternal Health Center of Excellence, and she has also volunteered with Harvest Home - an organization that supports pregnant women experiencing homelessness.
During her Discovery Year, Olivia will be working under the mentorship of Dr. Yalda Afshar on a research project that focuses on the early diagnosis and pathophysiology of Placenta Accreta Spectrum (PAS) Disorders. Olivia’s career goals are largely driven by her desire to work towards enhancing the quality, accessibility, and equity of reproductive healthcare. Therefore, she is very excited about the opportunity that her Discovery Year research provides to further understand the fascinating pathophysiology underlying one of the most prevalent contributors to adverse maternal health outcomes.
Charles R. Drew University of Medicine and Science/David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA
Class of 2025
Lisette Collins
Lisette Collins is a Class of 2025 medical student in the UCLA/ CDU Medical Education Program. Lisette grew up in the San Fernando Valley and is thankful for the opportunity to remain close to home for medical school. As the eldest of four, Lisette’s interest in women’s health stemmed from going with her mother on her prenatal visits throughout childhood. Lisette continued exploring medicine during her undergraduate career at UC Santa Barbara. She took part in research, volunteered as a medical scribe, and traveled to medically under resourced communities to learn more about how quality healthcare is disproportionately available. Upon graduation, Lisette completed a post baccalaureate program at UC San Diego. Now, Lisette looks forward to spending Discovery year as a Leichtman- Levine TEM scholar, under the mentorship of Dr. Narain, and hopes to learn how to effectively analyze socioeconomical factors that affect women’s healthcare. She hopes these skills will aid her future practice as a women’s health physician in Obstetrics and Gynecology.
Charles R. Drew University of Medicine and Science/David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA
Class of 2025
Michaela Juels
Michaela Juels is a member of the Class of 2025 at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA. Michaela completed her undergraduate degree at the University of California, San Diego where she studied Physiology and Neuroscience, and was an All-American Collegiate Lacrosse player.
Michaela plans to pursue a residency in Orthopaedic Surgery and is motivated to improve gender diversity and women’s health research in this field. As a medical student, she is active in orthopaedic research with projects focusing on sexual harassment and education, health literacy, and upper extremity sarcomas. As founder of the Ruth Jackson Orthopaedic Society at UCLA, she provides mentorship resources for women interested in pursuing orthopaedics. Michaela also pioneered “Mini Medical School,” an annual mentorship program to expose underserved high school women to the field of medicine.
During Discovery Year, Michaela will be mentored by Dr. Carolyn Crandall exploring how race and ethnicity impact mortality following major osteoporotic fracture using data from the Women’s Health Initiative. She hopes this work can identify at-risk groups following osteoporotic fracture and areas of healthcare impacted by racial inequity.
Charles R. Drew University of Medicine and Science/David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA
Class of 2025
Prior Leichtman-Levine TEM Summer Researchers
Bethlehem Michael
David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA/Program in Medical Education-Leadership and Advocacy (PRIME-LA)
Class of 2025
Bethlehem Michael is a medical student at UCLA’s David Geffen School of Medicine in the dual-degree Program in Medical Education-Leadership and Advocacy (PRIME-LA). She was born and raised in the Inland Empire. Her parents immigrated to the US from a country in East Africa called Eritrea in search of a better life for themselves and their families. Bethlehem graduated from UCLA in 2019 with a major in Biochemistry and a minor in Global Health. During her time in undergrad, she was involved in organizations such as UCLA’s Academic Advancement Program and the undergraduate division of the American Medical Women’s Association. Additionally, she took part in many community service opportunities, such as working with foster youth through Project Maryvale, and supported a research project in birth control education under the guidance of a physician in UCLA’s Department of OB/GYN. She is passionate about health justice and achieving health equity for vulnerable and under-resourced communities, particularly in the realm of women’s health. Bethlehem is looking forward to participating in the Leichtman-Levine-TEM Summer Mentorship program to further develop her research skillset, specifically in dataset analysis, to better serve the needs of her future patients and her local community.
Grace Riley
David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA
Class of 2024
Grace Riley is from La Crosse, Wisconsin and attended Kenyon College in Ohio. Her motivation to study medicine and conduct research with the Iris Cantor-UCLA Women’s Health Center stems from an interest in understanding the proximate factors that influence health disparities, in particular at the intersection of gender, ethnicity, and socioeconomic status. She hopes that by gaining a greater appreciation for what contributes to unequal health outcomes, we can identify and take action on modifiable barriers. Grace looks forward to receiving structured mentorship and gaining skills in research design and data analysis this summer. Currently she is considering a career in Obstetrics and Gynecology.
Lara Tang
David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA
Class of 2024
Lara is a medical student in the Class of 2024, originally from Connecticut. She first became interested in understanding women’s health as a Human Evolutionary Biology major at Harvard College, where she had the opportunity to focus her studies in reproductive endocrinology. Lara also served as a volunteer yoga instructor at all-women shelters for the unhoused in college and prior to matriculating to UCLA, opportunities in which she became passionate about addressing systemic barriers to healthcare access, specifically in women’s health. As one of the student leaders of DGSOM’s OB/GYN Interest Group and local chapter of Medical Students For Choice, Lara hopes to combine her interests in women’s reproductive health and understanding structural barriers to obstetric and maternal healthcare in her summer research project and beyond.
Opemipo “Ope” Akerele
David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA/Charles R. Drew University of Medicine & Science
Class of 2024
Ope Akerele, born in Lagos, Nigeria, immigrated to the United States with her family as a child. Growing up in the South Bay, she became very familiar with health disparities and the social determinants of health in this region. She witnessed widely disparate health outcomes for family members back home in Nigeria, but also in communities throughout South Los Angeles. As Ope completed her degree in Science, Technology, and Society with a concentration in Life Sciences and Healthcare at Stanford University, she became better equipped to view healthcare and medicine through an interdisciplinary, critical lens. Her sustained service in health education in free clinics in San Jose, health advocacy in the Stanford Emergency Department, and extended honors thesis research and publications on West African mental health systems and health-seeking behavior cultivated her desire to become a socially accountable physician leader. After graduating from Stanford University with honors, Ope worked as a Public Finance Housing analyst in New York City and helped raise capital for government agencies to build affordable housing for low-income families. She also volunteered for Harlem Grown, a local garden turning food desert injustices into food forests and education for youth. Ope is pursuing a Doctor of Medicine degree from Charles R Drew University/UCLA David Geffen School of Medicine and is expected to graduate from medical school in 2024. She desires to become an integrative physician who will be part of the solution to ending generational health systems issues in the Los Angeles underserved communities she grew up in and beyond.
Aishwarya Karlapudi
David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA
Class of 2023
Aishwarya Karlapudi is a medical student, in the Class of 2023, at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA. Originally from Phoenix, Arizona, she is an alumna of the University of Arizona. Aishwarya first became interested in women’s health after witnessing a loved one navigate the unique health disparities that women face when it comes to post-operative pain perception, assessment, and treatment. After working with Population Connection Action Fund on the Fight4HER campaign for women's reproductive rights for two years, Aishwarya seeks to explore research as another way to contribute to the health and well-being of women in her community. Through the Leichtman-Levine-TEM Summer Mentorship program, Aishwarya hopes to develop skills in project design, big data-set analysis, and critical thinking. She is interested in specialties that involve longitudinal relationships such as OB/GYN and primary care, and she looks forward to this opportunity to learn more about women's health. With mentorship throughout the project, Aishwarya hopes to gain the necessary skills to become the physician, researcher, and advocate she envisions for herself and her community.
Rocio Garcia Quinteros
David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA
Class of 2023
Rocio grew up in Los Angeles and expressed a strong interest in medicine at a young age. She is motivated to work with underserved communities and is passionate about diversity in healthcare leadership. She is pursuing a Doctor of Medicine degree from Charles R Drew University/UCLA David Geffen School of Medicine. She is expected to graduate from medical school in 2023. Prior to attending medical school, Rocio completed the RAP Program at UCLA DGSOM in 2018. She received a Bachelor of Arts Degree in Psychology from California State University Northridge in 2014 and graduated from Grant High School in the San Fernando Valley. In college, Rocio expressed an interest in education and gained teaching experience by partnering with Peer Health Exchange and Keep Youth Doing Something. While completing her post-baccalaureate program, she worked full-time as a middle school teacher at The Valley Schools in the San Fernando Valley. This experience emphasized her interest in utilizing education to improve the health of underserved communities. From a young age, Rocio demonstrated a passion for the performing arts and continues to attend dance lessons. She is a member of Cheer Los Angeles, a non-profit organization in Culver City that raises funds and resources for LGBTQ+ communities.
Sedina Dzodzomenyo
David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA
Class of 2023
Sedina Dzodzomenyo is a student in the Class of 2023, originally from Columbus, Ohio. Her interest in women's health stems from questions about the ways in which socially constructed, gendered expectations and behaviors affect providers' communication of health information to their female patients, those patients' understanding of and receptiveness towards that information, and their overall health outcomes. This summer, she is looking forward to learning how to develop a rigorous framework for asking and answering questions relevant to women's health. Additionally, she is excited to gain valuable technical skills in data analysis that will be transferable to future research. She is currently considering specialties with a strong focus on women's health, including urogynecology, OB-GYN, and internal medicine.
Yadira Bribiesca
David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA
Class of 2023
Yadira Bribiesca is a medical student in the UCLA PRIME-LA (MD/Masters) Program. Yadira’s commitment to medicine stems from her family’s and her personal struggle to access equitable health care in South Los Angeles. As part of the PRIME-LA program, she along with her peers, have partnered up with the Department of Public Health to understand the barriers to exercise for women in SPA 6, and use this information to help implement the Parks Rx Program in LA County. Mentorship has been pivotal in her journey to medical school and thus Yadira hopes to pay it forward. She is part of the mentorship team with the Latino Medical Student Association. As a DACA recipient and first-generation college student, Yadira aspires to use her dual degree to engage in policy change and conduct research in underserved communities to fervently fight against health inequities. She is looking forward to gaining skills in statistically analyzing and manipulating big data sets in hopes of finding correlates that can potentially affect positive change in underserved women’s health.
Karen Bryan
David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA
Class of 2022
Karen Bryan is a medical student at UCLA, originally from the Bay Area, California. Karen was drawn to this focused research and mentorship program because she is passionate about women’s healthcare and is excited to explore those interests further through research and clinical exposure. She was lucky to grow up surrounded by strong female role models like her mother and grandmother, who instilled in her a value for advocating for women. Karen is interested in pursuing a career in OBGyn or Internal Medicine, and she looked forward to this opportunity to delve deeper into important topics in women’s health. She hoped to gain valuable research experience, which will aid in her future practice to help her better understand the pressing issues facing women’s health today and how to address them as a clinician.
Aloukika Shah
David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA
Class of 2022
Aloukika is a medical student at UCLA, originally from Northern California. Aloukika’s interest in women’s health was piqued after witnessing a loved one’s challenging experience though the menopausal transition. Understanding how truly unique women’s healthcare must be in order to meet the multidimensional needs of women, makes this a patient population she hopes to one day serve. Prior to medical school, Aloukika served as an AmeriCorps Health Fellow at a federally qualified health center where she witnessed the pervasive role of nutrition among many other lifestyle components underlying chronic disease. Her experience managing her clinic’s wellness center and leading classes in cooking and chronic disease management inspires her to pursue a career with longitudinal care of patients such as internal medicine. Aloukika looks forward to this targeted research mentorship as a valuable opportunity to build a foundation for both clinical research and critical thinking, two skills that she will continue to develop through her medical training and beyond.
Alexander Chen
David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA
Class of 2021
Originally from Richmond, California, Alex first became interested in nutrition and health after volunteering as an undergraduate tutor with the Yale Undergraduate Prison Project. While teaching in correctional facilities, Alex saw firsthand the effects nutrition can have on the health of different populations; this experience sparked an interest that has continued at UCLA DGSOM, and is one of the reasons why he applied to the LL TEM Summer Research Fellowship. In the future, Alex hopes to pursue an academic career in general internal medicine. Part of that goal is providing the best possible clinical care, something that he believes this fellowship will be crucial for – in terms of building a better academic and clinical understanding of 50% of his future patients, in terms of building a foundation of clinical research skills, and in terms of fostering the curiosity and critical thinking it takes to go from research questions to patient decision-making.
Eden Patton
David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA/Charles R. Drew University of Medicine & Science / PRIME
Class of 2021
Eden completed the UCLA/ CDU and PRIME (MD/ Masters) Program. She was inspired to get into medicine after watching her mother struggle to receive appropriate quality healthcare due to their rural location. By obtaining a dual degree, her goal is to create and advocate for policy change that improves healthcare access for women in underserved communities. Eden looks forward to the research and mentorship she will be receiving under Iris Cantor to learn how to most effectively obtain and quantify information that can be instrumental in benefiting women’s healthcare.