Our Doctors

Dr. Aung graduated from the Institute of medicine (1) Burma, in 1998 and later trained in Internal medicine and Geriatric medicine in Liverpool, United Kingdom. There she specialized in Orthogeriatrics for years with strong interest in Osteoporosis, while receiving Master of Science in Geriatric medicine from Keele University School of Medicine, MRCP and FRCP titles from the Royal College of Physicians, Edinburgh; and subsequently worked as a consultant physician at the Nottingham University Hospitals. After 13 years of patient care, teaching, clinical research and service development activities in the United Kingdom, she perused her career path in the United States. She completed residency training in Internal medicine at St May medical center, Long Beach, California and Rheumatology fellowship at UCLA. Dr. Aung is interested in the wide range of the rheumatic diseases including rheumatoid arthritis, osteoarthritis, gout, pseudo-gout, psoriatic arthritis, ankylosing spondylitis, reactive arthritis, lupus, anti-phospholipid syndrome, polymyalgia rheumatica, giant cell arteritis, osteoporosis and various autoimmune diseases.

Dr. Kristal Choi is a general rheumatologist who practices in Santa Monica. She enjoys treating the full spectrum of rheumatic diseases, including lupus, rheumatoid arthritis, psoriatic arthritis, ankylosing spondylitis, vasculitis, myositis, scleroderma, gout, osteoarthritis and osteoporosis. She is also skilled in musculoskeletal ultrasound and ultrasound-guided joint and soft tissue injections. She earned her medical degree from the Saint Louis University School of Medicine, and then completed her internal medicine residency training at the Mayo Clinic in Scottsdale, Arizona, and her rheumatology fellowship at Loma Linda University.

Dr. Dahhan earned her medical degree at Western University of Health Sciences. She completed her residency in Internal Medicine and her fellowship in Rheumatology at Olive View-UCLA Medical Center. She practices general rheumatology and treats the full spectrum of rheumatic diseases, including Rheumatoid Arthritis, Lupus, Sjögren's Syndrome, Osteoarthritis, Psoriatic Arthritis, Ankylosing Spondylitis, Vasculitis, Gout, and Osteoporosis.
Dr. Dahhan also has a specialized interest in musculoskeletal ultrasound and had done training with Ultrasound School of North American Rheumatologists (USSONAR). She uses musculoskeletal ultrasound to aid in diagnosis of joint disease as well as to guide her joint injections to improve accuracy and minimize pain.
Dr. Dahhan is board certified in Internal Medicine and Rheumatology. In her free time she enjoys cooking, traveling, and spending quality time with family.

Dr. Gorn is Clinical Professor of Medicine in Rheumatology. He received his MD from the Sackler School of Medicine and completed his internal medicine training at State University of New York and rheumatology training at Harvard Medical School. His clinical interests include complex autoimmune diseases, rheumatoid arthritis, lupus, osteoporosis, scleroderma, dermatomyositis, polymyositis, spondyloarthropathies, vasculitis and osteoarthritis.

Dr. Marian Kaldas is a Southern California native and has been part of the UCLA family since her high school years when she won a scholarship for doing over 1000 hours of hospital volunteering. She received her undergraduate degree in Neuroscience at UCLA, her medical degree from the UCLA David Geffen School of Medicine and completed her internship, residency and fellowship in Rheumatology all with UCLA. She joined the UCLA Faculty practicing Rheumatology and Hospitalist medicine and is now excited to join UCLA Health practicing Rheumatology full-time. Dr. Kaldas is interested in the treatment of the full spectrum of the rheumatic diseases including rheumatoid arthritis, osteoarthritis, gout, lupus and over 100 other conditions. Her other interests include humanism in medicine and teaching. Dr. Kaldas is board certified in Internal Medicine and Rheumatology. In her spare time Dr. Kaldas enjoys reading, beach walks, singing and spending time with her husband and children.

Dr. Yaqoot Khan graduated with a DO degree from New York College of Osteopathic Medicine in 2001. After completing her Internal Medicine residency and a Rheumatology Fellowship at NYU Langone Hospital- Long Island, she pursued a post-doc research fellowship at the same institution.
She subsequently worked in clinical patient care and teaching for 15 years both in Private Practice and at Northwell Health in Huntington, Long Island. Dr. Khan has recently relocated to LA to be closer to her family.
She treats a wide spectrum of conditions including Lupus, Rheumatoid arthritis, Ankylosing Spondylitis, Psoriatic Arthritis, Vasculitis, Gout, Osteoarthritis, Myositis, Osteoporosis, Connective Tissue Diseases and other autoimmune conditions.
In her free time she enjoys being outdoors, spending time with her family and friends, gardening and cooking.

Dr. Kate Kolstad is a general rheumatologist who practices in the Santa Barbara/Montecito area. She enjoys treating the full spectrum of rheumatologic conditions. She started her career as a basic scientist, completing her PhD in Molecular Cell Biology at UC Berkeley. She received her medical degree at UCLA and completed her Internal Medicine Residency, Postdoctoral Fellowship, and Rheumatology Clinical Fellowship at Stanford University. She is thrilled to return to her home of Santa Barbara and to UCLA Medicine. Throughout her career she has had a special clinical and research interest in the intersection of rheumatology and dermatology as well as women's health and rheumatic disease.

Outside of the office, Dr. Kolstad enjoys spending time with her husband, two young sons, and dog.

Dr. Martin grew up in Washington State. He attended the College of William and Mary in Virginia. Upon graduation, Dr. Martin was a Peace Corps volunteer in Tanzania for two years where he taught high school chemistry and biology. Later Dr. Martin attended medical school at Rosalind Franklin University of Medicine and Science/Chicago Medical School, in North Chicago, Illinois, graduating in 2006. He completed residency in Internal Medicine at the University of Washington in Seattle and Rheumatology fellowship at UCLA.

Dr. Geraldine Navarro earned her medical degree from UCLA School of Medicine. She completed her internship and residency in internal medicine at Olive View-UCLA Medical Center. She completed her fellowship in rheumatology at UCLA School of Medicine.

Medical Board Certifications: Internal Medicine, American Board of Internal Medicine, 1985
Rheumatology, American Board of Internal Medicine, 1988
Fellowship: Rheumatology, VA Greater Los Angeles Healthcare System, 1983-1985
Rheumatology, Southern California System of Clinics California, 1985-1986
Residency: Internal Medicine, St. Mary's Medical Center, 1979-1983
Degree: University of North Dakota Medical School, MD, 1979

Dr. Taylor received her M.D. degree from the University of Medicine and Pharmacy Carol Davila in Bucharest, Romania, and completed her rheumatology fellowship at Loma Linda in June 2004. She practices general rheumatology, taking care of a variety of rheumatology conditions, including rheumatoid arthritis, osteoarthritis, connective-tissue disorders, crystal arthritis such as gout and pseudogout, myofascial syndromes, polymyalgia rheumatica, and vasculitis. She performs ultrasounds of the joints and performs injections with hyaluronic acid for osteoarthritis. Her interests is in musculoskeletal sonography.

Dr. Howard Yang is a Southern California native and grew up in Orange County. He received his medical degree from St. George's University. He completed his internal medicine training in University of Hawaii on the beautiful island of Oahu. He developed his interests in rheumatology and later completed his rheumatological training in Loma Linda University. He practices general rheumatology and treats the full spectrum of rheumatic diseases, including rheumatoid arthritis, lupus, psoriatic arthritis, ankylosing spondylitis, vasculitis, myositis, gout, and osteoporosis. Dr. Yang has a special interest in musculoskeletal ultrasound and is board certified by American College of Rheumatology (Musculoskeletal Ultrasound Certification in Rheumatology, RhMSUS). He frequently preforms ultrasound guided injection at the wrist, elbows, shoulders, hips and knees to improve accuracy. He believes in the whole well-being of the patient instead just the specialized area of the wellness. He also speaks fluent Mandarin and Taiwanese.

Dr. Bae received her medical degree from Yonsei University College of Medicine in South Korea. She came to UCLA where she started out her research in rheumatology and remained for her training in both internal medicine and rheumatology. Dr. Bae practices general rheumatology and treats the full spectrum of diseases, including Rheumatoid Arthritis, Sjögren’s syndrome, Spondyloarthritis, Osteoarthritis, and Lupus and a particular interest in inflammatory myositis. She is an active researcher in inflammatory myositis and a member of the International Myositis Assessment and Clinical Studies Group

Dr. Grossman's general interests include lupus, osteoarthritis, osteoporosis, rheumatoid arthritis, scleroderma, spine, spondylolisthesis/spondylolysis and vasculitis.

Dr. King graduated from Harvard Medical School, and completed her internal medicine residency at Massachusetts General Hospital. She completed her rheumatology fellowship and PhD (STAR) at UCLA. She has received multiple patient service awards for excellence in clinical care, diagnostic acumen, and bedside manner. Dr. King is a translational researcher with a special interest in B-cell mediated autoimmune diseases, including Sjogren's syndrome, systemic lupus erythematosus, and undifferentiated connective tissue disease. Her research focuses on defining new diagnostic markers to predict treatment responses and disease flares in autoimmune conditions.

Dr. Ranganath is a native Los Angelean. After graduating from Drew/UCLA Medical School and completing her residency at the VA Greater Los Angeles Healthcare System in internal medicine, she returned to UCLA for Rheumatology Fellowship in 2003. She joined the UCLA faculty in 2005 and obtained a Masters in Clinical Research at UCLA in 2010. Dr. Ranganath has a strong interest in rheumatoid arthritis research. Her specific research goal is to develop a model to predict early response to therapy in RA with biomarkers, imaging markers (ultrasound and MRI), and clinical measures.

Dr. Volkmann graduated from Pomona College where she majored in Neuroscience and minored in Dance. She received her medical degree from UCLA David Geffen School of Medicine, and subsequently completed her residency in Internal Medicine and fellowship in Rheumatology at UCLA. During her fellowship, she participated in the Specialty Training and Advanced Research (STAR) Program and earned her Master of Science degree in Clinical Research. Her clinical interests include systemic sclerosis, interstitial lung disease, pulmonary hypertension and systemic lupus erythematosus. Dr. Volkmann is an active clinical and translational researcher with a special focus on systemic sclerosis, and in particular, she investigates the pulmonary, gastrointestinal and vascular dimensions of this condition. She strives to provide humanistic and compassionate care, and she embraces complementary and alternative approaches to healing, in addition to traditional modalities.

Dr. Furst is the first Carl M. Pearson Professor in Rheumatology. He has been on a number of national committees concerned with rheumatic therapeutics, including as a member and fellow in the American College of Rheumatology and The American Society of Clinical Pharmacology and Therapeutics. Dr. Furst has published more than 400 articles and 12 books, including more than 180 research articles and more than 210 reviews or chapters, in addition to two editions of a book on scleroderma. Dr. Furst's areas of research interest include RA, scleroderma and polymyositis/dermatomyositis.

Dr. Louie received his medical education at Washington University, St. Louis, trained in medicine at John Hopkins and in rheumatology at UCLA. He was formerly chief of rheumatology at Harbor-UCLA Medical Center. His expertise is in infectious, post-infectious, immune mediated and inflammatory rheumatic diseases. He is co-editor of the coming text, "Targeted Treatment of the Rheumatic Diseases," Elsevier 2009.

Professor, Director of the FOCIS Center of Excellence at UCLA. Dr. La Cava received his M.D. and Ph.D. from the Federico II University of Naples, Italy, and did postdoctoral research at UCSD and The Scripps Research Institute in La Jolla, CA, before joining UCLA as faculty in 2001. Dr. La Cava’s research interests focus on the development of new immunotherapies in systemic lupus erythematosus.