Department of Spiritual Care
UCLA Health
1001 Gayley Ave. 2nd Floor, room #6
Los Angeles, CA 90095-1733
Phone: 310-825-7484 
Fax: 310-267-0291
uclahealth.org/SpiritualCare

Our Staff

ACPE Educators

Rev. Yuko Uesugi is the Director of ACPE Clinical Pastoral Education and Associate Director of the Spiritual Care Department. She is an ACPE Certified Educator and an ordained Elder of the United Methodist Church (UMC). She completed the ACPE internship, residency and certified educator programs at UCLA Medical Center in Westwood and Santa Monica. She is a native of Japan and came to the US in 1996 in order to pursue her theological education. She holds her BA in Business Administration from Aoyama Gakuin University in Tokyo, Japan and M. Div. Degree from Fuller Theological Seminary in Pasadena, California. Rev. Uesugi has chaplaincy experience in cardiology, psychiatry, oncology and general hospital ministry, as well as management experience of the Spiritual Care Department at UCLA Medical Center, Santa Monica.

Chaplain Blake Arnall is the Manager of Spiritual Care at UCLA Medical Center, Santa Monica. He is an ACPE Certified Educator and a commissioned minister with the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers). He holds a BFA from Art Center College of Design and a Master of Divinity from the Pacific School of Religion in Berkeley, California. He is a member of the Association of Professional Chaplains (APC) and has been a Board Certified Chaplain since 2007. He completed his ACPE Certified Educator training at California Pacific Medical Center in San Francisco. He has experience providing chaplaincy care to oncology, transplant and psychiatric patients and their family members. He has served on Palliative Care Teams and Ethics Committees for over ten years. Prior to joining UCLA Health, he was the Manager of Pastoral Education at Methodist Hospital of Southern California in Arcadia, California.

Staff Chaplains - Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center

Rev. Aiko Johnson is the Pediatric Staff Chaplain for Mattel Children's Hospital at Ronal Reagan UCLA Medical Center. She is ordained for ministry and endorsed for chaplaincy by the Presbyterian Church (USA) and is a board-certified chaplain with the Association of Professional Chaplains (APC). She holds a MA in Communication Studies from California State University Long Beach and a M Div from Fuller Theological Seminary in Pasadena, California. She completed her CPE internship at Children's Hospital Los Angeles and her CPE residency at UCLA Medical Center in Westwood. Rev. Johnson played an active role in the development of a pediatric palliative care program at UCLA and has served as the chaplain for this program, Children’s Pain and Comfort Care, since it began its clinical services in 2008. Additionally, she has served as a member of the hospital Ethics Committee since 2005. She is a native of Japan, having lived in the Los Angeles area since 1995.

Rev. Fr. Siju Kuriakose is a Staff Chaplain at RR UCLA Medical Center, serving primarily the Catholic patient population. He is ordained to the priesthood by the Arch Diocese of Kottayam in the Syro-Malabar rite. He completed his bachelor’s and master’s level theological studies in Rome, Italy and his philosophical and other undergraduate studies in India. After seven years of pastoral experience in India, serving in both congregational and hospital settings, he came to the U.S. in 2011. He served as Associate Pastor to a Catholic congregation in Chicago, IL and also completed one unit of ACPE accredited CPE at the University of Illinois Chicago Hospital (UIC). In 2015, he completed an additional three units of CPE at Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center while performing his duties as the Catholic Chaplain. In addition, he serves as the pastor for the local Syro-Malabar Catholic Church which meets in Montebello, California.

Rev. Chitra Rao is the Oncology Staff Chaplain at the outpatient UCLA Bowyer Oncology Center and on the inpatient Hematology and Stem Cell Transplant Unit at Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center. She is an Episcopal priest and a board-certified chaplain with APC. Prior to coming to UCLA she served as an oncology staff chaplain for six years on the pediatric and adult patient units at City of Hope National Medical Center in Duarte, CA and later as a hospice chaplain and bereavement supervisor.  Rev. Rao received a Master of Divinity from Fuller Theological Seminary and completed her CPE residency at the University of North Carolina Hospitals, where her chaplaincy experience was concentrated in neonatal, obstetrics and gynecology. Additionally, she earned her Bachelors from MS University of Baroda in India and graduate degrees in Special Education from Long Island University, New York and in Audiology from Montclair State University, New Jersey.

Staff Chaplains - UCLA Medical Center, Santa Monica

Rev. Joseph Hepburn is a staff chaplain at UCLA Medical Center, Santa Monica. He is endorsed for chaplaincy by the United Methodist Church and is an Associate Certified Chaplain with APC. Rev. Hepburn is originally from Trinidad. He attended United Theological College of the West Indies in Mona, Jamaica, completing his B.A. in Theology. Subsequently, at Drew University in Madison, NJ, he was awarded M.A. and M.Phil. degrees in Philosophy and Ethics in 1989. He then returned to serve the Methodist Churches in the Caribbean and later accepted an appointment in the North Alabama Conference of the United Methodist Church where he served at the Carraway Methodist Medical Center in Birmingham, AL, followed by an internship at Saint Elizabeth's Psychiatric Hospital in Washington, D.C. in 2002. After serving his home circuit in Trinidad and Tobago, Joseph came to California in 2010 and completed the CPE residency program at Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center, followed by his current staff chaplain appointment at UCLA Medical Center, Santa Monica.

The Spiritual Care Department also includes an Office Administrator and many qualified volunteers from most faith traditions, including Buddhist, Jewish, Muslim, Protestant and Roman Catholic. As part of the Spiritual Care Department's team, they work together with CPE interns, residents and staff to serve the spiritual and religious needs of the Medical Center's patients, patient-family members, staff and faculty.

UCLA Health is an ACPE Accredited Center for Level 1, Level 2 and Certified Educator CPE™ Programs. ACPE, One West Court Square, Suite 325, Decatur, GA 30033 Phone: 404-320-1472. acpe.edu Rev. Yuko Uesugi and Chaplain Blake Arnall are ACPE Certified Educators.