Department of Psychiatry Training Programs: JEDI Leaders
Residents, fellows, interns, post-doctoral researchers, and other trainees in the Department of Psychiatry and Biobehavioral Sciences have a long history of leadership in justice, equity, diversity, and inclusion. Come be a part of the continually evolving effort to address health and social inequities.
JEDI Chief Residents 2024-2025
Afaf Moustafa
Afaf Moustafa (she/her) is a second-year psychiatry resident at UCLA. As the daughter of a Palestinian refugee, Afaf became attuned to issues of justice and equity at a young age. She completed her higher education in Philadelphia and New York City, during which she conducted research in health equity and substance use, created anti-racism curricula, and established a resiliency curriculum to improve the well-being of medical students with marginalized identities. At UCLA, she has been involved in the CIR Union to ensure fair labor practices and increase accessible and equitable healthcare for underinsured patients at UCLA. As JEDI cochief, she plans to organize social justice teachins and increase resident involvement in local advocacy opportunities and justice-driven collectives. Outside of work, Afaf enjoys spending time at concerts, protests, and on her couch napping with her two cats.
Brian Chu
Brian Chu (he/him) is currently a second year psychiatry resident at UCLA. As the child of a Vietnamese refugee, he developed an interest in immigrant health and diasporic identity formation. He attended college in St. Louis where he worked to expand inclusivity of on campus mental health services. In medical school at UCLA, he conducted research on social determinants of health and co-led a shelter for college students experiencing homelessness. As JEDI co-chief, he looks forward to creating community through dialogue and promoting the intentional inclusivity of applicants and residents URM. Outside of work he enjoys eating KBBQ, rounding on his plants, playing board games and spending time with his cats.
Community/Global Psychiatry Chief Residents 2024-2025
Ragda Izar
Ragda Izar (she/her) is a 2nd-year psychiatry resident. She grew up in the Southwest Chicago suburbs and while attending Wayne State University in Michigan, she was immersed in the country’s largest Arab-American enclave. Ragda worked directly with Syrian and Iraqi refugees resettled to Southeast Michigan and studied the prevalence of PTSD, anxiety, and depression in these populations. She remains passionate about refugee, Arab, and Muslim mental health. As a resident, she has conducted asylum evaluations for people seeking asylum in the United States via Los Angeles Human Rights Initiative (LAHRI) and Physicians for Human Rights (PHR). Ragda serves as a board member on the Health Systems Equity committee of the UCLA Minority Housestaff Organization.
Jennifer Tu
Jennifer Tu (she/her) is a 2nd-year psychiatry resident. In 2016, she was selected to be a Luce Scholar in Taipei, Taiwan, where she learned about and researched caring for people with dementia. As a resident, she participated in the CGP working group and helped create a workflow to guide care for unhoused patients. She has also helped to start the new Social Work-Resident Liaison Committee this year to facilitate continued collaborative projects and advocacy. Jennifer is passionate about providing psychoeducation and facilitating intergenerational communication, particularly among minoritized communities. She currently serves as a consultant and Board member of the United Chinese Americans WAVES Youth Mental Health Collaborative.
Janice Cho
Janice Cho (she/her) is a third-year psychiatry resident at UCLA and a proud Angeleno. She majored in Human Biology and Spanish at Pitzer College and studied abroad in Nepal, Ecuador, Spain, and Belgium. Following medical school at Wake Forest in North Carolina, she spent a brief period as a surgical intern at UCLA before thankfully making the switch to psychiatry. She is passionate about strengthening community partnerships with UCLA, especially the National Alliance on Mental Illness – Westside Los Angeles (NAMI WLA). As a resident, she worked with UCLA Resnick Leadership and NAMI WLA to bring peer support groups onto the 4 East B inpatient unit. She also created the VA Mental Health Intensive Care Management (MHICM)/Care, Treatment and Rehabilitative Services (CTRS) elective to expose residents to community psychiatry, street psychiatry, and addiction psychiatry practice models.
Community/Global Psychiatry Chief Residents 2023-2024
Jennifer Cohenmehr
Jennifer Cohenmehr, MD, MPH, is a 4th-year Psychiatry resident at the UCLA Semel Institute for Neuroscience. Dr. Cohenmehr earned her medical degree from the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA and her master’s degree from the Fielding School of Public Health at UCLA. While in medical school, Dr. Cohenmehr created the organization Companion Care with the mission to build sustainable bridges between people experiencing homelessness and healthcare services in Los Angeles. Currently in her residency program, she serves as the co-chief resident of the UCLA Community and Global Psychiatry group. Dr. Cohenmehr’s interests include improving care for individuals experiencing homelessness and increasing access to equitable mental healthcare. Her other interests including women’s mental health, trauma-informed care, and psychotherapy.
Janice Cho
Janice Cho, MD, is a second year psychiatry resident at UCLA. She specializes in the prevention, diagnosis, and treatment of mental disorders, emotional disorders, psychotic disorders, mood disorders, anxiety disorders, substance-related disorders, sexual and gender identity disorders and adjustment disorders. Biologic, psychological, and social components of illnesses are explored and understood in treatment of the whole person. Tools used may include diagnostic laboratory tests, prescribed medications, evaluation and treatment of psychological and interpersonal problems with individuals and families, and intervention for coping with stress, crises, and other problems. She is passionate about physician wellness, AAPI Mental Health, and her work with NAMI (National Alliance on Mental Illness) Westside LA to educate the greater community on mental health conditions. As a second-year resident, she worked alongside Elizabeth Stephens, the NAMI WLA Program Coordinator, to bring NAMI WLA Peer Support Groups into the inpatient unit at Resnick.
Hilary Wright
Dr. Wright graduated from the Tulane University School of Medicine in 2020. She works in Los Angeles, CA and specializes in Psychiatry.
Colleen Mccord
Colleen McCord, LCSW is a clinical social worker at UCLA Resnick Neuropsychiatric Hospital
(RNPH) specializing in children and adolescents. Colleen obtained a bachelor’s degree in
Political Science from UC Berkeley and obtained a master’s degree in Social Work from New
York University.
Colleen joined UCLA in 2012 as a clinical social worker providing direct patient care to patients
and families treated in Inpatient Psychiatry and the Partial Hospitalization Program. She later
worked as a psychotherapist at UCLA’s Faculty Group Practice for several years before
returning to RNPH in her current role as the Associate Chief Clinical Social Worker.
In collaboration with the UCLA EMPWR program, Colleen implemented the LGBTQ and
Equity Pilot Program on the inpatient Child and Adolescent Service. The program promotes
gender–affirming care by supplying ligature–safe chest binders to patients hospitalized on the
child and adolescent psychiatry unit. Colleen and UCLA EMPWR program are currently
collecting data to better understand how patients experience gender–affirming care on the Child
and Adolescent Inpatient Unit.
Colleen organizes anti–racism trainings at UCLA Resnick Neuropsychiatric Hospital which are
offered to interdisciplinary treatment team members throughout the hospital.
Colleen Mccord
Colleen McCord, LCSW is a clinical social worker at UCLA Resnick Neuropsychiatric Hospital
(RNPH) specializing in children and adolescents. Colleen obtained a bachelor’s degree in
Political Science from UC Berkeley and obtained a master’s degree in Social Work from New
York University.
Colleen joined UCLA in 2012 as a clinical social worker providing direct patient care to patients
and families treated in Inpatient Psychiatry and the Partial Hospitalization Program. She later
worked as a psychotherapist at UCLA’s Faculty Group Practice for several years before
returning to RNPH in her current role as the Associate Chief Clinical Social Worker.
In collaboration with the UCLA EMPWR program, Colleen implemented the LGBTQ and
Equity Pilot Program on the inpatient Child and Adolescent Service. The program promotes
gender–affirming care by supplying ligature–safe chest binders to patients hospitalized on the
child and adolescent psychiatry unit. Colleen and UCLA EMPWR program are currently
collecting data to better understand how patients experience gender–affirming care on the Child
and Adolescent Inpatient Unit.
Colleen organizes anti–racism trainings at UCLA Resnick Neuropsychiatric Hospital which are
offered to interdisciplinary treatment team members throughout the hospital.
Child and Adolescent Psychiatry Fellowship Representative
Tashalee Brown
Tashalee R. Brown, M.D., Ph.D. is a second year Child and Adolescent Psychiatry Fellow at UCLA. She received her B.S. in Biomedical Engineering from Johns Hopkins University and her M.D., Ph.D. from the Weill Cornell/Rockefeller/Sloan Kettering Tri–Institutional MD–PhD Program. She is currently AACAP’s Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) Emerging Leaders Fellow, an APA/SAMHSA Minority Fellow, and an AACAP Pilot Research Grant Recipient. Her research focuses on the social determinants of mental health, the role of racism in perpetuating racial/ethnic disparities in mental health care, community–partnered psychiatry interventions, and the implementation of evidence–based anti–racism training in psychiatry. Her future goals include a career in academic psychiatry and providing clinical care to patients in a community psychiatry setting while pursuing research that aims to improve the mental health care of underserved populations.
Lucy Wall
Lucy Wall is a second–year neuropsychology research fellow at the UCLA Semel Institute of
Neuroscience and Human Behavior. She completed her doctorate in Clinical Psychology at
Pepperdine University and clinical internship at UCLA. Her research and clinical work focus on
cancer–related cognitive impairment, aging, and enhancing quality of life.
Psychology Trainee Representative
Tina Jimenez
Dr. Tina Jimenez is a current postdoctoral fellow of Geriatric Neuropsychology at the UCLA Semel Institute for Neuroscience and Human Behavior. Her professional interests include merging neuropsychology and the socially responsible framework by advocating for accessible care, building inclusion, and expanding current models of care by celebrating diversity and allyship.
JEDI Chief Residents 2023-2024
Amira Collison
Amira Collison (she/her) is a 2nd-year Psychiatry resident at the UCLA Semel Institute of Neuroscience. She spent her formative years in Maryland and Chicago and knew from an early age that addressing health and educational inequities amongst minoritized groups was her calling. She graduated from the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, where she spent a lot of her time developing and leading mentorship and pipeline programs for high school students from disadvantaged backgrounds and conducting epidemiologic research on cardiovascular health disparities. She is a former U.S. Fulbright Fellow in Spain and a current American Psychiatric Association SAMHSA Minority Fellow. At UCLA, she has developed an academic-community partnership between UCLA Psychiatry Residency and Los Angeles Unified Public School District to increase mental health literacy amongst minoritized youth. As JEDI co-chief, she is looking forward to helping to recruit and retain students and faculty historically under-represented in medicine, fostering a welcoming and supportive community amongst a diverse group of students, house-staff and faculty members, and advocating for improved access to equitable health services at our institution and beyond.
Preston Igwe
Preston Igwe (he/him) is a PGY-2 in the UCLA Psychiatry Adult Residency Training Program. He was born in Nigeria and raised in southwest Houston, TX, both places that have immensely shaped his identity and outlook on the world. He graduated from the University of Notre Dame with a BA in Sociology and Pre-Health. While at Notre Dame, Preston was a QuestBridge Scholar won the Rev. Theodore M. Hesburgh, C.S.C. Award which honors a graduating senior whose contributions have significantly advanced the climate of welcome and inclusion within or beyond the university community. For medical school, Preston attended the University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston. He was very involved with the Student National Medical Association (SNMA), ultimately serving on the SNMA’s national board of directors as the co-chair of the Academic Affairs Committee. At UCLA, Preston has served as one of the recruitment committee leads and participates in various recruitment and community-building events with the Minority Housestaff Organization. He will also serve as the 2023-2024 Residents Council Co-President. His career interests include forensics and sports psychiatry, as well as Black and African American mental health. As co-chief of JEDI, he is excited to continue his work in supporting and advocating for minoritized communities while helping to make UCLA Psychiatry a more inclusive and anti-racist program.
Past Chief Residents and Fellows (2018-2023)
Past Child and Adolescent Psychiatry Fellowship Representatives
- Manal Kahn
Past JEDI Chief Resident Representatives
- Dennis Dacarett Galeano
- Rohit Mukherjee
- Justin Key
- Elizabeth Fisseha
- Sonya Shadravan
- Nicolás Barceló
Past JEDI Chief Resident Representatives
- Ann Crawford-Roberts
- Jennifer Manegold
- Sophie Feller
- Isabella Morton
- Nichole Goodsmith