UCLA Child & Adolescent Psychiatry Fellows
2024 - 2025
First Year Fellows
Debha Amatya, MD, PhD
Hometown: San Diego, California
Education: Stanford University (BS), University of California San Diego (MD/PhD)
Residency: University of California Los Angeles
Hobbies/Outside Interests: Hiking, basketball, gardening, cooking, spirituality. I’m also learning the harmonium, a South Asian classical music instrument!
Professional Interests: Prodromal states of serious mental illness, transitional age youth, digital mental health, holistic mental health. Also looking to expand my psychotherapy skills and learn family therapy.
What I’m looking forward to most: I’m looking forward to embracing the complexity of child psychiatry! I want to adopt a holistic lens that clarifies how family/social systems interact with innate factors to impact development and the health of young people.
Eugenia Chen, MD
Hometown: Sugar Land, Texas & Taipei, Taiwan
Education: University of Texas at Austin (BS) and Baylor College of Medicine (MD)
Residency: Kaiser Permanente San Jose
Hobbies/Outside Interests: Music and festivals, dancing and fitness, snowboarding, traveling, my chow chow doggo named Avery, foodie life (come get boba with me), cooking
Professional Interests: Transitional age youth, trauma-related disorders/sexual trauma, physician wellness, social justice, and implementing psychotherapy.
What I’m looking forward to most: working with so many wonderful souls here at UCLA, learning from my patients, and continue exploring this beautiful city!
Amira Collison, MD
Hometown: Silver Springs, Maryland
Education: University of Maryland College Park (BS), Johns Hopkins School of Medicine (MD)
Residency: UCLA Semel Institute of Neuroscience
Hobbies/Outside Interests: Outside of work, you can find me doing Vinyasa in a Hot Yoga studio (preferably 105F and up!), at the beach or hiking, making fun & educational Tik Tok Videos, or spending time with my friends and family (probably binging Netflix).
Professional Interests: My professional interests include school based mental health, academic-community mental health partnerships particularly with underserved BIPOC communities, and different forms of psychotherapy.
What I’m looking forward to most: I am looking forward to learning, growing, and connecting with this incredible group of brilliant, compassionate and socially conscious individuals that I am blessed to call my colleagues.
Julia Girdler, MD
Hometown: Newport Coast, CA
Education: New York University (undergraduate and medical school)
Residency: New York University
Hobbies/Outside Interests: Outside of work I love playing tennis, hiking, swimming and spending time with family.
Professional Interests: I am interested the intersection of parenting and child mental health symptoms, including parenting based interventions. I am also interested in the creation and maintenance of interdisciplinary care teams. Finally, I have a passion for medical education (both formal and informal).
What I’m looking forward to most: I am so excited to have the opportunity to learn from leaders in the field!
Samia Nawaz, MD
Hometown: Little Rock, AR
Education: Hendrix College (BA), University of Arkansas (MD)
Residency: University of Utah (with emphases in Women’s Mental Health, Global Mental Health)
Hobbies/Outside Interests: Fashion, hiking, beaching, concerts, indoor plant parenting, spending time with friends/family
Professional Interests: Mental health equity, medical education, trauma-informed care, maternal-infant mental health, performance psychiatry
What I’m looking forward to most: Learning child psychiatry from the best, working alongside amazing colleagues, and fulfilling my childhood dream of training at UCLA (go Bruins!)
Tiana Raphel, MD
Hometown: Houston, Texas
Education: Harvard University (BA), University of Texas Southwestern Medical School (MD)
Residency: UCLA Semel Institute
Hobbies/Outside Interests: Bachata/salsa dancing, hot yoga, balcony gardening
Professional Interests: Substance use disorders, LGBTQ+ mental health, psychotherapy, digital health
What I’m looking forward to most: Immersing myself fully into the child and UCLA community, building meaningful connections, growing in the art of healing
David Sabio, MD
Hometown:
Education:
Residency: East Carolina University
Hobbies/Outside Interests: Connection. Play. Time with partner and dogs, laughing, good convos, eating tasty food, climbing, jogging, going to the beach, journaling, trying new things.
Professional Interests: Connection. Healing. Dynamics, beliefs, ideas, values. Macro/micro, individual/family/community/society/global/universal. Displacing forces of us/them and promoting the true nature of we.
What I’m looking forward to most: Connection. Growth. Immersed in an environment that is so profoundly supportive it is difficult to put into words. Feeling seen for who I am and what may come to be for this being is a blessing that is both empowering and humbling. Drinking it in from every pore, the opportunities to connect and grow are limitless. I hope everyone is able to find such fertile soil for them to truly blossom.
Second Year Fellows
Oby Ekwueme, MD, MPH
Hometown: Medford, WI
Education: University of Notre Dame (BA), Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine (MD, MPH)
Residency: Yale University Department of Psychiatry
Hobbies/Outside Interests: I enjoy spending time with my friends and family, going to musicals/plays, reading comedian autobiographies (highly recommend Issa Rae’s), listening to music, and binge watching anything Netflix recommends.
Professional Interests: I am passionate about the impact of racism on the mental health of minoritized children, school based mental health programs, psychotherapy, and trauma-informed care, but the most exciting part will be to find new interests as I progress through fellowship!
What I’m looking forward to most: Joining this wonderful community and exploring a new, exciting city!
Kathleen Lopez, MD
Hometown: San Fernando, California
Education: Pacific Union College (BS), Loma Linda University (MD)
Residency: University of California, Riverside
Hobbies/Outside Interests: I enjoy spending time with my family, taking walks, wine tasting, brunch, horror movies, board games, binging cooking shows, and crocheting cute summer outfits for me and my friends!
Professional Interests: school based mental health, maternal-infant mental health, community psychiatry
What I’m looking forward to most: I am looking forward to improving my psychotherapy skills, learning to provide families with tools for handling mental health crises, meeting like minded people who are passionate about child psychiatry, and learning from some of the top clinicians in the field.
Rubi Luna, MD
Hometown: SF Bay Area and Monterrey, Nuevo León
Education: Johns Hopkins University (BA), University of California, San Francisco (MD)
Residency: University of California, San Francisco (Adult, Cultural Psychiatry Area of Distinction)
Hobbies/Outside Interests: Dancing, traveling, and learning to cook. I’m a big fan of Zumba and social dancing. I also love spending time in nature and exploring SoCal with my friends and family!
Professional Interests: Neurodevelopmental disorders in vulnerable populations, maternal and infant mental health, consultation-liaison psychiatry, crisis intervention and community psychiatry. I’m also interested in physician advocacy and organization for social justice and mental health equity.
Favorite Part of Being a UCLA Child Psychiatry Fellow: My favorite part is the nurturing culture of the program that makes me feel at home! I’m excited to learn and to grow alongside a warm and talented group of colleagues who share a passion for serving children and their families.
Karen Marianela Mendez, MD
Hometown: Lima, Peru
Education: University of California, Los Angeles (BS), David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA (MD)
Residency: UCLA Semel Institute
Hobbies/Outside Interests: I enjoy spending time with my family and friends, exploring new parks with my toddler and puppy, hiking, going to concerts, and trying new restaurants. When time allows, I love traveling and learning about different cultures.
Professional Interests: I am interested in maternal-infant mental health, early childhood development and different forms of psychotherapy, particularly family therapy.
What I’m looking forward to most: I am looking forward to connecting, building memories and growing alongside such a diverse and outstanding group of people in our child and adolescent psychiatry department.
Frances (Franco) Pillsbury, MD, MBS, MPP
Hometown: Santa Rosa Valley, California
Education: UC Berkeley (BA), Harvard University (MPP), Keck Graduate Institute (MBS), Keck School of Medicine of USC (MD)
Residency: NYU Langone/Bellevue
Hobbies/Outside Interests: improv comedy, philosophy, creative writing, hiking
Professional Interests: child welfare systems (foster care and juvenile justice), health policy, psychodynamic psychotherapy, school-based mental health
Favorite Part of Being a UCLA Child Psychiatry Fellow: I can’t pick just one – I love the people and the wide array of clinical experiences, as well as the constant opportunities to work closely with psychology (our respective training programs are deeply intertwined). It’s also inspiring being in a class of such accomplished women. I’m so proud of them already, and can’t wait to see where their careers take them!
Mary F. Youssef, MD, PhD
Hometown: San Fernando Valley, CA
Education: UCLA (BS), Columbia University (MD, PhD)
Residency: UCLA Semel Institute
Hobbies/Outside Interests: I enjoy exploring new parts of LA, traveling, cooking, walking around in nature, going to the gym, and most importantly, spending time with my friends and family.
Professional Interests: I am curious about how personality and character structure develop, ie. how people become who they are. I want to focus on therapy and working with families to help children, adults, and families understand themselves and their experiences and navigate their lives in more healthy ways.
What I’m looking forward to most: Continuing to be part of the wonderful community of UCLA Psychiatry where I have felt at home for the last few years. I already feel the love and warmth from my co-fellows, attendings, and program leadership.
Second Year Research Track Fellow
Madeline Jansen, MD, MPH
Hometown: New Orleans, LA
Education: Stanford University (BA),
Tulane University (MD/MPH)
Residency: Washington University
Hobbies/Outside Interests: hiking, crafts, board/card games, reality television
Professional Interests: community-based prevention, digital health, psychosocial interventions, health disparities, adolescent development, psychotherapy
Favorite Part of Being a UCLA Child Psychiatry Fellow: I was drawn to UCLA by the opportunity to do research in my area of interest and be mentored by experts in the field. I was inspired by the dedication and warmth of the leadership and wanted to be part of this community.
Third Year Research Track Fellow
José M. Flores, MD, PhD
Hometown: Born in Loja, Ecuador. Grew up in Elizabeth, NJ. Both are home to me.
Education: Penn State University (BS),
Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health (MPH, PhD),
John Hopkins School of Medicine (MD)
Residency: Yale University (Residency, Addiction Fellowship)
Hobbies/Outside Interests: I play guitar badly but I have way too much fun to stop, I love hanging out with my two nieces (Julieta and Maria Victoria), I love to travel in Latin America, I’ve been to Africa once and I can’t wait to return and travel to other continents.
Professional Interests: interventions for the treatment of substance use disorders in youth including experimental and statistical methodology
Favorite Part of Being a UCLA Child Psychiatry Fellow: I felt very welcome and supported even before arriving to UCLA, and I am beyond excited to see what the next three years will bring. In terms of my research goals, all I have felt is a collaborative tone and people who are paying close attention to my unique career goals. Faculty have reached out to me frequently to see how I’m doing and to discuss how to get to the next step. These are key aspects of any clinical and research fellowship. The Faculty I’ve met are wonderful and have my best interests in mind, as a person, as a physician and as a researcher. I feel a heartfelt sense of appreciation and respect for them.
