Community Track
Los Angeles County is the nation’s most populous county and home to more children than any other county in the state, with a landscape that is as racially, ethnically, and economically diverse as it is complex. LA’s child mental health system is one of the largest and most under-resourced in the country, and yet it is also home to some of the most innovative community mental health work being done anywhere in the country. The newly launched UCLA Child and Adolescent Psychiatry Community Track aims to train two fellows to work at the center of this system, drawing on LA’s diversity to shape the next generation of community-oriented child psychiatrist-leaders.
Mission
The UCLA Community Child and Adolescent Psychiatry Track trains the next generation of clinically excellent, rigorously trained psychiatrist-leaders who are equipped to design, lead, and transform mental health systems serving children and families. Grounded in the rich and complex landscape of Los Angeles — one of the most racially, culturally, and economically diverse metropolitan regions in the world — our fellows develop the systems fluency and policy acumen to create lasting change wherever their careers take them. We are committed to producing psychiatrists who do not simply work within systems, but interrogate them, improve them, and hold them accountable to the communities they serve.
Program Structure
Community Track fellows complete the same core two-year training as the categorical child and adolescent psychiatry fellows, with additional community psychiatry sites and experiences layered into the curriculum. This ensures fellows graduate with the full clinical foundation of the child and adolescent psychiatry fellowship while gaining focused, hands-on experience serving underserved children and families in community settings across LA County.
First Year Community Track Clinical Experiences
Second Year Community Track Clinical Experiences
Public Psychiatry Fellowship Partnership
In their second year, Community Track fellows will have the opportunity to simultaneously pursue the UCLA Public Psychiatry Fellowship. This partnership gives fellows access to specialized didactics, dedicated scholarly mentorship, and a certificate upon completion, extending their training beyond child psychiatry into the broader systems, policy, and leadership work of public mental health.
Leadership
Manal Khan, MD
Community Track Director, UCLA CAP Fellowship
Misty Richards, MD, MS
Program Director, UCLA CAP Fellowship
Suma Jacob, MD, PhD
Division Director, UCLA CAP Fellowship
Our Fellows
Alana Slavin, MD, MSc
Community Track Fellows, UCLA CAP Fellowship
Jennifer Tu, MD, MTS
Community Track Fellows, UCLA CAP Fellowship
Community Experiences
Augustus F. Hawkins Family Mental Health Center
In one of LA County's most under-resourced psychiatric safety nets, fellows learn to work within systems strained by scale. This LA County DMH clinic in South LA provides public outpatient psychiatric care to a diverse population of primarily Black and Latinx children and families with mood, behavioral, PTSD, anxiety, psychotic, and developmental disorders. Fellows work alongside UCLA faculty with community psychiatry expertise, learning cultural and social determinants of mental health while coordinating with clinic staff and existing resources.
UCLA TIES for Families
Fellows learn to navigate the intersection of psychiatry and public systems firsthand. This interdisciplinary program serves foster care, kinship care, and adopted children in close collaboration with public child welfare and mental health systems. Fellows provide psychotherapy, medication management, and infant mental health services.
UCLA Asylum Clinic
Fellows put clinical training directly in service of legal advocacy and human rights. The clinic provides psychiatric evaluations for immigrants seeking asylum, working with attorneys and Physicians for Human Rights to support immigration cases. Fellows conduct trauma evaluations and generate affidavits used in court.
EMPWR Program for LGBTQ Youth & Young Adults
Fellows deliver affirming, specialized care to a population too often underserved by mainstream systems. The program provides psychiatric and psychotherapeutic care for gender and sexual minority youth dealing with stress, trauma, and discrimination.
Mindful Mentors
Fellows step outside the clinic to meet young people where they are. This school-based mental health literacy program is delivered monthly by CAP fellow, resident, and medical student teams at six LAUSD high schools in under-resourced LA communities, in partnership with The Los Angeles Trust for Children. It builds fellows' skills as clinician-educators while supporting community-based prevention, early intervention, and culturally responsive mental health education for BIPOC youth.
Recruiting Our First 2-Year Community Track Cohort
UCLA’s Child and Adolescent Psychiatry Fellowship has a strong tradition of graduating psychiatrists who go on to community-engaged careers. The Community Track formalizes that path for two fellows a year, starting in 2027. This is your chance to join the founding cohort and help shape what community psychiatry training looks like at UCLA.
How to Apply
The Community Track uses the same NRMP match number as the categorical child and adolescent psychiatry fellowship. There is no separate match number to rank. Applicants interested in the Community Track should declare their interest either by emailing the program directly or during the interview process.
Contact
Misty Richards, MD, MS: mcrichards@mednet.ucla.edu
Manal Khan, MD: mfkhan@mednet.ucla.edu
Dulce Madrid: DVMadrid@mednet.ucla.edu