UCLA Child & Adolescent Psychiatry Fellows
2025 - 2026
First Year Fellows
Kate Hagen, MD
Hometown: Oshkosh, WI
Education: University of Wisconsin- Madison (B.S.) and Mayo Clinic- Arizona (M.D.)
Residency: Mayo Clinic- Minnesota
Hobbies/Outside Interests: Rollerblading, yoga, gardening, camping, hiking, spending time with loved ones
Professional Interests: philosophy of psychiatry, psychodynamic psychotherapy, attachment, developmental trauma, early psychosis
What I’m looking forward to most: Building meaningful connections. Planting my roots alongside my husband, Ahsan, and fostering a sense of belonging in my new community. Living my authentic self.
David Okikawa, MD, MPH
Hometown: Oakland, CA
Education: UCLA (BS), UCLA (MD/MPH)
Residency: UCLA
Hobbies/Outside Interests: orchids, aquariums, trail running, baking
Professional Interests: medical education, school-based mental health, severe mental illness, medically complex mental health
What I’m looking forward to most: Working with and getting to know co-fellows, learning with med students and residents, and growing for my future patients
Johana Pena, MD
Hometown: Oakland, California
Education: University of California, Berkeley, University of California, Davis, Michigan State University College of Human Medicine
Residency: UCLA/VA Psychiatry Residency Program
Hobbies/Outside Interests: I love spending time with family, exploring local restaurants, and soaking up the California sun at the beach. I also enjoy traveling with friends and immersing myself in new cultures.
Professional Interests: I’m passionate about child and adolescent psychiatry, with a focus on underserved and minority communities. I’m particularly interested in how trauma, culture, and family systems influence mental health across generations. I also hope to explore interventional psychiatry and other emerging treatments. Long-term, I aim to combine clinical work with mentorship and advocacy.
What I’m looking forward to most: I’m excited to deepen my clinical skills in child and adolescent psychiatry and to build long-term therapeutic relationships with young people and their families. I’m especially looking forward to learning from faculty who are leaders in the field and being part of a collaborative, supportive fellowship community.
Alana Slavin, MD, MSc
Hometown: Los Angeles, California & St. Louis, Missouri
Education: Loyola Marymount University (BA), Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam (MSc), University of Michigan Medical School (MD)
Residency: Yale University School of Medicine
Hobbies/Outside Interests: Visiting art museums, shooting with a film camera, thrifting with iced coffee in hand, discovering new restaurants, drawing inspiration from cookbooks like Zaitoun, and nurturing my rapidly growing collection of indoor plants.
Professional Interests: Childhood trauma, first-break psychosis, maternal and infant mental health, and the mental health of minoritized patients—including LGBTQIA+ individuals and migrants.
What I’m looking forward to most: Working with inspiring co-fellows dedicated to justice, learning from leaders in the field, advocating for LA’s children, and exploring the city’s vibrant art, nature, and food scene along the way.
Brigette Torrise, MD
Hometown: Fairfax, VA
Education: University of Virginia (BA, MD)
Residency: Oregon Health & Science University
Hobbies/Outside Interests: I love Young Adult Fiction (The Princess Diaries), poetry (Emily Dickinson), and Broadway shows (Hadestown, Heathers, John Proctor in the Villain). I do yoga, play soccer, and like to go on (easy) hikes.
Professional Interests: I respect and admire teens and young adults, especially when they’ve got big feelings, so I’m excited to build a skill set that lets me care for them well. I’m also interested in adolescent addiction, advocacy through narrative, and mentorship.
What I’m looking forward to most: Learning from peers and colleagues who are really excellent at their jobs! Medical education is ultimately an apprenticeship and it’s such a privilege to pull from this deep bench of knowledge, respect, and passion as I grow into my own professional identity. I also think it’ll be fun to rollerblade around Venice Beach at sunset with a slurpee.
Jennifer Tu, MD, MTS
Hometown: New Orleans, LA
Education: Harvard University (BA), Duke University (MD, MTS)
Residency: UCLA Semel Institute
Hobbies/Outside Interests: Long urban walks with my husband, cooking and baking, yoga, writing poetry as (self) therapy, watching cartoons, doodling and caricaturing, and attempting to cuddle with my cat
Professional Interests: psychotherapy (psychodynamic, CBT, family, MBT, trauma-focused, supportive — perhaps all modalities!), religion/spirituality and mental health, caregiver burden, social determinants of health and community psychiatry
What I’m looking forward to most: Getting to see little ones grow up someday (in other words, longitudinal patient relationships)
Margaret Yau, MD, MS
Hometown: Hong Kong; Riverside, CA
Education: University of California, Berkeley (BS), University of California, San Diego (MS), University of California, Riverside (MD)
Residency: University of California, Riverside
Hobbies/Outside Interests: ballet, cats, music/piano, poetry, reading/writing, technology
Professional Interests: neurodevelopmental disorders, prevention and early interventions, social determinants/early adversity, health equity, digital psychiatry, community-based participatory research,
What I’m looking forward to most: I am looking forward to being part of a supportive, inclusive community of individuals passionate about child psychiatry and psychiatry in general, as well as building a strong foundation in child psychiatry that will enable me to improve the mental health of children and families from all backgrounds through clinical practice and research.
Second 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.
