Staff

Alexandra Sietsma, PMHNP

Alexandra Sietsma, DNP, APRN, PMHNP-BC currently serves as the Advance Practice Provider Supervisor and Director of the Nurse Practitioner Clinical Training Program in the Department of Psychiatry at University of California San Diego (UCSD). Her advanced practice career extends over nearly a decade, where at UCSD she developed a formal PMHNP student clinical training program and a postgraduate PMHNP fellowship program.

NP Sietsma holds a Doctor of Nursing Practice (DNP) from Duke University, with a focus on leadership and nursing education, a Masters of Science in Nursing (MSN) from the University of San Diego specializing in Family/Lifespan Psychiatric-Mental Health, and a Bachelors of Science in Nursing (BSN) from Duquesne University. Her clinical experience includes Registered Nurse (RN) positions at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center (UPMC) Western Psychiatric Hospital, Scripps Mercy Behavioral Health Unit, and UCSD outpatient county psychiatric clinic, as well as Clinical Nurse Practitioner at UCSD’s Department of Psychiatry primarily working with underserved individuals suffering from severe mental illness as well as specialty areas of Eating Disorders, Interventional, and Emergency Psychiatry.

NP Sietsma has also served as Clinical Faculty and Lecturing Faculty at California State University San Marcos and the University of San Diego Hahn School of Nursing in Master’s and Doctorate level PMHNP, Family Nurse Practitioner, Adult-Gerontology Nurse Practitioner, and Pediatric Nurse Practitioner programs as well as pre-licensure nursing programs. Her contributions to the field are further evidenced by principle investigator of multiple grants, author of peer-reviewed publications and numerous presentations at national conferences, primarily focusing on improving mental health care access, provider collaboration, and PMHNP education.

Dr. Steve Koh, MD, MPH, MBA

Steve Koh, MD, MPH, MBA is HS Clinical Professor and Chief of General Psychiatry Division and Director of Community Psychiatry Program at University of California, San Diego. He is Board Certified in Adult and Geriatric Psychiatry and carries certification for Community Psychiatry from American Association of Community Psychiatry.

Dr. Koh graduated from Johns Hopkins University and medical school at UC San Diego. He received Masters in Public Health from Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and Masters in Business Administration from Johns Hopkins Carey School of Business. He finished his internship at Beth Israel Medical Center in New York City, general psychiatry residency at UC San Diego and geriatric psychiatry fellowship at UC San Diego.

At UCSD Department of Psychiatry, he is the Chair of the Compensation Committee, member of the Clinical Council, and oversees its Oncall, Clinical Training, Quality Improvement and Measurement Based Care initiatives. He also serves the wider UCSD community on the Interdisciplinary Practices Council. Dr. Koh has had research support and funding at Johns Hopkins Lipid Research Laboratories, Palo Alto VA Hospital, Intramural Program of NIH at National Institute of Aging, UC San Diego Dept of Psychiatry, Hartford Foundation Center of Excellence, San Diego Hospice and Institute for Palliative Care, and T-32 NIH program. He currently has grants and contract support from HCAI, HRSA, SAMHSA, San Diego County BHS, and Price Philanthropies.

Dr. Koh currently serves on Government Affairs Committee for California State Association of Psychiatrists, and is President-elect of San Diego County Medical Society. He was recently elected as the Treasurer of the American Psychiatric Association. He is Educational Committee Chair for the San Diego County Alzheimer’s Disease project and member of California Medical Association’s telehealth committee. Dr. Koh is Past President of the San Diego Psychiatric Society, Chair of Association of Korean American Psychiatrists, and Board President of San Diego NAMI, and Past representative on the American Association of Geriatric Psychiatry. Dr Koh has been active on APA Council on Advocacy and Government Relations, Quality Improvement and Political Action Committees, and past Chair of APA Early Career Psychiatrists.

Dr. Emily Troyer, MD

Emily A. Troyer MD is an Assistant Clinical Professor in the Department of Psychiatry, where she serves as the Child and Adolescent Psychiatry Track Director for the Community Psychiatry Program (CPP). After completing medical school at the University of Toledo, residency at the University of Illinois at Chicago, and child and adolescent psychiatry fellowship at UCSD, she completed a T32 post-doctoral research fellowship in biological psychiatry and neuroscience at UCSD. In her role in CPP, she teaches and supervises physician residents and fellows, and PMHNP fellows, in general and child and adolescent psychiatry. Clinically, she is passionate about working in underserved settings, and she gets excited about opportunities to integrate research and clinical care for vulnerable populations. In her free time, she enjoys spending time with her family, hiking and being outdoors, crocheting, gardening, and DIY projects.

Dr. Lawrence Malak, MD

Dr. Malak is an Associate Clinical Professor at the University of California San Diego and serves as Co-Director of the UCSD Combined Family Medicine and Psychiatry Training Program and Director of Education for the Community Psychiatry Program and Residency Track. He attended medical school in Houston, Texas at Baylor College of Medicine before returning to California for residency training at UC San Diego.

Within UCSD he co-founded the Advanced Psychiatric Nurse Practitioner Clinical Training Program, served as Medical Director for the Co-Occurring Disorders Program, and has been involved in psychiatry residency education as an Associate Residency Training Director for the General Psychiatry Program and as part of the Residency Diversity Committee and the Department of Psychiatry's Anti-Racism Workgroup. Dr. Malak’s leadership in the academic field extends beyond the university as he is involved in statewide and national psychiatric organizations. He has served as president for the San Diego Psychiatric Society, a board member for the American Association of Community Psychiatry, and a member of the California Psychiatric Association. Additionally, Dr. Malak is involved in the American Psychiatric Association, currently serving as Chair of the Mental Health Services Conference Scientific Planning Committee and on the Assembly Executive Committee as the Area 6 Representative among other positions.

Dr. Stephanie Martinez, MD

Stephanie Martinez, MD is an Assistant Clinical Professor in the Department of Psychiatry at UCSD. Originally from Nevada, she earned her medical degree from the University of Nevada School of Medicine and later completed her psychiatry residency at UCSD under the Community Psychiatry Program. She continues her work at UCSD where she supervises NP students, PMHNP fellows, and psychiatry residents across various county and community organizations. Dr. Martinez is committed to working with underserved populations and also has a passion for perinatal psychiatry.

Dr. Kevo Rivera, MD

Dr. Kevo Rivera (accepts all pronouns) is an Assistant Clinical Professor at UC San Diego (UCSD), working in child, adolescent, and adult psychiatry. They identify as a queer, genderfree, Filipinx-American child of once-undocumented immigrants, who, prior to their career in medicine, worked as a community organizer and speaker in the nonprofit social justice sector. Dr. Rivera received their Doctor of Medicine from the University of Iowa, where they stayed to complete their residency and fellowship. While in training, they served as co-chair of the Department of Psychiatry Diversity Committee, as councilor of the Iowa Psychiatric Physicians Society, and as an APA Diversity Leadership Fellow. Dr. Rivera also served on Iowa City’s Ad Hoc Truth and Reconciliation Commission and the board of the ACLU of Iowa. They went on to complete Columbia University’s Public Psychiatry Fellowship, during which they worked as an outpatient child psychiatrist at the New York City Children’s Center. Dr. Rivera now provides outpatient psychiatric care to adults in La Jolla, and they supervise trainees in the Community Psychiatry Program who see youth and adults in behavioral health settings throughout San Diego County. Dr. Rivera currently serves as representative to the APA Assembly on behalf of AGLP: The Association of LGBTQ+ Psychiatrists. They enjoy the outdoors, theatre, Survivor, comic books, restaurants, Dungeons and Dragons, and queer art.

Dr. Hilary Gould, PhD

Hilary M Gould, PhD is Health Sciences Assistant Clinical Professor in the Department of Psychiatry at the University of California, San Diego (UCSD). She received her doctorate from the University of California, Los Angeles and attended an APA accredited respecialization program in clinical psychology at the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa. She completed an internship and postdoctoral fellowship at the UCSD/Veterans Affairs San Diego Healthcare System. Her area of professional interest include interdisciplinary training and education, development and lifespan, and outcome-based care. She currently oversees the training and clinical supervision of psychotherapy at community sites. Additionally, she is involved in research, contracts, and project development within the Community Psychiatry Program. She has published several articles and book chapters, and presented at local, national, and international conferences and trainings.

Crystal Ross, PMHNP

Crystal Ross is a dedicated mental health nursing professional with over 11 years of experience in mental health. Committed to advancing psychiatric care and educating future psychiatric nurse practitioners, she began her career as a registered nurse at Alpine Special Treatment Center, San Diego County Psychiatric Hospital, and Sharp Grossmont Behavioral Health Intake Department.

In 2020, Crystal graduated with a master's in nursing from the University of San Diego. She then completed the child and adolescent post-graduate fellowship at the University of California, San Diego, where she transitioned to staff and took on the role of leading the UCSD nurse practitioner student clinical training program.

Currently, Crystal serves as a lecturer for graduate studies at California State University San Marcos and as clinical faculty for PMHNP students at the University of San Diego. She is also actively involved in the UCSD NP fellowships, supervising and mentoring child and adolescent psychiatry (CAP) and adult community fellows at various partner sites, including Survivors of Torture International and San Ysidro Health Centers.

Anna Pasternak, PMHNP

Anna Pasternak is a board-certified Psychiatric-Mental Health Nurse Practitioner (PMHNP). She completed her PMHNP graduate education at Vanderbilt University School, and then moved to San Diego to complete UCSD’s PMHNP Post-Graduate Child-Adolescent Psychiatric (CAP) Fellowship Program. Anna is now a core PMHNP within UCSD’s Community Psychiatry Program. The focus of Anna’s clinical and academic work is providing compassionate, evidenced-based psychiatric care to vulnerable and underserved communities in San Diego County and helping facilitate the development of PMHNP trainees to do the same. Anna remains highly involved in UCSD’s PMHNP fellowship programs as a clinical supervisor, individual mentor, and as the Fellowship Education Lead for both the Child-Adolescent and Adult tracks. Anna works in the UCSD Eating Disorder Center (EDC) Adolescent Program, seeing her own caseload and functioning as the PMHNP CAP Fellowship Clinical Supervisor. Additionally, Anna is UCSD’s PMHNP Lead at the Areta Crowell Center (ACC), one of San Diego County’s outpatient clinics. At ACC, Anna provides psychiatric services to adults struggling with severe mental illness and co-occurring substance use disorders while also functioning as a clinical preceptor to PMHNP students through UCSD’s Clinical Training Program.

Anna Korogodski, PMHNP

Anna was raised in Boston, Massachusetts after immigrating from Ukraine at a young age. She received her Bachelor of Science in Nursing from University of Massachusetts Amherst and subsequently worked as a pediatric intensive care nurse at Vanderbilt Children's Hospital. She spent a few years travel nursing prior to making the transition to psych nursing, a field she felt drawn to from her experiences. Anna received her Master of Science in Nursing, Psychiatric Mental Health Nurse Practitioner from Vanderbilt University. She then completed UCSD's Psychiatric Nurse Practitioner Fellowship Program and is now a Staff Nurse Practitioner in the Department of Psychiatry, where she is part of the Community Psychiatry Program, treating underserved populations and severe mental illness. She also supervises nurse practitioner trainees and has helped to develop UCSD Junior Psych Academy, conducting community outreach to expose local high school students to careers in mental health. In her spare time, Anna trains and performs as an aerialist.

Melissa Peet, PMHNP

Melissa graduated with her Bachelor of Science in Nursing from the University of Delaware in 2016. Her nursing background consisted of caring for adults and adolescents on an inpatient psychiatric unit and psychiatric emergency department. She completed her Master of Science in Nursing at Eastern Kentucky University, graduating in 2022 with her Psychiatric Mental Health Nurse Practitioner certification. After obtaining her Nurse Practitioner license/certification she relocated to San Diego, CA and completed UCSD's Community Adult Psychiatry Fellowship program. Melissa is passionate about providing mental health care services to underserved patients in the community, as well as providing guidance and mentorship to PMHNP trainees. Melissa is currently working with PMHNP students as a clinical supervisor at UCSD's outpatient clinic, and County Psychiatric Urgent Care, while also caring for her own patient case load at UCSD and San Diego County's Outpatient clinic.

Regina Koller, LPCC

Regina is the Administrative Director for the Community Psychiatry Program. Regina oversees the amazing CPP admin team (aka “The A-Team”) and is highly involved in the oversight of the UCSD Junior Psych Academy, a grant-funded program that promotes behavioral health careers and mental health awareness in underserved high schools and junior colleges. Regina holds a master's degree in Mental Health Counseling from Walden University, a bachelor's degree in Psychology from California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo, and has been working in the public sector for over 25 years. Outside of her work within UCSD, Regina maintains a private practice and has a special interest in working with adults and adolescents diagnosed with a developmental disability in addition to specializing in co-occurring disorders. She also enjoys hiking in her free time with her dogs and drinking coffee.

Maria Lejano, MPH

Maria Lejano has her Master’s in Public Health (MPH) with a specialization in Community Health from UC Los Angeles – Fielding School of Public Health and a Bachelors in Science from University of Maryland – College Park. In undergrad, Maria served as the US Dept of Health and Human Services Administration for Children and Families external affairs intern, publishing two blogs about Teen Dating Violence and Women’s History Month. Right after graduating with her MPH, Maria moved to New York City (NYC) and worked for NYU Langone Hospital – Department of Environmental Pediatrics to research particulate matter exposure for expecting NYC mothers. Afterwards, she worked for NYC Department of Health and Mental Hygiene – Division of Epidemiology and focused on survey methodology to capture health snapshots of 13,000 New Yorkers across all 5 boroughs. Maria moved to San Diego in June 2023 and currently serves UC San Diego Community Psychiatry. Here, she manages onboarding/ credentialing and conducts outreach to promote careers in behavioral and mental health in high schools and junior colleges throughout San Diego. Outside of public health, Maria also enjoys drawing digital art, baking, and being outside.

Marbella Rodriguez Serna

Marbella Rodriguez Serna is a dedicated Community Psychiatry Project Coordinator at the University of California, San Diego, where she focuses on the administration of the Nurse Practitioner program. With a robust background in UCSD's financial processes, Marbella excels at overseeing travel and financial operations for her team.

Prior to her current role, Marbella served as an Administrative Lead at UC San Diego’s Engineering Development team, where she facilitated proposal development and managed budgets across multiple software platforms. Her experience as a Research Manager at Loma Linda University involved leading various NIH grants and coordinating complex research interventions.

Holding a degree in Psychology from UCLA, Marbella is committed to research administration and possesses expertise in contract management, budgeting, and compliance. Outside of work, Marbella enjoys building collaborative relationships, exploring new restaurants, and taking long walks with her dog, Zeus.

Alex Parker

Alex Parker is one of the administrative coordinators for UC San Diego’s Community Psychiatry Residency Program. She graduated from the University of California Santa Barbara with a B.S. in Psychological and Brain Sciences in 2023, and then moved back to her hometown of San Diego where she began working for UCSD. During her time at UC Santa Barbara, she was a research assistant for the Memory, Emotion, Thought, and Awareness (META) Lab and studied the effects of meditation on cognitive processes. Here at UCSD, she continues her interest in research by assisting with various projects, while also helping to manage the administrative side of CPP. Outside of work, Alex is a big fan of yoga and all things outdoors.

Julia Griffith Boyd

Julia Griffith Boyd serves as the Clinical Training Program Coordinator for the UC San Diego Community Psychiatry Residency Program and Child and Adolescent Fellowship. Additionally, she is a Master of Social Work (MSW) Candidate currently studying at Howard University School of Social Work. Julia completed Social Work practicum training at Alverado Parkway Institute Behavorial Health System. She is a member of the National Association of Social Workers, California Chapter and National Association of Black Social Workers, San Diego Chapter. Julia enjoys making recipes found on Pinterest and Instagram, spending time with family, and reading.