Trainees
Learn more about our trainees!
2023-2024 PGY-I Research Track Residents
Lay Kodama spent her Undergrad years as a neuroscience major at Johns Hopkins, did a Master’s of Philosophy at the University of Cambridge on a Churchill Scholarship followed by an MD, PhD (Neurosciences) at UCSF. Since 2022, Lay has been a post-doc at UCSF using bioinformatics with EHR data to develop predictive models for inpatient delirium risk; her clinical interests include Geropsychiatry.
Tara Trujillo comes to us from the 4-year medical research track at the University of Colorado. She spent her Undergrad years as a Human Bio major at Stanford University, then worked for several years as a post-bac researcher at Stanford and a Clinical Trial Coordinator in the Psychosis research program at UCSF, before attending the University of Colorado. Tara’s research interests are in transitional age youth, early psychosis, autism and eating disorders. She may be headed into Child Psychiatry.
2023-2024 PGY-II Research Track Residents
Johansen Amin, M.D., Ph.D.
Johansen completed his M.D., Ph.D. training at the Renaissance School of Medicine at Stony Brook University. His doctoral studies in the Department of Cell and Molecular Pharmacology focused on synaptic physiology of NMDA receptors and their disease-associated mutations.
Jared Kopelman, M.D., Ph.D.
Jared joins us from the University of Pittsburgh, where he received his M.D., Ph.D. training, completing doctoral studies in Neurosciences. His thesis investigated neural and behavioral phenotypes associated with an OCD-related genetic mutation in rodents.
2023-24 PGY-III Research Track Residents
Jack Hunt, M.D., Ph.D.
Jack joins us from the University of Wisconsin, where he earned an M.D. and Ph.D. (Cellular and Molecular Biology). In his doctoral work under the mentorship of Dr. Barbara Bendlin, he investigated neighborhood-level social disadvantage as a risk factor for neurodegeneration and cognitive decline in older adults.
Jacqui Kulbe, M.D., Ph.D.
Jacqui joins us from the University of Kentucky College of Medicine, where she completed her doctoral studies in Neuroscience. She worked under Dr. Edward Hall within the Spinal Cord and Brain Injury Research Center. Her dissertation focused on assessing putative neuroprotective compounds in a rodent model to traumatic brain injury, with a specific emphasis on attenuating mitochondrial dysfunction and scavenging lipid peroxidation-derived aldehydes. She has published extensively in the field of traumatic brain injury and is the recipient of an NINDS F30 NRSA Fellowship.
2023-24 PGY-IV Research Track Resident
Monica Castillo, M.D., M.S.
Monica earned her B.S. at Stanford University and her M.S. and M.D. at Loyola University in Chicago. Her research has focused on inflammatory biomarkers and novel therapeutics in Bipolar Disorder. In our program, she is continuing to study the role of inflammation in psychopathology under the mentorship of Dr. Suzi Hong.
Examples of past R25-funded Research Track Residents
- Sara Timtim, M.D. is pursuing a Post-doctoral Fellowship in PTSD/Trauma Research at the UCSF-affiliated San Francisco VA MIRECC
- Matthew Klein, M.D., Ph.D. is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Psychiatry at the Mt. Sinai School of Medicine, and is funded by a VA Career Development Award and a Young Investigator Award from the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention.
- Juan Molina, M.D. is an Assistant Professor in the UCSD Department of Psychiatry, pursuing studies in the clinical neuroscience of schizophrenia, funded by his VA Career Development Award and BBRF Young Investigator Award.
- Samantha Friend, M.D., Ph.D. is an Attending Psychiatrist with the San Diego VA Center for Stress and Mental Health and is continuing her translational studies supported by a new VA Career Development Award.
- Yash Joshi, M.D., Ph.D. is an Assistant Professor in the UCSD Department of Psychiatry, pursuing transdiagnostic electrophysiological studies supported by his VA Career Development Award and BBRF Young Investigator Award.
- Mercedes Szpunar, M.D., Ph.D. is pursuing academic research with an appointment at the Harvard Medical School Center for Women's Mental Health, Massachusetts General Hospital.
- Alejandro Meruelo, M.D., Ph.D. is an Assistant Professor in our UCSD Department of Psychiatry, pursuing research supported by his NIAAA K-23 Award.