Craig Goolsby, MD, MEd, MHCDS, FACEP
Department Chair
Professor of Clinical Emergency Medicine
Biography
Craig Goolsby, MD, MEd, MHCDS, FACEP is Chair of the Department of Emergency Medicine at Harbor-UCLA Medical Center and a Professor of Clinical Emergency Medicine at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA. He is a member of the International Liaison Committee on Resuscitation’s First Aid Task Force, the American Red Cross Scientific Advisory Council, and is a leader in medical education and military-to-civilian knowledge transfer, particularly for the Stop the Bleed Campaign. His multi-million-dollar research portfolio has focused on bleeding control, tourniquet usage, first aid and public response, mass casualty incidents, and developing novel educational programs and tools.
Dr. Goolsby is a distinguished graduate of the United States Air Force Academy (BS), an AOA graduate of the Tulane University School of Medicine (MD), earned his Master of Education in the Health Professions degree from Johns Hopkins University, and completed a Master of Healthcare Delivery Science degree at Dartmouth College’s Tuck School of Business.
His awards include the Outstanding Recent Graduate of Johns Hopkins University, the Chairman’s Award from the American Red Cross Scientific Advisory Council, the Dean’s Annual Faculty Teaching Award, and the William H. Montgomery Excellence in Education Award in addition to many other speaking and education awards.
Dr. Goolsby is an Adjunct Professor in the Uniformed Services University’s Department of Military and Emergency Medicine where he served for a decade prior to his current position. He also previously served as an active-duty military officer, including two tours as the flight commander and medical director of the Air Force’s emergency department in Balad, Iraq.
Dr. Goolsby is the author or co-author of more than 70 peer-reviewed articles, chapters, editorials, and other scholarly publications. He has spoken nationally and internationally at conferences including the American College of Emergency Physician’s Scientific Assembly, the Society of Academic Emergency Medicine’s Annual Meeting, and as a Keynote Speaker for the Disaster Medicine Symposium in Linköping, Sweden. Dr. Goolsby completed an internship at Harbor-UCLA Medical Center and his emergency medicine residency at UCLA. He is a board-certified, practicing emergency physician.
Core Faculty
David Burbulys, MD, FACEP, FAAP
Associate Program Director
Health Sciences Clinical Professor of Emergency Medicine
Biography
Bradley Chappell, DO, MHA, FACOEP
Vice Chair, Clinical Operations
Health Sciences Associate Clinical Professor of Emergency Medicine
Biography
Bradley, Chappell, DO, MHA, FACOEP is the Vice Chair of Clinical Operations at Harbor-UCLA Medical Center and an Associate Professor of Clinical Emergency Medicine at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA. In this role, he excels at innovative approaches to complex issues, focusing on throughput, operational efficiency, transitions of care, patient communication, and patient satisfaction. He is the Chair of the Board of Directors for the American Osteopathic Board of Emergency Medicine, chairing multiple sub-committees including Written Exam Construction, Primary Certification, and Continuous Certification. As a reviewer for the American College of Surgeons, Committee on Trauma Verification Review Committee, he surveys level 1 and 2 trauma centers across the county to ensure compliance with expected practice and makes operational recommendations for best-practice. He is currently participating in the California Healthcare Foundation Leadership Fellowship, previously completed a Master’s in Health Administration, engaged in the USACS Physician Scholars Program, and participated in the ACEP ED Director’s Academy. He spearheaded the transformative changes that resulted in receiving the LA County Quality and Productivity Commissions Mega Million Dollar and coveted Golden Eagle awards. He has been awarded multiple patient care improvement grants and has authored numerous articles, chapters, and books. He is also actively involved in year-round youth sports, coaching (and reffing) soccer, basketball, and baseball.
Tabitha Cheng, MD
Adult and Pediatric EMS Faculty
Health Sciences Assistant Clinical Professor of Emergency Medicine
Biography
Tabitha earned her medical degree from UCLA with multiple honors, including AOA membership, the SAEM Medical Student Excellence Award, California Legislature Assembly Certificate for Outstanding Academic Achievement, and a Certificate of Commendation from the American Medical Women’s Association. Following medical school, Tabitha completed Emergency Medicine residency in the UCLA-Olive View program where she earned recognition with the program’s Medical Student Teaching Award. Following residency, Tabitha completed two subspecialty fellowship programs – first in EMS and Disaster Medicine at UC San Diego, and then Pediatric Emergency Medicine right here at Harbor-UCLA. Her combination of academic and teaching excellence combined with subject matter expertise in EMS/Disaster and PEM will be a tremendous asset in shaping the Harbor DEM’s future.
Beyond her training, Tabitha brings a variety of real-world clinical, administrative, and operational experiences with her. She has practiced in a variety of clinical settings and locations, including Kaiser, multiple Children’s hospitals, and throughout southern California and in Massachusetts. Tabitha currently serves as the Associate Medical Director for the UCLA Center for Prehospital Care, the Burbank Fire Department’s EMS Medical Director, a Technical Expert for the National EMS Information System, and on multiple national committees with the National Association of EMS Physicians.
Ilene Claudius, MD
Director, Process and Quality Improvement
Health Sciences Associate Clinical Professor of Emergency Medicine
Biography
Ilene Claudius is board certified in Pediatrics and Emergency Medicine (UCLA) and attends in both the Pediatric and Adult ED. She serves as Director of Quality Improvement and Peer Review for the Emergency Department as well as the sepsis and trauma liason. Her primary focus is provider education, having given hundreds of national and international lectures on pediatric emergency medicine and authored dozens of chapters. She also participates in the EM:RAP emergency medicine monthly podcast and serves as Editor in Chief for Pediatric Emergency Medicine Practice and Associate Editor for CorePendium. Her research is primarily focused in pediatric emergency mental health, but she also is involved in research on brief resolved unexplained events and mass casualty accidents. She is currently involved as the ACEP representative in two multi-disciplinary committee reports/ guidelines for appropriate imaging for pediatric patients in the ED.
Madonna Fernandez-Frackelton, MD, FACEP
Senior Advisor for Education
Health Sciences Clinical Professor of Emergency Medicine
Biography
Ross Fleischman, MD, MCR
Director, Clinical Informatics
Health Sciences Associate Clinical Professor of Emergency Medicine
Biography
Timothy Horeczko, MD, MSCR, FACEP, FAAP
Fellowship Program Director, Pediatric Emergency Medicine
Associate Professor of Clinical Emergency Medicine
Biography
Dr. Tim Horeczko is core faculty in the Department of Emergency Medicine and Program Director of the Pediatric Emergency Medicine Fellowship at Harbor-UCLA. He is dual-boarded in Emergency Medicine and Pediatric Emergency Medicine, having trained at Harbor-UCLA. During this time, he completed an NIH curriculum in Clinical Research through the Departments of Biomathematics and Medicine at UCLA.
Dr Horeczko is Chair of the Subboard of Emergency Medicine at the American Board of Pediatrics where he leads a team of thought leaders in the accreditation, evaluation, and future of the subspecialty. He also serves as co-Editor-in-Chief for Pediatric Emergency Medicine Practice.
As a dedicated researcher, educator, and knowledge translator, Dr Horeczko lectures nationally and internationally, most recently in Australia, Ireland, Mexico, and Saudi Arabia. He is an active American College of Emergency Physicians speaker and serves on the steering committee for the annual Advanced Pediatric Emergency Medicine Assembly. An innovator in the Free Open Access Medical Education (FOAMed) movement, he is the host and coach at the Pediatric Emergency Playbook, an award-winning monthly educational podcast. His work is incorporated into the curriculum in advanced classes at the UCLA School of Nursing as well as the Swedish Society of Emergency Medicine’s Academic Assembly in Linköping, Sweden.
Dr Horeczko enjoys incorporating the perspective of world cultures and the history of Medicine in his teaching, and a holistic approach in helping his patients. To “Anyone, Anything, Anytime”, he adds: “What does this patient need right here and right now – and down the road?”
Timothy Jang, MD
Director, Emergency Ultrasound
Professor of Clinical Emergency Medicine
Biography
Amy Kaji, MD, PhD, FACEP
Senior Advisor for Academic Development
Professor of Clinical Emergency Medicine
Biography
Amy H. Kaji, MD, PhD is the Executive Vice Chair of the Department of Emergency Medicine at Harbor-UCLA Medical Center and a Professor of Clinical Emergency Medicine at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA. After residency training at Harbor-UCLA, she completed a disaster medicine and research fellowship, during which time she earned her Masters’ and Doctorate in Epidemiology at the UCLA School of Public Health. She is currently the immediate past president of the Society for Academic Emergency Medicine (SAEM), an organization for which she has served on the Board of Directors for 10 years and SAEM committee and subcommittee chairs.
Amy is also an active member of the American College of Emergency Physicians (ACEP) Scientific Review Subcommittee of the Research Committee and serves as a research methodologist for the ACEP Clinical Policies Committee. She also serves as a methodology/statistics editor for Annals of Emergency Medicine and JAMA Surgery. Before assuming the role of Interim Chair from March of 2020 to September of 2022, her research emphasis has been on study design and research methodology. Amy served as the co-site PI for the Comparison of Drugs vs. Appendectomy PCORI funded study, the site PI for the National Emergency Airway Registry Study, and the PI for an NIH-funded study investigating the use of BlueBox, a device for assessing process measures during resuscitations of cardiac arrest. Amy is the author or co-author 185 peer-reviewed publications, the editor of a textbook, Emergency Medicine Reviews, the section editor for Rosen’s Emergency Medicine, 10th edition, the Kaji Review Book (2 editions), and an UptoDate author. She is the recipient of the ACEP National Faculty Teaching Award, as well as the University of California, Los Angeles Distinguished Lecturer Award.
Yiju Teresa Liu, MD, RDMS
Fellowship Program Director, Emergency Ultrasound
Health Sciences Associate Clinical Professor of Emergency Medicine
Biography
Adedamola Ogunniyi, MD
Associate Program Director
Health Sciences Assistant Clinical Professor of Emergency Medicine
Biography
Dr. Ogunniyi is an attending physician in the Department of Emergency Medicine at Harbor-UCLA Medical Center, where she has serves as an Associate Program Director and is primarily in charge of the didactic curriculum for the residency program. She also serves as a mentor for the PGY 2 class. She completed her residency training at Harbor-UCLA, followed by a fellowship in Global Health at the same institution, working on projects in rural South Sudan and in Amman, Jordan. Her academic interests are in medical education, simulation, global health, and social emergency medicine, with a goal of integrating these into residency training curricula. At the medical school level, she serves as one of the co-chairs for an unembalmed cadaver lab course at UCLA and is an instructor for various teaching courses. She is also a mentor to fourth year students looking to pursue a career in Emergency Medicine. In addition, she is an active member of various departmental, hospital, and medical school committees, including the departmental Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) committee and the International and Domestic Health Equity and Leadership (IDHEAL) section at UCLA. Dr. Ogunniyi is also adjunct faculty at the Charles Drew University School of Medicine and serves as a preceptor to third year medical students. She has also been an invited speaker to both national and international conferences and author of several book chapters and peer reviewed publications.
Patricia Padlipsky, MD, FAAP
Medical Director, Pediatric Emergency Department
Health Sciences Assistant Clinical Professor of Emergency Medicine
Biography
Ryan Pedigo, MD, MHPE
Residency Program Director
Associate Professor of Clinical Emergency Medicine
Biography
Ryan Pedigo, MD, MHPE graduated magna cum laude with a Bachelor’s degree in Chemistry from the University of California, Riverside, and was inducted into Phi Beta Kappa. He then went on to receive his MD from the University of California, Los Angeles, receiving the award for Excellence in Emergency Medicine from the Society of Academic Emergency Medicine and was inducted into the Alpha Omega Alpha honor society. After graduation, he began his postgraduate residency at Harbor-UCLA Medical Center, specializing in Emergency Medicine, where he received a national award from the Emergency Medicine Resident’s Association for clinical excellence in his field and was one of the program’s chief residents. He was leader of the team that won the national resuscitation competition SimWars at ACEP in 2014. He joined the faculty in 2015 and was clerkship director until 2020, associate program director until 2023, and now serves as the program director. He also serves as the course chair for a UCLA longitudinal 4th year medical student teaching fellowship and course faculty for the UCLA Faculty Development Medical Education Fellowship. He participated in the month-long Stanford Faculty Development Center for Medical Teachers Clinical Teacher Facilitator Training Program, completed a 2-year Medical Education Fellowship at UCLA, and completed the UCLA Simulation Instructor Training course. He is co-chair of a working group aimed at improving educational faculty development at Harbor-UCLA Medical Center. Dr. Pedigo is an avid educator and has authored or co-authored 9 books, 40 book chapters and articles, as well as being the editor of over 300 chapters.
He has been the recipient of multiple awards including the Kaiser Permanente Award for Excellence in Teaching at UCLA (2023), Harbor-UCLA Medical Center Best Diagnostician Award (2019), Rising Star of the Year Finalist Award (2019), Outstanding Peer Reviewer for Academic Emergency Medicine: Education and Training Award (2018, 2019, 2020, 2021), Faculty Teaching Excellence award from EMRA (2018), the National Emergency Medicine Junior Faculty Teaching Award from ACEP (2018), the Faculty Teaching Award from CORD (2018), the Faculty Teaching Award from his own department (multiple years), Young Educator of the Year Award from SAEM/CDEM (2017), and the Distinguished Faculty Clinical Teaching Award from the Department of Internal Medicine at Harbor-UCLA Medical Center (2016). He is also the recipient of the $100,000 Education Research Grant from the Society for Academic Emergency Medicine and completed a Master of Health Professions Education degree.
Jennifer Roh, MD, MBA
Medical Director, Adult Emergency Department
Health Sciences Assistant Clinical Professor of Emergency Medicine
Biography
Dr. Jennifer Roh, the newly appointed Medical Director of the Harbor-UCLA Adult Emergency Department, brings over five years of leadership experience from UC Irvine Emergency Medicine, where she held key positions, including Medical Director of ED Observation, Associate ED Medical Director, and Quality Improvement Director. Notably, she successfully established a novel geriatric emergency medicine program and achieved Gold Level 1 Geriatric ED Accreditation through the American College of Emergency Physicians. She also founded the first emergency medicine administration fellowship at UCI and implemented multiple educational, quality and process improvement initiatives.
A board certified Emergency Medicine physician and dedicated educator, Dr. Roh has practiced in a variety of clinical settings and has mentored a diverse group of medical students, residents, and fellows throughout her career. She has given lectures locally, nationally and internationally and has written multiple journal articles and book chapters. Beyond clinical and educational roles, she has previously served as an executive medical director and consultant, providing strategic leadership to emergency medicine systems seeking to enhance their operations, regulatory compliance and quality of care.
With a commitment to global health, Dr. Roh has practiced in multiple countries, broadening her perspective on healthcare delivery and fueling her interest in medical administration and systems improvement, especially in underserved and vulnerable communities. Dr. Roh is a Yale Emergency Medicine residency graduate and former chief resident. She then completed an administration fellowship at UCLA and later obtained an MBA, further enhancing her expertise in healthcare leadership.
As Medical Director at Harbor-UCLA, Dr. Roh is dedicated to making substantial contributions to the department and the broader healthcare community, continuing her mission to enhance patient care and to improve patient centered outcomes.
Mohsen Saidinejad, MD, MBA, FACEP, FAAP
Director, Patient Experience
Health Sciences Clinical Professor of Emergency Medicine
Biography
Shira Schlesinger, MD, MPH
Director, EMS and Disaster Preparedness Program
Health Sciences Assistant Clinical Professor of Emergency Medicine
Biography
Manpreet Singh, MD, MBE
Director, Medical Student Clerkship
Health Sciences Assistant Clinical Professor of Emergency Medicine
Biography
David Tanen, MD
Associate Program Director
Professor of Clinical Emergency Medicine
Biography
As a retired Naval Captain with the experience of multiple war-time deployments and as a current Emergency Medicine Physician working at a large county trauma center, Dr. David Tanen is dedicated to providing the best care to Harbor-UCLA’s patients. As a clinical researcher and chair of a large IRB, he has published over 65 peer reviewed articles and 35 textbook chapters with multiple studies on pediatric fever, pain reduction, treatments of acute poisonings or envenomations, and antidotes for chemical threats, and worked with colleagues to push the frontiers of emergency care.
Juliana Tolles, MD, MHS
Research Faculty
Health Sciences Assistant Clinical Professor of Emergency Medicine
Biography
Juliana Tolles, MD, MHS is a member of the core faculty and an Assistant Professor of Clinical Emergency Medicine at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA.
Dr. Tolles completed her undergraduate studies in biochemistry at Harvard University (AB), her medical training at Yale University School of Medicine (MD, MHS) and also earned an M. Litt in Scottish and Irish studies at the University of Aberdeen, UK. She completed her residency training in Emergency Medicine and a subsequent research fellowship at Harbor-UCLA. She pursued additional training in advanced research methodology through the NINDS Clinical Trials Methodology Course.
Dr. Tolles’ research interests include resuscitation, prehospital medicine, and adaptive clinical trial design. She is an investigator for the southwest SIREN research network (https://siren.network/), a clinical trials network created with the goal improving the outcomes for patients with neurologic, cardiac, respiratory and hematologic emergencies by identifying effective treatments given in the early stages of care. She also supports the research efforts of the Los Angeles County EMS agency research consortia. She is a member of the board of the Society for Clinical Trials.
Dr. Tolles has authored peer-reviewed articles in wide variety of clinical areas, ranging from clinical trial design to resuscitation care, including five brief educational primers on clinical methodology for the JAMA “Guide to Statistics and Methods” series. She has lectured nationally on statistical methodology and innovative clinical trial designs at the Society of Academic Emergency Medicine’s Annual Meeting, the Society for Academic Emergency Medicine ‘ARMED’ clinical research methodology course, and the Society for Clinical Trials Annual Meeting. She serves as a reviewer for Annals of Emergency Medicine.
Dr. Tolles received a commendation from the Los Angeles Board of Supervisors for her work as part of the COVID-19 Los Angeles Hospital Demand Modeling Team, a multidisciplinary group created in the spring of 2020 with the goal of providing predictive forecasts to guide the COVID-19 pandemic response in Los Angeles County. The modeling team was also awarded the 2021 “Gold Eagle” Award, the highest honor bestowed by the Los Angeles County Quality and Productivity Commission.
Kabir Yadav, MD, MS, MSHS, FACEP
Vice Chair, Research & Academic Affairs
Associate Professor of Clinical Emergency Medicine
Biography
Kabir Yadav, MDCM, MS, MSHS, FACEP, is the Vice Chair for Academic Affairs and an Associate Professor of Clinical Emergency Medicine at UCLA. He completed emergency medicine residency at Kings County Hospital Center/ SUNY Downstate Medical Center, followed by a clinical research fellowship at Jacobi Medical Center with a Masters in Clinical Research Methods. After completing a NIH KL2 Career Development Award and a Masters in Translational Science at GW, he became one of the first board-certified clinical informaticists in the country. He is core faculty at the UCLA CTSI for both the Community Engaged Research Program, and Biomedical Informatics. He has been funded through PCORI, NIH, CDC, and foundations to leverage technology and implementation science to perform collaborative health services research focused on improving patient and provider decision making, and partners with community to do mutually meaningful research with an emphasis on social determinants of health.
Part-time Core Faculty
Nichole Bosson, MD, MPH, FAEMS
Medical Director, LA County EMS Agency
EMS Fellowship Director, Harbor-UCLA Medical Center
Associate Professor of Clinical Emergency Medicine
Biography
Dr. Bosson is the Medical Director for the Los Angeles County EMS Agency. She is an Associate Clinical Professor at David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA and faculty and EMS fellowship director in the Department of Emergency Medicine at Harbor-UCLA. She is board certified in EMS Medicine and is actively involved in EMS research, education, and policy development. Her research is focused on regional systems of care for time-critical emergencies. She regularly instructs at the J. Michael Criley Paramedic Training Institute. Dr. Bosson is also a certified Urban Search and Rescue (USAR) Medical Team Manager. She deployed with CA-TF2/USA2 to the Nepal, Mexico City and Turkey earthquakes.
Clint Coil, MD, MPH, FACEP
Chief Quality Officer and Associate Medical Director, Harbor-UCLA Medical Center
Biography
Jennifer Fang, MD, MS
Enterprise Physician Informaticist, LA County Department of Health Services
Health Sciences Assistant Clinical Professor of Emergency Medicine
Biography
Jennifer Fang, MD, MS is a physician informaticist with the DHS Enterprise Clinical Informatics team and a Health Sciences Assistant Clinical Professor of Emergency Medicine at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA. After earning a Bachelor of Science in Computer Science from UCSD and medical degree from the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA, she completed an Emergency Medicine residency and served as Chief Resident at Harbor-UCLA Medical Center. Dr. Fang then completed fellowships in Medical Education and Clinical Informatics and a Master of Science in Clinical Research at UCLA. Dr. Fang serves as the faculty lead for the medical student Informatics and Data Science Discovery Year.
Roger J. Lewis, MD, PhD
Professor-in-Residence of Emergency Medicine
Biography
Dipesh Patel, MD, DTMH, FACEP, FAEMS
Medical Director, J. Michael Criley Paramedic Training Institute, LA County EMS Agency
Health Sciences Assistant Clinical Professor of Emergency Medicine
Biography
Dr. Patel is the Medical Director of the J. Michael Criley Paramedic Training Institute at the Los Angeles County EMS Agency. He grew up in Kenya, where he was involved in rescue efforts during the US Embassy Bombing in 1998, before going on to obtain his undergraduate and masters degree from Oxford University in the UK. He subsequently moved to the United States and obtained his medical degree at University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine. He has a wide array of post-graduate clinical experience working in inner city training hospitals, private practice, as well as more underserved rural areas and continues practicing clinically. He is board-certified in both Emergency Medicine and EMS, and holds advanced training from the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine.
Dr Patel serves as the lead physician and a certified Medical Team Manager for the Los Angeles County Fire Urban Search & Rescue (USAR) Team, one of only two FEMA teams in the country that embarks on international operations on behalf of the US Government. He deployed with the team to the Mexico Earthquake in 2017 and the Türkiye Earthquake in 2023.
He is passionate about clinical education, non-pharmacological approaches to health and longevity, and holds a wide range of experience in international health.
Denise Whitfield, MD, MBA, FACEP, FAEMS
Assistant Medical Director, LA County EMS Agency
Health Sciences Assistant Clinical Professor of Emergency Medicine
Biography
Dr. Denise Whitfield is a former Commander in the U.S. Navy with extensive experience delivering emergency medical care in diverse environments. She spent 12 years on active duty, with deployments to Iraq and Afghanistan. As a Naval Flight Surgeon, she completed operational assignments with the Marine Corps. As her final Navy assignment, she served as a White House Physician where she conducted operational medical planning and ensured medical care delivery for the President, Vice-President and First Lady. Dr. Whitfield’s interest in EMS began while practicing Emergency Medicine in Guam where she was the EMS Medical Director for Joint Region Marianas Federal Fire. Following her service in the Navy, she completed an EMS fellowship with LA County and joined the EMS Agency in July 2018. Dr. Whitfield is an active member of Los Angeles County Fire Department’s CA-TF2 Urban Search and Rescue Team and Emergency Medicine faculty at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA, serving as faculty for the EMS Fellowship Program at Harbor-UCLA Medical Center in collaboration with the Los Angeles County EMS Agency and the Harbor-UCLA Emergency Medicine residency program.
Clinical Faculty
Natalia Alvarez, MD
Jonathan Birnbaum, MD
Ryan DeVivo, MD
Rose Diaz, MD
Ross Donaldson, MD, MPH, CTropMed, FACEP
Susannah Empson, MD
Lourdes Escalona, MD
Joseph Friedrich, MD
Puneet Gupta, MD
Dennis Hsieh, MD, JD
Colin Hoff, MD
Eleanor Oakley, MD
Neil Patel, MD
Kian Preston-Suni, MD
Kyle Ragins, MD, MBA
Shamsher Samra, MD, Ph.M
Alyssa Scott, MD
Sonia Simms, MD
Thomas Solomon, MD
Jacob Newcomb, MD
Natasha Thomas, MD
Shirley Tung, MD
Richard Washofsky, MD
Kelsey Wilhelm, MD
Curtice Wong, MD
Faculty Emeritus
Diane Birnbaumer, MDMarianne Gausche-Hill, MD, FACEP, FAAP, FAEMS
Robert Hockberger, MD
James Niemann, MD
Michael Peterson, MD
Kelly Young, MD