People

Dr. Meza is an Assistant Professor In-Residence in the Department of Psychiatry and Biobehavioral Sciences and a bilingual licensed clinical psychologist at UCLA. Currently, she is the Associate Director of the Youth Stress and Mood (YSAM) Program and the Principal Investigator of the Health Equity & Access Research & Treatment (HEART) lab at UCLA. Her research interests include studying socio-ecological risk and protective factors for suicide and self-harming behaviors among Black and Latinx youth. She aims to integrate psychological, cognitive, and sociocultural influences to predict suicide and self-harm behaviors and, importantly, to identify therapeutic targets for culturally responsive interventions for ethnoracially minoritized youth. In addition, Dr. Meza is expanding her research to adapt evidence-based psychosocial interventions for ethnoracailly diverse youth, particularly Black and Latinx youth and systems involved youth (i.e., dually involved youth in the child welfare and juvenile justice systems).

Dr. Meza is a certified bilingual psychologist trained at UC Berkeley and UCSF in cognitive-behavior and dialectical behavior therapies. Dr. Meza’s work in advancing mental health treatments among ethnoracially minoritized families has been recognized by the National Latinx Psychology Association and has also received the prestigious UC Chancellor’s Postdoctoral Fellowship.

Dr. Meza’s UCLA Research Profile: https://profiles.ucla.edu/jocelyn.meza

Tashalee R. Brown, M.D., Ph.D. is a second year Child and Adolescent Psychiatry Fellow. She received her BS in Biomedical Engineering from Johns Hopkins University and her M.D., Ph.D. from the Weill Cornell/Rockefeller/Sloan Kettering Tri-Institutional MD-PhD Program. Tashalee R. Brown is currently a SAMHSA Minority Fellow and AACAP’s Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) Emerging Leaders Fellow. Her research focuses on the social determinants of mental health, the role of racism in perpetuating racial/ethnic disparities in mental health care, community-partnered psychiatry interventions, and the implementation of evidence-based anti-racism training in psychiatry. Her future goals include a career in academic psychiatry, providing clinical care to patients in a community psychiatry setting while pursuing research that aims to improve the mental health care of underserved populations. In her free time, she enjoys baking, cooking, and biking.

Natalia Jaramillo, PhD is a current Postdoc in the HEART lab. Dr. Jaramillo obtained her Ph.D. in Clinical, Counseling, & School Psychology from the University of California Santa Barbara and completed her pre-doctoral internship at Children’s Hospital Los Angeles. Her research interests include understanding patterns of risk and resilience in the context of experiences of trauma and adolescent and young adult suicide prevention. Clinically, Natalia has worked in various settings with children, adolescents, and families.

Natalia will be assisting with the PCORI study that focuses on Spanish suicide prevention in Emergency Department settings with adolescents, young adults, and Latinx families. In addition, Natalia will also contribute to the Alacrity study which focuses on community college suicide prevention.

Lilian G. Bravo received her BS and PhD in nursing from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (UNC-CH). She aspires to increase access and optimize the delivery of mental health care for ethnoracially minoritized youth through culturally- and contextually-congruent interventions. She has previously been funded by a T32 Pre‐Doctoral Trainee Award, NR007091‐22: Interventions for Preventing & Managing Chronic Illness at UNC-CH, the Hillman Scholars Program in Nursing Innovation, and the NIMH-funded Minority Health and Health Disparities Research Training Program at the University of Miami. Her current research interests are to (1) improve suicide risk detection and (2) identify mental health service engagement strategies for minoritized adolescents. In her spare time, she likes keeping up with new music releases and spending time with her dog, Miguel.

Brianna Flores is a Research Assistant in the HEART Lab and is a current 4th-year UCLA undergraduate majoring in Psychobiology and minoring in Brain and Behavioral Health as well as Evolutionary Medicine. She is interested in going to medical school or graduate school for Clinical Neuropsychology post-graduation. Currently, Brianna is assisting on the ALACRITY research study, which seeks to pre-test a digital suicide intervention aimed at mitigating the heightened risk of self-harm/suicide among community college students.

Sara Schiff is a third-year graduate student in the Clinical Psychology Ph.D. program at UCLA under the mentorship of Dr. Steve Lee. She received her B.S. in Psychology from Tufts University in 2018 where she worked with Dr. Paul Muentener to research how young children understand the causes and effects of emotion. After graduating, she worked as a project assistant at the University of Southern California’s Health, Emotion, and Addiction lab examining the intersection of health behavior, mental health, policy implementation, and tobacco use. Sara’s current research interests include understanding the etiology of conduct problems, particularly among girls, and how it relates to various contextual factors (i.e., peers, family, community). In addition, she seeks to promote health equity and access for those disproportionally affected by externalizing behaviors and their related risk factors (i.e., Black and Latinx youth) via the development of innovative policy and intervention strategies.

Phuc (Nick) Nguyen is a first year PhD student in the Clinical Science program at UC Berkeley, under the mentorship of Dr. Stephen Hinshaw. He received his B.A. in Psychology from UC Berkeley where he also completed an honors thesis exploring the association between parenting practices and resilience among young girls with ADHD. After graduation, Nick worked as a research specialist at WestCoast Children’s Clinic, leveraging data to support and advocate for communities that have been historically underrepresented, underserved, and vulnerable. His current research interests include: developmental psychopathology; impacts of socio-ecological factors (e.g., childhood adversity) on youth development and health; resilience in women with ADHD; combating stigma surrounding mental illness through humanization; making science accessible via data viz, infographics, and storytelling; advocating for policy changes and promoting health equity among marginalized communities. When not at work, Nick enjoys spending time with his family (e.g., cooking new dishes, playing with his two dogs) and tackling his ever-growing backlog of video games.

In collaboration with the HEART Lab, Nick hopes to identify subgroups of youth that are at high risk for self-harm and suicidality and explore, among these groups, specific networks of risk factors that might be more predictive of these harmful behaviors. He is also planning to examine the association between neighborhood characteristics and mental health disparities using geocoding techniques

Aleeza West is a Research Assistant in the HEART Lab and is a current UCLA undergraduate student majoring in psychology. Her research interests focus on anxiety, depression, and suicide. She intends to obtain a PhD in clinical psychology. Currently, Aleeza is assisting on the ALACRITY research study, which focuses on digital suicide interventions in ethnoracially diverse community college students.

Juliane Martinez is a Staff Research Associate at the HEART Lab. In May 2022, she graduated with a BS in Psychology from California State University, Channel Islands. During her undergraduate studies, she worked alongside her mentor and professor, Dr. Christy Teranishi-Martinez, as a research assistant conducting research studies on flow, happiness and, well-being, as well on sexual assault and sexual harrassment. After four years of undergrad research experience, she decided that her passion was to continue conducting research studies to be able to answer the questions that she and many others may have on certain psychology topics. Furthermore, Juliane hopes to continue to further dive into research to be able to inspire others and encourage them to learn and explore more about the field. She hopes to get her PhD in the near future to be able to teach and become a mentor to others interested in the field of research and psychology.

Monica Oliver, MsEd is a predoctoral student from UIC Barcelona. She is currently a volunteer researcher at the HEART Lab. In 2019 she completed her studies of bachelor's and master’s degrees to become a General Health Psychologist in Spain, where she is originally from. In May 2022 she graduated with a MsEd in School and Mental Health Counseling at the University of Pennsylvania. Monica is devoted to serving Spanish-speaking and ethnoracial minorities through her work as a clinician. Her experience has been in community mental health centers, and she has focused on supporting clients with trauma-related experiences. Monica's research focuses on investigating the relationship between trauma and risk behaviors, specifically the complexities of intergenerational trauma and parenting experiences. At the HEART Lab, Monica is participating in studying suicidal behaviors among female youth in the Juvenile Legal System. In her free time, she likes to spend time with her family and she is always eager to discover new places.

Leah Eslamian is a Research Assistant in the HEART Lab and is a 4th-year UCLA undergraduate majoring in Psychobiology with a minor in Brain and Behavioral Health. After graduating, she hopes to apply to medical school or pursue a graduate degree in Clinical Psychology. Leah is assisting in the lab’s study of interpersonal racism and self-injurious thoughts and behaviors among ethnoracially minoritized adolescents presenting to UCLA’s Child and Adolescent Psychiatric Services.

Madison Aquino is a Research Assistant in the HEART Lab at UCLA. She is a current UCLA undergraduate student majoring in Psychology. She has prior experience of volunteering for Crisis Text Line, Sunrise Senior Living, and various leadership positions in Psychology honors societies. After graduation, she plans on attending graduate school to become a licensed Marriage and Family Therapist.

Madison is currently doing research for the Youth Mental Health Academy project to help encourage underrepresented high school students pursue mental health careers. She is working on the evaluation core of the program and will also serve as one of the program mentors for the high school students.

Sofia Acevedo is a Research Assistant in the HEART Lab at UCLA and a fourth year Psychology undergraduate at UCLA. After graduating, she plans to take a gap year and further her experience by continuing with research and internships. Her future plans include receiving her doctorate in clinical psychology and becoming a licensed psychologist who specializes in working with adolescents.

Sofia is assisting with the Youth Mental Health Academy project, which aims to encourage high school students to attend higher education and explore mental health careers.