Welcome from the Director of Research

Dear Future Colleagues,

Thank you for your interest in our residency training program! The Greater Los Angeles VA provides extraordinary opportunities for training in mental health research, under the guidance of leaders in clinical, translational, and health services science. Our clinician scientists have joint appointments at UCLA and GLA VA and many have active research programs at both sites. Please see the list of research programs and outstanding research faculty in GLA Mental Health below.

If you are interested in pursuing a research career, please consider applying to our Community and Patient-Oriented Research Track (CPORT), which incorporates research time throughout residency training. We also encourage all of our residents to explore research as a component of their future career by offering research electives in the PGY-3 and PGY-4 years. As Research Track Director, I will work with our Research Training Advisory Committee to help you to select a mentor and project that suits your interests and advances your career. Please arrange to talk with one of our Research Training Advisory Committee members during your visit to learn more about research training at GLA.

Becoming a leading VA center for mental health research is a central priority for GLA Mental Health leadership and we are currently launching an enriched infrastructure to help support our VA researchers, especially young investigators. Unlike University scientists, VA researchers have access to VA funding streams (including training grants) in addition to NIH, private, and other common funding sources. The VA provides many services to VA-sponsored studies, including labs, imaging, genetics, and many others. The Department of Mental Health sponsors research lunch seminars twice monthly, one for the entire Department that is geared at connecting research and clinical care in Mental Health (UCLA-VA BRIdges in Mental Health) and one for junior clinician-scientists (Forum for Young Investigators). We are also beginning a monthly lunch journal club. We hope that you will consider joining our vibrant community of VA clinician scientists—it’s a great time to be beginning a research career in mental health at GLA VA!

Hope to meet with you soon,