Lab Members

Nicole Dalal, MD
Dr. Nicole Dalal is currently completing her Hematology/Oncology Fellowship at Stanford University. She earned a B.A. in Human Biology at Stanford University and an M.D. at Duke University School of Medicine. She is studying the barriers to access to cancer care for South Asian patients, their caregivers, and their providers. She plans to practice medicine as a medical oncologist while also partaking in her special interest in quality improvement work. For fun, Dr. Dalal enjoys boxing as well as Indian cultural activities!

Shreya Desai, MS
Shreya Desai is a medical student at the Tilman J. Fertitta Family College of Medicine at the University of Houston. Shreya earned a B.S. in Biology and in Psychology at the University of Houston. In 2020, she joined the Community Health and Prevention Research master's program at Stanford University, where Dr. Ranak Trivedi served as her research internship and thesis mentor. After completing the master's program, Shreya remained with the lab. She is continuing to work on the SAFAD study, and is currently conducting a one-year scholarly research project as part of her medical school curriculum under the mentorship of Dr. Trivedi. She is excited to continue to work with the lab in the world of caregiving research and finding culturally attuned ways to support patients and their caregivers. For fun, Shreya enjoys playing soccer and she loves to travel! Feel free to contact Shreya via email at sdesai03@alumni.stanford.edu.

Kathryn (Kate) Macia, PhD

Naina Singh, MD
Dr. Naina Singh is a Health Services Research Fellow with the VA Ci2i. She earned a B.S. in Biochemistry at the University of California Los Angeles and an M.D. at the University of California Davis School of Medicine. As a hospice and palliative medicine (HPM) physician, she aims to improve HPM resources and utilization for all patients. She is interested in palliative care utilization in the Veteran population and understanding barriers/facilitators to improving Veteran quality of life. She has a keen interest in ensuring caregiver voices are represented in HPM research. Naina enjoys singing and playing the piano. She also loves reading for fun -- she might devour a whole novel in 2 days if she loves it enough! She is a self-proclaimed home chef, and is sure her family will attest to that (because they have to!).

Jennifer Smith