Lab Members

**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**
Dr. Kathryn Macia is a Research Health Science Specialist at the HSR&D Center for Innovation to Implementation (Ci2i) and National Center for PTSD (NCPTSD) Dissemination and Training Division at VA Palo Alto Health Care System (VAPAHCS). She has been involved in VA research since 2012 and recently completed a VA Advanced Postdoctoral Fellowship in health services research at NCPTSD and Stanford University after receiving her Clinical Psychology PhD from Palo Alto University and completing her predoctoral internship at Southeast Louisiana Veterans Health Care System. Dr. Macia has a strong background in Veteran homelessness and mental health including trauma/PTSD treatment, health services research, and quantitative methods. She has a high level of expertise in advanced statistical methods and analysis of data relevant to the current project, which has included leading and consulting on topics relevant to data analysis for RCTs and other funded research projects.

**Zen Marshall, MS**
Zen Marshall is a a research assistant in the Framily and Mental Health lab and the Project Coordinator for the Web-SUCCEED study under the guidance of Dr. Trivedi. Zen earned a B.A. in Psychology at California State University, Sacramento and a M.S. in Psychology at Palo Alto University. In addition to her position in the Framily and Mental Health lab, Zen is an UX Researcher with the Public Digital Health Innovation team with the National center for PTSD supporting the development of mobile mental health apps. Zen is an aspiring clinical/developmental psychologist and wanting to earn a PhD. Her research interests focus on addressing mental and chronic illnesses predominantly affecting minority communities and underserved populations. She strives to eliminate existing gaps between underserved populations and occurring antecedents to mitigate negative mental health outcomes to create preventable measures and better practices. In her free time, Zen enjoys hiking and being out in nature, gardening, playing the ukulele, cooking and baking and going to Broadway, ballet and the symphony. She loves anything she can put her artistic expression into and enjoy supporting community arts and theatre. Feel free to contact Zen via email at zendrea.marshall@va.gov.

**Nitin Seshadri**
Nitin Seshadri is from Somers, New York, and he graduated from the University of Pennsylvania, earning a Bachelor of Arts in Neuroscience and minors in Neuroscience & Health Care Management and Chemistry. At Penn, Nitin did animal behavior research in the Chen Lab to study TBI-related sensory deficits; assisted underserved patients in navigating the health care system and navigating care through Penn Medicine’s Center for Surgical Health; and wrote for The Daily Pennsylvanian, Penn’s independent student-run newspaper, among other activities. Nitin recently completed the Leadership in Health Disparities Program at Stanford University. He aspires to practice neurosurgery, at the same time improving access to healthcare, leading multidisciplinary teams, and innovating in medicine. In his spare time, he enjoys biking and running and also has a hobby of developing apps for Apple platforms, including NS MIDI Player.

**Armaan Shetty**
Armaan Shetty is a doctoral student in the Clinical Psychology at the University of Florida. He earned a B.S. in Economics and Psychology from the University of Wisconsin. Armaan is currently conducting research that examines how psychosocial, cultural, and healthcare-delivery factors affect South Asians living in the United States, with the goal of identifying barriers and designing culturally attuned strategies to improve care. 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. He also is interested in advancing research at the intersection of clinical psychology and behavioral economics to optimize treatment engagement and behavioral health outcomes. For fun, Armaan enjoys playing soccer and traveling!

**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!).

**Sophia Tong**
Sophia Tong is a pursuing a master's degree in Epidemiology and Clinical Research at Stanford University. She earned a B.S. in Public Health Sciences and a Minor in Psychological Science at the University of California, Irvine. She has joined the lab and will be working on the SAFAD Study. She aims to work in clinical research and continue working towards chronic disease prevention and survivorship. Sophia is also interested in pursuing a PhD in the future. For fun, she loves to watch sitcoms and do puzzles. Sophia also enjoys dancing and swimming in her free time! A fun fact is that she can learn dance choreography just by watching videos of it!

Nathan Tran

Nathan Tran is a medical student at Stanford University School of Medicine. He earned a B.S. in Human Biology and Society at the University of California-Los Angeles. In undergrad, Nathan founded a student organization that uplifts disability justice initiatives by partnering with FQHC's to promote street medicine programs and local NGOs to teach social-emotional skills to neurodivergent youth. He also led a student organization that promotes water access and menstrual health justice in South Central Uganda. Nathan then took a gap year before entering medical school, where he worked as a transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) technician, research coordinator at a social epidemiology lab, and medical scribe at an FHQC serving primarily low-income Asian immigrants. In medical school, Nathan leads the Psychiatry Student Interest Group and Addiction Medicine Interest Group and conducts several research projects on hypnosis and Asian American mental health. Nathan's goal is to become a psychiatrist who centers culturally attuned and anti-oppressive partnership. He is interested in making cutting edge treatment modalities such as neuromodulation accessible and integrating the expertise of family systems into his care. For fun, Nathan enjoys longboarding, listening to music, and NYT puzzles. A fun fact about his is that he has created over 150 (and growing) playlists on Spotify! Feel free to contact Nathan via email at ntran922@stanford.edu.