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Lab Members

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Christopher Than

Christopher Than is a Health Equity fellow under Health Career Connection. He is completing a 10-week internship under the guidance of Dr. Ranak Trivedi. Christopher earned a B.S. in Public Health at the University of California, San Diego. Throughout his internship, Christopher will be working on projects to understand and improve culturally attuned care for chronic and serious health conditions. Christopher has a strong passion for public health and improving health care accessibility. Additionally, he hopes to pursue an MPH with a focus on Health Policy, in the future. For fun, he enjoys enjoy jiu-jitsu! 

Dr. Naina Singh

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!).

Sara Kaushik

Sara Kaushik is a research assistant in the Framily and Mental Health Lab. She earned a B.S. in Human Biology from the University of California, Santa Cruz. At UCSC, Sara worked as an undergraduate researcher in a breast cancer research lab, where she assessed the changes aging and pregnancy had for breast cancer.  She is currently also working as a Radiology Efficiency Specialist at El Camino Hospital, where she helps read scans and interviews patients to get their history before and after treatments. She has also worked as a Heart Health Coach at the South Asian Heart Center, where she regularly checked in with participants to aid their lifestyle journey. This was the start of her passion for culturally attuned care. In her free time, Sara enjoys singing, playing chess and badminton, and going on hikes with family and friends. Feel free to contact Sara via email at Sara.Kaushik@va.gov

Dr. Veena Manja

Veena Manja, MD, MSc, PhD

Dr. Veena Manja is a postdoctoral fellow in the Health Services Research and Development program. She earned her medical degree from Mysore University and a MSc and PhD in Health Research Methods, Evidence and Impact at McMaster University. Her research interests include the implementation of evidence based interventions. Dr. Manja will be working with Dr. Ranak Trivedi to explore the impact of caregivers on decision making. For fun, she enjoys knitting.     

Duncan McElfresh, PhD, MS

Dr. Duncan McElfresh is a Health Services Research Fellow with the VA Ci2i/Stanford University. He earned a B.S. in Engineering Physics at the Colorado School of Mines, a M.S. in Applied Physics at the Colorado School of Mines, and an Ph.D. in Applied Mathematics at the University of Maryland-College Park. Duncan aims to establish best-practices for developing, deploying, and monitoring algorithmic systems used in healthcare. He enjoys hiking, cycling, and running for fun!

Olivia de Moraes

Olivia de Moraes is a Research Associate in the Framily and Mental Health Lab. She earned a B.S. in Cognitive Science from the University of California, Los Angeles. Olivia's career goals include earning a PhD in Clinical Psychology, maybe starting her own nonprofit, and eventually become a professor. For fun, she enjoys long distance running, swimming, rollerskating, hiking, playing any and all sports, pretty much anything active! Olivia also really enjoys reading, playing the piano, and cooking. Feel free to contact Olivia via email at omariedm@msn.com .

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. 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. Feel free to contact Shreya via email at sdesai03@alumni.stanford.edu

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