Program Leadership

Rebecca Berman, MD, FACP
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Rebecca Berman is our program director for the Internal Medicine Residency program. After completing her chief residency at Brigham & Women’s Hospital, she joined Mass General Hospital, where she built a network of student-faculty primary care practices, the Crimson Care Collaborative (CCC). Over 1000 Harvard Medical students have participated in CCC gaining early exposure to primary care, to care for the underserved and interprofessional education opportunities. In 2013, Berman returned to BWH to direct its primary care residency program and was recruited to UCSF in 2018. To help reduce pay disparities and improve diversity in medical leadership positions, she teaches nationally on negotiation skills for physicians. Other areas of interest include novel curricular design, health literacy and care for the underserved. When not in the hospital, she can be found hanging out with her partner and three kiddos, exploring Golden Gate Park or reading a novel.

Daniel Wheeler, MD

• ​​​​Hometown: Bloomington, MN
• Specialty: Hospital Medicine
• Areas of academic interest: Mentorship, clinical learning environment, communication
• Main site: San Francisco VA
• Role in residency: APD for Mentorship & Advising; Chief Resident Professional Development
• “One of my favorite things about internal medicine is getting to work and learn together as a team, and our residents are honestly the best teammates around. They’re extraordinary, inspiring people. Whether we’re thinking through a case at morning report, caring for patients on the wards, or figuring out ways to improve the residency, I feel so privileged to work with them every day. It’s a lot of fun, too! Outside of work, I love being outside – spending time with my family, golfing, playing tennis, and slowly getting better at gardening.”

Daniel Wheeler, MD

Alekist Quach, MD

• Hometown: Oakland, CA 
• Specialty: General Internal Medicine 
• Area of academic interest: Medical education, communication in healthcare, DEIA, mentorship and resident support 
• Main Site: SFVAHCS 
• Role in residency: APD of Ambulatory Affairs for Categorical Residents 

• “One of the greatest joys of my role is the opportunity to work with our incredible residents across a wide range of clinical and educational settings — including primary care clinic, the SFVA ED, inpatient wards, the PRIME pathway, and as a Head of House Lead. I deeply value the relationships I build with residents and feel honored to serve as a sounding board, mentor, and advocate throughout their training.  

  Before medical school, I worked in both pediatric and adult oncology in academic medicine and biotech. Long before that, I taught classes and wrangled kids at rock climbing gyms in Berkeley, Rhode Island, and Sydney, Australia. Outside of medicine, my other full-time job is being mom to two energetic little boys. Our family spends most weekends on mini adventures in and around San Francisco and the Bay Area!” 
   

Alekist Quach, MD 

Sarah Goglin, MD

• Hometown: Charlotte, NC
• Specialty: Rheumatology
• Area of academic interest: Medical education, systemic vasculitis, antiphospholipid syndrome
• ZSFG (although I also see patients at UCSF Health)
• Role in residency: APD of subspecialty education 
• “I love working with and supporting residents in exploring their interests and goals to build a career they are passionate about and fulfilled by. Outside of work, my husband and I love living on peninsula with our three amazing girls and spend most of our weekends playing outside and cheering for them on the sidelines of their sports games.”

Sarah Goglin, MD

Sarah Alba-Nguyen, MD, MPH

• Hometown: El Paso, TX
• Specialty: Hospital Medicine
• Area of academic interest: Belonging and equity in medicine, medical education, mentorship, professional identity development
• Main Site: UCSF Parnassus
• Role in Residency: APD for Recruitment and Community, Opportunity, Recognition, and Engagement (CORE)
• “Working with residents is hands down the best part of my job. I love working with residents as they explore the ways in which they bring their authentic selves to medicine and navigate their personal and professional career interests. Being a part of someone finding their “aha!” moment is the best. Outside of work, I find my joy and meaning in the important people in my life, music, and the outdoors. My wife, young daughter, and I spend all the time we can enjoying the beauty of the Bay Area with our friends and family. You can often find us at the beach, trying to encourage our daughter to love surfing like her moms do!”

Sarah Alba-Nguyen, MD, MPH

Alyssa Perez, MD, MEd

• Hometown: Cleveland, Ohio
• Specialty: Pulmonary and Critical Care
• Area of academic interest: Medical Education, Trainee/physician Wellbeing, Mentorship/coaching, Inclusion and belonging, health equity, Lung Transplant, Cystic Fibrosis
• Main Site: UCSF Parnassus
• Role in residency: APD of Wellbeing and Assessment
• “My favorite thing about working with residents and my role as an APD is getting to be a Head of House! I get to serve in a mentorship role and help residents figure out and pursue their own unique professional and career goals. I also get to know them as people and spend time with them outside of the hospital/medicine. I also love when I get to work with residents on the Advanced Lung Disease Service or in clinic!” 

Alyssa Perez, MD

Lekshmi Santhosh, MD, MAEd

• Hometown: All over the world! Most recently, Pewaukee, WI
• Specialty: Pulmonary/Critical Care Medicine/Hospital Medicine
• Area of academic interest: Medical Education, Transitions of Care, Clinical Reasoning, Women in Leadership
• Main Site: UCSF Health
• Role in residency: APD of Curriculum, Assistant PD of Inpatient Affairs
• “I LOVE being a Head of House and getting to know residents deeply and advising them on their soul-searching for career exploration. I live right near Parnassus so I love running into residents and introducing my kiddos to my “doctor friends” when we’re out and about in the neighborhood! Outside of work, I enjoy exploring all the great food in the Bay Area, traveling, and laughing at and with my kiddos.”

Lekshmi Santhosh, MD

David Chia, MD

• Hometown: Rochester, MN
• Specialty: Hospital Medicine
• Area of academic interest: Medical Education, Point-of-Care Ultrasound
• Main Site: ZSFG
• Role in residency: APD of Inpatient Affairs
• “My favorite things are mentoring residents, sharing my love for physical exam and bedside ultrasound, teaching on rounds, and designing systems that optimize for both patient care and resident experience. Outside of the hospital, I really enjoy exploring and traveling.”

David Chia, MD

Susie Wlodarczyk, MD

• Hometown: San Francisco, CA
• Specialty: Internal Medicine/Hospital Medicine
• Area of academic interest: Medical education, curricular design, integrating the learning sciences into the clinical workplace, perioperative care, co-management and consultative medicine
• Main Site: San Francisco VA
• Role in residency: APD of Curriculum, Pathways, and Quality Improvement
• “I love seeing the development of our residents from brand new interns to amazing clinicians, teachers and leaders over the course of residency. Outside of the hospital, I love running on the trails of Mt. Tam, paddleboarding on the bay and showing our kids my favorite neighborhoods from growing up in SF.”

Susie Wlodarczyk, MD

Joan Addington-White, MD, FACP | [email protected]

• Hometown: Chicago, Illinois
• ​​​​Specialty: General Internal Medicine
• Area of academic interest: Medical Education, Mentoring of Residents, Caring for patients with a history of incarceration, and HIV Primary Care. I enjoy teaching about health equity, general internal medicine, and focusing on creating a curriculum and program which attracts and mentors a diverse group of residents. Additionally, I lead the Health Equity pathway for the Internal Medicine residency. 
• Main Site: Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital and Clinics
• Role in residency: SFPC Program Director
• “I love working alongside residents to support their journey to become amazing clinicians, educators, and leaders. SFPC is a small program and we are able to spend a lot of time learning together in clinic and ZSFG and experiencing San Francisco. This creates a supportive environment as you move through residency. SFPC residents often become lifelong friends. Personally, I love to walk in San Francisco exploring different neighborhoods. I also love to read mostly fiction and enjoy the many wonderful bookstores we have in San Francisco.”

Ryan Laponis, MD, MS, FACH | [email protected]

• Hometown: Santa Barbara, CA
• Specialty: Primary Care, General Internal Medicine
• Areas of Academic Interest: Educating educators as a member of UCSF's Academy of Medical Educators and as a faculty mentor in the Society of General Internal Medicine’s (SGIM) Teaching Educators Across the Continuum of Healthcare (TEACH).  I also teach/lead educational programs in relationship-centered communication nationally as Fellow in the Academy of Communication in Healthcare and serve as Director of the Center for Enhancement in Communication for UCSF Health.
• Main Site: Mt Zion
• Role in Residency: UCPC Program Director
• "I love helping /supporting the UCPC residents create community with each other – seeing them grow as physicians and leaders while also maintaining their humanity and passion is a true gift. When I am not working, I delight in listening to all types of music, eating diverse cuisine and spending time with my wife and three children exploring and experiencing the different pockets of San Francisco."  

Lisa Ochoa-Frongia, MD | [email protected]

• Hometown: Chico, CA 
• Specialty: Primary Care/General Internal Medicine
• Areas of Academic Interest: Medical education, resident mentoring and advising, identifying and educating on best practices in the treatment of mental and behavioral health conditions in primary care, behavioral health integration in safety-net clinics, curricular development and mental health curricula for primary care providers.
• Main Site: ZSFG
• Role in Residency: SFPC Associate Program Director
• “I love that working with residents gives me the opportunity to get to know them as people and professionals, to help them develop into amazing PCPs, find their clinical interests and career path and embrace lifelong learning. Outside of medicine, I love living on the peninsula and spending time with my husband and kids exploring the amazingly beautiful Bay Area and beyond, hiking and baking.”

Mia Williams, MD, MS​​​​​​​ | [email protected]

Mia Williams is the associate program director for the UCSF Primary Care/General Internal Medicine Residency Program (UCPC-GIM). She is an associate professor of medicine in the Division of General Internal Medicine at UCSF and cares for patients at the Mount Zion campus. She completed her undergraduate degree at the University of Arizona, her master's in Clinical Research from Case Western Reserve University (CWRU) and her medical degree at the Cleveland Clinic Lerner College of Medicine of CWRU. Mia completed IM residency at UCSF as a member of the UCPC-GIM Residency Program.

Outside of loving patient care in the primary care clinic, Mia cares deeply about mentorship, belonging and health equity, relationship-centered communication, and medical education. She leads the Mount Zion DGIM quality improvement workgroup that focuses on language access and both at UCSF and nationally works on sponsorship in career advancement and mentorship.

Era Kryzhanovskaya, MD | [email protected]

Irina (Era) Kryzhanovskaya is the associate program director for the UCSF Primary Care/General Internal Medicine Residency Program (UCPC-GIM). Era earned her medical degree from the University of Virginia School of Medicine, then journeyed west for Internal Medicine Residency at UCSF in the UCPC primary care track. Era stayed on for an inpatient chief resident year at the San Francisco General Hospital before returning as faculty to the UCSF Division of General Internal Medicine (DGIM). She has distinguished herself as an outstanding clinician-educator, having been inducted into UCSF’s Academy of Medical Educators in recognition of her extensive undergraduate medical education leadership, her curriculum development expertise as well as her nationally recognized teaching and leadership around caring for patients with substance use disorders. Board certified in addiction medicine, Era started an embedded addiction medicine clinic at DGIM and wants to ensure all health professions learners graduate with competence in addiction medicine! Era is the co-host of Curbsiders Teach, a medical education spinoff of the popular Curbsiders podcast, and brings her energy and enthusiasm for primary care to the APD role!

Jeff Kohlwes, MD, MPH | Co-Director 

Jeff Kohlwes is a professor of medicine at the San Francisco VAMC. After growing up on a boat in Sausalito, he was an undergraduate at UC Davis and a medical student at Dartmouth. After being a resident and chief resident at UCSF he was medical director of the methadone and AIDS clinic at ZSFG for two years. He was then a RWJ Fellow at the University of Washington before returning to run the PRIME Residency Program in 2000 focusing on residency scholarship where his residents have published almost 300 first author publications. His research focuses on residency training tracks, and scholarship. As Associate Editor for JGIM he developed the Exercises In Clinical Reasoning Series to create a case-based curriculum for educators. In 2018, Jeff was awarded the UCSF Academic Senate Teaching Award for senior faculty for his ongoing contributions as a teacher, mentor and scholar. An avid outdoorsman, Jeff has climbed most of the highest west coast mountains and raft-guided throughout the west.

Beth Cohen, MD, MA | ​​Co-Director 

Beth Cohen is an associate professor of medicine at UCSF and a Staff Physician at the San Francisco VA. After completing medical school and residency at UCSF, she joined the SFVA as a Women's Health fellow. Since joining the faculty in 2008, she has developed a clinical research program designed to improve the health of patients with posttraumatic stress disorder. She studies the mechanisms connecting PTSD to chronic physical illness as well as the comparative effectiveness of treatments for PTSD. She is actively involved in research training through her roles in the PRIME program and the SFVA based Measurement Science QUERI.

Joan Addington-White, MD | Director 

Joanie Addington-White is a professor of medicine in the Division of General Medicine at San Francisco General Hospital (SFGH). She is the Program Director of the San Francisco General Primary Care Track. She is passionate about practicing medicine in both the inpatient and outpatient settings, complex medical issues, care of the patient with a history of incarceration, and HIV primary care. Addington-White teaches about health equity, general internal medicine, and focuses on creating a curriculum and program which attracts and mentors a diverse group of residents. She leads the Health Equity pathway for the Internal Medicine residency.

David Chia, MD | Director

​​​​David Chia is the HPE Pathway Director, which is a UME- and GME-wide experience aimed at cultivating future clinician-educators within academic medicine and involves a 4-week course on learning theory, direct teaching, curriculum development, learner assessment, professional development and scholarship, longitudinal medical education activities, and a mentored scholarly project with dissemination. 

Josue Zapata, MD, MBA | Director 

Josué Zapata is the Deputy Chief of the Medical Service at the San Francisco VA Health Care System, Associate Professor of Clinical Medicine, and the Assistant Chair for Leadership Development for the Department of Medicine at the University of California, San Francisco.

Josué received his undergraduate degree from New York University. He subsequently earned his medical degree from Harvard Medical School and a Masters of Business Administration focusing on healthcare and leadership from Harvard Business School. Josué' is a proud graduate of the UCSF Internal Medicine Residency program and HSL Pathway.

Josué specializes in Hospital Medicine at the San Francisco VA. Prior to his current roles, Zapata served as the Associate Chief of Staff for Quality, Safety, and Value at the SFVAHCS and spent nine years as a medical student coach at UCSF. Josué's scholarly interests include quality and value improvement, leadership in academic medicine, and professional development of trainees, as well as supporting diversity in healthcare.

He currently lives in the Outer Sunset with his wife, Carly (also UCSF IM c/o 2015), and their two children, Sofia (10) and Rafael (7). When not teaching about health care systems and leadership, he spends much of his time taking his kids to their various sporting activities and parks around the city. He also enjoys surfing, podcasts, and consuming acai bowls.
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Neil Shah, MD, PhD | Director 

Neil Shah is the Edward S. Ageno Distinguished Professor in Hematology/Oncology and has served as Director of the Molecular Medicine Residency Pathway since 2015. He completed his MD and PhD training at UCLA, where he remained for clinical training in Internal Medicine and Hematology/Oncology. He was recruited to UCSF in 2006 and has led a laboratory research program focused on targeted therapeutics for hematologic malignancies. In addition to working to support lab-based physician-scientists, he is working to make this career path a reality for individuals from diverse backgrounds.

Aparna Sundaram, MD  | Associate Director

Aparna B. Sundaram is an assistant professor in Residence at UCSF, where she attends in the intensive care units at Moffitt-Long Hospital. Sundaram received her undergraduate and medical degrees from Northwestern University. She completed her residency in Internal Medicine at Northwestern, and came to UCSF for Pulmonary/Critical Care Medicine fellowship. After completing additional research training with Dean Sheppard, she joined the faculty of the division in 2014. Sundaram has also taken an active role in mentorship of trainees and has served as a facilitator for the inquiry curriculum in the UCSF School of Medicine.

Sundaram’s primary academic focus is the development of a more detailed understanding of the mechanisms of smooth muscle mediated airway narrowing that play a role in chronic airway diseases such as asthma and COPD. Her current research focuses on the role of cellular tethering proteins in regulating force transmission, with the goal of leveraging these targets to design more potent inhibitors of smooth muscle contraction using a combination of in vitro, ex vivo, and in vivo models of disease.