Other Study Staff

Alex Bui

Dr. Bui received his PhD in Computer Science in 2000, after which he joined the faculty in the Medical Imaging Informatics (MII) Group in the Department of Radiological Sciences at UCLA.  In 2006, he became the Director of the Medical Informatics Training program and in 2012, he became the Director of the MII Group.  Today, his research primarily focuses on the development of databases and probabilistic models from observational clinical and research data, and the underlying challenges of translating such models into clinical usage.  Dr. Bui’s earlier research in electronic health records (EHRs) resulted in early methods for integrating clinical databases, and helped form concepts in open source EHR models; and his work on the TimeLine system for problem-centric visualization of patient records continues to influence a number of present biomedical informatics projects in this area.  In addition, Dr. Bui is a Program Director for a new BD2K T32 at the intersection of clinical informatics, bioinformatics, and big data science; the Director of a newly funded NIH U54, the Los Angeles PRISMS Center; and the Co-Director of the NIH BD2K Coordination Center.

Meghal Gandhi

Meghal is the study’s Software Developer.  He develops and maintains database structured web applications and provides programming support on various research applications and general research tools. His educational background includes a Master’s of Science in Computer Science from California State University – Fullerton and a Bachelor’s of Science in Technology from Dharmsinh Desai University in India.  Prior to joining CDU, Meghal worked as a Software Engineer (Java/Big Data) at AT&T Services Inc., in El Segundo, CA.  His research interests include big data, data science, data analytics, and machine learning.

Robert Jenders

Robert Jenders broadly addresses in his research the domain of clinical decision support, with a focus on knowledge representation and health information technology standards in the context of electronic health record systems.  He is the Associate Director and CDU site Principal Investigator for the UCLA Clinical and Translational Science Institute.  Dr. Jenders is also the Co-Director of the CDU Center for Biomedical Informatics and Director of the Biomedical Informatics core function for the CDU Accelerating Excellence in Translational Science (AXIS) project.  He received his undergraduate degree in Computer Science from Marquette University, his MD degree from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, a Master’s degree in Computer Science at Northeastern University, and completed a postdoctoral fellowship in Biomedical Informatics at Harvard University and the Massachusetts General Hospital.

Kevin Lopez

Kevin serves as a Research Assistant for the study.  He is a graduate of California State University, Long Beach who received his B.S. degree in biological sciences.  As an aspiring medical student, he seeks to serve under-represented communities through the field of neurology.  Kevin is specifically interested in the areas of research aimed at improving the quality and access of healthcare for all communities. 

Mayer Davidson

Dr. Davidson is Professor of Medicine at both Charles Drew University and the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA.  Dr. Davidson was President of the American Diabetes Association for 1997-1998.  A renowned speaker on Type 2 Diabetes, Dr. Davidson has presented hundreds of lectures nationally and internationally.  He is the main author of the textbook, Diabetes Mellitus: Diagnosis and Treatment – the 4th edition of which was published in 1998 and has been translated into Italian and Portuguese.  Dr. Davidson’s last book entitled, “Meeting the American Diabetes Association Standards of Care: an Algorithmic Approach to Clinical Care of the Diabetes Patient”, was first published in 2010 with a second edition in 2017.  In 1970, he co-founded the Venice Family Clinic (VFC) which became the largest free medical clinic in the United States.  He continues to serve VFC as a member of the Board of Directors, Chairman of the Medical Practice Committee, and a volunteer supervising a Diabetes Program and seeing endocrine patients once a week.

David Hindman

Dr. Hindman is a primary care psychologist with extensive experience in health behavior change among minority and underserved populations, and is the Service Chief at the Los Angeles County, Department of Health Service’s (LAC-DHS) Hubert H. Humphrey Comprehensive Health Center in South Central Los Angeles.  As a Co-Investigator, Dr. Hindman aids in the development and tailoring of the patient outreach efforts including, designing/refining the patient outreach scripts, drafting the patient outreach letter, in developing/delivering the protocol’s brief intervention training to LAC-DHS primary care providers, the implementation of EMR (electronic medical record) alerts, manuscript preparation, and post-data collection.  He holds his B.A. in Psychology & Sociology, an M.A. in Psychology and another in Theology, and his Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology.

Martin Lee

Dr. Lee is an Adjunct Professor of Biostatistics at UCLA and an Adjunct Professor of Internal Medicine at Charles Drew University.  He also serves as the Senior Statistician at the VA HSR&D Center of Excellence at Sepulveda.  Dr. Lee has been involved in the design, execution, and analysis of over 100 clinical trials for the past 35 years studying clinical process, drug treatment efficacy, and other interventions.  For this project, he will be building a multivariate logistic regression model that includes time, clinic and other covariates to analyze the tele-retinal screening rate data.  Dr. Lee holds his B.A. in Mathematics, his M.S. in Biostatistics, and Ph.D. in Biostatistics with a minor in Biological Chemistry.

Senait Teklehaimanot

As a Biostatistician and faculty member at Charles Drew University of Medicine and Science, Senait participates in a wide variety of funded and non-funded research studies.  She provides statistical assistance to researchers and Medical, MPH, and Nursing students for survey design, data management, and data analysis.  Senait has authored statistical sections in research protocols, manuscripts, abstracts, and presentations.  She also has more than 20 years of experience using and analyzing large data sets sponsored by National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS), Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), US Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS), and National Cancer Institutes (NCI).

Kyla Baron

Kyla serves as the Project Coordinator for the study. Her educational background includes a Bachelor’s of Science in Biology with a double concentration in Chemistry and Psychology from Xavier University of Louisiana. She is a recent Master’s of Public Health graduate from Charles R. Drew University of Science and Medicine. Kyla’s research interests include prevention studies, access to healthcare, mental health, and any additional field that improves the quality of life for individuals residing in medically underserved communities.

Jasmine Jones

Jasmine serves as a Research Assistant for this study. She is a graduate of the University of Kentucky who received her Bachelor of Science in Kinesiology. Jasmine is preparing for medical school and hopes to one day serve underserved populations through primary care. Jasmine’s research interests include prevention methods and access to healthcare for underserved communities.