Current Fellows

Why Geriatrics? I love spending time with older adults! Elderly patients are often defined by their vulnerability when they're actually very resilient and tough. It is humbling to care for people who have lived through a spectrum of experiences and are gracious enough to share their lives and stories with their physician. I find joy in hearing their stories and learning from their wisdom. 

Interests in medicine: I am particularly interested in communication around goals of care decision making and advanced care planning. I also am interested in models of care for older adults that maximize function, independence, and ongoing engagement with the community. 

Hobbies:  I enjoy running outdoors, going on long hikes with my dogs, and finding the best places for happy hour. My husband and I also share a guilty pleasure of bingeing true crime documentaries and podcasts.

Why geriatrics?: The holistic, person-centered multidisciplinary approach in geriatrics aligned with my values and outlook on how to advocate for people with medically, emotionally, and socially complex conditions. It's a privilege to be able to learn from and listen to the stories of older adults to help me better understand their needs and what matters most to them so I can provide the best care

What are your interests in medicine?: Home-based primary care, promoting health equity in aging, social medicine

What hobbies do you enjoy?: hiking, singing, baking, acrylic painting

Why geriatrics?: I first became interested in medicine by studying arts and humanities and reflecting on experiences that people share through health, illness, aging and death. Geriatrics embodies the aspects of medicine and humanity that I find most valuable: meeting people who share incredible narratives, practicing the art of complex and person-centered medicine, and finding creative ways to meet the needs of older adults through health and illness.

What are your interests in medicine?: Substance use in older adults, reducing stigma in health care, community outreach and education

What hobbies do you enjoy?:  Bread baking, gardening, trying new food, spending time in the ocean

Why geriatrics?: I find the care of older adults to be fascinating in its complexity and rewarding in its interactions. I enjoy the creativity that comes from a multifaceted approach to care where patients, doctors, and families partner together to come up with the best plan. 

What are your interests in medicine?: Exploring how older adults with serious or chronic illness make medical decisions is an area of intense interest for me. Through my work in clinical and translational research, I want to continue learning how providers can help patients, families, and caregivers navigate serious illness to lead happy, fulfilling lives.

What hobbies do you enjoy?: I'm on a mission to explore all the coffee shops in San Francisco and I always know the latest plant-based, vegetarian restaurants. I also enjoy live music and can usually be found at the Warfield, the Independent, or the SF Symphony.​​​​​​

Why geriatrics?: I love the focus on meeting patients where they are at and allowing their goals to guide all aspects of medical care. It is an honor to build long-lasting relationships with patients and their families and support them through life transitions. 

What are your interests in medicine? Patient-caregiver relationships, social isolation, and leveraging data analytics to improve both patient and caregiver well being.

What hobbies do you enjoy? I enjoy trail running, hiking, and looking for dogs to adopt. 

Why geriatrics?: Geriatric medicine combines multiple skills that I strive for — managing complex patients, helping patients and families navigate progressive diseases, and circling back to the patient’s goals for their life and health

What are your interests in medicine?: Interdisciplinary team communication, transitions of care, and advanced care planning.

What hobbies do you enjoy?: Yoga, walking, running (slowly), tennis, roasting veggies, taking pictures of the sky​​​​​​

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Why geriatrics? This is an amazing field that lets us take care of people who've cared for us and to help people like our grandparents meet their goals of care as they grow older! 

What are your interests in medicine? Narrative medicine, patient-caregiver relationship, resilience in chronic illness 

What hobbies do you enjoy? Visiting used bookstores, searching for that perfect bubble, doodling in a sketchbook 

Why geriatrics?: My goal is to improve the lives of the elderly through both medical care and scientific research

What are your interests in medicine?: Translation research on the biology of aging; care for underserved and marginalized populations

What hobbies do you enjoy?: Dancing, art, and new adventures

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I am a General Surgery resident at UCSF East Bay. I have completed my first 3 years of residency and am taking a 2 year hiatus for research and professional development with the VAQS Fellowship. I completed my undergraduate and medical training at the University of Oklahoma near where I grew up. My clinical/research interests are in cardiac surgery, specifically newer minimally invasive procedures and operations.

Why VAQS? 

The providers and faculty from whom I learned this past year during the Gero-Scholars program were inspirational, innovative, and generous as teachers. The commitment of the SFVA to Geriatrics and Palliative Care is unparalleled. I am so looking forward to working alongside this team and learning how to find and scale smart and needed solutions to healthcare delivery problems affecting older adults and those with serious illness.

What are your interests in Quality Improvement?

I am interested in age-friendly innovation in primary and emergency care, particularly in including family caregivers in health care interventions and plans, supporting health with upstream social medicine policies, and broadly in equitable access to health care across abilities, ages and demographic distinctions. I am interested in effective palliative care interventions for older adults and family caregivers in the settings of dementia, heart failure, and cancer, palliative care communication tools for Geriatric Emergency Departments, and issues, tools, and metrics in Geriatric Emergency Departments and home-based care models

What hobbies do you enjoy?

I love to sing! I play guitar, love to hike, bike, explore… love to hang out with family and friends laughing and playing games.

What is your hidden talent?

It isn’t hidden exactly, since I am nearly always doing it, but I can harmonize pretty well.

If you were a type of pasta, which would you be and why?

I guess a delicious ravioli… carefully filled with goodness and maybe a surprise.

What is the funniest place you've ever fallen asleep?

I have tried to watch a particular Spider-Man movie with my kids several times, more than 4, and cannot make it past the first 15 minutes without falling asleep. Other movies, no problem.

Ted’s background in addictions research has focused on identifying mediators and moderators of substance use treatments as well as investigating predictors, outcomes, and epidemiology of substance use. While completing his pre-doctoral internship at the San Francisco VA, he trained in language coding, using the Motivational Interviewing Skills Code and a novel coding system for health education. Ted is currently involved in research analyzing the influences of therapist and patient language on treatment outcomes for co-occurring substance use and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). His primary research interest is in increasing patient engagement and efficacy of treatments for substance use and PTSD among veterans.

Christina Keny has been a Registered Nurse for almost 20 years. She holds an undergraduate degree in Nursing and a Master’s degree in Healthcare Administration from the University of California, San Francisco(UCSF). Christina is currently a doctoral student at UCSF. She is also a predoctoral NIH T32 Fellow in the UCSF Symptom Science program. Early on in her career as a Registered Nurse, she developed a fond passion for improving patient safety and clinical outcomes. Christina was fortunate to be afforded the opportunity to serve as a Clinical Quality Nurse Consultant, and eventually as a Risk and Patient Safety Director at Kaiser Permanente. Although her time spent in these roles was primarily related to hospital quality regulatory efforts, she became interested in improving surgical patient outcomes through participation in the American College of Surgeons’ National Surgical Quality Improvement Program (NSQIP) and the Geriatric Surgical Verification program. This experience inspired her to further pursue doctoral preparation at The University of California, San Francisco. Her goal is to expand her quality improvement training and leadership skills so that she may continue to contribute toward improving surgical patient outcomes on a local and national level, while concurrently advancing her research area of interest. Her current research passion is focused on decreasing the postoperative pain symptom burden experience while minimizing the consumption of opioid medications in older surgical adults through novel interventions, such as interactive patient-centered technology. Christina believes the VAQS program will give her the opportunity to work alongside a variety of mentors, leaders, and experts from a multidisciplinary team who possess expertise in quality and patient safety, clinical research, and leadership. Christina would like to focus on quality improvement initiatives geared towards improving surgical outcomes in older adults during her time in the VAQS Fellowship.

Christina loves to travel, hike, and bake. She also participates in weekly pilates, running, and barre classes in her local community. She also enjoys spending time with her family and her gigantic Saint Bernard dog, “Jasper Jax.” Christina believes her “hidden talent” is baking homemade giant cinnamon rolls from scratch! She discovered this secret recipe while volunteering at an orphanage in Mexico.

Kaykay is a PhD prepared nurse with over 16 years of nursing experience in pediatric/adult critical care and Quality and Patient Safety. Kaykay obtained her PhD in Nursing Science and Healthcare Leadership at UC Davis Betty Irene Moore School of Nursing. Kaykay is an establishing nurse researcher with publications in areas such as quality and safety, public health, health behaviors, and complementary and alternative medicine. Kaykay is the Co-Founder for Hmong Nurses Association and serves as the Chair to the Board of Directors. She is very involved in the Hmong American community as a community organizer advocating for higher educational opportunities and health promotion in vulnerable and underserved populations. Her passion includes motivating and inspiring others to live a life that is mentally and physically healthy. She mentors nurses on professional development and high school and college students on academic success. Kaykay is planning a career as a nurse scientist in conducting quality and safety and health policy research to advance policies to improve health outcomes and access to care. 

Caroline is a Registered Nurse, Air Force Veteran, and a 3rd year PhD student at UCSF.  She is passionate about making a difference in the field of cardiovascular disease prevention, particularly in women Veterans.  Caroline is driven to contribute to research, education, and policy development that improves the heart health of our nation's women Veterans. Throughout her career, Caroline has gained valuable experiences through various clinical settings, working directly with Veterans and witnessing the impact of cardiovascular disease on their lives.  Currently, as a PhD student, she is focused on generating evidence-based insights to inform interventions, improve healthcare outcomes, and empower women Veterans to take control of their cardiovascular health.