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NCIRE Board of Directors
NCIRE is governed by the Board of Directors, none of whom receive compensation for their service.
Dr. Michael Shlipak is Associate Chief of Medicine for Research Development at SFVAHCS, Scientific Director, Kidney Health Research Collaborative at UCSF, and Professor of Medicine, Epidemiology & Biostatistics at UCSF. He graduated from Harvard Medical School and obtained his MPH from the Harvard School of Public Health. He completed an internal medicine residency and a General Internal Medicine fellowship at UCSF.
His research activities involve the detection and the determinants of kidney disease, and its association with adverse outcomes, including cardiovascular disease. He has particularly been a pioneer on the use of cystatin C as a novel indicator of kidney function and its potential to improve understanding of kidney disease epidemiology and clinical care. For that body of work, Dr. Shlipak was awarded the John Blair Barnwell Award in 2018 from VA Clinical Science Research and Development Service. He is the author of over 500 peer-reviewed manuscripts and has been an author of multiple national and international guidelines for the Diagnosis and Treatment of Chronic Kidney Disease. Dr. Shlipak’s research has been continuously funded by NIH grants for the past 22 years, in addition to research grants from VA Health Services Research and Development, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, the American Heart Association, and the American Federation for Aging Research.
Michael Shlipak
MD, MPH, Chair
Associate Chief of Medicine for Research Development, SFVAHCS
Scientific Director, Kidney Health Research Collaborative, UCSF
Professor of Medicine, Epidemiology & Biostatistics, UCSF
Dr. Hubert T. Kim is Chief of Surgical Service at SFVAHCS. He is the Professor in Residence and Vice Chair, and the James O. Johnson Endowed Chair in Orthopedic Surgery at UCSF. Dr. Kim's research focuses on molecular and cellular mechanisms responsible for secondary injury cascades that are set in motion after mechanical trauma. He is particularly interested in tissues that have a very limited capacity for healing and regeneration where preservation of existing cells and tissue may be of particular clinical significance. Specifically, he is investigating the mechanisms involved in programmed cell death following acute trauma involving articular cartilage and the spinal cord. His goal is to eventually apply lessons learned in the laboratory to the design of better treatments for patients. Dr. Kim graduated with Honors and with Distinction from Stanford University in 1986 with a BS in Biological Sciences. He graduated from the Stanford University School of Medicine in 1993, receiving both his MD degree and a PhD degree in Cancer Biology as a Howard Hughes Pre-doctoral fellow. Upon completion of his residency, Dr. Kim joined the faculty at UCSF. He has also worked at the San Francisco General Hospital Division of Orthopedic Surgery as an Attending Physician specializing in joint replacement and adult orthopedic reconstructive surgery.
Hubert Kim
MD, PhD, Vice Chair
Chief of Surgical, SFVAHCS
Professor and Vice Chair, Orthopedic Surgery, UCSF
James O. Johnson Endowed Chair, Orthopedic Surgery, UCSF
LTC Steve Countouriotis retired from the US Army in 2009 after serving 23 years on active duty. His military assignments included a combat tour in Saudi Arabia and Iraq during the Gulf War, two post 9-11 tours of duty in Afghanistan and two tours in Iraq. He also served tours of duty in Thailand, Cambodia, Hungary, Honduras, Germany, and South Korea. His military decorations include five awards of the Bronze Star Medal, the Defense Meritorious Service Medal, and five Air Medals. LTC Countouriotis holds a Master of Arts degree in National Security Affairs from the US Naval Postgraduate School and is a graduate of the US Army Command and General Staff College and the Royal Thai Army Staff College.
Lieutenant Colonel Steve Countouriotis
US Army, Retired​
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Dr. Karunesh Ganguly is the Chief of Neurology with the Neurology and Rehabilitation Service at SFVAHCS and Associate Professor with the Department of Neurology at UCSF. He graduated from Stanford University and then completed his MD/PhD degrees through the Medical Scientist Training Program at UC San Diego. He subsequently completed his internal medicine and neurology residency at UCSF. Concurrent with his residency, Dr. Ganguly conducted research into the development of ‘Brain-Machine Interfaces’ in the Department of Electrical Engineering & Computer Science at UC Berkeley. His clinical expertise is on the neurological rehabilitation of patients with stroke and brain injury. He is also the Director of the Neural Engineering & Plasticity Lab. The laboratory’s basic and translational research program focuses on the development of neural interfaces for patients with motor disability. Such implantable technology can eventually help disabled patients to directly control assistive devices. His research is funded by grants from the NIH and the Department of Veterans Affairs. He was awarded the Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers (PECASE Award) in 2014 and was selected for the 2015 New Innovator Award by the NIH Office of the Director.
Karunesh Ganguly
MD, PhD
Chief of Neurology, Neurology and Rehabilitation Service, SFVAHCS
Professor, Department of Neurology, UCSF
Director, Neural Engineering & Plasticity Lab
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Dr. Warren J. Gasper is an Associate Professor of Surgery, Division of Vascular and Endovascular Surgery, and the Associate Program Director of the Vascular Surgery Integrated Residency Program at UCSF. He is also the Chief of the Vascular Surgery Section, and the Director of the Vascular Integrated Physiology and Experimental Therapeutics (ViperX) at SFVAHCS. He practices at both UCSF and SFVAHCS.
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Dr. Gasper has been a vascular surgeon for more than 15 years. Dr. Gasper's clinical interests include diseases of the aorta and its major branches, aneurysms, and peripheral artery disease. His research has been focused on translational projects involving vascular physiology and venous remodeling after arteriovenous fistula and lower extremity bypass surgeries. He has also been active in research involving pharmacologic therapies to reduce or prevent restenosis and has been involved in pre-clinical studies as well as clinical trials using a novel endovascular approach to deliver therapy to the artery adventitia.
Warren J. Gasper
MD
Chief, Vascular Surgery Section, SFVAHCS
Director, Vascular Integrated Physiology and Experimental Therapeutics (ViperX), SFVAHCS
Associate Professor of Surgery, Division of Vascular and Endovascular Surgery, UCSF
Associate Program Director, Vascular Surgery Integrated Residency Program, UCSF
Dr. Vanessa Jacoby is a Professor of Obstetrics, Gynecology, and Reproductive Sciences, the Associate Vice Chancellor for Clinical Research, and Director of the Clinical and Translational Science Institute at UCSF. She is a clinical researcher with a focus on improving care for people with uterine fibroids. She has conducted multiple clinical trials of new, minimally invasive treatments for people with fibroids including MR Guided Focused Ultrasound, laparoscopic radiofrequency ablation, and aromatase inhibitors. Dr. Jacoby's work has also focused on long-term health outcomes following hysterectomy and oophorectomy, particularly for people who are carriers of BRCA1 or BRCA2 pathogenic variants who undergo risk-reducing salpingo-oophorectomy.
With the onset of COVID-19, Dr. Jacoby worked with a multi-disciplinary group of collaborators to launch the PRIORITY study, a nationwide study of pregnant people and their newborns with COVID-19 (https://priority.ucsf.edu/). Analyses from PRIORITY identified the persistence of COVID-19 symptoms in 25% of people infected during pregnancy. This work has led to further study of long-term outcomes following COVID-19 infection during pregnancy in the RECOVER study (https://recovercovid.org/).​​
Dr. Jacoby’s research has been driven by patient-centered outcomes, community partnerships, and recruitment of underrepresented study populations. She is the director of the CTSI Participant Recruitment Program (https://recruit.ucsf.edu/) to support recruitment of diverse populations into clinical studies across UCSF. She is also a dedicated mentor involved in many research training programs at UCSF including the CTSI K Scholars Program, the K12 Women's Reproductive Health Research Program (WRHR), and the ARCHES program for faculty from historically excluded groups (https://archesprogram.ucsf.edu/).
Vanessa Jacoby
MD, MAS
Professor, Ob/Gyn, Reproductive Sciences, UCSF
Associate Vice Chancellor for Clinical Research (AVC-CR), UCSF
Director, Clinical and Translational Science Institute, UCSF
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Dr. Salomeh Keyhani is a Professor of Medicine at the University of California, San Francisco. She is the Director of the Center for Data to Discovery and Delivery Innovation, a VA-funded Center of Innovation focused on improving health and health care delivery. The Center brings together 27 UCSF investigators engaged in Health Systems Research (HSR) and supports research and training that advances patient centered health behavior change. A primary focus of the Center is the novel application of data science to improve identification of patients who would benefit from behavioral intervention. The Center also focuses on developing, testing, and implementing innovative models of evidence-based care that promote positive health-related behavior change.
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Dr. Keyhani is an NIH and VA funded investigator with expertise in both health services and clinical outcomes research. She has an active research program focused on the health effects of cannabis use and is leading multiple prospective cohort studies examining the health effects of cannabis. She also has an active research program in health care quality and health policy. She has conducted comparative effectiveness research (e.g., management of carotid disease), predictive modeling studies, and hospital profiling studies of 30-day readmission using VA national and electronic health record data and conducted numerous national surveys examining physicians’ views on health care reform.
Salomeh Keyhani
MD
Professor of Medicine, UCSF
Staff Physician and Investigator, SFVAHCS
Dr. Mauro is the Deputy Chief of Staff and the Staff Physician and Chief of Dermatology Service at SFVAHCS. She is also the Professor in Residence and Vice-Chair of Dermatology at UCSF, and an NIH-funded NCIRE scientist. Dr. Mauro received her MD from the Medical College of Pennsylvania, followed by a T32-funded research postdoctoral fellowship in the Physiology Department at the University of Pennsylvania. She completed her Dermatology residency at the University of California, Davis, where she served as faculty until 1992. She joined the staff of SFVAHCS in 1992 as Assistant Chief and became the Chief of Dermatology Service in 1997. Dr. Mauro is a past chair and a current vice-chair of the SFVAHCS Research and Development Committee. She is a member of the Biomedical Sciences Graduate Program at UCSF and has served as the chair of the UCSF Rules and Jurisdiction Committee. She is a member of the UCSF Dermatology NIH Post-Graduate Training Grant Committee, a member of UCSF Dermatology Education, Mentoring and Resident Selection committees, and won the Teacher of the Year award in 1998. She has served as a study section member of the NIH Arthritis, Connective Tissue and Skin (ACTS) Study Section, and as a past chair of the Barrier Function of Mammalian Skin Gordon Research Conference. Her research focuses on epidermal differentiation and barrier homeostasis.
Theodora Mauro
MD
Deputy Chief of Staff, SFVAHCS
Staff Physician and Chief of Dermatology Service, SFVAHCS
Professor in Residence and Vice-Chair of Dermatology, UCSF
Jennifer Mitchell, PhD is the Associate Chief of Staff for Research and Development at the San Francisco VA Health Care System. She is a Professor with the Departments of Neurology and Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences Weill Institute for Neurosciences, as well as faculty for Neuroscape at UCSF. Dr. Mitchell's current work is focused on identifying and developing novel therapeutics for drug and alcohol abuse, PTSD, stress, anxiety, impulsivity, and depression and on understanding the neural mechanisms responsible for these disorders. She conducts translational neuroscience research that rests at the intersection of psychology, behavioral pharmacology, and neuroanatomy.
Over the past few years, Dr. Mitchell has worked on the development of psychedelic therapeutics for a range of psychiatric conditions including MDMA for PTSD and psilocybin for demoralization and depression. She is a member of the UC Berkeley Center for the Science of Psychedelics and the UCSF Neuroscape Psychedelics Division and has extensive and diverse experience with human and animal pharmacology, hypothesis-driven neuroscience, human proof-of-concept studies, translational models, and clinical trials.
Jennifer Mitchell
PhD
Associate Chief of Staff for Research and Development, SFVAHCS
Professor, Departments of Neurology and Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Weill Institute for Neurosciences, UCSF
Faculty, Neuroscape, UCSF
Dr. David O. Morgan is Vice Dean for Research in the UCSF School of Medicine and Professor in the Department of Physiology. Following undergraduate studies in animal physiology at the University of Calgary, Dr. Morgan came to UCSF in 1981 for a PhD in Endocrinology, followed by postdoctoral studies at UCSF with William Rutter and Harold Varmus in the biochemical mechanisms of cell signaling. Since 1990, he has been on the faculty of the Department of Physiology. His research focuses on the regulatory systems that control the events of the cell division cycle, with an emphasis on the enzymes that govern chromosome segregation in mitosis. He was elected Fellow of the Royal Society in 2012 and is the author or co-author of three textbooks in cell biology. As Vice Dean for Research, he oversees research programs and priorities in the UCSF School of Medicine.
David O. Morgan
PhD
Dr. Neylan is a Professor, In Residence in the Departments of Psychiatry and Neurology at the University of California, San Francisco. He is the Deputy, Associate Chief of Staff for Clinical Research, Section Chief of the PTSD Clinical Team and Director of the Stress and Health Research Program at the San Francisco Veterans Affairs Health Care System. His research has focused on the role of sleep in emotion regulation, cognitive function, and metabolic health, in patients with PTSD and in aging populations with neurodegenerative disorders. His current funding includes projects focused on the role of sleep and circadian factors in risk and resilience for developing PTSD and Traumatic Brain Injury in acutely traumatized patients seen in Emergency Departments, a human-animal translational study examining the role of maladaptive myelination as a mechanism underpinning the structural and functional brain abnormalities associated with PTSD, a second project examining maladaptive myelination in a postmortem sample of subjects with PTSD and controls together with matched samples of living subjects studied with MRI, two joint clinical and brain bank studies of sleep/wake regulation in neurodegenerative tauopathies, and a controlled trial of a selective glucocorticoid antagonist in PTSD.
Thomas Neylan
MD
Deputy Associate Chief of Staff for Clinical Research, SFVAHCS
Section Chief, PTSD Clinical Team, SFVAHCS
Director, Stress and Health Research Program, SFVAHCS
Professor in Residence, Departments of Psychiatry and Neurology, UCSF
Dr. Bruce Ovbiagele is a vascular neurologist, clinical epidemiologist, and health equity scholar, with a focus on reducing the burden of stroke. He is Professor of Neurology and Associate Dean at UCSF, as well as Chief of Staff at SFVAHCS. Dr. Ovbiagele leads several funded programs focused on improving stroke outcomes among vulnerable and underserved populations, as well as mentoring early career scholars. So far, his various research activities have contributed substantially to the scientific knowledge base with more than 560 peer review publications. Dr. Ovbiagele’s work has been recognized with several awards including the American Academy of Neurology Pessin Research Leadership Award, International Stroke Conference Feinberg Excellence in Stroke Award, American Heart Association Haddock International Impact Award, and American Heart Association Scientific Sessions Stroke Council Award. He was Chair of the International Stroke Conference (2016-2018) and is currently an Associate Editor for the journal, Stroke. Dr. Ovbiagele is an elected member/fellow of the US National Academy of Medicine, World Stroke Organization, American Academy of Neurology, and Royal College of Physicians.
Bruce Ovbiagele
MD, MSc, MAS, MBA, MLS
Chief of Staff, SFVAHCS
Professor of Neurology and Associate Dean, UCSF
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Stephen Peary is the Chief Financial Officer of Phizzle, Inc. Mr. Peary’s career includes legal representation of the United States government (Internal Revenue Service – Organized Crime Unit, Boston) as well as private and public companies in matters of finance, securities, mergers and acquisitions, and federal and state taxes. He has served as both Chief Financial Officer and General Counsel for two public companies, having concluded equity and debt financings aggregating more than $4 billion. Mr. Peary also served as Managing Director of a multinational, mutual marine protection and indemnity insurance company headquartered in Liverpool, England that managed risks and assets of more than 1,300 ocean trading vessels. He has a BA in Economics from the University of Illinois, a JD from Georgetown University Law Center and an LLM, Taxation from Boston University. He has served on numerous charity boards and was actively involved in the restructuring of the Boston Marathon in the early 1980s. Mr. Peary also serves on the Board of Directors and Chair of Governance Committee for the Vantage West Credit Union headquartered in Tucson, Arizona.
Stephen Peary
JD, LLM
Dr. Karen Seal is Chief of the Integrative Health Service at the San Francisco VA Health Care System (SFVAHCS) and a Professor in Medicine and Psychiatry at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF). Dr. Seal is a general internist and integrative medicine physician who is the Director of three interdisciplinary clinics at the SFVAHCS: the Post- 9/11 Integrated Care Clinic for Iraq and Afghanistan veterans, the Integrated Pain Team, and the Integrative Health and Wellness Clinic. Dr. Seal is a health services researcher and has served as Principal Investigator on several national multi-site trials funded by the DoD, NIH, PCORI and VA, testing behavioral and whole health interventions for posttraumatic stress, chronic pain, opioid dependence, and COVID vaccine acceptance in Veterans. Dr. Seal has a leadership role in the new SFVAHCS 3DI Center for Innovation and in NCIRE’s Women Veterans Research Collaborative through which she is mentoring the next generation of health services researchers.
Karen Seal
MD, MPH
Service Chief, Integrative Health, SFVAHCS
Professor of Medicine and Psychiatry in Residence, UCSF
Jules Walker is a Managing Director with KPMG’s Private Enterprise practice in the Bay Area and Pacific Northwest, focusing on creating and expanding relationships with VC-backed technology companies. He works closely with early-stage startups as well as mature private companies approaching IPO. In his spare time, Jules serves as a mentor and angel investor to several early-stage technology companies in the US and abroad. He has spent his 20+ year professional career in financial services working for companies such as Bank of America, Robert Half, and Textron Financial. Most recently, Jules was a Principal with Ravix Group, providing finance/accounting and HR solutions for early-stage companies. He earned his Bachelor’s degree in Finance from the University of Connecticut and his MBA from Middlebury College.
Jules Walker
MBA
Dr. Louise C. Walter is a Professor of Medicine and the Helen Hoh Wu and Laurene Wu McClain Professor of Geriatrics at UCSF, as well as Chief of the UCSF Division of Geriatrics. She is also the Section Chief for Geriatrics, Palliative and Extended Care at SFVAHCS. Dr. Walter is a practicing Geriatrician in the SFVAHCS Geriatrics Clinic, as well as a clinician-researcher who is an international leader in evaluating the real-world risks and benefits of cancer screening in older patients. Dr. Walter has developed novel methodology demonstrating the fundamental importance of life expectancy rather than age in determining benefits and risks of screening. Virtually every cancer screening guideline cites her research. Further, her studies of older adults in poor health documented the extent to which screening can lead to clinical harm. Her approach also forms the basis for the management of other chronic diseases (e.g., diabetes) in older adults. In addition, Dr. Walter is Associate Director of the UCSF Clinical and Translational Science Institute Career Development (K Scholars) Program, Core Leader of the Research Education Core for the UCSF Pepper Center for Aging Research, and Director of SFVAHCS HSR&D Program to Improve Care for Veterans with Complex Comorbid Conditions.
Dr. Walter graduated with Honors and with Distinction from Stanford University in 1990 and she received her MD from Stanford University School of Medicine in 1995. She completed a residency in Internal Medicine and a fellowship in Geriatrics at UCSF. She has been an Attending Geriatrician at SFVAHCS since she completed fellowship and is consistently ranked as one of the Top Doctors in Geriatrics by the Marin and San Francisco Magazines.
Louise C. Walter
MD
Professor of Medicine and Chief of the Division of Geriatrics, SFVAHCS and UCSF
Director, Geriatrics HSR&D Program, SFVAHCS Geriatrician, SFVAHCS
Dr. Kristen Yaffe is Director of NeuroPsychiatry and Director of the Memory Evaluation Clinic at SFVAHCS. She is also the Scola Endowed Chair and Vice Chair, Professor of Psychiatry, Neurology, and Epidemiology, and Director of the Center for Population Brain Health at UCSF. She attended Yale University for her undergraduate degree, received her medical degree at the University of Pennsylvania, and completed residencies in Neurology and Psychiatry at UCSF. In her research, clinical work, and mentoring, she has directed her efforts towards improving the care of patients with cognitive disorders and other geriatric neuropsychiatric conditions.
Dr. Yaffe is an internationally recognized expert in the epidemiology of dementia and cognitive aging and the foremost leader in identifying modifiable risk factors for dementia. Her research, currently supported by over a dozen NIH, Department of Defense, VA, and foundation grants, bridges the fields of neurology, psychiatry, and epidemiology. Dr. Yaffe and colleagues were the first to determine that potentially 30% of dementia risk is preventable. She pioneered early investigations on the roles of estrogen, physical activity, and cardiovascular factors in dementia risk, and more recently, her research group has led work on the connections between cognitive aging and sleep disorders, traumatic brain injury and life-course exposures. With almost 700 peer-reviewed articles dedicated to improving population brain health (H-index=161 and recognized by Clarivate Analytics as one of the most highly cited researchers in her field), her work has formed the cornerstone for dementia prevention trials worldwide. In recognition of these groundbreaking accomplishments, Dr. Yaffe received the Potamkin Prize for Alzheimer’s Research in 2017, was elected to the National Academy of Medicine in 2019 and was awarded the John B. Barnwell Award from the Department of Veterans Affairs in 2022 for her contributions to clinical research.
Kristine Yaffe
MD
Director, NeuroPsychiatry, SFVAHCS
Director, Memory Evaluation Clinic, SFVAHCS
Scola Endowed Chair and Vice Chair, Department of Psychiatry, UCSF
Professor of Psychiatry, Neurology, and Epidemiology, UCSF
Director, Center for Population Brain Health, UCSF
Dr. Yukl, is a physician-scientist at UCSF and the San Francisco VA. Since 2005, Dr. Yukl has been conducting laboratory-based research aimed at understanding the barriers to curing HIV. His laboratory focuses on investigating the mechanisms that allow HIV to establish a latent infection (which is widely regarded as the main barrier to curing HIV) in the blood and tissues. After the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, Dr. Yukl has also become interested in the transcriptional regulation of SARS-CoV-2, another RNA virus. His research team is currently investigating how SARS-CoV-2 subgenomic transcription (which is analogous to RNA splicing) allows for variation in the expression of different coronavirus genes over time, and how these SARS-CoV-2 subgenomic transcripts interact with human cells to govern the pathogenesis of COVID-19.
Steven A. Yukl
MD
VA Advisory Representatives
Carl Grunfeld
MD, PhD
Physician, SFVAHCS
Professor of Medicine, Emeritus, UCSF
Shirley Jih
Director of Public Affairs, SFVAHCS
Advisor to the Audit Committee
Diana Truran
Manager of Operations, Administration & Imaging
Executive Director, Brain Health Registry
Center for Imaging of Neurodegenerative Diseases (CIND)
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