Leadership Team
In addition to treating patients and performing research, scores of our faculty and staff dedicate time to educating and mentoring trainees. Our faculty strive to support them as they meet the personal and professional challenges and rewards of a career in medicine. While nearly all of our faculty devote time to supporting trainees, we have profiled our leadership team below and to the left.
Education Program Leadership
S. Thomas Carmichael, MD, PhD
UCLA Neurology Department Chair
S. Thomas Carmichael is a neurologist and neuroscientist in the Departments of Neurology and of Neurobiology at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA. Dr. Carmichael is Professor Chair of the Department of Neurology, co-Director of the UCLA Broad Stem Cell Center and co-Director of the Regenerative Medicine Theme in the David Geffen School of Medicine. He has active laboratory and clinical interests in stroke and neurorehabilitation and how the brain repairs from injury. He received his MD and PhD degrees from Washington University School of Medicine in 1993 and 1994, and completed a Neurology residency at Washington University School of Medicine, serving as Chief Resident. Dr. Carmichael was a Howard Hughes Medical Institute postdoctoral fellow at UCLA from 1998-2001. He has been on the UCLA faculty since 2001. Dr. Carmichael’s laboratory studies the molecular and cellular mechanisms of neural repair after stroke and other forms of brain injury. This research focuses on the processes of axonal sprouting and neural stem cell and progenitor responses after stroke, and on neural stem cell transplantation. Dr. Carmichael is an attending physician on the Neurorehabilitation and Stroke clinical services at UCLA.
Dr. Carmichael has published important papers on stroke recovery that have defined mechanisms of plasticity and repair. These include the fact that the stroke produces stunned circuits that limit recovery, but can be restored to normal functioning with newly applied experimental drugs. His work has identified a novel brain “growth program” that is activated by stroke and leads to the formation of new connections. These studies have also identified how this growth program changes with age, and how specific molecules in the aged brain block the formation of new connections and of recovery. This and other work has led to new directions in stroke therapeutics, including therapies with stem cell and tissue engineering applications. Dr. Carmichael is in the midst of stroke stem cell development applications with the FDA and with biotechnology companies.
Charles C. Flippen II, MD
UCLA Neurology Vice Chair of Education
[email protected]
Dr. Charles C. Flippen II is the Richard D. and Ruth P. Walter Professor of Neurology faculty member of UCLA Goldberg Migraine Program at the Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center, Vice Chair for Education in the Department of Neurology and associate dean of the Center for Continuous Professional Development at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA (DGSOM).
Adrienne Keener, MD
UCLA Neurology Residency Program Director
Dr. Keener is a neurologist whose primary clinical focus is movement disorders. Currently, she is an Assistant Clinical Professor at the UCLA School of Medicine, Department of Neurology and a member of the Movement Disorders Clinic. An honors graduate of University of California, San Diego, with a major in Cognitive Science, and an Alpha Omega Alpha graduate of the University of Southern California Keck School of Medicine. Dr. Keener was an intern in Medicine at Olive View-UCLA Medical Center, and a resident in Neurology in the Department of Neurology at UCLA where she served as Chief Resident. In 2016, she joined the faculty at UCLA where she participates in research and clinical care both at the UCLA Movement Disorders Clinic and at the West LA VA PADRECC (Parkinson’s Disease Research, Education, and Clinical Center). Her research interests include the epidemiology of Parkinson’s Disease, and interdisciplinary treatment approaches for movement disorders. Dr. Keener is also interested in medical education, specifically in the practice of Narrative Medicine and developing physician wellness for trainees. She joined the residency program at UCLA as the Associate Program Director in 2016.
Katherine A. Fu, MD
UCLA Neurology Associate Residency Program Director
Dr. Katherine Fu is currently an Assistant Professor in the Department of Neurology, Movement Disorders Program at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA). She graduated with degrees in neuroscience and biological sciences from the University of Southern California and was Valedictorian of the Class of 2013. She then obtained her medical degree from the Keck School of Medicine of the University of Southern California. Afterwards, she completed both her neurology residency training and movement disorders fellowship at UCLA. Although trained in botulinum toxin injections, deep brain stimulation (DBS), and evaluation and management of general movement disorders, she has a particular interest in deep brain stimulation and neuromodulation.
Her primary career interest is in medical education and curriculum development, having completed the Certificate Program in Innovations in Curriculum Design and Evaluation and the Fellowship in Medical Education Scholarship offered at UCLA. She has also obtained a Masters in Education for Health Professionals through Johns Hopkins University. She serves as the Associate Program Director for the UCLA Neurology Residency Program, with research interests in applications of artificial intelligence (AI) and new technologies to medical education and enhancing critical appraisal skills among neurology residents.
Outside of work, she enjoys spending time with her husband and young son, listening to classical music and audiobooks, and going on a jog in the neighborhood.
Cara L. Siegel, MD
UCLA Neurology Clerkship Director
Dr. Cara Siegel is a neurologist and palliative medicine specialist who leads the UCLA Neuropalliative Care Program. Her work centers on improving quality of life for patients and families affected by serious neurologic illnesses. She cares for individuals with primary and secondary brain tumors, ALS and other neuromuscular disorders, neurodegenerative diseases including dementia and movement disorders, as well as other life-limiting neurologic conditions.
Dr. Siegel completed her intern year at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center and her neurology residency at UCLA, where she served as chief resident. She went on to complete a fellowship in hospice and palliative medicine at UCLA and joined the faculty in 2021.
An award-winning educator, Dr. Siegel has received numerous awards, including the Humanism in Medicine Teaching Award and the Augustus Rose Teaching Award. She is passionate about teaching neurology to future physicians across all disciplines and advancing palliative care education for future neurologists of every subspecialty.
David Shattuck, PhD
UCLA Neurology Graduate Education Committee Chair
[email protected]
Dr. David Shattuck is a Professor at the Department of Neurology at the Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA. His research interests are focused on the development and application of novel computational approaches for the processing and analysis of brain images. This work has developed novel algorithms related to brain image analysis, including image segmentation topological filtering of data, image registration, and interactive delineation of data.
Neurology Chief Residents
Alexa Ciarolla, MD
UCLA Neurology Chief Resident
[email protected]
Alexa was born and raised in Palos Verdes, CA. After graduating from the United States Naval Academy with a Bachelor of Science in history and a Russian minor, she completed nuclear power training in Charleston, South Carolina, and Ballston Spa, New York, before serving as a junior officer onboard a submarine stationed out of Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. She then attended medical school at UT Southwestern and had her first exposure to neuroscience as a pre-clerkship student. This evolved into a desire to pursue neurology and help patients and their families with their journey through life-altering neurological disorders. While in medical school, she contributed to research in both neuroimaging in subjects with psychosis and neuromonitoring in TBI. She also planned and implemented a curriculum for a leadership elective for pre-clerkship students. She was inducted into GHHS and served as AOA co-president. Upon graduation, she was awarded the American Academy of Neurology Medical Student Prize for Excellence in Neurology and the Roland C Reynolds Pathology Award. She is thrilled to be back in Los Angeles for residency training and completed her internship at nearby Olive View-UCLA Medical Center. Her academic interests include neurocritical care and medical education. Outside of work, she is an avid F1 fan and enjoys sailing, running, Pilates, finding the best boba in LA, and watching TV on the couch with her cats Calvin and Hobbes.
Matthew Du, MD
UCLA Neurology Chief Resident
[email protected]
Matthew grew up in Orange County, CA, then Dallas, Texas where his family resides today. After attending Princeton University for his undergraduate studies, he spent his gap year living and working in Lawndale, one of Chicago’s most underserved neighborhoods, at a federally qualified health center. He learned what it meant to love one’s neighborhood while seeking its welfare in creative ways such as helping the health center launch a transportation program for patient appointments as well as raise awareness for its aquaponics farm that provides fresh produce and jobs for the community. He then attended medical school at the University of Chicago where he developed a love for neurology in his third year. His passion for neurology comes from the unique burden patients with neurological disease experience and the opportunity to help these patients navigate their illness journey. Matthew hopes to combine his passions of community health, doctor-patient communication, and clinical and virtue ethics as a neurologist. Finally, Matthew is an avid violist and guitarist who loves to connect with others through musical performance, including his patients. He feels so blessed and honored to be receiving his neurology training at UCLA and now lives with his wife, Whitney, and dog, Penny, in the great city of Sherman Oaks in the San Fernando valley.
Clare Schrodt, MD
UCLA Neurology Chief Resident
[email protected]
Clare grew up in Louisville, Kentucky before moving to St. Louis to join the Medical Scholars Program at Saint Louis University. While an undergraduate, she majored in Neuroscience with a minor in Theology, spending all remaining free time exploring the food scene of St. Louis. As she matriculated into the SLU School of Medicine, she became more interested in the intersection of diet, environmentalism, and medicine, and she focused her extracurricular time on researching and volunteering with populations facing food insecurity in the greater St. Louis area. As a medical student, she helped initiate the SLUSOM academic support and peer tutoring program, led guided weekly meditation for medical students, and was selected as an AOA officer of her class. Her academic interests include the gut-brain connection and microbiome intervention, and she also hopes to spend her career studying and working to optimize medical education in the clinical setting. Outside of work, you can find Clare trail running around LA, skiing at Big Bear, creating vegetarian recipes to share with family and friends, and searching high and low for the best burrito in West LA. She participated in the couple's match with her fiancé, who is an Interventional Radiology resident at UCLA, and more importantly, is her unshakeable partner on the pickleball court.