Our Team
Natalia Ramos, MD, MPH
(she/her/ella)
Medical Director
UCLA Department of Psychiatry & Biobehavioral Sciences
Dr. Ramos is an Assistant Clinical Professor of Psychiatry at the David Geffen School of Medicine and a board-certified Child, Adolescent, and Adult Psychiatrist. She oversees clinical care and training in LGBTQ-affirming and sensitive mental health practices in the Department of Psychiatry. Dr. Ramos also serves as Medical Director for the UCLA Stress, Trauma, and Resilience (STAR) Clinic and the Child Psychiatry Consultation Liaison Service at UCLA Santa Monica Medical Center. She is bilingual in English/Spanish.
Dr. Ramos has extensive experience working with LGBTQ+ populations in clinical, advocacy, and population research settings. In addition to her clinical work at UCLA, Dr. Ramos is actively involved in teaching and scholarly work both locally and nationally. Her research on strength-based group and family interventions is currently funded by the NIDA/AACAP Physician Scientist Program in Substance Use K12 Award. Outside of UCLA, Dr. Ramos serves as Co-Chair for the American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry's committee on gender and sexuality and also serves on the board of APLA Health.
Dr. Ramos holds a Master of Public Health (MPH) from the Harvard School of Public Health, where she worked with a team of national researchers at the Fenway Institute's Center for Population Research. She completed her undergraduate education at Stanford University and received her Medical Degree from USC's Keck School of Medicine, before completing her residency and fellowship training at UCLA.
Elizabeth Ollen, PhD, MA
(she/her/hers)
Clinical Director
UCLA Department of Psychiatry & Biobehavioral Sciences
Dr. Ollen is a Licensed Clinical Psychologist at the UCLA Semel Institute for Neuroscience and Human Behavior. She has been involved in the program development for the UCLA EMPWR Program since it was established in 2017. Dr. Ollen has extensive experience working with LGBTQ+ youth and their families, including youth exploring/questioning gender identity and/or sexual orientation. She practices from the Gender Affirmative Model and provides guidance and support to families around healthy identity development. She is also involved in research and development of therapeutic interventions to foster resiliency among LGBTQ+ adolescents and their families.
Dr. Ollen has a broad range of generalist experience using evidence-based treatment for children and adolescents with disruptive, mood, and anxiety disorders in community mental health, hospital-based outpatient, and inpatient settings. She is extensively trained in Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) and exposure-based therapies, and utilizes third wave CBT interventions including Acceptance and Commitment Therapy and Dialectical Behavior Therapy. Dr. Ollen's primary specialization is in treating the psychological sequelae of both acute and complex developmental trauma, with an expertise in LGBTQ+ youth. She is trained in multiple trauma interventions, including Trauma-Focused Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, Cognitive Processing Therapy, and Integrated Treatment for Complex Trauma in Adolescents (ITCT-A). She also has a background in couple and family therapies (Integrative Behavioral Couples Therapy, Structural Family Therapy, and Families Over Coming Under Stress).
Dr. Ollen earned her MA and PhD in clinical psychology from Clark University. She also holds a second master's degree in Human Development from Harvard University. She completed her pre and postdoctoral training at the UCLA Semel Institute for Neuroscience and Human Behavior through the Nathanson Family Resilience Center. Dr. Ollen is actively involved in professional leadership positions through the American Psychological Association (APA). She currently sits on the Executive Committee of Division 44 (Society for the Psychology of Sexual Orientation and Gender Diversity) and also serves on the APA Task Force for revising the clinical guidelines for lesbian, gay, and bisexual clients.
Nicole Hisaka PsyD
(she/her/hers)
Attending Psychologist, EMPWR Program
Clinical Psychologist, Division of Population Behavioral Health
Dr.Hisaka is a Licensed Clinical Psychologist at the UCLA Semel Institute for Neuroscience and Human Behavior.
Nicole Hisaka, PsyD is a Licensed Clinical Psychologist at the UCLA Semel Institute for Neuroscience and Human Behavior. She has been involved with UCLA EMPWR Program since 2020. Dr. Hisaka has experience working with LGBTQ+ youth and their families, including youth exploring/questioning gender identity and/or sexual orientation. She practices from the Gender Affirmative Model and guides treatment with the goals to provide both support to families and foster healthy identity development.
Additionally, Dr. Hisaka is involved with the Stress, Trauma and Resilience (STAR) Clinic where she has founded and created the program development for the Parent-Child Interaction Therapy (PCIT) Clinic. She continues to pursue her work specializing in treatment of youth and families who have experienced complex trauma and other stressors proficient in both Trauma-Focused Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (TF-CBT) and PCIT treating young children and their families from a behavioral model. Currently, Dr. Hisaka is certified in PCIT, stands as UCLA’s in-house trainer for PCIT, and runs the PCIT Clinic for families who experience various behavioral presentations resulting from traumatic events and conduct-related and neurodevelopmental disorders.
Dr. Hisaka has a double Masters in Clinical Psychology from both Pepperdine University and Alliant University. Following her Masters, she earned her Doctorate in Clinical Psychology from Alliant University/California School of Professional Psychology. Prior to Dr. Hisaka’s Post-doctoral Fellowship at UCLA, she completed her pre-doctoral clinical internship at UC Davis Children’s Hospital where she specialized in complex childhood trauma treatment and child-welfare evaluations working with underserved, foster-care, and adopted youth populations. Dr. Hisaka completed her two-year Post-doctoral Fellowship at UCLA’s Stress, Trauma, & Resilience Clinic serving as the clinic’s primary PCIT interventionist.
Outside of Dr. Hisaka’s work at UCLA, she serves as Adjunct Faculty teaching both undergraduate and graduate education at Pepperdine University’s Graduate School of Education and Psychology (GSEP) and Loyola Marymount University. Additionally, she continues to contribute to research in her field focusing on interests related to children with complex trauma histories, with an emphasis on pediatric chronic medical trauma and the effects on family dynamics, in addition to the effects of PCIT intervention strategies among underserved populations and medically fragile youth.
Jobert Poblete, MD
(he/him/siya)
Attending Psychiatrist, EMPWR Program
Volunteer Clinical Instructor, UCLA David Geffen School of Medicine
Dr. Poblete is a board-certified psychiatrist who works primarily in community private practice, as well as at EMPWR as an attending psychiatrist. Dr. Poblete is a general psychiatrist with a special interest in working with members of the LGBTQ+ community, people living with HIV, and people living with serious mental illness. He received his undergraduate education at UC Berkeley, his medical education at UC San Francisco, and his residency training at UCLA. Prior to starting his career in medicine, Dr. Poblete worked as a community organizer, in the labor movement, and in HIV prevention. His clinical and therapeutic practice is grounded in evidence-based medicine, the biopsychosocial model of health, critical social theory, Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, and Mentalization-Based Therapy.
Ivy Charlie Snyder, PhD
(she/her)
Dr. Snyder is the second-year LGBTQ+ Youth Trauma, Resilience and Community Education Post-Doctoral Fellow in the Division of Population Behavioral Health. She provides children, young adults, and families with clinical care grounded in LGBTQ-identity affirmation, informed by CBT, DBT, and meaning-centered psychotherapy principles.
Dr. Snyder received her PhD in Clinical Psychology (Health Emphasis) from Yeshiva University’s Ferkauf Graduate School of Psychology. She also attained minors in Clinical Neuropsychology and in Research Methodology and Statistics. She previously received an MA in Behavioral Health from the University of San Francisco, a program emphasizing cultural competence and collaboration for healthcare providers and systems. She has received clinical training in every borough of New York City, including at hospitals in the Weill Cornell, New York University, and Memorial Sloan Kettering systems. Her training has focused on work with adolescents and with adults of all ages: provision of individual therapy for a broad range of concerns including ADHD, anxiety, depression, psychosis, perinatal concerns, familial rejection of an LGBTQ identity, and grief; couples therapy; family therapy in the context of acute psychiatric hospitalization of a child; and psychological and neuropsychological assessment. She completed her predoctoral internship at Northwell Health – Long Island Jewish Zucker Hillside Hospital, where she served as a clinician in the Adult Partial Hospital program, Perinatal Center, LGBTQ Transgender Program, and Adolescent Inpatient Unit. She also continues to contribute to research around headache disorders and the psychological impacts of both symptoms and treatments for these conditions. Dr. Snyder focuses on providing a collaborative, nonjudgmental therapeutic space for people of all ages.
Allycen R. Kurup, PhD
(she/they)
Dr. Kurup is the first-year LGBTQ+ Youth, Trauma, Resilience, and Community Education Post-Doctoral Fellow in the Division of Population Behavioral Health. She provides youth, young adults, and families with clinical care grounded in LGBTQ-identity affirmation, from a framework of trauma-informed care using principles of third-wave CBT (e.g., DBT, ACT).
Dr. Kurup received their PhD in Clinical Psychological Sciences from Purdue University. They completed their predoctoral internship at The University of Vermont Medical Center in Burlington, VT. Her clinical and research work revolve around psychosocial wellbeing for LGBTQ+ youth and young adults. Dr. Kurup previously trained in two multidisciplinary gender health clinics, one housed in Indiana University Health in Indianapolis, IN, and the other housed in The University of Vermont Medical Center in Burlington, VT. In addition, they have received broad clinical training providing evidence-based treatment to young people with a range of clinical concerns including anxiety, depression and mood difficulties, trauma, obsessions and compulsions, ADHD, challenges with sleep, minority stress related to LGBTQ+ identities and other social identities, and coping with complex medical conditions, as well as diagnostic and neuropsychological assessment. Her research is also aimed to investigate youth wellbeing related to digital communication use (e.g., social media, text messaging). Dr. Kurup’s approach to therapy is highly collaborative and they strive to create a therapeutic environment that is warm, empowering, and validating.