Mental/Behavioral Health

Dr. Jessica Bernacki is a licensed clinical psychologist who joined the Department of Medicine in 2013. She completed her doctoral training at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, her pre-doctoral internship in the UCLA Department of Psychiatry and Biobehavioral Sciences, and her postdoctoral fellowship at Stanford University in the Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry.

Dr. Timothy McCajor Hall has more than twenty years of research, teaching, and community involvement in LGBTQ+ issues, beginning in college when he co-founded an LGBTQ+ student magazine and continuing in medical school when he was the only openly LGBTQ+ student in his class at UCSD. His PhD in anthropology, based on three years of fieldwork in Czech Republic, examined processes of sexual identity development, relationships, and mental health considerations among gay and bisexual men

Dr. Hidalgo is a licensed clinical psychologist, researcher, and Associate Professor of Medicine-Pediatrics at UCLA. He completed his doctoral training at DePaul University and post-doctoral fellowship in the Department of Psychiatry at Harvard Medical School. Dr. Hidalgo practices exclusively in the Gender Health Program, where his patients are trans/gender-diverse individuals spanning from childhood to older adulthood.

Dr. Nicole Hisaka is a Licensed Clinical Psychologist at the UCLA Semel Institute for Neuroscience and Human Behavior and Child and Adolescent Psychiatry Department. She has been involved with UCLA EMPWR Program since 2020. Dr. Hisaka is currently one of the Attending Psychologist in the EMPWR Clinic and has experience working with LGBTQIA+ youth and their families, including youth exploring/questioning gender identity and/or sexual orientation. She practices from the Gender Affirmative Model.

Dr. Brandon Ito is Assistant Professor of Medicine – Psychiatry at UCLA. Dr. Ito completed his Adult Psychiatry training at the University of California, San Francisco and fellowship training in Child and Adolescent Psychiatry at the NYU Child Study Center and Bellevue Hospital where he served as Chief Fellow.

Dr. Elizabeth Ollen is the Clinical Director and Attending Psychologist for the EMPWR Program, which provides comprehensive mental health services for LGBTQ+ youth and adults. Dr. Ollen provides teaching and supervision to advanced trainees, provides direct clinical care to patients, facilitates the EMPWR Parent Resilience Class for parents of LGBTQ+ youth, and helps develop and deliver LGBTQ+ affirming training to the UCLA Health System. 

Dr. Natalia Ramos is the Medical Director for the EMPWR Program, an Assistant Clinical Professor of Psychiatry, and a board-certified Child, Adolescent, and Adult psychiatrist. Dr. Ramos oversees psychiatric evaluation and medication management for patients in EMPWR, as well as the EMPWR Teen Resilience Group, an 8-week therapeutic group that engages teens in learning cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) skills to manage identity-related stress and additional life stressors.