SpecialtiesCombined family medicine/psychiatry residents and alumni
The combined psychiatry/family medicine residents and alumni at UC Davis come from diverse backgrounds and have equally diverse interests. We believe this richness in experience is important in the development of a competent and empathic physician.
Current psychiatry/family medicine residents
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Adeel was raised in Queens and Long Island, NY and is still adjusting to the beautiful weather in Sacramento. As an undergraduate, he attended Cornell University where he majored in human biology, health and society. The holistic and primary care focus at New York College of Osteopathic Medicine inspired Adeel to find the same in his residency program. Treating the patient as a whole has become one of his guiding principles in medicine. With a strong interest in primary care, as well as in mental health, the family medicine and psychiatry program at UC Davis was a perfect match. His focus is on cultural sensitivity in medicine with a special interest in the adolescent population. | |
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Michelle is happy to have made the move from southern California to Sacramento for the most amazing family medicine and psychiatry combined residency. She is excited to be back in northern California after spending four deliriously enjoyable years at Stanford as an undergraduate, where she demonstrated her prescience (in hindsight) by majoring in biological sciences and psychology. She returned home to southern California for medical school at Loma Linda University, where she was inspired by the concept of "whole person care" (and a free dinner sponsored by Drs. Han and McCarron) to pursue a combined residency. Michelle hopes to use her combined training to provide excellent holistic care for her patients in the course of medical mission work both here, in high-need areas, and abroad. She spends her free time with her husband, Andy, meandering around the Pocket area, exploring Sacramento and San Francisco, playing tennis, watching Bravo reality shows, and plotting their return trips to southern California for Pinkberry and Korean BBQ. | |
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Daniel was born in San Francisco and grew up on the east coast near Washington D.C. After playing soccer and golf in college, he initially worked as a CPA and then as financial director of a non-profit public service organization. He then attended law school at UCLA and was a corporate lawyer for a number of years during which time his privilege to serve as conservator for his grandfather who suffered from Parkinson's disease changed his life. Daniel decided to embark on the spiritual journey of becoming a physician with a vision towards specializing in geriatric/hospice/palliative care medicine. While in medical school he was consistently struck by the phenomenon of how important it is to emotionally connect with patients as their perception of the doctor-patient relationship as well as their perceptions of their illness can influence how they respond to illness as much as any procedure or pharmaceutical agent. | |
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Shannon (second from right) is originally from Hawthorne, CA (County of Los Angeles), but feels much more like a native northern Californian, having completed her undergraduate and medical school education at UC Davis. Prior to enrolling in college Shannon enjoyed a rich experience traveling around the United States with her family. During medical school she helped to create a medical screening clinic for homeless individuals. She has continued to work on the evolution of the homeless clinic throughout her residency with the goal of establishing a designated medicine/psychiatry student-run clinical site for medical student education. She has also developed a strong interest in obstetrics and women’s mental health. In collaboration with the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, she is exploring clinical opportunities to provide comprehensive medical and mental health care to ante-and post-partum women. In her free time, Shannon enjoys spending time with her many close family members and friends who live in Sacramento, and participating in the endless procession of birthday parties, weddings, school events, baptisms. The list goes on….. | |
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Alvin was born and raised in San Francisco. After graduating from UC Davis with a degree in cell biology and minors in art studio and Chinese (although you couldn't tell) he stayed with UC Davis for medical school and combined residency. In addition to interests in psychosomatics, telepsychiatry and group therapy, Alvin also hopes to develop a medical clinic for psychiatrically-ill patients in general (not just dual-diagnosis) and explore ways to integrate non-pharmacological methods in the treatment of chronic disease. In his free time, Alvin loves to follow the San Francisco Giants, Forty Niners and Golden State Warriors. He is a fan of visual storytelling and apparently is a recovering World of Warcraft addict. At recent social events we have also uncovered a previously unknown talent for karaoke. | |
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Joby enjoyed a music-fueled college experience in Ann Arbor before briefly taking a job as a songwriter in Los Angeles. He later went on to participate in a clinical trial for a substance abuse treatment medication before entering medical school at UC Davis in 2001. He chose the combined family medicine/psychiatry program at UC Davis to be better equipped to deal with chronic illness as well as to facilitate his interests in addiction medicine. He noted UC Davis Medical Center's stellar reputation for clinical primary care education as well as Sacramento's wide bike-friendly boulevards, music scene, racial and cultural diversity as reasons for staying at UC Davis. Joby has special interests in addiction medicine and chemical dependency research, chronic disease management and most issues at the interface of medicine and psychiatry. He has played trombone for 22 years and continues to play regularly with several area bands, including one that earned a Sacramento Music Award for best Latin band. He also enjoys most athletic pursuits, especially basketball and ultimate frisbee, and he is an activist for various social justice causes, especially regarding matters related to improvements in the delivery of treatment to drug users. |
Psychiatry/family medicine alumni
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Arlene Burton, M.D. |
Arlene graduated from the combined program in 2004. She completed her undergraduate degree in biochemistry and molecular biology at University of California, Santa Cruz and went on to work at Genentech, Inc. for five years as a research assistant on a monoclonal antibody for the treatment of breast cancer before entering medical school at the University of Utah. She is currently working for Kaiser where she focuses her time on comprehensive geriatric care, psychosomatics and urgent care. Her interests include playing with her golden retriever Abbie, most outdoor activities and spending time with friends. | |
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Jaesu Han, M.D. |
Jae graduated from the combined program in 2002 and is currently the program's director. He grew up near Torrance, California and obtained his B.S. from UC San Diego before moving on to UC Davis for medical school. Initially interested only in primary care, he quickly realized how prevalent psychiatric illness was in that setting and decided on combined residency training at UC Davis. In addition to his duties as the program director, he is also involved in emergency psychiatry at the Sacramento County Mental Health Treatment Center, works as a primary care provider and consultant at the Sacramento County Primary Care Clinic and precepts in the UC Davis Family Medicine Resident Clinic. When not spending time with his wife and two daughters he can be found playing hockey or trying to cajole anyone interested in joining him for a night of karaoke. | |
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Karen Hopp, M.D. |
Karen graduated from the combined program after serving as the combined chief resident in 2007. She graduated from the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis with a B.Ss in economics. After a varied career including economic consulting, sales of sporting goods and computer systems, Karen discovered medicine while working in the field of radiology. After eight years in imaging center development, payor contracting, financial analysis, and referrer relations, Karen returned to school at Mills College in their post-baccalaureate pre-med program. She attended medical school at UC Davis. While there, she learned that her longstanding commitment to primary care could be combined with the field of psychiatry. After graduation, Karen accepted a position in nearby Woodland where she works as a primary care provider and performs psychiatric consults in the outpatient and inpatient settings. Married and the mother of two children, she enjoys cooking, performing arts, and her new (time-consuming) "hobby" as a doctor. One of the things Karen really likes about the combined program is the almost unlimited flexibility as a physician that dual training provides. | |
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Mikail Meyerovich, M.D. |
Mikail graduated from the combined program in 2005. He completed his undergraduate education at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles, receiving a B.S. in biology. Mikail went on to receive his M.D. degree from the UC Davis and joined combined family medicine and psychiatry residency program at UC Davis in 2000. He has specific interests in alternative medicine (energy medicine) and an effort to combine all three aspects of the human being: body, mind, spirit. | |
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Julie graduated from the combined program after serving as the combined chief resident in 2006. She was born and raised in sunny Honolulu, Hawaii and attended the University of Hawaii, receiving a bachelor of arts degree in zoology and a minor in history in 1995. She also attended medical school in Hawaii at the John A. Burns School of Medicine. Prior to medical school, Julie was employed as a lab technician at the Pacific In Vitro Institute, a genetics research laboratory at the University of Hawaii and the state chemistry department. Since graduating, Julie has split her time working mornings as a primary care provider at the busy Sacramento County Primary Care Clinic and afternoons as an inpatient psychiatrist at Sutter Center for Psychiatry. She is currently building a home on the big island of Hawaii and plans to return there in the next couple years. She enjoys home improvement projects, gardening, outdoor activities and traveling the mainland. | |
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Shannon graduated from the combined program in 2003 and is currently the medical director of Northgate Point Regional Support Team, a county-contracted mental health clinic serving over 2,100 patients. As a volunteer clinical faculty member, she supervises second year psychiatry residents rotating at Northgate for outpatient continuity clinic. She is also the secretary for the Department of Psychiatry's Diversity Advisory Committee, treasurer of the Central California Psychiatric Society, and coordinates a psychiatric service for the Paul Hom Asian Clinic (a medical student-run clinic serving the Chinese community on Saturdays). Her professional interests include cultural competence, especially working with Southeast Asian refugees, and medical-psychiatric interface. In her leisure time, Shannon can usually be found playing Sudoku and/or spending time with her husband and three year-old daughter. |
