Physicians and Research Faculty

Jean B. DeKernion, MD
Chair of Urology, Senior Associate Dean, Clinical Operations, Professor of Urology. Residency, Case Western Reserve in Cleveland , fellowship, National Cancer Institute. Certified by the American Board of Surgery and American Board of Urology. World leader in Urologic Oncology, co-authored the first textbook on the subject. Founder, Society of Urologic Oncology, member of the American Board of Urology, Chair, Department of Defense prostate cancer Research program. Kidney, bladder and prostate cancer are the areas in which he has made the most significant contributions.

Jennifer T. Anger, MD, MPH
Jennifer Anger, MD, MPH, Assistant Professor of Urology, Division of Pelvic Medicine, Incontinence and Reconstructive Urology.  Dr. Anger specializes in urologic reconstruction in men and women. Clinical interests include male urethral reconstruction and stricture disease, post-prostatectomy incontinence, post-radiation voiding dysfunction, robotic pelvic floor reconstruction for vaginal prolapse, and urinary incontinence in women.

William Aronson, MD
Chief of Urology at Olive View UCLA Medical Center and Chief of Urologic Oncology, Veterans Administration West Los Angeles. His clinical specialties are Prostate Cancer and General Urology. His clinical and laboratory research focuses on treatment of advanced prostate cancer and diet and lifestyle factors for chemoprevention and treatment.

Arie Belldegrun, MD
Director of the Institute of Urologic Oncology at UCLA, Professor of Urology, Chief of the Division of Urologic Oncology, and holds the Roy and Carol Doumani Chair in Urologic Oncology. He also serves as the Director of the Urologic Oncology Fellowship Program at UCLA, which was accredited by the Society of Urologic Oncology in 2001.

Carol Bennett, MD
Chief of Urology, West Los Angeles VA Healthcare Center. Her research interests are focused on the treatment of neurogenic bladder disorder, sexual dysfunction, and infertility. Currently a board member of the American Foundation of Urologic Diseases, and the Pfizer/AUA Visiting Professorships in Urology.  Dr. Bennett is also a Professor at David Geffen School of Medicine, UCLA.

Arnold I. Chin, MD, PhD
Assistant Professor of Urology. Dr. Chin completed his M.D., Ph.D. and Urology residency training program at UCLA. His clinical interests include urologic oncology, with an emphasis on bladder cancer. He performs open, laparoscopic, and robotically-assisted surgery for bladder, prostate, and renal malignancies.

Bernard M. Churchill, MD
Judith and Robert Winston Chair in Pediatric Urology and founding director of Clark Morrison Children's Urological Center at UCLA. Previously, Chief of Urology at the Hospital for Sick Children in Toronto , Canada. Dr. Churchill is the 25th Recipient of the Urology Medal granted by the American Academy of Pediatrics in recognition of outstanding career accomplishments.

Isla Garraway, MD
Assistant Professor of Urology at UCLA, Attending Urologist, Greater Los Angeles-VA Medical Center. Dr. Garraway’s primary clinical and research focus is on prostate cancer. She is a member of the Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center and heads a laboratory investigating prostate development and carcinogenesis.

H. Albin Gritsch, MD
Surgical Director, Kidney Transplantation Program at UCLA. The program performs both deceased and living donor transplants. His basic research interest is in the development of new ways of monitoring the immune system after transplant to reduce the risk of rejection and the complications of the immune suppressing drugs.

Ja-Hong Kim, MD
Assistant Professor, Division of Pelvic Medicine and Reconstructive Surgery, Department of Urology. Dr. Kim completed her MD at Baylor College of Medicine, Urology residency training at Cleveland Clinic, and Pelvic Medicine and Reconstructive Surgery fellowship at UCLA. Her clinical areas of interest include voiding dysfunction, vaginal prolapse, and genitourinary reconstruction. She performs pelvic floor reconstruction, laparoscopic, and robotically-assisted surgery.

David A. Leff, MD
Dr. Leff has been in private practice for over 35 years and is currently an Assistant Clinical Professor of Urology at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA. Dr. Leff has a clinical interest in the treatment of diseases of the prostate, urinary stone disease, erectile dystunction and general urology.

Steve Lerman, MD, FAAP
Dr. Lerman helped to advance the use of laparoscopic surgery in children with great success. He participates in clinical trials investigating new treatments for urological conditions in children. He has advanced the use of minimally invasive techniques in the treatment of vesicoureteral reflux, a common reason for pediatric urologic referral.

Mark S. Litwin, MD, MPH
Professor of Urology and Public Health. He trained at Harvard and specializes in testicular, bladder, prostate and kidney cancer. Dr. Litwin’s research focuses on improving quality of life and quality of care in urologic oncology. He also created and directs IMPACT, a state-funded program that provides free prostate cancer care statewide. (www.california-impact.org).

Leonard S. Marks, MD
Professor of Urology, completed training at UCLA in 1978. Received an American Foundation for Urologic Diseases scholarship award and a prostate cancer Foundation research award. His current research interests involve prostate markers, imaging, and minimally-invasive treatments.

James A. Orecklin, MD, MPH
Clinical Professor of Urology, Dr. Orecklin received his M.D. from the University of Michigan in 1965. He completed his Urology residency at UCLA in 1973 and has been on the clinical faculty since 1973. In 1997 he received a Masters in Public Health in Healthcare Policy and Administration, at UCLA. He is the Medical Director of the IMPACT program.

Allan Pantuck, MD, MS, FACS 
Associate Professor, Urology. Dr. Pantuck specializes in urologic cancers and has a long standing interest in kidney, prostate, bladder cancers, developing new treatment strategies through basic and clinical research and in the study of nutritional approaches to their prevention and treatment.

Jacob Rajfer, MD
Professor of Urology at UCLA and Chief of Urology, Harbor-UCLA Medical Center. Head of the male infertility and male sexual dysfunction clinic, Urology. Dr. Rajfer was one of the discoverers of the mechanism by which a man’s erection occurs which led to the discovery of drugs like Viagra. Dr. Rajfer also treats men with benign and malignant prostate disorders.

Shlomo Raz, MD
Oversees Division of Female Urology, Reconstructive Surgery, Urodynamics. He is a leader in developing new treatments for female urology conditions and has pioneered innovations that are standards of care worldwide for vaginal, uterine prolapse, urinary incontinence, pelvic floor disorders, voiding dysfunction, and surgical reconstruction after cancer.

Robert E. Reiter, MD 
Professor, Urology, Molecular Biology, Co-Director of the Prostate and Genitourinary Oncology Program in UCLA's Jonsson Cancer Center, Director of Urologic Research. Attended Stanford Medical School , completed urologic training at Stanford and Baylor College of Medicine, completed additional fellowship training in urological cancer at the National Cancer Institute.

Matthew Rettig, MD

Larissa Rodriguez, MD
Joined UCLA faculty in 2001, co-director, Division of Female Urology, Reconstructive Surgery, Urodynamics, Director of Female Urology Research. Dr. Rodriguez is involved in all aspects of female urology and reconstructive surgery, brings a solid background in clinical research on benign urologic conditions such as incontinence, prolapse, interstitial cystitis and overactive bladder.

J. Thomas Rosenthal, MD 
A specialist in renal transplantation, Dr. Rosenthal received NIH funding for participation in the first NIH sponsored clinical trials in transplantation. Dr. Rosenthal now serves as the Chief Medical Officer of the UCLA Hospital System and is Associate Vice Chancellor in the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA.

Jonathan Said, MD
Dr. Jonathan Said is Professor of Pathology and Urology at the David Geffen School of Medicine and Chief of Anatmic and Surgical Pathology at UCLA Medical Center. He is an expert in the pathology diagnosis of urologic diseases, and has published extensively on neoplastic diseases of the kidney and prostate.

Christopher Saigal, MD, MPH
Associate Professor, Urology. Clinical practice, UCLA Santa Monica campus. He is on the staff of the West Los Angeles Veterans Affairs Medical Center and the UCLA-Olive View Medical Center. Dr. Saigal has had a longstanding clinical interest in urologic cancers and the surgical treatment of benign prostatic hyperplasia. His research is focused on patient-centered decision support and quality of care for urologic conditions.

Peter Schulam, MD, PhD
Vice Chair, Urology, Chief of the Division of Endourology and Minimally Invasive Surgery, Professor of Urology and Co-Director of the Center for Advanced Surgical and Interventional Technology (CASIT). He has a longstanding clinical interest in minimally invasive surgery and laparscopic techniques.

Jennifer Sandra Singer, MD
Clinical interests include adult and pediatric renal transplantation and end-stage renal disease. Special interests and training in congenital urologic anomalies.  Her research interests include the use of transplant immunosuppression and the molecular aspects of chronic allograft rejection.  Special interest in urinary tract dysfunction in pediatric patients with end-stage renal disease.

Robert B. Smith, MD
Professor, Urology. Faculty member, completed UCLA residency, 1969. Assistant Professor of Urology, Chief of the Renal Transplant service. Associated Professor of Urology / Professor of Urology. Served in the Air Force, Lieutenant Colonel, Chief of Urology, Lackland Air Force Base. Vice-Chairman, Urology, Chief of Staff, UCLA Medical Center. Director, Urology residency training. His clinical interests are in the treatment of urologic malignancies, and in reconstructive urologic cases.

Jeffrey Veale, MD
Dr. Veale is an assistant Professor of surgery at the David Geffen School of Medicine in the UCLA Department of Urology. He specializes in Renal Transplantation and is the Director of the UCLA Donor Exchange Program. This innovative program helped pioneer the first transcontinental "chain" transplantation.

Nestor Fadrique Gonzalez-Cadavid, PhD 
Adjunct Professor, Urology, Director, Urology Research Laboratory LABioMed-Harbor/UCLA, Professor, Endocrinology, Charles Drew University. Consecutive PhDs, Biochemistry, University of Buenos Aires and London. Professor of Biochemistry, Cell Biology, Central University of Venezuela, Visiting Professor/scholar, MIT, Caltech, City of Hope , UCLA. His current research interests focus on the modulation of stem cell differentiation by nitric oxide/cGMP, and myostatin, and its application to the therapy of erectile dysfunction, diabetic nephropathy, urogenital disease associated with tissue fibrosis. Funded by NIH, Department of Defense, and other agencies.

Christina Jamieson, PhD
Dr. Jamieson brings expertise on functional genomics and molecular biology and immunology. Her research focuses on understanding how steroid hormones regulate cell death and survival in normal and cancerous cells. Dr. Jamison completed a post-doctoral fellowship at the University of California , San Francisco following her Ph.D. work at Brandeis University.

Eric Vilain, MD, PhD
Assistant Professor, Human Genetics, Pediatrics, Urology.  He studies genetics of mammalian sexual development. He is developing mouse models for disorders of sexual development and studying direct genetic effects on behavioral sex differences. Dr. Vilain earned his B.S. in Biochemistry and Ph.D. in Genetics at Universite Pierre et Marie Curie, Paris; M.D., Faculte de Medicine Necker Enfants Malades.  He has received multiple awards, recently the Basil O'Connor Award from the March of Dimes.

Lily Wu, MD, PhD
Faculty member, Urology since 1998. Graduated, member of the inaugural class of Medical Scientist Training Program (M.D., Ph.D. program).  Her education training ranges from clinical disciplines such as pediatrics and hematology/oncology to molecular and cellular fields such as adenovirus biology, transcription regulation, and gene therapy.  Besides her research endeavors, a major part of her effort involves mentoring students at all levels, from undergraduates, graduate, postdoctoral fellows to clinical residents.

Gang Zeng, PhD
Associate Professor in Urologic Oncology and Member of the Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center. His current work is focused on cancer immunodiagnosis, immunotherapy, and prostate cancer stem cell biology.