{"id":12561,"date":"2026-01-13T14:30:14","date_gmt":"2026-01-13T22:30:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dhs.lacounty.gov\/harbor-ucla-medical-center\/?page_id=12561"},"modified":"2026-09-30T17:56:09","modified_gmt":"2026-10-01T00:56:09","slug":"department-leadership","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/dhs.lacounty.gov\/harbor-ucla-medical-center\/gme\/psychiatry\/department-leadership\/","title":{"rendered":"Leadership"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"wpb-content-wrapper\"><p>[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text css=&#8221;.vc_custom_1768343464538{padding-top: 20px !important;padding-right: 20px !important;padding-bottom: 20px !important;padding-left: 20px !important;background-color: #D3D2D2 !important;}&#8221;]<strong>Chair:\u00a0 Michael Makhinson, M.D., Ph.D.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Dr. Makhinson is chair and clinical professor in the Department of Psychiatry and Biobehavioral Sciences at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA.\u00a0 He completed his M.D., and Ph.D. (neuroscience) degrees through the Medical Scientist Training Program at UCLA.\u00a0 He then completed his Psychiatry residency, also at UCLA.<\/p>\n<p>After residency, Dr. Makhinson then joined the Harbor-UCLA faculty, spending 17 years as Co-Director of the Psychiatry Service before taking the position of interim chair.\u00a0 He has interests and has published in areas of schizophrenia, medical decision-making, cognitive bias, brain stimulation, and psychedelic medicine.[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text css=&#8221;.vc_custom_1790815961805{padding-top: 20px !important;padding-right: 20px !important;padding-bottom: 20px !important;padding-left: 20px !important;background-color: #D3D2D2 !important;}&#8221;]<strong>Residency Program Director:&nbsp; Michelle Tawa, M.D.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Dr. Tawa is board certified in general psychiatry and child and adolescent psychiatry. She completed her undergraduate education at the University of California, Berkeley with a B.A. in Integrative Biology, and earned her doctorate at the University of California, Davis School of Medicine. &nbsp;She joined the Harbor-UCLA Department of Psychiatry with general psychiatry residency, and she continued at Harbor-UCLA to complete a fellowship in Child and Adolescent Psychiatry.&nbsp; Thereafter, she joined as faculty in the department.&nbsp; She has served as a co-chief in the adult outpatient services clinic and has also contributed services in the Adolescent Psychiatric Emergency Room. &nbsp;She became the Program Director for the General Psychiatry Residency Training Program in July 2024.&nbsp; Her clinical interests include mental health across the developmental lifespan, cross-cultural psychiatry, neurodiversity, LGBTQIA+ and women\u2019s mental health issues, addressing systemic barriers to care, and the interface of spirituality and psychiatry.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Associate Residency Program Director: Eric Wagreich, M.D.&nbsp;<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Dr. Wagreich is an adult and forensic psychiatrist. He received his bachelor&#8217;s degree at UCLA, and after pursuing a career in wilderness education and addition research, he changed course to pursue a career in medicine. Dr. Wagreich attended the Pennsylvania State University College of Medicine in Hershey Pennsylvania where he was inducted into the Gold Humanism Honor Society and received the Leonard Tow Award for Humanism in Medicine. Dr. Wagreich received his residency training at the LAC + USC Psychiatric Residency Training Program and served as Chief Resident for the Inpatient Psychiatry Service. He attended fellowship in forensic psychiatry at the USC Institute of Psychiatry and the Law. Prior to coming to work at Harbor-UCLA in the psychiatric emergency department, Dr. Wagreich worked at Exodus Recovery.<\/p>\n<p>In addition to his work as Associate Residency Program Director, Dr. Wagreich works in the psychiatric emergency department, and also has a private practice in forensic psychiatry. Dr. Wagreich has particular interest in teaching residents and medical students about personal finance and ensuring trainees are financially prepared for their futures as physicians. He teaches a personally-designed, five-part lecture series on the topic.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Associate Residency Program Director:&nbsp; Weiguo Zhu, M.D., Ph.D.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Dr. Zhu is board certified in general psychiatry and psychosomatic medicine.&nbsp; In addition to his role as Associate Program Director, he is the co-director of Consultation\/Liaison Psychiatry.<\/p>\n<p>Dr. Zhu completed his medical education in China.&nbsp; He obtained his Ph.D. in microbiology and immunology from the University of Arizona.&nbsp; He had fellowship, training in clinical immunology at the Scripps Research Institute in La Jolla, California.&nbsp; Upon completion of his internship and residency at Harbor-UCLA, he joined the faculty at Keck School of Medicine\/USC, where he was the director of behavioral medicine service at Los Angeles County-USC Medical Center.&nbsp; Dr. Zhu returned to Harbor-UCLA as faculty in 2012.&nbsp; From a research standpoint, Dr. Zhu is interested in understanding the interactions between the immune system and brain.&nbsp; He is actively involved in clinical studies in DNS drug development and testing.<\/p>\n<p>[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column][\/vc_row]<\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text css=&#8221;.vc_custom_1768343464538{padding-top: 20px !important;padding-right: 20px !important;padding-bottom: 20px !important;padding-left: 20px !important;background-color: #D3D2D2 !important;}&#8221;]Chair:\u00a0 Michael Makhinson, M.D., Ph.D. Dr. Makhinson is chair and clinical professor in the Department of Psychiatry and Biobehavioral Sciences at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA.\u00a0 He completed his M.D., and Ph.D. (neuroscience) degrees through the Medical Scientist Training Program at [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":81,"featured_media":0,"parent":12494,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"page-templates\/template-subsite-basic-page.php","meta":{"_oasis_is_in_workflow":0,"_oasis_original":0,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-12561","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v28.6 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Leadership - Harbor-UCLA Medical Center<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/dhs.lacounty.gov\/harbor-ucla-medical-center\/gme\/psychiatry\/department-leadership\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Leadership - Harbor-UCLA Medical Center\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text css=&#8221;.vc_custom_1768343464538{padding-top: 20px !important;padding-right: 20px !important;padding-bottom: 20px !important;padding-left: 20px !important;background-color: #D3D2D2 !important;}&#8221;]Chair:\u00a0 Michael Makhinson, M.D., Ph.D. Dr. Makhinson is chair and clinical professor in the Department of Psychiatry and Biobehavioral Sciences at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA.\u00a0 He completed his M.D., and Ph.D. (neuroscience) degrees through the Medical Scientist Training Program at [&hellip;]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/dhs.lacounty.gov\/harbor-ucla-medical-center\/gme\/psychiatry\/department-leadership\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Harbor-UCLA Medical Center\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2026-10-01T00:56:09+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/dhs.lacounty.gov\\\/harbor-ucla-medical-center\\\/gme\\\/psychiatry\\\/department-leadership\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/dhs.lacounty.gov\\\/harbor-ucla-medical-center\\\/gme\\\/psychiatry\\\/department-leadership\\\/\",\"name\":\"Leadership - Harbor-UCLA Medical Center\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/dhs.lacounty.gov\\\/harbor-ucla-medical-center\\\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2026-01-13T22:30:14+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2026-10-01T00:56:09+00:00\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/dhs.lacounty.gov\\\/harbor-ucla-medical-center\\\/gme\\\/psychiatry\\\/department-leadership\\\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/dhs.lacounty.gov\\\/harbor-ucla-medical-center\\\/gme\\\/psychiatry\\\/department-leadership\\\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/dhs.lacounty.gov\\\/harbor-ucla-medical-center\\\/gme\\\/psychiatry\\\/department-leadership\\\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Harbor-UCLA Medical Center\",\"item\":\"https:\\\/\\\/dhs.lacounty.gov\\\/harbor-ucla-medical-center\\\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Graduate Medical Education (GME)\",\"item\":\"https:\\\/\\\/dhs.lacounty.gov\\\/harbor-ucla-medical-center\\\/gme\\\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":3,\"name\":\"Psychiatry\",\"item\":\"https:\\\/\\\/dhs.lacounty.gov\\\/harbor-ucla-medical-center\\\/gme\\\/psychiatry\\\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":4,\"name\":\"Leadership\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/dhs.lacounty.gov\\\/harbor-ucla-medical-center\\\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/dhs.lacounty.gov\\\/harbor-ucla-medical-center\\\/\",\"name\":\"Harbor-UCLA Medical Center\",\"description\":\"Just another Network site\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\\\/\\\/dhs.lacounty.gov\\\/harbor-ucla-medical-center\\\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Leadership - Harbor-UCLA Medical Center","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/dhs.lacounty.gov\/harbor-ucla-medical-center\/gme\/psychiatry\/department-leadership\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Leadership - Harbor-UCLA Medical Center","og_description":"[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text css=&#8221;.vc_custom_1768343464538{padding-top: 20px !important;padding-right: 20px !important;padding-bottom: 20px !important;padding-left: 20px !important;background-color: #D3D2D2 !important;}&#8221;]Chair:\u00a0 Michael Makhinson, M.D., Ph.D. Dr. Makhinson is chair and clinical professor in the Department of Psychiatry and Biobehavioral Sciences at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA.\u00a0 He completed his M.D., and Ph.D. (neuroscience) degrees through the Medical Scientist Training Program at [&hellip;]","og_url":"https:\/\/dhs.lacounty.gov\/harbor-ucla-medical-center\/gme\/psychiatry\/department-leadership\/","og_site_name":"Harbor-UCLA Medical Center","article_modified_time":"2026-10-01T00:56:09+00:00","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Est. reading time":"2 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/dhs.lacounty.gov\/harbor-ucla-medical-center\/gme\/psychiatry\/department-leadership\/","url":"https:\/\/dhs.lacounty.gov\/harbor-ucla-medical-center\/gme\/psychiatry\/department-leadership\/","name":"Leadership - Harbor-UCLA Medical Center","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/dhs.lacounty.gov\/harbor-ucla-medical-center\/#website"},"datePublished":"2026-01-13T22:30:14+00:00","dateModified":"2026-10-01T00:56:09+00:00","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/dhs.lacounty.gov\/harbor-ucla-medical-center\/gme\/psychiatry\/department-leadership\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/dhs.lacounty.gov\/harbor-ucla-medical-center\/gme\/psychiatry\/department-leadership\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/dhs.lacounty.gov\/harbor-ucla-medical-center\/gme\/psychiatry\/department-leadership\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Harbor-UCLA Medical Center","item":"https:\/\/dhs.lacounty.gov\/harbor-ucla-medical-center\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Graduate Medical Education (GME)","item":"https:\/\/dhs.lacounty.gov\/harbor-ucla-medical-center\/gme\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"name":"Psychiatry","item":"https:\/\/dhs.lacounty.gov\/harbor-ucla-medical-center\/gme\/psychiatry\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":4,"name":"Leadership"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/dhs.lacounty.gov\/harbor-ucla-medical-center\/#website","url":"https:\/\/dhs.lacounty.gov\/harbor-ucla-medical-center\/","name":"Harbor-UCLA Medical Center","description":"Just another Network site","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/dhs.lacounty.gov\/harbor-ucla-medical-center\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dhs.lacounty.gov\/harbor-ucla-medical-center\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/12561","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dhs.lacounty.gov\/harbor-ucla-medical-center\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dhs.lacounty.gov\/harbor-ucla-medical-center\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dhs.lacounty.gov\/harbor-ucla-medical-center\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/81"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dhs.lacounty.gov\/harbor-ucla-medical-center\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12561"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/dhs.lacounty.gov\/harbor-ucla-medical-center\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/12561\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":16462,"href":"https:\/\/dhs.lacounty.gov\/harbor-ucla-medical-center\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/12561\/revisions\/16462"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dhs.lacounty.gov\/harbor-ucla-medical-center\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/12494"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dhs.lacounty.gov\/harbor-ucla-medical-center\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12561"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dhs.lacounty.gov\/harbor-ucla-medical-center\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12561"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dhs.lacounty.gov\/harbor-ucla-medical-center\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12561"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}