Dr. D. Nyasha Chagwedera, MD, PhD
Principal Investigator
Dr. Chagwedera serves as the Principal Investigator. As a physician-scientist, she operates at the intersection of clinical practice and research, with each domain continuously informing and refining the other: bedside observations generate hypotheses that drive her investigative work, while research findings feed back into her clinical reasoning and inform how she approaches patient care
Dr. Eliana Kim, MD
Psychiatry Resident
Dr. Kim graduated from the UCSF School of Medicine in 2025 and is currently a psychiatry resident at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center. Her project examines the role of ultra-processed foods in depression.
Dr. Gabriela Gutierrez, MD
Psychiatry Resident
Dr. Gutierrez graduated from the UCSF School of Medicine in 2026 and is now a psychiatry resident at the UCLA Semel Institute for Neuroscience and Human Behavior. She has published research in integrative medicine, sleep medicine, and women's mental health and is interested in a career focused on integrative and reproductive psychiatry, as well as on designing new models of care that bridge medical and psychiatric care systems.
Janessa Caroza, B.S.
Pre-medical student
Janessa is currently a clinical research volunteer investigating whether different types of exercise, such as aerobic or strength training, may benefit patients differently based on their mental and physical health characteristics. She is interested in identifying ways to better tailor exercise interventions to individual patients.
Dr. Dorothy Chiu, PhD, MSPH
Associate Specialist
Dr. Chiu, PhD, MSPH, is a research specialist at the Osher Center with interests in the epidemiology and application of integrative diet and stress approaches for public health. Dr. Chiu completed her doctoral studies in public health nutrition and mental health at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health where she examined associations between diet quality, socioemotional development, and academic performance in early adolescence, paying special attention to moderation of these relations by household poverty and child weight status. Her projects involve nutrition and diet interventions for depression and psychosis.
Mansa Devaki, B.A.
Pre-medical student
Mansa Devaki graduated from UC Berkeley with a B.A. in Neuroscience and is currently pursuing her MPH in Health Policy and Management at the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa. Her work focuses on the intersection of nutrition, metabolic health, and mental health, with an interest in translating research into practical approaches that support individuals with serious mental illness.