Meet Our Team
Principal Investigator
Folasade P. May, MD, PhD, MPhil
- Associate Professor of Medicine, Vatche and Tamar Manoukian Division of Digestive Diseases
- Director, Melvin and Bren Simon Gastroenterology Quality Improvement Program
- Associate Director, UCLA Specialty Training and Advanced Research Program
- David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA
- Associate Director, UCLA Kaiser Permanente Center for Health Equity in the UCLA Health Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center
Dr. May graduated cum laude from Yale University with a degree in molecular, cellular, and developmental biology. After college, she attended the University of Cambridge to study epidemiology and international health, earning a master's of philosophy in epidemiology before returning to the U.S. to attend Harvard Medical School. She completed her internship and residency in internal medicine at Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) and remained at MGH for one year as a hospitalist and clinical educator in the Department of Medicine Academic Medicine Quality Program and as manager of Trainee Affairs for the MGH Multicultural Affairs Office.
Dr. May came to UCLA in 2011 to begin her gastroenterology fellowship and was part of the UCLA Specialty Training and Advanced Research (STAR) program. During her fellowship, she earned a PhD in health policy and management from the UCLA Fielding School of Public Health. Her doctoral dissertation addressed Black-White disparities in colorectal cancer incidence, screening and outcomes.
Upon completing her GI fellowship, Dr. May joined the digestive diseases faculty at UCLA with a dual appointment in the Veterans Affairs. She is the director of the May Laboratory, which engages in health services research and quality improvement related to population health, preventive health, and health disparities at UCLA Health, in Federally Qualified Health Centers (community health centers), and in the Veterans Affairs. Research spans several areas from the epidemiology of disease and disease risk factors to implementation science to improve disease outcomes. As director of the Melvin and Bren Simon Gastroenterology Quality Improvement Program, Dr. May also oversees a portfolio of quality improvement projects at UCLA Health to improve the quality of care for UCLA Health patients with gastrointestinal and liver conditions. Dr. May is passionate about improving awareness about preventive health and health equity and is involved in advocacy at the state and national level to develop and encourage policy to improve healthcare delivery. She has received numerous local and national awards for her research, community engagement and advocacy, including recognition from the American Cancer Society, National Colorectal Cancer Roundtable, American College of Gastroenterology, and American Gastroenterological Association, and the Biden Cancer Moonshot. Her research is funded by the National Institutes of Health/National Cancer Institute, Tobacco Related Disease Research Program, Broad Stem Cell Research Center, and Stand Up to Cancer.
Dr. May is a member of the UCLA Health Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center (JCCC) and an associate director of the UCLA Kaiser Permanente Center for Health Equity. She is also an assistant director for the UCLA STAR Program and the director of grants for the UCLA David Geffen School of Medicine Global Health Program.
Current Lab Members
Helen Y. Xu, MD
Dr. Xu graduated from Yale with a degree in psychology. She completed her medical degree at Sidney Kimmel Medical College at Thomas Jefferson University, where she graduated cum laude with distinction in research. She completed her IM residency training at UCLA. Dr. Xu has conducted research in child psychiatry, hepatology and fungi of the Amazonian rainforest. Her areas of interests include quality improvement, medical education, liver transplantation and colorectal cancer prevention.
Jessica Tuan, MPH
Jessica earned a bachelor of science degree in public health at the University of Washington, and continued her education at UCLA’s Fielding School of Public Health where she earned a master of public health degree. As part of UCLA Kaiser Permanente Center for Health Equity, she manages multiple research projects focused on increasing colorectal cancer screening and eliminating health disparities in Federally Qualified Health Centers.
Jayraan Badiee, MPH
Jayraan joins the Vatche & Tamar Manoukian Division of Digestive Diseases from the trauma service at Scripps Mercy Hospital in San Diego, where she was a research epidemiologist with the trauma research team. Her areas of interest included traumatic DVT/PE, DVT prophylaxis, and related injury patterns, multi-center research, and statewide patterns of traumatic injury and surgical intervention. She collaborated closely with general surgery residents to complete research projects.
Jenna Alarcon, MPH, CHES
Jenna received a BS in public health from CSU Dominguez Hills & an MPH from UCLA’s Fielding School of Public Health. She was study coordinator in the Division of Infectious Diseases at LA Biomedical Research Institute & also worked at the Center of Culture, Trauma and Mental Health Disparities under Dr. Gail Wyatt on HIV/HIV prevention projects. Jenna is now the project coordinator for the colorectal polyp surveillance study to improve CRC surveillance at UCLA Health.
Miriam Dvorsky
Miriam manages the Colorectal Cancer Prevention NRG Oncology clinical trial, FORTE. Prior to joining the May Lab, she coordinated clinical trials for the UCLA Center for Inflammatory Bowel Diseases. She feels working in clinical research gives her a unique opportunity to make a real difference in people's lives.
Megan Aaronson, MD, MSCR
Dr. McLeod earned her undergraduate degree in biology and Spanish at Kalamazoo College and, after working in Dr. Kathleen Collins’ HIV lab for two years, went on to earn her MD from the University of Michigan. She earned a master of science in clinical research from the University of Michigan’s Rackham graduate school. She graduated from her internal medicine residency at UCLA in June 2023.
Amarachi Erondu, MD, MS
Dr. Erondu earned her BA in human evolutionary biology from Harvard College. She then worked as a QI researcher in the Enteral Tube Program at Boston Children's Hospital. She received her MD and MS in biomedical informatics from the University of Chicago. Her research interests include improving the transition from pediatric to adult subspecialty care for patients with chronic medical conditions and utilizing electronic health record data to both identify and address healthcare disparities.
Jaime O. Yang, MD
Dr. Yang graduated from Carnegie Mellon University with a bachelor in science in biology and a minor in biomedical engineering. She attended medical school at University of California Los Angeles and is currently a resident in internal medicine at UCLA. Her research interests include investigating how to leverage technology and artificial intelligence in helping deliver high quality healthcare
Matthew Zhao
Matthew is a fourth-year medical student at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA. He earned a BS in chemistry from New York University. Prior to medical school, he was a study coordinator at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine. His research interests include understanding healthcare disparities and investigating colorectal cancer screening at Federally Qualified Health Centers.
Former Lab Members (Onward to Pursue Their Dreams)
- Elizabeth (Lizzie) Aby, MD
- Janet Adeola, MS, MPH, MD Candidate
- Omar Bakr, MD
- Aileen Bui, MD
- Vivian Chang
- Frank Chen, MD
- Edgar Corona, MPH, MD, MSIV
- Mayte Cruz, MPP
- Vivy T. Cusumano, MD
- Sadie De Silva, MD
- Dean Ehrlich, MD
- Artin Galoosian, MD, MS
- Natalia Garcia Peñaloza, BS, MD Candidate
- Shailavi Jain, MD
- Olivia Jordan, MD
- Kara Faktor, BS, MD Candidate
- Lotte Keikes, MD
- Bethlehem Michael, MD, MPH Candidate
- Anthony Myint, MD
- Bao Sean H. Nguyen, MD
- Fiona Obiezu, MS, MD Candidate
- Diana Partida, MD
- Devin B. Patel, MD
- Camille Soroudi, MD
- Tina Roosta Storage, MD
- Omar Viramontes, MD
- Liu Yang, MD, MPH
- Christine Yu, MD