Interim Chair:  Michael Makhinson, M.D., Ph.D.

Dr. Makhinson is interim chair and Clinical Professor in the Department of Psychiatry and Biobehavioral Sciences at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA.  He completed his M.D., and Ph.D. (neuroscience) degrees through the Medical Scientist Training Program at UCLA.  He then completed his Psychiatry residency, also at UCLA.

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.  He has interests and has published in areas of schizophrenia, medical decision-making, cognitive bias, brain stimulation, and psychedelic medicine.

Residency Program Director:  Michelle Tawa, M.D.

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.  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.  Thereafter, she joined as faculty in the department.  She has served as a co-chief in the adult outpatient services clinic and has also contributed services in the Adolescent Psychiatric Emergency Room.  She became the Program Director for the General Psychiatry Residency Training Program in July 2024.  Her clinical interests include mental health across the developmental lifespan, cross-cultural psychiatry, neurodiversity, LGBTQIA+ and women’s mental health issues, addressing systemic barriers to care, and the interface of spirituality and psychiatry.

Associate Residency Program Director:  Weiguo Zhu, M.D., Ph.D.

Dr. Zhu is board certified in general psychiatry and psychosomatic medicine.  In addition to his role as Associate Program Director, he is the co-director of Consultation/Liaison Psychiatry.

Dr. Zhu completed his medical education in China.  He obtained his Ph.D. in microbiology and immunology from the University of Arizona.  He had fellowship, training in clinical immunology at the Scripps Research Institute in La Jolla, California.  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.  Dr. Zhu returned to Harbor-UCLA as faculty in 2012.  From a research standpoint, Dr. Zhu is interested in understanding the interactions between the immune system and brain.  He is actively involved in clinical studies in DNS drug development and testing.