Christian T.

Christian’s journey began at UCLA, where he studied psychobiology, global health, and music history. He navigated college as a first-generation student at UCLA, serving as a caseworker and student leader for the Mobile Clinic Project, a street-side clinic delivering medical care and social services to individuals experiencing homelessness. He traveled to rural Nicaragua to deliver health care and public health services and spent two years teaching local underserved youth public health and nutrition. After graduating cum laude from UCLA, Christian took two gap years and managed large-scale, community-based clinical research studies targeting addiction medicine and HIV/AIDS patients in Los Angeles.

Christian’s formative healthcare and public health experiences and passion for advancing health and racial equity inspired him to apply to and attend the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA’s Program in Medical Education for Leadership and Advocacy (PRIME-LA). He completed his MS1 and MS2 years of medical school at UCLA before pursuing a career focused on research and equity, with the dream of becoming a civil rights and health justice attorney. He graduated from Brown University’s School of Public Health with a 4.0 GPA and received multiple merit-based scholarships for excellence in health policy and leadership.

Christian’s research experience spans clinical medicine, health technology, public health policy, medical education, and health equity. He has authored and co-authored peer-reviewed publications in journals Medical Science Educator, Applied Clinical Informatics, Cureus, AMIA Symposium Proceedings, and the Journal of the American Geriatrics Society. His work has been presented at national and international conferences, including the American Medical Informatics Association (AMIA) Annual Symposium, global health conferences, and academic medical centers across the country. His research has addressed topics ranging from telemedicine access and clinical decision support tools to anti-racism curricula in medical education and health policy decision-making.

Before becoming the Equity and Social Justice (ESJ) Policy Manager at the NYC Department of Health and Mental Hygiene’s Office of the General Counsel, Christian served in multiple research-related roles. He has worked as a staff research associate and telemedicine researcher at UCLA Geffen’s Center for Behavioral and Addiction Medicine, a health policy and economics researcher at UCLA Health, a researcher in the Mayo Clinic’s Department of Anesthesiology and Perioperative Medicine, a clinical research coordinator at UC Irvine Health, and the Health Technology Project Manager for Brigham and Women’s Hospital’s Division of General Internal Medicine and Primary Care. 

In these roles, Christian has led and supported multidisciplinary research teams, managed IRB-approved studies, conducted qualitative and quantitative analyses, and helped translate research findings into real-world clinical and policy impact. He has mentored junior researchers, medical students, and trainees by providing guidance on study design, literature review, data analysis, abstract and manuscript preparation, and conference presentations. These experiences directly inform Christian’s work as a research mentor, where he helps students develop leadership, ownership, and confidence in their research trajectories.

A public health researcher, former medical trainee, and experienced research mentor, Christian has a strong record of guiding pre-medical students through research development and academic storytelling. Christian works closely with pre-medical and medical school applicants to help them identify research opportunities and clarify their academic narratives. He specializes in mentoring students through all stages of the research process, from identifying meaningful research questions and navigating lab or clinical research environments to developing abstracts, posters, and manuscripts, and translating research experiences into compelling personal statements and interviews. 

Christian is known for his supportive, structured, and equity-centered mentoring style. He places particular emphasis on helping first-generation, underrepresented, and non-traditional students build confidence, articulate their intellectual growth, and recognize the value of their lived experiences as future physicians and scientists. His approach integrates rigor with encouragement, helping students develop strong analytical skills while also cultivating clarity, resilience, and purpose.

Christian’s passion for mentoring pre-medical students is rooted in the belief that research is not only a credential but a formative process that sharpens critical thinking, ethical reasoning, and curiosity, qualities essential to excellent physicians. He is deeply committed to helping students grow into thoughtful, equity-minded clinicians and researchers who are prepared to contribute meaningfully to medicine and public health.