Mission, Integrity, and Excellence
The staff at ZSFG Neurology are committed to a culture of kindness and compassion in supporting the ZSFG Neurology's mission to deliver world-class neurological care at the sanctuary of sanctuaries for the underserved of San Francisco. Each staff member has a role that contributes directly to each of the four pillars of the Division: clinical care, education, research, and equity.
We are comprised of research and administrative teams.
Research Staff
The ZSFG Research Program seeks to improve the integration of the CRCs into the clinical team, increase familiarity with our research team and protocols, and develop support across the division for this research—which often informs improvements to clinical care for our patients. A few of our current studies at ZSFG include: StrokeNet; MOST, ARCADIA; SIREN: BOOST3, and others. Past studies include RAMPART, ESETT, POINT, and DEFUSE3.
Learn more about our research and specific programs.
The team’s clinical research coordinators are experts in acute care setting research, with a wide range of observational and interventional protocols.
The Neuro-Emergency team is comprised of CRCs Kate Peterson and Derby Gill.
The Coma Neuroscience Research Program is managed by Edilberto Amorim, MD and comprised of Satomi Ito, Vishnu Karukonda, Rajanikant Panda, Gerardo Velasquez, Bo Zhou, and Kevin Bao.
The Chow Research Group and Neuroinfectious Diseases Research Program is managed by Felicia Chow, MD and comprised of CRCs Meg Willson and Cassandra Recchioni.
Administration Staff
The ZSFG administrative team is comprised of Catharine Freyer, MBA, who is the Division Administrator, Liz Kong, the Office Manager, Carolina Gonzalez, who handles Administrative Operations, and Locus Yuen, who is the Clinical Revenue Analyst. This team is dedicated to ensuring that every aspect of our service is integrated, supported, and connected to our core values and mission.
- Education and Trainees. The ZSFG administrative team works closely with the Neurology Education Division, faculty, and hospital administration to support the residents, fellows, and medical students learning and delivering patient care at ZSFG.
- Facilities. ZSFG Neurology is in the new UCSF Pride Hall building next to ZSFG.
DPH Hospital Partners: Stroke Program
We have many DPH partners in delivering excellence of teaching and patient care at ZSFG Neurology. Sara Cole, NP, manages our Stroke Program. ZSFG is a designated advanced primary stroke center with Joint Commission certification. This certification signifies that it effectively meets the special needs of stroke patients and is very important to our teaching mission. Maintaining this certification requires partnership across the entire hospital, tracking of critical metrics, and demonstration of progress against Performance Improvement Projects (PIPs), some of which come from the San Francisco Health Plan and are critical to a portion of our Medi-Cal revenue. Sara’s database of clinical and historical data is useful for feasibility studies and other kinds of research.
Sara also organizes the monthly Stroke Simulation, an in-person training simulation of stroke activation, and works to improve the delivery of stroke care in hospital workflows through EPIC order sets and with leadership. The Stroke Program also coordinates a monthly neurovascular peer review meeting for nursing, radiology, and the neurocritical care faculty.