Leadership Team

Ana Ramirez

Dr. Ana Ramirez is an Associate Clinical Professor and Director of Pediatric Services at the UC San Diego Health Eating Disorders Center for Treatment and Research. She received her Ph.D. from Texas A&M University in Clinical Psychology and completed a postdoctoral fellowship at the EDC. In addition to overseeing the pediatric program, Dr. Ramirez provides clinical supervision and individual, family, and group therapy. She has training in family-based treatment, dialectical behavior therapy, cognitive behavioral therapy, and exposure response prevention.

Christina E. Wierenga

Christina Wierenga, Ph.D., is a Professor and clinical neuropsychologist in the Department of Psychiatry at the University of California San Diego. She is an expert in the neurobiology of eating disorders and is the Director of the Research at the UCSD Eating Disorder Center for Treatment and Research, where she investigates cognitive, behavioral and brain mechanisms underlying symptom expression in eating disorders utilizing neuropsychological, neuroimaging and computational neuroscience approaches to guide development of neurobiologically-informed treatments.

Breana Janke

Breana Janke is a Registered Dietitian who has been working for UCSD EDC since 2012. Breana earned her Bachelor of Science Degree in Foods and Nutrition from San Diego State University. Shortly after completing her undergraduate work, Breana was accepted into a dietetic internship program where she completed one year of supervised practice experience and subsequently earned her credential as a Registered Dietitian.

Kim Claudat

Dr. Kim Claudat is an Associate Clinical Professor and Director of Adult Services at UC San Diego Health Eating Disorders Center for Treatment and Research. Dr. Claudat began her work at UC San Diego as a postdoctoral fellow. In addition to overseeing the adult program and providing clinical supervision, she provides individual, group, and family therapy. Her clinical and research interests focus on the connection between eating disorders and emotion regulation difficulties, particularly as this relates to commonly co-occurring disorders such as PTSD and Substance Use Disorders.

Danica Torres

Danica oversees the nursing team as well as regulatory compliance across all programs at the UC San Diego Eating Disorders Treatment and Research Program. Danica joined the EDC in December 2010. In her time working at the EDC, Danica has seen the value of evidence-based treatment, compassionate care and is proud to be a long-standing member of the team.

Leslie Karwoski Anderson

Dr. Leslie Karwoski Anderson is Clinical Professor, Assistant Clinical Director, and Training Director at the UC San Diego Eating Disorders Center. She has expertise in DBT, and is a DBT- Linehan Board of Certification, Certified Clinician™, and Trainer for Behavioral Tech. She has a Ph.D. in clinical psychology from the University of Kansas, and completed her clinical internship at Duke University Medical Center.

Roxanne Rockwell

Dr. Roxanne Rockwell is Associate Clinical Director of the UC San Diego Health Eating Disorders Treatment and Research Center, Director of Adolescent Services, and Associate Clinical Professor in the Department of Psychiatry at UC San Diego. A founding member of the Center since its inception in 2005, Dr. Rockwell has played a central role in shaping its nationally recognized adolescent treatment programs.

Mary Ellen Trunko

Dr. Mary Ellen Trunko, Clinical Professor of Psychiatry, was one of the founding members of the UC San Diego Health Eating Disorders Center in 2005. Throughout the years and substantial growth of the organization, she has been a key member of the executive leadership team responsible for planning, developing, implementing and managing clinical services. As Medical Director of all adult, adolescent and pediatric treatment programs, Dr. Trunko leads the psychiatric/medical teams servicing PHP and IOP patients.

Terry Schwartz

Terry Schwartz is the Clinical Director of the UCSD Eating Disorders Programs. She has over 15 years of extensive experience in working with eating disorders, as well as providing Eating Disorders treatment trainings at multiple university and county facilities. She is an Assistant Clinical Professor of Psychiatry at the UCSD Medical School. From 1997 through 2005, she served as Associate Medical Director at UCSD Outpatient Psychiatric Services, and Medical Director for the UCSD Co-Occurring Disorders Program.

Walter H. Kaye

Anorexia nervosa has the highest rate of death of any psychiatric illness. We are now beginning to understand why people develop these disorders, and we are using this information to develop more effective treatment.

Walter H. Kaye, MD

Dr. Walter Kaye was recruited to the UC San Diego faculty from the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, where he was research director of the eating disorder program, and where he received a NIMH senior scientist award.