Fola May, MD, PhD

Director

Dr. May is an Assistant Professor of Medicine in the Vatche and Tamar Manoukian Division of Digestive Diseases at the University of California Los Angeles (UCLA) and a staff physician in Gastroenterology in the Greater Los Angeles Veterans Affairs (VA) Healthcare System. Dr. May graduated from Yale University with a degree in Molecular, Cellular, and Developmental Biology and then attended the University of Cambridge (UK) to obtain a Masters in Epidemiology. She attended Harvard Medical School and trained in internal medicine at Massachusetts General Hospital before joining the UCLA Specialty Training and Advanced Research (STAR) Program, where she completed her gastroenterology fellowship and a PhD in Health Policy and Management from the UCLA Fielding School of Public Health. Currently, she is the Director of Quality Improvement in Gastroenterology for UCLA Health and the Director of the May Lab at UCLA Health, which performs epidemiological studies, health services research, and implementation science to address suboptimal cancer screening rates overall and among racial and ethnic minorities. This work includes the evaluation of interventions to improve colorectal cancer screening and follow-up after abnormal screening at UCLA Health, in the VA, and in Federally Qualified Health Centers (FQHC) in Los Angeles. In her role as Director of Grants and Postgraduate Research for the UCLA Global Health Program, Dr. May strives to increase clinical care capacity and strengthen health systems for underserved populations in global settings. Currently, she resides in Los Angeles with her husband and three children.