Our Faculty and Leaders

Masha Barsky, MD, began her career in clinical research in Boston before pursuing medicine, where she found her true passion for patient care and education. She earned her medical degree at the University of California, Irvine, and went on to complete her Internal Medicine residency training at the University of California, San Diego. During residency, she developed a strong interest in teaching and mentorship, which inspired her to join the UC Irvine hospitalist faculty. 

Before assuming her current role, she served as Associate Program Director for the UC Irvine Internal Medicine Residency Program in Orange. In that role, she helped design and implement innovative medical education curricula and pathways, fostering resident development in teaching, scholarship and leadership. This experience laid the foundation for her vision in shaping the new Irvine residency program. 

As Program Director of the new Internal Medicine Residency Program in Irvine, she is dedicated to fostering a supportive and inclusive learning environment that promotes both professional excellence and personal growth. Her academic interests include compassionate communication around serious illness and end-of-life care, as well as advancing medical education with a particular focus on clinical reasoning. 

Outside of her leadership role, she is known for her open-door approach and commitment to resident well-being, reflecting her belief that residents are the heart of the hospital and the future of medicine. Outside the hospital, you can find her playing with her dog, Tupac, and two toddlers.

Originally from Ohio, Christine Fung, MD, attended The Ohio State University in Columbus, where she earned both her undergraduate and medical degrees with a brief layover in Japan participating in the Japan Exchange and Teaching Programme. Branching out of the Midwest, she completed her internal medicine residency at the University of California, Irvine, and subsequently served as a chief resident.

Working together with her amazing chief class, she had the privilege of shaping the program to provide a supportive and welcoming residency experience. Her favorite moments from that year include coffee rounds where the chief residents would make coffee and tea (including hand grinding beans) in the workrooms for the wards teams and graduation where they coordinated a musical number involving the Associate Program Directors (APDs) and other chief residents to conclude the night by serenading the graduating class with a modified rendition of “Lean on Me.” These heartwarming experiences led her to stay on as faculty in the UC Irvine hospitalist group. 

She is very excited to develop the Irvine internal medicine residency program as an Associate Program Director and looks forward to bringing light and warmth to the new residency program. 

Outside of medicine, she loves her new home of California with its beautiful weather and abundant nature parks. When not in the hospital, you can find her searching for new trains to ride with her two toddlers or checking out new hiking spots. 

Yun-San (Amy) Huang, MD, is a double boarded internist and pediatrician, providing primary care at the Wen Ambulatory Care Center in Irvine. She has worked in academic medicine for over 15 years, and joined UC Irvine as an associate professor in 2022 in the Division of General Internal Medicine.

Medical education has always been her passion. She has taught at three different medical schools and along the way created curricula for medical students, residents and faculty members. She pioneered a global health track and inspired a resident as clinician educator pathway for the residency programs at her previous institutions. At UC Irvine School of Medicine, she leads the Medical Mandarin elective and the Med-Peds Interest Group for medical students.

She strives for a work-life wellbeing and is the Wellness Officer of the Department of Medicine. Outside of work, she can be found doing outdoor activities and exploring new restaurants with her family. She is an avid tennis player and a proud tennis nerd. 

Parinaz Abiri, MD, PhD is a passionate hospitalist who joined the UCI team after completing her residency at the UCLA-Olive View Internal Medicine residency program and obtaining her MD and PhD from UCLA. With a strong passion for research, she focuses on improving clinical outcomes through evidence-based approaches and innovative treatment strategies. Her academic interests span across translational and clinical research that take advantage of her background in bioengineering and clinical medicine. Within systems-based practice, her passion for quality improvement and medical education drives her to enhance healthcare delivery within the academic domain.  

She is particularly focused on fostering an environment of supportive learning and professional growth for residents. Known for her collaborative spirit, she is dedicated to mentoring residents to become compassionate, competent and confident physicians with a strong sense of scientific inquiry. She has presented at multiple national and international conferences and is excited to share her experiences with the next generation of physicians in her role as Associate Program Director. 

Monil Patel, MD, is a hospitalist and works as a clinical informaticist at UC Irvine, where he enjoys combining frontline patient care with a passion for advancing healthcare through technology. His clinical focus lies in delivering high-quality inpatient medicine, while his academic and leadership interests revolve around the development and implementation of artificial intelligence tools to improve provider efficiency, documentation accuracy and health system operations. 

He is actively involved in resident education, curriculum development in clinical informatics and research projects focused on predictive modeling, ambient AI and chat-bot driven interventions to address social determinants of health. He has presented nationally at multiple clinical informatics conferences and collaborates with multi-institutional research teams on data science initiatives. Outside of medicine, he co-founded a non-profit that supports education and nutrition in developing countries and enjoys mentoring students navigating careers in healthcare and technology. In his free time, he loves building remote control airplanes, enjoys airplane spotting, and hopes to get his pilot license soon.

Andrew Reikes, MD, FACE, has served as a faculty member in the UC Irvine Department of Medicine, Division of General Internal Medicine for almost 30 years. He also serves as the Medical Director for Primary Care and Multispecialty Care services at the WEN Center for Advanced Care in Irvine, and as the Chief, Division of General Internal Medicine in Orange. He divides his professional time between these administrative pursuits, a busy clinical ambulatory practice in internal medicine and endocrinology, diabetes and metabolism, and teaching of students, residents and endocrinology fellows. Over the last 30 years, he has taught and mentored over 200 medical students in the clinical foundations teaching program and over 50 endocrine fellows as well. He participates in some clinical research activities and recently served as a co-investigator on the All of Us study of precision medicine. He is board certified in both internal medicine and endocrinology, diabetes and metabolism and enjoys seeing patients with challenging metabolic conditions. In his free time, he is an avid cyclist and runner, and loves to travel, read and spend time with family.

Ali A. Naqvi, MD, is an Assistant Clinical Professor and Cardiologist at UC Irvine Health. He works closely with patients to manage conditions such as hypertension, hyperlipidemia, coronary artery disease, heart rhythm abnormalities and heart failure. His clinical interests include cardiac imaging — specifically echocardiography and nuclear imaging. Additionally, he is leading the cardio-oncology program as the director, and he has been spearheading this program in close collaboration with the Division of Oncology.

He earned a combined medical degree and master's degree in public health from Tufts University School of Medicine in Boston, Massachusetts. He completed an internship and residency in internal medicine at UCI Medical Center, where he also completed fellowship training in cardiovascular disease. He received the "Fellow of the Year" award during his fellowship. Throughout his training, he has served in various leadership positions, including as chief resident and California's Fellow-in-Training (FIT) representative to the American College of Cardiology.

During his free time, he enjoys spending time with family. He has been quite fortunate to have traveled the globe from a young age and hopes to continue this passion and learn about different cultures. 

Jennifer Valerin, MD, PhD, is an associate clinical professor and board-certified medical oncologist who specializes in gastrointestinal malignancies and hereditary pancreatic cancer. She earned her medical degree from George Washington University School of Medicine in Washington, D.C. She completed a residency in internal medicine at UCLA and a fellowship in hematology/oncology at MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, Texas.

She later received a PhD in Cancer Biology from the University of Texas at Houston/MD Anderson Cancer Center. Her doctoral research focused on resistance mechanisms to PARP inhibitors in hereditary pancreatic cancer. Her current research interests include gastrointestinal and hereditary cancers, translational genomics, and early-phase clinical trials.

Dr. Valerin's primary goal is to study the response of hereditary cancer patients to novel therapeutic agents. This work drives the development of rationally designed, hypothesis-driven clinical trials with strong integrated correlative sciences. To this end, she is heavily involved in the development, implementation, and analysis of clinical trials.

She is the author or co-author of numerous papers on pancreatic and other cancers, and her work has been recognized with a Young Investigator Award from ASCO and a basic science research award from the AACR. In her free time, she enjoys going to concerts and spending time with her children and family.
 

Originally from Los Angeles, Garima Agrawal, MD, was first introduced to medicine through bench research at City of Hope. She went on to attend St. Bonaventure University in New York and later pursued a Master of Public Health at USC, which shaped her approach to patient care through a culturally and socioeconomically competent lens. Medical school followed at George Washington University in Washington, DC, and internal medicine residency at UC Davis in Sacramento — a time marked by the challenges of the pandemic and the growth that came with it. She completed medical school at George Washington University in Washington, D.C., followed by an internal medicine residency at UC Davis, a time marked by the challenges of the pandemic and the growth that came with it.

This path led Garima Agrawal, MD, to join the hospitalist group at UC Irvine, where the team-based, academic environment continues to be especially rewarding. The group thrives on mutual learning while caring for a diverse and complex patient population. One of the most meaningful aspects of working at UC Irvine, in her view, is the supportive and collaborative atmosphere, where learners are challenged in thoughtful, constructive ways and have access to a wide range of resources tailored to different learning styles. Garima Agrawal, MD, is honored to be part of the journey in training the next generation of physicians. 

Dan Otterson, MD, became a primary care physician after completing a combined Internal Medicine-Pediatrics residency at the Medical College of Wisconsin. His clinical interest focuses on illness prevention, management of chronic diseases, transition of care from pediatric to adult and cancer survivorship. Outside of the clinical setting, he enjoys being a teacher and mentor to many medical students at UC Irvine as well as residents rotating through his clinic. While not a California native, he enjoys the yearlong good weather that allows him to go on beach walks with his wife and dog.

Reema Patel is one of the residency program’s incoming Chief Residents. She plans to pursue a fellowship in Pulmonary and Critical Care, with particular interests in ICU education, team-based care, and improving systems to better support both patients and trainees. 

She is excited to contribute to the development of the new program at the Irvine campus, playing an active role in shaping its structure and making decisions with lasting impact. Reema is passionate about teamwork, teaching, and working on initiatives that enhance the residency experience for everyone. 

A proud graduate of the UC Irvine Internal Medicine residency program, Ray Quy has the honor of being one of the first chief residents of the new UC Irvine–Irvine Internal Medicine Program. In his role, he is committed to fostering a culture of academic excellence, inclusivity and warmth. 

He is deeply passionate about serving the local community—particularly the large Vietnamese population in Orange County. As a Southern California native, he encourages new residents to take full advantage of the area's sunshine, beaches and vibrant restaurant scene. Outside of the hospital, he enjoys running, snowboarding, cooking and exploring the local food culture.