ADVISORS
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Sammy Saab, MD, MPH, AGAF is a Professor in the Departments of Internal Medicine and Surgery at the David Geffen School of Medicine. He is also Head of Outcomes Research in Hepatology at the Pfleger Liver Institute. Dr. Saab received his BS, MD, and MPH degrees from UCLA. He completed his residency in internal medicine at the University of California at San Diego (UCSD) Medical Center and a fellowship in gastroenterology/hepatology at the UCLA Center for Health Sciences. He also served as Chief Medical Resident at USCD.  Dr. Saab is board certified in gastroenterology and transplant hepatology. He has received honorary fellowship from several medical societies including the American Gastroenterology Association (AGAF), the American Association for the Study of Liver Diseases (FAASLD), and the American College of Gastroenterology (ACG).
 
Dr. Saab is active in many local, national, and international committees. He served on the Medical Advisory Committee of the Ventura County/ West Valley Chapter of TRIO (2005-2012), Practice Guidelines Committee of the American Society of Transplantation (2006-2008), and the Educational Committee of the American Association for the Study of Liver Diseases (2004-2007).  He currently on the local and national medical board for the American Liver Foundation. Dr. Saab was elected to American Association for the Study of Liver Diseases Nominating Committee in 2014. He previously served as member of United Network for Organ Sharing Membership and Professional Standards Committee and Performance Analysis and Improvement Subcommittee.

​Dr. Saab has been an investigator in numerous clinical trials, a frequently invited speaker worldwide, and leads an annual patient education seminar. He has been named one of the “Best Doctors in America,” has received the Distinguished Achievement Award from his Division of Digestive Diseases. Dr. Saab has published nearly 250 peer-reviewed manuscripts. He has authored many book chapters, editorials, abstracts, and poster presentations. Dr. Saab is on the editorial board of more than a dozen journals; he is the Liver Section Associate Editor for Journal of Clinical Gastroenterology. 

Mazen Noureddin, MD​ is the Director and Founder of Fatty Liver Program at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center with a focus on translational research, particularly in nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD). Dr. Noureddin has conducted investigational, translational and clinical studies of novel treatments for nonalcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH). Dr. Noureddin began his hepatology research during his internal medicine residency at the University of Southern California (USC). Following his residency, he moved to the National Institutes of Health (NIH), where he was enrolled in a three-year Hepatology Fellowship at the Liver Diseases Branch of the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases, which included a combined NIH/Duke University Master of Health Sciences in Clinical Research certification. After his NIH fellowship, Dr. Noureddin finished his Gastroenterology fellowship at the University of California, San Diego, where he focused on NAFLD and NASH and assessing the clinical utility of a new liver-imaging technique, MRI-proton density fat fraction (MRI-PDFF). This scanning methodology is currently considered the new reference standard for the imaging of fatty liver in NAFLD patients. Dr. Noureddin returned to the University of Southern California (USC) and established their fatty liver program to continue research on NAFLD/NASH, while conducting translational research and clinical trials. Subsequently, Dr. Noureddin teamed up with Cedars-Sinai in 2015 to establish the Cedars-Sinai Fatty Liver Program. He is currently active in a number of clinical studies investigating new drug treatments for NASH, researching the translational pathogenesis of NAFLD/NASH and is involved in novel liver biomarker research and development.

Steven-Huy Han, MD is the Director of the Hepatology Clinical Research Center and Assistant Director of the UCLA Asian Liver Center.  His research interests have focused on the treatment of chronic viral hepatitis B and C, the prevention of recurrent viral hepatitis after liver transplantation, and the prevention and treatment of hepatocellular carcinoma.  He is the Principal Investigator of the National Institute of Health (NIH) Hepatitis B Clinical Research Network in Los Angeles and multiple clinical studies involving treatment of chronic hepatitis B and C.  Dr. Han also serves on the editorial boards of Gastroenterology, Hepatology, and Clinical Gastroenterology and Hepatology and is a Guest Associate Editor for Gastroenterology and Digestive Diseases and Science.  He has published many articles in the area of viral hepatitis, liver transplantation, and liver cancer and is an active speaker, lecturing on these subjects both nationally and internationally.  He has been recognized by Best Doctors every year since 2003.  He is a past president of the Southern California Society of Gastroenterology and an ongoing council member. 
 
Dr. Han received his undergraduate degree in biochemistry from the University of California, Berkeley and then attended medical school at Albany Medical College in Albany, New York where he received his M.D. degree.  Following a residency in Internal Medicine at Santa Clara Valley Medical Center and Stanford University, Dr. Han completed a clinical fellowship in hepatology at the University of Southern California under the guidance of Dr. Telfer B. Reynolds.  He then trained at the University of California, Los Angeles where he completed a clinical fellowship in gastroenterology and transplant hepatology.  Since then, Dr. Han has remained at UCLA, where he is now Professor of Medicine and Surgery in the Division of Digestive Diseases and the Division of Liver and Pancreas Transplantation.  In addition to his patient care responsibilities in hepatology and liver transplantation, Dr. Han plays an active role in the clinical training of medical students, medical residents, and subspecialty fellows and is the current Program Director of the Advanced Transplant Hepatology Fellowship at UCLA.  Most recently, Dr. Han has been working with the UCLA Foundation to establish the Philip L. Palumbo Endowed Chair in Clinical Hepatology to honor the Chair’s donor.  With this endowed chair, the first hepatology chair at UCLA, Dr. Han hopes to further UCLA’s mission to advance research in liver diseases and to help educate future liver scholars.

Farrah Douglas, MA is the Executive Director at American Liver Foundation, Greater Los Angeles Division. Her office oversees seven counties including Los Angeles, Orange, Santa Barbara, Kern, San Bernardino, Riverside and Ventura, a population of 22 million with an estimated 2.5 million liver patients. Prior to joining the American Liver Foundation, Farrah served as an elected Council Member in the City of Carlsbad, CA as well as the Chief Development Officer of Tri-City Medical Center. Her leadership experiences in the non-profit sector extend over 38 years. Farrah holds a Master’s degree in Philosophy and a Bachelor’s degree in English and French Literature.

Mimi Chang, DNP is the Program Manager and Co-Founder of the Asian Pacific Liver Center (APLC). She has extensive experience in the specialty of liver disease including testing, treatment, monitoring, outreach, and education of hepatitis in the Asian American community. Her practicum is composed of the scores of non-profit, community-based and public health agencies she coordinates to mobilize behind the APLC programs. Working with APLC staff and volunteers, many communities at risk have rallied behind her to eradicate the hepatitis virus in Southern California. She has worked as a critical care nurse, nurse coordinator, and nurse practitioner in the Los Angeles area for over 30 years. She has participated in approximately 20 research projects over the past 10 years through funding from various organizations. She has worked as Sub-PI and study coordinator in several clinical trials in the area of liver diseases including chronic hepatitis B, chronic hepatitis C, and liver cancer. Dr. Chang’s research has appeared in publications such as the Journal of Viral Hepatitis, Digestive Diseases & Science, and Oncotarget. A native of South Korea, Dr. Chang holds a bachelor of science degree in nursing from Yonsei University in Seoul, a master of science in nursing and family nurse practitioner degree from UCLA, and a doctorate degree in nursing practice from Chamberlain College of Nursing. 

​Andrew H. Do, MPH is the Executive Consultant for Kaiser Permanente’s Medical Group Operations in Southern California. In this role, he acts as an advisor by structuring operational issues for resolution and leading the planning, management, and execution of key business processes associated with the Southern California Permanente Medical Group executive team, including performance management, strategic planning, communications, and tactical initiatives.  Andrew holds an MPH in Health Policy and Management from UCLA and currently is an Adjunct Professor in the UCLA Division of Social Sciences.