Mona Mojtahedzadeh, MD

Responsibilities

I am deeply grateful for the position I’ve been entrusted with at Simms-Mann/UCLA Center for Integrative Oncology which allows me to continue to perform a work of meaning within a valued population who embrace me into some of their most pivotal moments along their cancer illness trajectory. Such multidisciplinary setting enables me to utilize and further advance my skills in whole person care through working collaboratively with esteemed provider members within the field from a diverse range of backgrounds.
Practicing mindful listening, empathy, respect, and clarity are some of the values I exercise to uphold in communications with peers as well as advocating for within our patient-provider team networks.

Combined with education, providing evidence-based and customized care to our patients that is appreciative of everyone’s unique biopsychosocial attributes are some disciplines I continue to strive for towards optimum flourish here. The psychology of human emotions and behavior is fascinating, and I am particularly touched by potential benefits that spirituality and a belief in higher power can employ on individual’s sense of peace and purpose in life.

The connection between body and soul has long been established and I am one surrounded by many to appraise the importance and the positive impact that well-regulated mental health services (which may or may not always include a medication) can employ on individuals’ illnesses and their suffering.

Training and Professional Work

I am board certified in psychiatry as well as in consultation-liaison psychiatry. I obtained my MD from Tehran, Iran’s Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences following which I truly enjoyed my time of service as a general and family practitioner to an underserved health and urgent care clinic in Iran. Inspired about public health and committed to observe those in need, I was equivalently humbled through my subsequent years of service as the primary physician consultant for the resettlement unit of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) office in Tehran/Iran as well as caring as a clinician for asylum seekers at the International Organization for Migration.
I am grateful to my psychiatry training through residencies at Texas Tech University Health and Science Center coupled with Loma Linda University Health where I was granted our department’s research award of the year. I then completed a consultation-liaison (C-L) psychiatry fellowship at the University of Southern California and Los Angeles County (LAC+USC) with an extensive year-long inpatient and outpatient C-L experience plus additional subspecialty opportunities in areas of reproductive psychiatry, palliative medicine, transplant service, collaborative care model, and HIV psychiatry.
Prior to my present position, I had the privilege of service and further inspiration in areas of inpatient and outpatient psycho-oncology and psychiatric care of the bone marrow transplant patients through my full-time contributions as an Assistant Professor in the department of supportive care medicine at the City of Hope National Medical Center where I was also appointed adjunct assistant professor of Psychiatry at the USC.
Over the course of my career, I have engaged in activities and non-profit work that have had profound impacts on me. Raising awareness on psychosocial needs of individuals treated for cancer, empowering women, education, and facilitating support groups for a non-governmental organization (NGO) that helps mothers and children impacted by HIV, advocating for refugees’ wellness as a present member of the physicians for human rights, and collaborating to establish support network for kidney donors in Iran are to name a few.
My scholarly work includes over 32 peer-reviewed publications, posters, and book chapters plus engagements in interviews and journal reviews all together in areas of medicine, mental health, and their overlap with emphasis on clinician well-being as well as on the awareness, advocacy, and health equity in marginalized populations within the field of psycho-oncology and beyond including within women’s mental health, refugee groups, and transgender populations.

Personal Interests and Perspectives

As a third-generation physician, Medicine is a path I have respected for long. While fluent in English, I am originally Persian, and Farsi is my native tongue. By the same token, I greatly value learning about other languages and cultural backgrounds, articulating passionately in conversational Spanish and basic level French.
Nature, art, and poetry are both a passion for me and therapy. I enjoy playing sports and am heavily invested in family time and friendships.