David Meltzer, MD, PhD
Program Director, Comprehensive Care Physician (CCP) Program and Comprehensive Care, Community, and Culture Program (C4P); Co-Director, UChicago Health Lab; Chief, Section of Hospital Medicine; Professor, Medicine, Economics, and Public Policy
Dr. Meltzer is Director of Comprehensive Care Physician (CCP) Program at the University of Chicago, where he is the Fanny L. Pritzker Professor in the Department of Medicine, Department of Economics and the Harris School of Public Policy Studies. He also serves at the University as the Chief of the Section of Hospital Medicine, Director of the Center for Health and the Social Sciences, and Director of the Health Lab within the Urban Labs. He has practiced as a hospitalist and primary care physician at the University of Chicago for over 20 years and grew up on the South Side of Chicago. Trained both as an MD and a PhD in Economics, Dr. Meltzer developed the CCP program based on economic principles and a commitment to bringing sustainable patient-centered care to complex patients of diverse socioeconomic means on the South Side and in communities nationally and internationally. He currently leads several studies assessing the effects of the CCP model on health care outcomes and costs. He is thrilled to be able to support the University of Chicago CCP clinical team and others like them who are seeking to improve the care and outcomes of patients at increased risk of hospitalization while minimizing the burden of health care costs to individuals and society.

Harold Pollack, PhD
Co-Director, UChicago Health Lab Helen Ross Professor, School of Social Service Administration; Co-Director, University of Chicago Crime Lab
Dr. Pollack is Co-Director of the Comprehensive Care, Community, and Culture Program (C4P), Co-Director of the Health Lab, and Co-Director of the Crime Lab at the University of Chicago. He is the Helen Ross Professor at the School of Social Service Administration, a committee member of the Center for Health Administration Studies (CHAS) and an affiliate professor in the Biological Sciences Collegiate Division and the Department of Public Health Sciences. He has published widely at the interface between poverty policy and public health.

Emily Perish, MPP
Director of Operations & Business Development
Emily joined the CCP team while pursuing her Masters of Public Policy at the University of Chicago where she focused on health policy, inequities and economics. After graduating, she was selected to participate in the Administrative Fellowship at University of Chicago Medicine, continuing to work with the CCP program around development and expansion. Before graduate school, Emily managed district operations and strategic development within the Illinois House of Representatives and performed independent research about the use of mobile health interventions to improve maternal health outcomes. Emily is passionate about increasing access to high quality, holistic health care for all people.

Grace Berry LaShore, MD
Clinical Associate of Medicine
Director of Clinical Operations
Dr. LaShore joined the CCP Program in July 2015, shortly after completing her Internal Medicine residency at Columbia University in NY. As a physician who was born and raised in the medically underserved area of central Brooklyn, NY, her mission has always been to work in medical settings in areas of great medical need. Joining the CCP program gave her the opportunity to do this, as well as the opportunity to care for some of our sickest patients. She values the deep relationships she has built with her patients through this program. Dr. LaShore is also the course director for the CCP 4th year medical student elective, and is the Director of Clinical Operations for the CCP Program.

V. Ram Krishnamoorthi, MD, MPH
Assistant Professor of Medicine
Dr. Krishnamoorthi has been with the Comprehensive Care Physician (CCP) Program since 2014, after spending many years caring for veterans and underserved populations at the Hines Veterans Hospital and Loyola University Medical Center. Like the other CCP physicians, he provides primary care and inpatient care for patients with medically and socially complex situations. Given the impact that medical problems have on people’s overall lives, he is particularly interested in holistic health and wellness and strategies to integrate behavioral health into the primary care setting. As an Assistant Professor with the Pritzker School of Medicine, he also teaches healthcare policy and has given talks around the Chicago area on healthcare reform and advocacy.

Justin Porter, MD
Assistant Professor of Medicine
Dr. Porter joined the CCP Program in August 2021 after completing an internal medicine fellowship at the University of Chicago.  He is drawn to the challenge of providing inpatient and outpatient care to patients with complex medical and social needs.  His research interests include the efficient utilization of physician time, new models of hospitalist care, and improving continuity of care between inpatient and outpatient providers.

Joyce Tang, MD, MPH
Associate Professor of Medicine
Dr. Tang joined the CCP Program in July 2015, after spending seven years as a primary care physician and health services researcher at Northwestern University. She was drawn to CCP because of the program’s team-based, patient-centered design, with continuity of the patient-provider relationship across care settings. She enjoys working collaboratively with patients and their families to meet patients’ health goals. Within the Comprehensive Care Program, Dr. Tang leads the group’s Patient and Family Advisory Council and also co-leads qualitative research efforts. In addition, she co-directs the Clinical Skills and Reasoning course for first and second year medical students.

Aisha Uraizee, MD
Comprehensive Care Physician
Dr. Uraizee joined the CCP Program in August 2025 after completing her residency in Internal Medicine/Pediatrics at University of Illinois in Chicago and Pediatric Hospital Medicine fellowship at Medical College of Wisconsin in Milwaukee. When she is not taking care of adult patients, she spends time at Comer and La Rabida Children’s Hospitals taking care of hospitalized pediatric patients. Her interests include transitions of care (inpatient to outpatient and youth to adulthood), which is what drew her to the CCP Program, with the hopes of creating a similar program with medically and socially complex pediatric patients. Dr. Uraizee also precepts for students in the Ambulatory Internal Medicine program. In her free time, she enjoys watching true crime documentaries, spending time with her husband and cat, and exploring the Chicago food scene with her friends and family.

Anitra Thomas, RN, BSN
CCP Nurse
Anitra has been a Registered nurse for the comprehensive care program since 2014.she has previously held positions as a Medical assistant and LPN. she received her Bachelor’s degree of Nursing from Grand Canyon University. Overall, she has a total of twenty years of experience in the medical field. her current role is providing medical advice, preparing patients for their appointment, POC testing and ordering medical durable equipment. She is a dedicated nurse with exceptional clinical, didactic and leadership skills as well being very passionate about continuity of care and providing excellent care to her patients.

Euniece Locke, RN
CCP Nurse

Lakristiana Love
CCP Medical Assistant

Nicole Gier, MSW, LCSW
Senior Advisor for Social Work and Behavioral Health
Nicole focuses her work across the continuum of interdisciplinary healthcare settings. Her career has unfolded in various settings including community hospitals, primary care, and academic medical settings. She joined the Comprehensive Care Program (CCP) at UChicago Medicine in 2014. Within CCP, she develops social service interventions and behavioral health programming alongside an amazing interprofessional team of physicians, nurses, social workers, researchers, and community health workers. Nicole applies Acceptance & Commitment Therapy (ACT), Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT), & mindfulness frameworks in healthcare settings as a way to guide interprofessional team communication, to explore social determinants of health, & to empower individuals who are suffering to lead meaningful lives. Additionally, Nicole enjoys teaching graduate social work students and medical students at UChicago’s Pritzker School of Medicine, Crown Family School of Social Work, and Brown University’s Warren Alpert School of Medicine. 

Nancy Galvez, LCSW ACM-SW
CCP Social Work Manager
Nancy is a Bilingual Licensed Clinical Social Worker who joined our team in June 2022. She brings with her 14+ years of experience working in the field of Social Work ranging from Child Protective Services, Medical Case Management for Adults living with HIV, Inpatient Neurology & Neurosurgery Social Work and Care Coordination. Nancy received her BSW at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and a Masters in Clinical Social Work at The University of Chicago Crown Family School of Social Work, Policy in Practice. Nancy also holds an American Case Management Association Certificate for Social Work, which specifically addresses Case Management in health delivery system settings.  Nancy is passionate about making meaningful connections with the patients and families she serves and strives to take a respectful, strength based collaborative approach.

Megan Riddle, LSW
CCP Social Worker
Megan joined the Comprehensive Care Program in July 2024 after receiving her master’s degree from DePaul University and completing her undergraduate studies in Social Welfare and Justice at Marquette University. Megan’s experience and interest stem from her work with underserved populations, where she developed a strong commitment to advancing health equity, social justice, and patient-centered care. Megan brings a background in community outreach, case management, and advocacy, all of which inform her holistic and compassionate approach to supporting patients within the program.

Ciara Smith, LSW
CCP Social Worker

Abigail Johnson, BA
Community Health Worker
Abigail (Abby) Johnson is a Community Health Worker (CHW) for the Comprehensive Care, Community, and Culture Program (C4P). She has a bachelor’s degree in biological sciences from the University of Chicago with significant coursework in health equity and human rights. In 2024 she joined CCP as an AmeriCorps Member with the Social Services Team, then completed a second AmeriCorps term as a CCP qualitative research assistant. Abby loves working with people and has prior experience caring for Chicagoans as an EMT. She is passionate about community health and enjoys helping C4P patients and their families find community resources to support their needs.

Alicia Roberts, MS
Project Coordinator
As a project coordinator for the program, Alicia works on both clinical and programming teams. As the program began, she joined the CCP team, as a member of the research team. In her roles, Alicia has enjoyed serving patients and fulfilling the goals of the program.

Felicia Roberts, MS
Project Coordinator
Felicia is a project coordinator for the program. She has been a member of the CCP team since the beginning stages. As a former member of the research team and current member of the programming and clinical teams, she has been privileged to serve patients in a variety of ways.

Andrea Flores, MA
Senior Statistical Programmer
Andrea has over 10 years of experience in health services research and has been part of the CCP team since its beginning in 2012. She holds a bachelor’s degree in Economics from the University of Chile and a Master’s degree in Public Policy from the University of Chicago. She has extensive experience working with large and complex data sets and is skilled in assembling, linking and analyzing data to evaluate results of observational studies and randomized control trials. As a Sr. Programmer Analyst for the CCP study, Andrea has a leading role in managing data collection and processing procedures for data analysis. Andrea’s interests include program evaluation, survey methodology, health assessment tools and geographical information systems.

Omar Marin, BS
Clinical Research Coordinator
Prior to joining CCP, Omar worked as an EMT, providing inter-facility transport for inpatient and emergency room patients at UChicago Medicine. He joined the Section of Hospital Medicine in July 2022 as a CHARISMA Aging Research Fellow, where he applied his clinical background with a similar patient population to study the impact of defragmented care on end-of-life care and advance care planning for CCP patients. After graduating from UIC in 2024, he joined the team as a coordinator under an NIA supplement award to continue investigating the CCP model’s effects on end-of-life care and to assist with trial recruitment. Omar is interested in pursuing a career in medicine and hopes to provide bilingual care to under-resourced communities in Chicago.

Camille Radhakrishnan, BS
Clinical Research Coordinator
Camille graduated from Cornell University in May of 2025 with a degree in Plant Sciences, concentrating in Plants and Human Health. Her primary interests involve the way plants influence a person’s health, as well as how society and politics dictate access to plants and green spaces. This, along with her interests in the social determinants of health, drew her to work with the Comprehensive Care Program. She is very excited to engage with the local community and bring the program to those who can benefit.

Sophie Raphael, BS
Clinical Research Coordinator
Sophie graduated from the University of Michigan in May 2025 with a degree in Biomolecular Science and a minor in Public Policy. She is passionate about addressing healthcare disparities and focused her undergraduate research on improving bystander CPR training in underserved locations. She is excited to connect with patients in the neighborhood she grew up in.

Sharya Sookal, BS
Clinical Research Coordinator
Sharya joins us with dual Bachelor’s degrees in Neuroscience and Psychology from the University of Chicago. Over the past year she worked with the Hospitalist Project as an NIA-funded undergraduate trainee with the CHARISMA program where she advanced from a Research Assistant to Senior Research Assistant role mid-year. Her future goals are to pursue med school with a focus on Anesthesiology or Neurology. Outside of this role, Sharya is also continuing to conduct some research with the Jeremy Slivnick lab in Cardiology and Leslie Kay lab in Neuroscience. When not immersed in research, you’ll find Sharya hiking, at the gym, creating videos, reading, or experimenting with new baking recipes.

Sydney Steinbach, BA
Research Manager
Sydney joined the Comprehensive Care Program in 2023 and brings experience in nonprofit grant writing, volunteer coordination, and garden-based education. Her work to expand access to fresh food on Chicago’s South Side sparked a deep interest in how policy impacts health at both the individual and community level. As CCP’s Research Manager, Sydney enjoys working with an interdisciplinary team dedicated to advancing holistic, patient-centered care, especially for older adults at increased risk of hospitalization. When she is not working, Sydney is by a body of water, in her garden, or exploring seasonal flavors in her kitchen.

James Zhang, PhD
Director, Medicare Innovation Analysis
A health economist and health services researcher, Dr. Zhang has conducted scientific investigations and published first-author original research in a number of fields including the following: (a) cost-related non-adherence to medical care; (b) disparities in quality and costs of care; (c) Medicare Part D policy impact; and (d) risk adjustment in Medicare claims data. His first-author publications have been well cited in the literature. In the CCP Program, Dr. Zhang is mainly responsible for research analytics with a focus on costs, utilization, and quality of care metrics.