2026 Faculty

Director, UCLA Center for Health Services & Society

Professor-in-Residence, UCLA Department of Psychiatry & Behavioral Sciences

Dr. Zima is Director of the UCLA Mental Health Informatics and Data Science (MINDS) Hub and Professor-in-Residence in the UCLA Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences. Dr. Zima’s research is dedicated to improving the quality and equity of child mental health care, with priority placed on underserved child populations (i.e., homeless, foster care, juvenile justice). Her research has expanded to include national pediatric hospitalization resource utilization and costs, adaptation of the modified Delphi Panel approach, validity of national quality measures, pediatric integrated care models, pediatric workforce development, use of telehealth and mobile health technologies, child mental health informatics and advanced predictive analytics. In collaboration with the Children’s Hospital Association, she led the development of the Child and Adolescent Mental Health Diagnostic Classification system that aligns ICD-9 and ICD-10 diagnostic codes with DSM-5 psychiatric diagnostic groups to create 23 child mental health diagnostic groups including suicide and self-harm. Across these areas, a developmental framework is applied to examine access, quality and equity of care for children. She is currently a Co-Investigator on: 1) a five-year NIDA R01 (PI: S. Hadland) examining identification, assessment, and treatment for opioid use disorders among adolescents and young adults using Medicaid claims data from 50 states, 2) a four-year NIMH R01 (PI: L. Wisk) examining the impact on health care transitions on children and young adults using the Medical Expenditure Survey, and 3) a five-year statewide program evaluation of CalAim (PI: K. Kahn), the 1115 Medicaid waiver for CA DHCS. Awards include all three research awards from the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry (AACAP), 2024 Research Mentor Award from the American Psychiatric Association (APA), 2024 cohort UCLA Faculty Mentoring Honorary Society, and the 2022 the Outstanding Research Mentor Award from her Department. Dr. Zima is a Member of the 2025 Child and Adult Core Set Annual Review Workgroup, Recommendation Group Member for Partnership for Quality Measurement’s Endorsement and Maintenance (E&M) Management of Acute and Chronic Committee, Chair Mental Health Research Group for Children’s Hospital Association, Member of the National Advisory Board, Enhancing Systems of Care for Children with Medical Complexity Coordinating Center and it’s Measurement & Evaluation Workgroup, Member on the APA Committee on Quality and Performance Measurement, and Co-Chair of the AACAP Committee on Healthcare Access and Economics. She is a Distinguished Fellow in APA and AACAP.