Program Leadership

Iljie Fitzgerald, M.D., M.S. is the Program Director for the UCLA-Olive View Psychiatry Residency Training Program. After growing up in Los Angeles and attending LAUSD elementary, middle, and high schools, she went on to the California Institute of Technology and graduated with degrees in Biology and in Literature, discovering her love of medicine along the way. She attended the UC Berkeley-UC San Francisco Joint Medical Program, earning an M.D. from UCSF’s medical school, and an M.S. in Health and Medical Sciences from UC Berkeley’s School of Public Health, and then completed her residency in psychiatry at UCSF, devoting much of her Chief Resident year to medical education. After completing residency, she moved back home to Los Angeles and joined the faculty at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA in 2010, completing a Medical Education Fellowship in 2014, and where she has supported DGSOM medical students as an Assistant Dean for Student Affairs since 2015. With scholarly interests in resident and medical student mentorship and through her national leadership roles in the Association for Academic Psychiatry, she is dedicated to supporting all of our program’s residents throughout their individual journeys. Clinically, she cares for patients and enjoys working with our residents in the dedicated Psychiatric Emergency Room at Olive View-UCLA Medical Center. Outside of work, she enjoys cooking, reading, and spending time with her family.

Valery Chamberlin is the Associate Program Director of Residency Education for the UCLA-Olive View Psychiatry Training Program.  She is a Southern California native who grew up in Pacific Palisades.  She graduated with a B.A. in Biology from UC Santa Cruz before getting her M.D. from the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA.  She studied Public Health and Preventive Medicine at UCLA before completing her psychiatry residency at the UCLA/San Fernando Valley training program.  During her fourth year of residency training, she was the Chief Resident of outpatient mental health services.  After her residency, she completed a fellowship in Medical Education at UCLA.  She is passionate about residency education and has worked as an Assistant Program Director, Associate Program Director, or Program Director in psychiatry residency training for more than 20 years.  Her clinical interests include outpatient psychiatry with an emphasis on cognitive behavioral, dialectical behavioral, and cognitive processing psychotherapies.  Her scholarly interests include investigating treatment options for psychotropic-induced obesity and therapy interventions for PTSD.  When not at work, she enjoys spending time with her family, walking her dogs, doing word and math-based puzzles, trying different teas, and enjoying all that beautiful Southern California has to offer.

Elena Ortiz Portillo, M.D. is the Associate Program Director of Outpatient for the UCLA-Olive View Psychiatry Training Program. After finishing medical school in Spain (Complutense University of Madrid), she moved to Los Angeles where she completed her psychiatry residency at the UCLA/Sepulveda VA Psychiatry Training Program. She worked for several years in private practice and as Assistant Director of the Psychiatric Emergency Department at UCLA/Olive View Medical Center. In 2019 she transitioned to San Fernando Mental Health as Outpatient Director for the Residency Program. She loves teaching and working closely with her residents. Her clinical interests include community psychiatry, psychopharmacology, and psychodynamic psychotherapy, particularly its practical applications to routine outpatient care. Her scholarly interests include graduate medical education and reproductive mental health. Outside of work, she enjoys spending time with her family, taking long walks on the amazing beaches of Los Angeles, reading, baking, practicing yoga and traveling whenever possible (Japan and New Zealand are among the top favorites).