About the Medical Advisory Board
The Legal Services Center Pro Bono Medical Advisory Board provides staff and students with expert advice on complex medical issues that arise in the course of representing individuals with a wide range of disabilities.
The Board was conceptualized and created in 2020 by Linda Park, a clinical student in the Safety Net Project, who proposed it as an innovative solution to an area of need for LSC’s client community. The Board, created in partnership with physicians working in the Veterans Administration healthcare system, serves as a model for collaboration between medical and legal professionals.
Medical Advisory Board Members
Dr. Grace Chang worked with Julie McCormack to create the Pro Bono Medical Advisory Board for the Harvard Law School Clinics, in 2021.
Currently Emerita Professor of Psychiatry at Harvard Medical School, Dr. Chang is a graduate of Yale College and Rutgers Medical School. She completed training in General Adult Psychiatry at the Yale University School of Medicine, where she was subsequently a Robert Wood Johnson Clinical Scholar in Internal Medicine and Psychiatry. Dr. Chang has been an attending faculty psychiatrist at the Connecticut Mental Health Center, Brigham and Women’s Hospital, and more recently the VA Boston Healthcare System (VABHS).
Dr. Chang’s clinical and academic interests have included addiction psychiatry with a focus on women, consultation-liaison psychiatry with a focus on transplantation psychiatry, and administrative psychiatry. She served as the Head of Harvard Psychiatry at VABHS and was the first woman to be Chair of the Harvard Medical School Executive Psychiatry Committee since its inception in 1991.
Dr. Justine Lazatin graduated medical school at the University of New England COM where she served as a Care for the Underserved Pathway Scholar and was inducted into the Gold Humanism Honor Society. She completed psychiatry residency training at Harvard South Shore/VA Boston (HSS/VAB), enriched by her experiences as co-chair of the Massachusetts Psychiatric Society’s Early Career Psychiatry subcommittee, service as an inaugural member of the Harvard Law School Pro Bono Medical Advisory Board, and role as an Assistant Editor for the Harvard Review of Psychiatry journal. She served as co-executive Chief Resident at Harvard South Shore/VA Boston in 2023-2024.
After completion of residency training, Dr. Lazatin joined the staff at VA Boston (Brockton campus) as an Inpatient Psychiatrist treating patients with a broad spectrum of psychiatric diagnoses. Most recently, she was named Assistant Program Director for the HSS/VAB Psychiatry Residency Training Program and looks forward to continuing her focus in medical education.
Dr. Naim Mekdessi is a fourth-year adult psychiatry resident at Harvard South Shore. He earned his Bachelor of Science in Biochemical and Biophysical Sciences from the University of Houston Honors College and completed his medical degree at the University of Texas Medical Branch. Now in his third year serving on the Medical Advisory Board, he has a strong interest in medical ethics, serving as member of VA Boston’s Ethics Advisory Committee, and in geriatric psychiatry, for which he will pursue a clinical fellowship this coming academic year.
Dr. Monica Taneja is a current psychiatry resident at Harvard South Shore. Prior to this she completed her undergraduate degree in Public Health and Master of Health Science in Environmental Health at Johns Hopkins University. She received her medical degree from the University of Maryland. Her interests in psychiatry include public psychiatry, serious mental illness, and outpatient care.
Dr. Yalun Zhang is currently a 4th year psychiatry resident at Harvard South Shore – VA Boston Psychiatry Training program. His interests are in trauma related disorders, interventional psychiatry, and psychotherapy. He joined the HLS-MAB as a way to further serve the veterans under his care, and to become more acquainted with the intersection of medicine and law. He has a Bachelor’s in economics from Yale College with a focus in health policy, a Master’s in Mind, Brain, Education from the Harvard Graduate School of Education, and completed his Medical Degree at Keck USC School of Medicine. After residency, he will be pursuing an Interventional Psychiatry and Neuromodulation fellowship at Massachusetts General – Brigham.
Past Medical Advisory Board Members
With gratitude to our prior Medical Advisory Board Members for their service.
Dr. Aydinian received her Bachelor of Science in Exercise Science and Health Promotion from Arizona State University. She graduated from medical school at Rocky Vista University in Denver, Colorado. During her graduate education, she worked actively in the policy sector of the American Medical Association and engaged in patient advocacy on the state level. Dr. Aydinian is currently a resident at the Harvard South Shore Psychiatry Residency Training Program. She is especially interested in consult-liaison psychiatry, perinatal psychiatry, and medical education.
Dr. Chen was born and raised in Changsha, China. She graduated from the University of Virginia with a Bachelor’s degree in neuroscience. She received her Doctor of Medicine degree from State University of New York Upstate University. She is currently a resident in general adult psychiatry at the Harvard South Shore program with interests in inpatient, addiction, and forensic psychiatry.
Dr. Daly grew up in “The City of Champions,” Brockton, Massachusetts and was overjoyed to return to his hometown for residency training. He is a graduate of the University of Massachusetts Amherst for undergraduate and graduate studies as well as University of Massachusetts Worcester School of Medicine. He is currently a PGY-3 resident in general adult psychiatry at the Harvard South Shore Program. His interests include residential treatment, consult-liaison psychiatry, medical education, and he looks forward to pursuing further training in child and adolescent psychiatry fellowship.