Jos’lyn Woodard (UCLA Scholar) is a neurosurgery resident at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA. She obtained her undergraduate degree from Yale University with a major in Molecular, Cellular and Developmental Biology and minor in Neuroscience, where she was named most decorated track and field athlete in the history of the Ivy League in 2006. She earned her medical degree from Stanford University School of Medicine and earned the distinction of the Gold Humanism Honor Society. Between her undergraduate studies and medical school, Dr. Woodard spent 2 years serving a Teach for America volunteer where she taught high school environmental science and biology and served as department chair. She also coached track and field, cheerleading and dance. During this time, Dr. Woodard also earned her Masters in Teaching from the National Louis University in Chicagco, IL.

Career Interests: Dr. Woodard intends to be the leader in comparative effectiveness analysis, outcomes research, and decision making tools within the field of neurosurgery. She is interesting in providing objective, rigorous work that will later guide neurosurgical practice and potentially be the basis of changes in health policy.

Research Interests: Dr. Woodard is interested in pediatric neurosurgery, patient related outcomes assessments, and understanding the limitations in access to health care. As a scholar, she is interested in creating consistent, concrete systems to evaluate neurosurgical interventions and to thus criteria to assist in physician-patient communication in the peri-operative period and beyond.