Catherine Gao (they/them) is a third-year medical student at UCSF with a B.A. in Human Biology and a M.S. in Community Health and Prevention Research from Stanford University. Their research uses qualitative methods to better understand the experiences of youth and their caregivers during Family-Based Treatment. With the UCSF Eating Disorders Program, they published a pilot interview-based study with 10 adolescents in Family-Based Treatment, which found that adolescents felt ambivalent about their treatment experience and identified family conflict and a perception of reduced agency as particular challenges. Before medical school, Catherine's master's thesis explored pediatricians' approaches to screening for and managing care for eating disorders among their transgender and gender nonconforming patients. In the future, they are interested in training to become a child psychiatrist, with a focus on eating disorders and trans/queer adolescent mental health. 

In their free time, Catherine enjoys fiction writing, sharing an apartment with two kitties (Apple and Clementine), and stumbling upon new coffee and pastry shops with friends.