cutting-edge research | innovative teaching.| compassionate care
UCI-CHOC Pediatric Residency
A fully accredited, university-based program with access to two free-standing children's hospitals. Training takes place at the UC Irvine Medical Center, CHOC Children's Hospital and Miller Children's Hospital. We believe in providing our residents with a top-notch, broad-based educational experience.
Program Leadership
Tommy Wang, MD | Program Director
Dr. Wang is an assistant clinical professor and the program director for the UC Irvine/CHOC pediatric residency program. He completed his undergraduate training at UC Berkeley. Before going to medical school at Albany, he worked at NASA studying gravitation effects on physiology . He joined UC Irvine in 2005 as a pediatric resident and continued as a chief resident. He currently teaches residents as a hospitalist attending at CHOC. In his spare time, he likes to play intramural basketball with the pediatric residency team and sing karaoke.
Susan Choo, MD | Associate Program Director
Dr. Choo is an associate program director for the UC Irvine/CHOC residency program. She completed her undergraduate studies at UC Berkeley and received her medical degree from UC San Diego. After finishing her residency training at CHOC, she stayed on for a year as chief resident. Since then, she has worked in the CHOC outpatient clinics as an attending pediatrician and served in the CHOC residency office as an associate program director. She enjoys eating good food and playing with her dogs.
David Michalik, DO | Associate Program Director
Dr. Michalik is an associate program director for the UC Irvine/CHOC residency program. He received his medical degree from the Western University of Health Sciences. He completed his pediatric residency at the Cleveland Clinic Children’s Hospital and completed a fellowship in pediatric infectious diseases from the Children’s Hospital of New York at Columbia University. He is actively engaged in clinical research projects involving viral infections, particularly Rotavirus, Varicella Zoster, and HIV. During his free time, he enjoys backpacking and surfing.
Christine Chou, MD | Associate Program Director
Dr. Chou is an assistant clinical professor and associate program director for the UC Irvine/CHOC residency program. She completed undergraduate studies at UC Berkeley and received her medical degree from the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA. She completed residency training at UC Irvine, then stayed on for a year as chief resident for the UC Irvine/CHOC pediatrics residency program. Chou works as a general pediatrician at CHOC's primary care clinics. In her free time, she enjoys being a mom, playing with her dogs, swimming, yoga, crafting and traveling.
Daniel Kang, MD | Associate Program Director
Dr. Kang is an assistant clinical professor and associate program director for the UC Irvine/CHOC residency program. He graduated from Johns Hopkins University. He went on to complete medical school at the University of Maryland and his pediatric residency at UC Irvine and served as chief resident for the combined UC Irvine/CHOC residency program. He works closely with residents as a pediatric hospitalist at Miller Children's. He enjoys pretending to be a foodie and trying out new eateries and has interests in global medicine, pursuing international medical excursions as time permits.
Veronica Melendez | Residency Coordinator
Veronica is the Pediatric Residency Coordinator for UC Irvine/CHOC. She received her B.S. in Healthcare Administration at California State University, Long Beach. She served as Pediatric Residency Coordinator at Miller Children’s Hospital in Long Beach in 2007 before joining UC Irvine in 2010 to serve both as the Pediatric Residency Coordinator for UC Irvine and UC Irvine/CHOC. Her interests include reading, dancing, sports and spending time with her family.
Maria Espitia | Assistant Residency Coordinator
Maria is the residency coordinator assistant for the UC Irvine/CHOC pediatric residency program. She joined the program in 2014, bringing with her a variety of corporate and office management skills. Previously, she served as human resource assistant and accounting assistant at USA National Title Co. She enjoys shopping for great deals and spending time with her family.