Staff Spotlight: Nelly Hejazi Moghadam

As a medical scribe in a Los Angeles emergency department, Nelly saw countless COVID-19 patients come through the doors. That experience inspired her to pursue a job in research related to the virus.

She found that job at CHLA. For the past year, she has been working on the National Institutes of Health-funded RECOVER (Researching COVID to Enhance Recovery) team, which is studying the long-term effects of COVID-19 in children.

In her role, Nelly helps to manage the study—assisting with recruitment and enrollment, creating documentation, coordinating patient visits and building relationships with families.

“I have learned so much about these patients’ experiences,” she shares. “Some children have even lost the ability to walk. It’s heartbreaking, but it’s also rewarding to be a part of this team that is trying to understand these effects and how we can prevent and treat them.”

A graduate of the University of California, Santa Barbara, Nelly has been accepted to medical school and will matriculate in fall 2023. In her free time, she steps outside for a hike, curls up with a good book on her Kindle or heads to the kitchen to pursue her passion for vegetarian cooking.

“My mom is Mexican and my dad is Persian, and I have been gathering their recipes to make a family cookbook, with vegetarian options,” Nelly says. “It’s something I want to pass on to future generations.”