Jennifer Lai, MD, MBA, is a practicing hepatologist and board-certified physician nutrition specialist at the University of California, San Francisco, where she holds the Endowed Professorship of Liver Health and Transplantation.  Her clinical practice emphasizes a patient-centered approach to improving liver health, combining her training in nutrition and Integrative Medicine with advanced/transplant hepatology.  Dr. Lai's research program, which has been funded continuously by the National Institutes of Health since 2013, focuses on characterizing the lived experienced of patients with chronic liver diseases, offering patients a "voice" in the scientific literature.   

Dr. Lai is an effective and passionate mentor and currently holds a prestigious NIH K24 Mentoring Award in Patient-Oriented Research.  She has mentored numerous individuals in hepatology research, many of whom were supported by the AASLD Foundation through its Career Development, Fellowship, Emerging Scholar, and travel award mechanisms.  Her personal dedication to liver-focused research, along with her passion for supporting the next generation of liver researchers, underlies her deep commitment to serving on the AASLD Foundation Board of Trustees.