Julia Leavitt, MSW, LCSW, OSW-C
Julia Leavitt is a licensed clinical social worker and Psycho-Oncology Board Certified Specialist who serves as the Patient Navigator for the Adolescent and Young Adult Cancer Program. For over a decade, she has worked in primary medical settings, including New York University Hospital, as a social work intern in pediatric oncology. She then transitioned to Mount Sinai Medical Center, where she worked for seven years as a pediatric hematology/oncology social worker. Leavitt later returned to her Los Angeles roots and joined a group of psychotherapists at the Samuel Oschin Cancer Center at Cedars-Sinai. There, she provided therapy to children and adults facing active cancer diagnoses. These experiences allowed her to develop the extensive first-hand knowledge and skill set needed to support the unique needs of AYA patients. Leavitt is well versed in the intricacies of developmental stages and how distress impacts milestones of growth. She is also an active member of the Association of Oncology Social Workers, serving as Co-Chair for the AYA special interest group.
Jonathan Panarello, NP
Jonathan Panarello is an Adult Gerontology Primary Care certified Nurse Practitioner working in the department of Hematologic Malignancies at UCLA Santa Monica. He is from Montreal, Quebec, Canada and got his initial nursing diploma from John Abbott College in Montreal. He went on to complete a bachelors degree in Nursing at St. Francis Xavier University in Nova Scotia Canada and a Masters of Nursing Nurse Practitioner degree at the University of Toronto in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. He worked in the Coronary Care Unit at the Mcgill University Health Center in Montreal for six years before moving to Florida in 2017 where he started as a Nurse Practitioner at Moffitt Cancer Center in the Blood and Marrow Transplant and Cellular therapy department and in Hematology Oncology. He moved to Santa Monica with his partner and husband of 14 years and started with UCLA in November 2020. On his time off he is usually traveling and exploring California and other states, flying home to see friends and family in Montreal and sometimes traveling the world. He loves to sing and is a member of the West Coast Singers, a LGBTQ+ choir of Los Angeles. He is a geek with an unhealthy passion for everything Disney (mainly Stitch) and Harry Potter and spends lots of time at the Disney and Universal parks. He loves video games, movies, music and musicals! He is passionate about his career and cares deeply for his patients and hopes that one day cancer will be much more easy to treat and cure!
