Dr. Ellen Charles, MD, is a board-certified psychiatrist based in Santa Monica, California, specializing in comprehensive, independent medicolegal evaluations. Combining rigorous Ivy League and top-tier medical training, Dr. Charles brings an objective, analytical perspective to complex psychiatric assessments. After earning her undergraduate degree from Princeton University and completing premedical studies at Columbia University, she obtained her medical degree from the UCLA David Geffen School of Medicine. She subsequently completed a specialized four-year psychiatry residency at the UCLA Semel Institute/Resnick Neuropsychiatric Hospital.

As an independent evaluator, Dr. Charles is distinguished by her meticulous thoroughness and her extensive experience handling complex, high-stakes clinical profiles. Her background includes serving as an Attending Psychiatrist at the West Los Angeles VA Medical Center, where she led the emergency mental health consult service and treated complex trauma through UCLA’s Operation Mend.

In addition to her clinical and evaluative work, Dr. Charles is a recognized educator and authority on advanced psychiatric diagnoses. As a Clinical Instructor at UCLA, she has mentored the next generation of psychiatrists and has been honored with a resident teaching award. She regularly delivers foundational lectures on complex personality disorders—including Borderline, Narcissistic, and Obsessive-Compulsive Personality Disorders—to medical students and residents. This deep didactic expertise in personality pathology and differential diagnosis ensures that her medicolegal reports are exceptionally authoritative, clear, and firmly grounded in current psychiatric standard-of-care.

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