10/15/2026
Meet our Top-Notch Trojan, Denny Cha!
Hello, my name is Denny. I am currently a Pain Medicine Fellow Physician at USC. My responsibilities include caring for chronic pain patients who come to our clinic for pain medication management and various procedures we offer to patients. I’ve been with USC for the past four and a half years. I first joined the university as an Anesthesiology Resident Physician and decided to stay as a fellow physician after completing residency training. Although it's a challenging role, I do enjoy making small yet impactful differences in our patients' lives!
In my free time, I like making my matcha drinks. It's a very soothing experience to use a bamboo whisk to make them. These days, there are so many ways to make matcha drinks, and I highly recommend trying to make your own if you like drinking matcha!
Jeffrey Lin nominated Danny for embodying the Unifying Value of Excellence! Here’s what Jeffrey had to say: “Dr. Cha is often viewed as a quiet and unassuming person, but as I have gotten to know him over this brief six-month span, he has exceeded all expectations. It would be a disservice to merely generalize his attributes, such as that he is extremely hardworking, humble, and caring, and this nomination would be better served using examples of how he has influenced the entire department.
Staff have consistently praised Dr. Cha for being professional and extremely resourceful. He always answers their questions and attends to whatever tasks are asked of him…no task is beneath him. Moreover, to support both staff and patients, Dr. Cha [uses his multilingual skills to offer translation support], making him the go-to person who reaches out and communicates with patients. Clinically, he consistently shows up ahead of time and has stayed late to ensure people get the quality care that they need – even going out of his way to make sure attendings get help [by driving to different clinics]. Lastly, his dedication to teaching the next generation is phenomenal, as he mentors residents and medical students, helping guide his mentees to get research experience to bolster their CVs.
He truly cares about [his colleagues’] well-being, serves as a great mentor for the students, and spends quality time with patients if they have any questions. [For all that he does], I can think of no one better or more deserving of recognition as a Top-Notch Trojan!
