New Faculty in the Department of Medicine

Dr. Agarwal is an Assistant Professor of Medicine in the Division of Hematology and Oncology at Vanderbilt University Medical Center. He completed his undergraduate studies at Columbia University, and his medical degree from the University of Chicago Pritzker School of Medicine.  He completed his residency in Internal Medicine at Duke University Medical Center. He earned his two fellowships in Medical Oncology and in Hospice and Palliative Medicine at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center. 

He is the first faculty member at Vanderbilt who is a dual-trained medical oncologist and palliative care specialist. His clinical practice focuses on the oncologic care for patients with gastrointestinal malignancies. He also serves as an attending physician on the Palliative Care Consultation service, specifically caring for patients with cancer who are hospitalized. Dr. Agarwal's research aims to improve comprehensive care, decision-making, and communication for patients and families facing cancer, and to inform new models for integrating palliative care while patients receive evolving cancer therapeutics. His research has been funded by a 2018 Conquer Cancer Foundation of ASCO Young Investigator Award and an NCI K12 grant.

Dr. Barker is interested in developing a more effective battlefield tourniquet. As an Officer in the U.S. Army Reserve in conjunction with several other officers, he is assisting in developing a battlefield/traumatic amputation program for simulated training. He enjoys all aspects of acute care medicine and family medicine and continually strives to become a better, more well-rounded physician through active learning. When given the chance, he enjoys working with and training NP/PA/medical students and residents.

Dr. Emily Barker graduated from Tulane University School of Medicine in 2002. After completing her training in internal medicine at Vanderbilt University Medical Center, Dr. Barker was on the faculty at the University of California in San Diego for two years where she taught third-year medical students during their internal medicine rotation and served as Co-Medical Director of VA San Diego's Systems Redesign, a national collaboration for quality improvement in VA hospitals. 

In 2009, Dr. Barker co-developed River Oaks Doctors Group (RODG) in Houston, TX, after realizing that modern medicine did not allow her to practice in a way she felt every patient deserved. While at RODG and continuing today, she thrives on close and lasting relationships with her patients as though they are family. Every text and phone call she receives gives her confidence in the care she is providing to her patients. She knows who they are, what medications they are taking, and who their families are. Dr. Barker believes nothing is more rewarding than making a difference in the life of someone who has entrusted his or her health and well-being to her.

Dr. Barker is married to Dr. Colin Barker, and they have four children and two dogs.

Dr. Boura is interested in global health improvement initiatives, especially with respect to women and pediatrics. She would like to travel to third-world countries and be involved in improving healthcare in those countries. From a clinician’s viewpoint, she appreciates the dynamic settings of urgent care, yet welcomes the academic side of medicine to expand her knowledge base. She enjoys cooking, traveling, going on medical missions, exploring different cultures and traditions, outdoor activities (e.g., zip-lining, jet skiing, hiking), and will partake in just about anything that enables her to conquer her fears. She is fluent in Farsi, Urdu, Pashtu, Hindi, Dari, and has a working knowledge of Spanish and French.

Dr. Bowers received her bachelor's degree from Duke University in Durham, NC, and her medical degree from Emory University in Atlanta, GA. After completing her internal medicine residency at Baylor School of Medicine, she remained in Houston, TX, to join a large, private, multi-specialty physician group. There, she spent seven years as a primary care physician, including call for inpatient admissions and being a clinical instructor for internal medicine residents at Baylor. Dr. Bowers and her family relocated to Fort Myers, FL, between 2017-2019 where she practiced outpatient medicine for a federally qualified healthcare center (FQHC) that supported the uninsured and under-insured community. She looks forward to bringing her experience to Vanderbilt from working in a variety of healthcare settings, in various clinical roles, and with diverse patient populations.

Clinical interests include preventive health care and behavioral health integration.

Dr. Ryan Buckley is thrilled to join the Vanderbilt family as an Assistant Professor of Clinical Medicine in the Section of Hospital Medicine. He grew up on Long Island before moving south to attend the University of Florida for his undergraduate studies in food science and human nutrition. He received his MD from the University of South Florida and completed residency at the Medical University of South Carolina. Dr. Buckley then served as Chief Resident in Quality and Patient Safety at the Ralph H. Johnson VA Medical Center in Charleston, South Carolina. He has spent the last three years as an academic hospitalist at the University of Pennsylvania where he was a member of the QI Core Faculty in the Department of Medicine and filled various roles in quality improvement education in both undergraduate and graduate medical programs. His academic interests include healthcare delivery innovation, QI education, design thinking, curriculum development, and the interplay between patient safety and provider wellness. He is excited to develop creative solutions to new challenges that await him in his role as Director of the Faculty Development Program for the Section of Hospital Medicine. When outside the hospital, Ryan enjoys running, cooking, traveling, exploring local restaurants, and just spending time at home with his family.

Dr. Jonathan Dale Casey received his baccalaureate degree (2006) in chemistry from Vanderbilt University and his MD (2010) from the University of Louisville School of Medicine, where he was the top overall graduate. During his residency from 2010-2013 at Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston, he garnered awards for empathetic patient care and was also named Chief Resident in 2015. In 2019 Dr. Casey completed the fellowship program at Vanderbilt in pulmonary and critical care medicine. He is an excellent teacher and was presented the Roger Des Prez Award for Teaching Excellence in 2017. He further enhanced his knowledge of epidemiology, biostatistics, and clinical research during his fellowship by completing a Master of Science in Clinical Investigation (May 2019). Jonathan Casey is driven toward long-term success as a researcher. Under the direction of his mentors, Matt Semler, Todd Rice, and Gordon Bernard, he has devised novel and efficient research methodologies to study fluid management, airway management, oxygen targets, and post-extubation respiratory support. He is adept at the design, conduct, and analysis of clinical trials and has served as principal investigator on several. Dr. Casey has helped to develop the Pragmatic Critical Care Research Group, a clinical trial network of clinical researchers in 20 intensive care units and emergency departments in the U.S. He serves a critical role within the network as head of the clinical coordinating center. In addition to providing experience in the administration of large, multicenter trials, this position provides opportunities to design and lead large multicenter clinical trials.

Thomas was born and raised in Milwaukee, WI. He is an avid sports fan who has been involved in organized sports since grade school playing soccer, baseball, basketball, track and football. He attended the University of Wisconsin for undergrad, where his role switched from player to helping the football team prepare for games as part of his job as a student manager for the Badgers. He earned his undergraduate degree in Neurobiology and for the following year worked as a research assistant, studying the epigenetic mechanisms involved in central nervous system regeneration. Thomas has always enjoyed traveling and during this time he travelled to Africa with other lab staff to tour hospitals and meet with African medical students. They also worked in some time to climb Mount Kilimanjaro. He loved his first four years in Madison so much he decided to stick around for medical school there as well. During medical school, he became interested in genetics and had the opportunity to do a medical genetics rotation at the NIH and work with their Undiagnosed Diseases Program. He plans to pursue a fellowship in medical genetics with the ultimate goal of incorporating a program like that into his practice. In his free time, he still enjoys participating in anything sports related and watching Packer and Badger games with family and friends. Thomas is looking forward to joining the Vanderbilt medical team next year and calling Nashville home.

Angela's life thus far has really taken her all over the country. Though born in New York, she spent the bulk of her childhood in Houston, TX before moving out to Colorado for the end of middle school and high school. From there, she spent her freshman year of college in California at USC. She ultimately decided she wanted a smaller community for her undergraduate experience and transferred back to Houston to study Cognitive Science at Rice University before finding herself in the big apple at NYU School of Medicine. In her spare time, you may find Angela occasionally bursting into song as if she were still in her college women's acappella group. Additionally, she enjoys eating (especially sweets), scrapbooking, and skiing. She is looking forward to joining the Vanderbilt community and life in Nashville with her boyfriend and future co-intern, Eddie Qian!

Dr. Chichetto is a formally trained social worker and epidemiologist in the areas of alcohol use and health outcomes among high-risk populations, with a focus on persons living with HIV (PLWH). Her primary focus as an epidemiologist is investigating the health implications of common behavioral syndemics, particularly concurrent unhealthy alcohol use, cigarette smoking, and depressive symptoms. Her primary career goal is to improve health outcomes (e.g., cardiovascular disease) associated with behavioral health conditions among PLWH and other clinical populations. She plans to establish an interdisciplinary research program designed to develop and evaluate interventions for those with multiple behavioral conditions. Dr. Chichetto is specifically interested in bridging the gap between mechanistic research and implementation science by focusing on biologically informed pathways (e.g., the gut microbiome) for interventions to reduce inflammation, and by extension, end organ disease (e.g., CVD) that can treat and/or prevent the impact of behavioral syndemics. She is skilled in both qualitative and quantitative research methods. She has used qualitative approaches to understand and conceptualize the state of alcohol use screening and treatment in primary HIV care. Moreover, she specializes in longitudinal data analysis including multivariate analyses (i.e., mixed effects modeling, generalized estimating equations, and structural equation modeling), time-to-event analyses (i.e., Cox proportional hazard modeling), and pattern analyses (i.e., group-based trajectory modeling).

Michelle Chi is Assistant Professor of Clinical Medicine in the Division of Hematology/Oncology. She received her BS in biology from the University of Tennessee in Knoxville and her MD from the Tennessee Center for Health Science in Memphis. Dr. Chi’s clinical interest in is in benign hematology, particularly in hemostasis and thrombosis with a focus on women’s health and transition of care between pediatric and adult hematology.

Dr. Croessmann’s research interests include the role of mutations in the development of therapeutic resistance and the utilization of liquid biopsies to detect potential biomarkers. Currently, her research focuses on the role of activating ESR1 mutations in metastatic breast cancer patients and their potential role as a biomarker to determine treatment course.

Dr. Croessmann received a dual undergraduate degree with distinction in chemistry and studio art from the University of Virginia in 2009. She then completed a PhD in pathobiology at Johns Hopkins School of Medicine in 2015. In 2018, Dr. Croessmann finished a postdoctoral research fellowship in the laboratory of Dr. Carlos Arteaga at Vanderbilt University Medical Center and joined the laboratory of Dr. Ben Ho Park.

Dr. Das’ research interests lie in the gastrointestinal (GI) cancer and phase I space. They revolve around designing early phase studies taking advantage of salvage DNA repair pathway dependence in biomarker selected GI tumors and overcoming the immunosuppressive tumor microenvironment in refractory tumors through mechanism-based immunotherapy combinations. Clinically, he takes care of patients with advanced GI malignancies with a specific interest in those with neuroendocrine tumors and colorectal, pancreatic, and gastric adenocarcinoma. Dr. Das is currently pursuing a Master in Science and Clinical Investigation (MSCI) through Vanderbilt University Medical Center and the K12 VCORCDP grant. He completed an early phase externship at CTEP (investigational drugs branch) and participated in the FDA ASCO Fellow’s Day program. He has been fortunate to present at several national meetings including ASCO, GI ASCO, and ECOG. Outside of work he enjoys curling up with an interesting read, watching a crime or mob-oriented movie, sampling new restaurants, and playing with his toy poodle, Lucy.

Dr. de Andrade is Professor of Medicine and Associate Director of the Division of Allergy, Pulmonary, and Critical Care Medicine in the Department of Medicine at Vanderbilt. He serves as Chief Medical Officer of the Vanderbilt Respiratory Institute. Dr. de Andrade was born and educated in Brazil. He earned his medical degree (1990) at Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul (UFRGS) in Porto Alegre. He went on to complete a residency in internal medicine at Hospital de Clinicas de Porto Alegre (UFRGS), where he also served as chief medical resident. Dr. de Andrade came to the United States in 1994 and completed a residency in internal medicine at the University of Miami’s Jackson Memorial Hospital. There he became interested in critical care research and entered a fellowship program at the University of Alabama in Birmingham (UAB). He joined the UAB faculty in 2000, advancing to the rank of Professor of Medicine (2016) with tenure. In 2013 he was appointed Director of the Pulmonary Disease and Critical Care Medicine Fellowship Program. During his tenure at UAB, Dr. de Andrade became involved in IPF clinical research shortly after the first guidelines for the diagnosis and management of IPF were published. He established the Interstitial Lung Disease Program at UAB (2003). Further, he served as a site PI for the IPFnet. His academic career has focused on creating an infrastructure to support clinical and translational research in interstitial lung disease and on developing strategies for managing this patient population.

Sudden cardiac death (SCD) claims more lives each year than all other causes of death combined. The underlying mechanisms remain unclear, precluding the design of new, more effective therapies. Progress in understanding SCD mechanisms has been limited by the lack of a suitable animal model resembling the human phenotype. While reactive oxygen species (ROS) have been strongly implicated in the pathogenesis of both SCD and heart failure (HF), insight into the mechanistic role has been limited by the lack of sophisticated tools. Dr. Dey’s work reveals important new mechanistic and therapeutic insights with potential for broad clinical translation. Her studies have demonstrated that antioxidant flux depends on mitochondrial substrate catabolism with the availability of NADPH as a major rate controlling step. Further, she developed several unique and highly clinically-relevant animal models, including the first female model of non-ischemic HF with spontaneous SCD. Additional studies by Dr. Dey have revealed that mitochondrial ROS (mROS) is the principal driver for SCD. Importantly, she also demonstrated that scavenging mROS in vivo mitigates SCD and reverses HF. Her ongoing research is aimed at dissecting the mechanisms by which chronic elevations in sympathetic activity induce mROS-mediated adverse remodeling in the heart, leading to HF and increased risk of SCD. Her research program focuses on the design of potential new in vivo therapies for HF and SCD by reducing sympathetic stress-mediated adverse remodeling in the heart (e.g., using gene therapy to convert sympathetic nerves to parasympathetic nerves, device-based stimulation of sympathetic nerves). Dr. Dey’s goal is to form strong, long-term collaborations to employ a multidisciplinary translational approach to address questions of clinical significance related to HF and SCD.

In addition to glucose, breast tumors often utilize glutamine to support biomass and energetic requirements for cell proliferation and migration. While glutamine not only drives breast cancer cell growth, it is also a necessary amino acid for normal cell function for a wide range of other cells within the human body, including immune cells that target and kill cancer cells. Dr. Edwards' primary research focus is to investigate the microenvironmental role of glutamine metabolism in regulating tumor immunity and metastatic progression in breast cancer.

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Dr. Fine's interests include adult medicine and geriatrics. Dr. Fine was the Director of the Internal Medicine Externship Program at Philadelphia College of Osteopathic Medicine from 2013-2016.

Hannah grew up in Nashville, TN, but moved to Chicago to attend the University of Chicago for her undergraduate education, where she majored in biology with a minor in music. She enjoyed living in Chicago for several years after college, before moving down to Memphis, TN to attend medical school at the University of Tennessee. During this time she married her husband and Chicago native, Brad, who has spent the past years in Memphis dedicated to teaching, as well as bringing the sport of rugby to kids throughout the Memphis community. Hannah is thrilled to be returning to her hometown of Nashville and joining the Vanderbilt community. Outside of medicine, Hannah enjoys running and spending time with family, fur babies, and friends.

Jacob grew up in Chappaqua, New York, where not much happens. To pass the time he took a computer science class in high school and fell in love with it. His passion for programming brought him to Brown University where he was poised to be a software engineer. That is, until a fateful internship showed him the horrors of sitting behind a computer all day everyday. With the realization that he wanted to be with people, Jacob started taking computational biology courses, which brought him to Stony Brook Medical School, where not much happens. At Stony Brook he passed the time making iPhone apps and sorting his fellow students into their preferred rotations. He enjoys volleyball, racquetball, going for walks and is excited to sit behind a computer writing notes in a city where things happen. Member of AOA.

Dr. Jayani specializes in caring for adults with hematologic malignancies with a focus on blood and marrow transplantation and cellular immunotherapy. She is passionate about improving the care of older adults with hematologic malignancies receiving these intensive therapies. She is also interested in the importance of physical activity in patients receiving transplant and cellular immunotherapy.

Dr. Tae Kon Kim is interested in dissecting mechanisms of immune evasion and developing new therapeutic modalities for the treatment of leukemia. He has received research training under the mentorship of Dr. Lieping Chen, a pioneer in the field of immuno-oncology responsible for key discoveries involving PD-L1 and its interaction with PD-1 in cancer patients. Dr. Kim's translational investigations have focused on the role of novel co-inhibitory molecules during immune evasion in leukemia. He is also interested in selectively inhibiting graft-versus-host disease with sparing graft-versus-leukemia by manipulating co-stimulatory and co-inhibitory molecules. When he's not exploring new ways to treat cancer, Dr. Kim enjoys playing golf, tennis, and skiing. His achievements include receiving the American Society of Hematology Scholar Award, American Society of Clinical Oncology Career Development Award, the EvansMDS Young Investigator Award, and the American Cancer Society Clinician Scientist Development Grant.

Nathan grew up in Maryland and went to college in Iowa. He majored in biochemistry and was a water polo player for the Grinnell College Wild Turkey’s water polo team. He met his wife Elizabeth while in college, and they currently spend much of their time keeping their black lab Denver from chewing socks. Nathan enjoys participating in triathalons, playing and talking about any sport, and singing a capella music. In his fourth year of medical school at Georgetown University, he spent time in both the ICU and CCU where he developed a passion for critical care medicine. Member of AOA.

Dr. Kroncke is a promising young scientist whose research focus has been to explain the interplay between membrane protein flexibility and structure that leads to robust function and dysfunction involved in human disease, with a special emphasis on ion channels involved in the heart contraction cycle. The increasing use of next generation sequencing in the clinical arena is uncovering a large number of variants across all genes, but methods to predict their pathogenicity are not well established. This results in an increasing number of “variants of uncertain significance” (VUSs), a major emerging problem in genomic medicine. Rare variants (mutations) in the cardiac ion channels are implicated in diverse heart diseases, including long QT syndrome (LQTS), short QT syndrome (SQTS), and Brugada syndrome (BrS), but are also common in healthy populations. While multiple algorithms predict whether ion channel variants are deleterious (SIFT, PolyPhen-2, PredSNP, CADD, etc.), too many neutral variants are classified as disease-causing. The long-term research interest of Dr. Kroncke is to improve our understanding of the clinical burden of ion channel non-synonymous single nucleotide polymorphisms (nsSNPs) on carriers. He believes predicting protein-specific functional phenotypes accurately of nsSNPs within these genes is the best path to reaching this goal, initially focused on ion channels associated with Long QT Syndrome.

Dr. Lewis was born and raised in rural Illinois. She obtained a BS degree from the University of Illinois Champaign-Urbana and her MD from Southern Illinois University School of Medicine. She completed her internal medicine residency training at the University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC). She stayed on at UIC for an additional year as Chief Resident. When deciding future career goals, she and her husband made a leap of faith and chose to move away from their home state. They migrated south to Nashville, taking advantage of the outdoors while also having the amenities of city life. She has a passion for bedside ultrasound, clinical education and teaching trainees, and serving vulnerable and under-served populations.

Dr. Helen Lin was born and raised in the great metropolitan area of Birmingham, Alabama. She attended the University of Alabama in Birmingham where she earned her BS in molecular biology with minors in chemistry and linguistics, followed by her MD from the University of Alabama School of Medicine. Dr. Lin completed her internal medicine residency training at the Virginia Commonwealth University Health System in Richmond, Virginia, where she served on the Resident Quality Improvement Council. When away from work, she enjoys getting out in the world through day hikes, the good scene, and learning new skills such as archery.

Dr. Bhavish R. Manwani grew up in Jakarta, Indonesia, before moving to the US in 2006. He then received his BSc in biotechnology from Rutgers University and his MD from Chicago Medical School. His journey across the US continued as he moved to Houston, Texas, and completed his internship and residency in internal medicine at Baylor College of Medicine. He recently moved to Nashville to join the Vanderbilt faculty in the Division of Hospital Medicine. Dr. Manwani is very excited about beginning his career in academic medicine and will continue to focus his efforts on providing excellent care to his patients and pursuing his passion in QI research and point of care ultrasound. When away from work, he enjoys playing soccer, reading, and spending time with his wife and their 13-lb rambunctious puppy.

Leslie was born and raised in Utah and earned her B.S. in Molecular Biophysics & Biochemistry from Yale University in New Haven, CT. Her undergraduate research in the lab of Dr. Paul Forscher looked a cytoskeleton dynamics in growth cones. She completed her MD/PhD at Vanderbilt University. Her PhD thesis work in the lab of Dr. Steve Hanks focused on the role of p130Cas signaling in focal adhesion dynamics and cellular motility. She remained at Vanderbilt to complete Internal Medicine Residency and is currently an Infectious Disease Fellow. She will be joining the lab of Dr. Matthew Tyska to study the structural role of transmembrane proteins in brush border assembly in gut epithelium and its role in GI microbial homeostasis and immune function. Leslie plans to pursue a career as a physician-scientist.

Dr. Cecily Montgomery is interested in women's health and preventive medicine.

Rishi Naik was born and raised in Chattanooga, Tennessee, and graduated summa cum laude from the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga. He has been lucky to call Vanderbilt his home since 2009. He graduated Alpha Omega Alpha from Vanderbilt Medical School, completed internship and residency at Vanderbilt, and was selected as Vanderbilt’s chief fellow for his gastroenterology fellowship. During his time as a fellow, he completed the Master in Science and Clinical Investigation (MSCI) program, which has provided a framework for enhancing clinical research and better patient care. In his third year of fellowship, he was selected to serve as the editorial fellow for Gastroenterology, an in-depth role in the editorial and publication process of high-impact manuscripts. He is a rare Quintuple Dore for his training at Vanderbilt. 

His research interests involve novel therapies for patients with esophageal disease, including understanding the etiology and treatment of achalasia, eosinophilic esophagitis, and extraesophageal reflux disease. In collaboration with Vanderbilt’s Imaging Mass Spectrometry team and Vanderbilt’s Pathology Division, his group has discovered novel dysregulated proteins and lipids in the pathogenesis of achalasia. Building on this work, he is also evaluating patient genetic sequencing and phenomics to correlate with proteomic research and physiological patient data. By better understanding the etiologies of diseases, Dr. Naik hopes to personalize treatment based on symptoms and diagnosis to provide the correct therapy to fit all patients’ needs.

Jamison grew up on Signal Mountain near Chattanooga, TN. She then attended Centre College, a small liberal arts school in Danville, KY, where she studied biochemistry and molecular biology. After doing research on insulin resistance and the renin-angiotensin system in Knoxville, she moved west to Memphis for medical school at the University of Tennessee. Outside of medicine, she enjoys running, yoga, hiking and baking. Jamison also enjoys traveling and hopes to work internationally in the future. She could not be more thrilled to be moving to Nashville and joining the Vanderbilt community.

Dr. O’Neil is a molecular biologist with more than 15 years of research experience in molecular neuroscience, immunology, and genetic engineering. The major goal of his research program is to develop cell therapies that provide durable or curative treatments for disease. His previous work has been focused on studying the molecular etiology of neurological disorders and developing immune cell-based therapeutic platforms for applications in nephrology and oncology. These experiences have provided Dr. O’Neil with the broad knowledge of human physiology and pre-clinical models, as well as the expertise in genetic and cellular engineering, necessary to develop novel therapeutic approaches.

Dr. Ontenient recently joined the faculty in the Division of General Internal Medicine in the Section of Hospital Medicine at Vanderbilt University Medical Center. Born and raised in Miami, FL, he graduated from the University of Florida with a degree in biochemistry. He attended medical school at the University of Louisville, where he met his wife. Together, they couples-matched at the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB), he in internal medicine and she in pediatrics. Afterwards, he stayed on as faculty at UAB as a hospitalist attending, while she completed her fellowship in pediatric hospital medicine. Dr. Ontenient's academic interests include clinical education and patient-centered care. Outside of medicine, he enjoys playing and watching sports, listening to podcasts, traveling, and spending time with his family and friends.

Dr. Pabla is a gastroenterologist with a clinical interest in interventional inflammatory bowel disease (IBD). His research interests include investigating optimization of biologic therapy to improve patient-centered outcomes in IBD and studying the role of transabdominal ultrasound for the detection and management of IBD.

Dr. Peck received her doctorate in chemical biology from Harvard University, where she developed novel molecular evolution techniques to study protein-protein interactions and protein function. Her interests in macromolecular chemistry led her to pursue postdoctoral research in lysosomal storage disorders and pathological consequences of dysregulated metabolism, which resulted in an NIH F32 postdoctoral fellowship award in investigating failed vertebral bone formation in mucopolysaccharidoses (MPS) disorders as a consequence of aberrant glycosaminoglycan metabolism. Through this award, Dr. Peck elucidated molecular mechanisms underlying failed bone formation during development in MPS, which has led to large animal model studies assessing potential therapeutic strategies. During her postdoctoral fellowship in the Department of Orthopaedic Surgery at the University of Pennsylvania, Dr. Peck also made important contributions to the field of disc biology by elucidating the transcriptomic profile of early disc development, which has significant implications in addressing the substantial clinical need for treating disc degeneration. Dr. Peck’s overall research interests are to combine her chemistry background with her postdoctoral experience in musculoskeletal biology to investigate carbohydrate-mediated signaling in spine development and homeostasis, to determine how dysfunction in these signals lead to degeneration and diseased states, and to develop biologic and engineering approaches to regenerative therapies for musculoskeletal tissues. In addition to her research activities, Dr. Peck is dedicated to serving the scientific community at large and is a member of the American Society of Bone and Mineral Research Early Stage Investigator subcommittee and is serving as the chair for the 2020 Musculoskeletal Biology and Bioengineering Gordon Research Seminar.

Dr. Tetyana Pedchenko’s research interests include inflammation and immunity and their interplay underlying various diseases. She studied the macrophage regulation of lung inflammation, and her main research objective is to understand and target the mechanisms involved at the molecular and sub-cellular levels. Dr. Pedchenko’s longstanding research interest is the mechanism of autoimmune diseases. She conducted the study showing the IgM response to lung cancer development and investigating the role of autoreactive, pathogenic B cells in type 1 diabetes. Her research has spanned basic preclinical models to human studies.

A three-time Oklahoma State University (OSU) alumna, she earned both a nutritional sciences master’s (2009) and PhD from the College of Human Sciences (2014) and also holds a bachelor’s degree in biochemistry (2007). In addition, Dr. Rendina-Ruedy did her postdoctoral training both at the Vanderbilt Center for Bone Biology at the Vanderbilt University Medical Center and Maine Medical Center Research Institute. Dr. Rendina-Ruedy’s research training has been deeply rooted in bone biology with an emphasis in nutritional biochemistry. 

As an OSU graduate student, Dr. Rendina-Ruedy’s research focused on how bioactive components in food alter bone metabolism in the context of several model systems, including ovarian hormone deficiency, chronic inflammation, and diet-induced obesity. She also received a predoctoral grant to conduct research on the role of autophagy in bone metabolism through a study that looked at the links between childhood obesity and early bone health. Dr. Rendina-Ruedy was named Human Sciences Outstanding PhD Student in 2013 and was recently named as one of ten international recipients of the 2019 John Haddad Young Investigator Award from the American Society for Bone and Mineral Research. The current focus of the Rendina-Ruedy lab is to develop a comprehensive understanding of how metabolic pathways impact bone health, with the vision to translate these data to new treatments that can improve the quality of life for patients with compromised bone health.

Dr. Richardson earned his medical doctorate at the University of Florida. He completed his internal medicine residency, chief residence in internal medicine, cardiovascular medicine fellowship, and cardiovascular electrophysiology fellowship at Vanderbilt University Medical Center. His clinical and research interests are in the treatment of cardiac rhythm disorders, specifically ventricular tachycardia and atrial fibrillation. He has a particular interest in catheter ablation for these conditions as well as defibrillator management in patients with left ventricular assist devices. He has completed research in the areas of cardiac lead management, ablation of atrial fibrillation, ventricular tachycardia management, and ICD programming.

Bethany was born and raised in North Potomac, MD along with her 3 siblings. She attended the University of Notre Dame for college where she studied chemical engineering and met her now husband, Andrew. After college, she went to the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine and developed interests in internal medicine and academic medicine. All throughout medical school, she worked caring for her neighbor and friend who is a quadriplegic. In her free time she enjoys running, baking, watching Notre Dame football and the Food Network, and playing card games. She is so excited to start her residency at Vanderbilt, to continue to learn all that Vanderbilt and Nashville have to offer, and to escape the cold northern winters!

Dr. Schaffer specializes in treating genitourinary cancers. Recognizing that genetics is playing an increasingly important role in cancer diagnosis and treatment, Dr. Schaffer has a developed special interest and expertise in prostate cancer genetics, familial cancer syndromes, and precision therapy. Her research has focused on the use of genetic testing in prostate cancer. Dr. Schaffer’s ultimate goal is to improve outcomes in prostate cancer through increased access to genetic testing and new therapies.   Outside of her work life, Dr. Schaffer enjoys music, being outdoors, and spending time with her husband and kids.

Dr. Sharma is a hematology and transfusion medicine physician whose research is focused on understanding reproductive health-related morbidity in women with sickle cell disease. Under the mentorship of Drs. Michael DeBaun and Adetola Kassim, she demonstrated that a subset of women with sickle cell disease experience recurrent acute pain episodes associated with menstruation. Her current research is focused on developing evidence-based strategies to manage acute pain episodes in this understudied population of women. She is the recipient of multiple grants and awards, including Celgene Future Leaders in Hematology, NIH Loan Repayment Award, HemeOnc Today’s Next Gen Innovators, and Foundation for Women and Girls with Blood Disorders Award for Fellows and Junior Faculty. She is a graduate of the American Society of Hematology Clinical Research Training Institute (ASH CRTI) and a current member of the American Society of Hematology Recruitment and Retention Workforce. In her spare time, Dr. Sharma likes to learn new languages, read about American history, and spend time with her son and husband.

Reactive oxygen species (ROS) are often damaging compounds that can contribute to tissue injury and inflammation in the context of inflammatory bowel disease and colorectal cancers. However, ROS is also crucial for maintaining normal tissue homeostasis, and recent data have indicated that the exact role of ROS and antioxidants in intestinal homeostasis and disease is quite complex and likely highly contextual. Dr. Short’s research focuses on a family of antioxidant proteins known as the glutathione peroxidases and how they modify intestinal stem cell function, immune responses, and epithelial restitution using a variety of mouse models, as well as novel 3D patient-derived organoids. Ultimately, this work will yield a greater understanding of how individual antioxidant proteins modify redox homeostasis and contribute to intestinal health.

As a cancer epidemiologist, Dr. Shu's research interests focus on the urgent need to develop novel and reliable biomarkers for cancer risk and prognosis. Dr. Shu has been actively conducting research in identifying novel biomarkers for a variety of cancers using genomics, transcriptomics, methylomics, proteomics, and metaboldata. For the first time, his research provided strong evidence for a potential causal relationship between fasting insulin and breast cancer risk using the Mendelian randomization approach. Dr. Shu received the AACR Scholar-in-Training Award for his work in 2017. The study has recently been published in The International Journal of Epidemiology and has received many accolades. Dr. Shu later conducted two prospective metabolomics studies of colorectal and pancreatic cancers, which were the first studies conducted in Asian populations using pre-diagnostic samples. Both works have recently been published in The International Journal of Cancer. Dr. Shu further developed a promising K99/R00 application based on his expertise in cancer etiology, causal inference, and omics studies. In his application, he proposed to integrate genomic and metabolomic data to identify novel biomarkers for colorectal cancer risk. The application has been tentatively selected for funding (impact score of 20 with just-in-time information requested). Dr. Shu is also leading or has participated in many other innovative projects including a cross-ancestry genome-wide association study of breast cancer, metabolomics of gastric/ovary/gallbladder/kidney cancer in East Asians, and integrative analysis of omics data to uncover new biomarkers for breast, ovary, and prostate cancers to better understand the etiology and biology.

Dr. Song is a physician-scientist in the Division of Cardiovascular Medicine. His clinical interests include consultative and general cardiology with a particular interest in preventative cardiology and lipidology. He is board-certified in internal medicine, clinical lipidology, and board-eligible for cardiovascular medicine. He discovered and characterized two novel classes of oxidized bioactive lipids from omega-3 fatty acids, EPA, and DHA. He is currently funded by an NIH K08 grant studying the impact of dysfunctional HDL on platelet function and in vivo thrombosis. His research focus is on exploring the complex interplay of the bioactive lipids and lipoproteins such as HDL particles. Dr. Song also has interest in studying the protective mechanism of omega-3 fatty acids in the cardiovascular system, particularly in metabolic syndrome.

Dr. Gitanjali Srivastava is an Obesity Medicine Specialist (formerly at Florida Hospital) and Founding Director of the Center for Obesity Medicine, a successful multidisciplinary and specialized hospital-affiliated adult and pediatric practice established in late 2013. In 2017, she joined Boston University as the Director of the Obesity Medicine and Nutrition Fellowship Program and Obesity Medicine Education and then went on to become Co-Chair of the Obesity Medicine Fellowship Development Committee as part of the Obesity Medicine Council of Fellowship Directors in 2018. She is past Chair of the Clinical Management Section of the Obesity Society and former Associate Professor of Medicine at the University of Central Florida College of Medicine in Orlando, Florida. She is triple-board-certified in internal medicine, pediatrics, and obesity medicine. 

Dr. Srivastava has special interests in advancing multidisciplinary treatment of obesity and its complications, obesity pharmacotherapy, pregnancy and obesity (women’s health), pediatric weight management, and clinical engineering of obesity care models. She earned her medical degree from Louisiana State University School of Medicine in New Orleans and completed her residency in the combined internal medicine and pediatrics program at Mount Sinai Hospital in New York. Dr. Srivastava received advanced training in obesity medicine and clinical nutrition during her fellowship at Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School in Boston. While completing her fellowship at Massachusetts General Hospital, Dr. Srivastava spear-headed the first American Board of Obesity Medicine Curriculum for Fellows and the Blackburn Board Review Component. She is a 2012 Diplomate of the American Board of Obesity Medicine.

Dr. Staub's interests include quality improvement of healthcare systems and patient safety, antimicrobial stewardship, and infection prevention. She hopes to unite these interests by pursuing research in how to develop effective antimicrobial stewardship in the outpatient setting across healthcare systems and communities. Dr. Staub was awarded the Leadership in Epidemiology, Antimicrobial Stewardship, and Public Health (LEAP) Fellowship (2018-2019). She served as Chief Resident of Quality and Safety at the Veterans Affairs Puget Sound Healthcare System and the University of Washington (2016-2017).

Cosby Allen Stone, Jr., received his baccalaureate degree, magna cum laude, in mathematics from Vanderbilt University in 2004. He obtained his MD and MPH degrees in 2010 from the University of Alabama Schools of Medicine and Public Health, Birmingham, Alabama. During this period (2008-2009), he worked in Dar Es Salaam, Tanzania, supported as a Fogarty International Clinical Research Scholar. He did his internship and residency at Yale in internal medicine and pediatrics, serving as chief resident in 2014. In July of 2014, Dr. Stone entered the Vanderbilt fellowship training program in allergy and immunology and completed that program in June of 2019. Dr. Stone has expertise in epidemiology, clinical drug allergy, and translational mechanistic projects in drug and vaccine allergy. Dr. Stone is engaged in pioneering clinical/translational research specifically focused on beta lactam antibiotic allergies with a secondary interest in immediate excipient allergies to alpha-gal and polyethylene glycols/polysorbates. Dr. Stone has been lauded for his human touch as a clinician. He is not only an exceptional physician, but his warm, personal style, combined with a tireless, solid commitment to his patients, contribute to his effectiveness on the whole. He has been interviewed more than 10 times by regional print and television media and nationally by National Geographic, US News and World Report, the NPR radio network, and the New York Times. He is fluent in Spanish and has a strong interest in languages, poetry, writing, and history.

Dr. Anil Trindade is Assistant Professor of Medicine and Associate Medical Director for Lung Transplant at Vanderbilt University Medical Center. He received his MD degree from Duke University and went on to complete his residency at Johns Hopkins University. Following residency, he completed fellowship training in pulmonary and critical care medicine at Harvard Medical School. During this period, he worked under the mentorship of prominent Harvard professor, Dr. Elizabeth Henske, Director of the Center for LAM Research and Clinical Care and Co-Director of the Pulmonary Genetics Center. Dr. Trindade was appointed to the Harvard Medical School faculty in 2012, rejoining in 2017 after serving in private practice and at Tufts University and Columbia.  After returning to Harvard, he was appointed Associate Medical Director of the Lung Transplant Program at Brigham and Women's Hospital. Dr. Trindade has a deep and broad knowledge of pulmonary and critical care medicine and lung transplantation. His record as a clinician reflects numerous clinical innovations, all designed for quality improvement in patient care. At Harvard he began a deliberate effort to improve patient outcomes, developing care algorithms to an area of pulmonary medicine historically lacking any evidence-based approaches. His dedication to seeking answers and to question existing care paradigms allowed the development of multiple care “pathways,” which lead to significant standardization and improvement of care. Dr. Trindade has extensive experience in classroom teaching, clinical supervision, and teaching of residents and fellows. He has received honors and awards steadily throughout his academic career, including Phi Beta Kappa, an Honors' Thesis from Duke, an ATS travel award, and a recognition for Excellence in Tutoring from Harvard Medical School.

Dr. Willis recently joined the Vanderbilt faculty in the Division of General Internal Medicine and Public Health. She is originally from Selma, Alabama, and received her BS in animal sciences from Auburn University with a focus in veterinary medicine. She then completed a post-graduate year at Auburn University studying the medical disparities facing rural populations across Alabama. This confirmed her interest in medicine, and she attended medical school at the University of Alabama School of Medicine. She recently completed her internal medicine residency at Baylor Scott and White in Temple, Texas, and is excited to be joining the Vanderbilt team. Her interest is in hospitalist medicine with the goal of being involved in medical education.

Dr. Wong is a cancer genetics scientist with particular interest and experience in next generation sequencing and digital droplet PCR for early detection of cancer. Dr. Wong has studied the genetics of male breast cancer and molecular testing of measurable residual disease in acute myeloid leukemia.

Dr. Juliana Yang is an Assistant Professor at the Vanderbilt University Medical Center in the Division of Gastroenterology. She completed medical school and internal medicine training at the Medical College of Wisconsin, followed by fellowship in gastroenterology and hepatology at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas. After her GI fellowship, she completed a two-year fellowship in advanced and therapeutic endoscopy at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Maryland. She is trained in endoscopic procedures including ERCP, diagnostic and therapeutic EUS, endoscopic mucosal resection, enteral stenting, and a wide range of other advanced GI procedures.

Dr. Yang has special training and interest in weight loss therapies and is excited to be able to offer these therapies to patients. Procedures performed include endoscopic sleeve gastroplasty (ESG) and transoral outlet reduction (TORe), as well as other emerging therapies in bariatric and therapeutic endoscopy.

Dr. Yang is fluent in English and Chinese (Mandarin). She has spoken at multiple national and international conferences and has authored more the 30 publications published in peer-reviewed journals.

Dr. Zakaria recently joined the Vanderbilt faculty in the Section of Hospital Medicine. After growing up in East Tennessee, she completed medical school at LMU-DCOM, went on to complete residency at Greenville Health System/University of South Carolina. Dr. Zakaria then joined the faculty at the University of South Carolina-Greenville School of Medicine as a Clinical Assistant Professor of Medicine while also serving as a chief resident. When away from work, she enjoys spending time with her family and friends, watching and playing sports, and traveling internationally. She is very excited and honored to join the Vanderbilt hospitalist group.