New Faculty in the Department of Medicine

Matt grew up in Kernersville, North Carolina and attended Duke University for his undergraduate studies.  He completed the MSTP program at the University of Virginia.  His thesis work focused on the role of inflammation in atherosclerotic plaque development, in particular the role of interleukin-1 in atherosclerotic plaque stability and in smooth muscle cell phenotypic switching.  Matt has completed his Internal Medicine training at Vanderbilt and is currently a fellow in Cardiovascular Medicine, with a long-term goal of improving our understanding of the role of inflammation in vascular disease development as a physician-scientist.

Dr. Chacko is an Assistant Professor of Medicine in the division of Cardiovascular Medicine providing leadership for the peripheral interventional program as well as catheterization laboratory coverage, coronary interventions, STEMI calls, and coverage for off-campus cath. labs and ambulatory clinics.

Jeeyeon was born in S. Korea and spent her early years in Chicago, IL and Morgantown, WV. When her parents and younger brother John moved back to Korea, she decided to stay with her aunt and uncle in Fort Thomas, KY for high school. She attended the University of Cincinnati (UC) with a major in Biomedical Engineering through the Connections-E (BS/MD) Dual Admissions Program and developed an interest for basic research as a lab aide in the Wylie-Heasman lab at Cincinnati Children’s. Following graduation, she joined the UC MSTP and earned her PhD in Developmental Biology and Reproductive Sciences under the mentorship of S. K. Dey at Cincinnati Children’s. Jeeyeon is very excited to continue her medical and research training at Vanderbilt as a Harrison Society Scholar and live in Nashville. In her spare time, Jeeyeon enjoys running, traveling, and spending time with friends and family.

Christopher was born and raised in the Washington, DC area and went to Middlebury College in Vermont for undergrad. He learned Spanish at a young age at home, and studied Arabic later on in college. He enjoys traveling when he can, and spent an exciting summer in Yemen a few years ago. Before medical school, he spent time as a college counselor at a boarding school outside of Amman, Jordan. Christopher went to medical school at Boston University, where he worked with and learned from a diverse and underserved patient population. He and his partner, Laura, were both thrilled to match at Vanderbilt for internal medicine (and OB/GYN for Laura). Before moving to Nashville they travelled together to Japan, Cambodia and Malaysia. They are both excited to get to know Nashville and the Vanderbilt community! Member of AOA

The oldest of three children, Blake was born and raised in small-town Iowa. After high school, Blake attended a liberal arts college in Decorah, a northern Iowa town known for its bluffs and beautiful scenery. Here she cultivated her love of travel,  mountain biking and trail running, as well as graduating with a biology degree. After college, Blake attended the University of Iowa for medicial school and developed a love for internal medicine and global health. She continues to enjoy spending time outdoors, hike, trail running and climbing, and has enjoyed residing in a different state and city, especially one with such wonderful music, food and outdoor activities.

Curtis completed his MD and PhD as part of the Vanderbilt University Medical Scientist Training Program. During graduate school, he worked with Amy S. Major to study the pathogenesis of fatty liver disease and diabetes in a mouse model of systemic lupus erythematosus. After medical school, he stayed at Vanderbilt for his internal medicine residency and gastroenterology fellowship in the Harrison Society. His current research focuses on the mechanisms that give rise to fatty liver disease and cirrhosis in people living with HIV.

Michelle was born in Los Angeles, California, but she grew up in Atlanta, Georgia, where her family moved when she was three. She attended Emory University for her undergraduate studies where she received a double major in biology and chemistry. She went on to study medicine at the Vanderbilt University School of Medicine where she developed a passion for gastroenterology and mental health advocacy. In addition to medicine, she is deeply devoted to creative writing and wrote her first novel when she was eleven. She has published four novels and has been working on her fifth novel since her first year of medical school. She won first place in the 2016 Gold-Hope Tang Humanism in Medicine essay contest, and her medical creative writing is forthcoming in Annals of Internal Medicine and has been published in the Journal of the American Geriatrics Society, the Journal of General Internal Medicine, Academic Medicine, and Intima: A Journal of Narrative Medicine.

Dr. Vern "Eric" Kerchberger earned his baccalaureate degree from Yale University in chemistry in 2008. Upon graduation he entered medical school at Emory University, completing his MD degree in 2012. Eric did his internship and residency at New York-Presbyterian Hospital (Columbia University Medical Center) from July of 2013 through June 2015 and immediately entered the fellowship program at Vanderbilt in pulmonary and critical care medicine. In August of 2018 he began a master's degree program at Vanderbilt University in biomedical informatics, with graduation anticipated in 2020. Upon completion of his fellowship in July 2020, he took up his role as Instructor in Medicine on the Vanderbilt faculty. Dr. Kerchberger is actively engaged in clinical and translational research, with a focus on using large electronic health record databases for critical illness phenotyping and to study the role of genetic variation in critical illness syndromes including the acute respiratory distress syndrome. His research reaches across multiple disciplines and has fostered collaborative efforts with faculty in the Department of Medicine, Department of Biomedical Informatics, and Vanderbilt Genetics Institute. Dr. Kerchberger has consistently demonstrated a passion for teaching during his clinical fellowship. He received the Hugh Jackson Morgan Teaching Award for Best Fellow Teacher during his first year of fellowship training in recognition of his commitment to teaching from the internal medicine residency program. He is a member of the American Thoracic Society, the American Medical Informatics Association, and the American Society of Human Genetics.

Guneet Kochar, DO, completed his internal medicine residency and served as chief resident at the University of Kansas prior to starting general nephrology and hypertension training at VUMC. He is completing training in transplant nephrology and has an interest in optimizing care for patients with failing kidney transplants.

Nick was raised in Indianapolis, IN and received his undergraduate degree in Biology at Colby College in Waterville, ME.  After an internship with the National Human Genome Research Institute at the NIH, Nick began the Medical Scientist Training Program at Vanderbilt in 2005.  Nick received his PhD while working with the Reynolds lab in the Cancer Biology Department.  His project opened new insight into molecular signaling via cellular adhesion proteins during development and tumorigenesis.   Nick hopes to enter a career in academic medicine with a focus on gastrointestinal biology research.

Mona was born in Tehran, Iran, where she lived with her family until the age of 9 years old. She immigrated to the US, where she was fascinated by all the new experiences, such as meeting a blonde person for the first time, and eating hot dogs and cereal! She went to high school in Fort Lee, New Jersey, and then moved to Chicago to attend the U of C. There, she minored in law and psychology, and majored in biology. She moved to St Louis, Missouri, to complete the MD/PhD program at WashU, where she studied the role of dendritic cells in the mouse immune response to Toxoplasma gondii. Mona and her family were excited to move to Nashville and complete residency at Vanderbilt.

Rob was born and raised in the city of Olathe, a suburb of Kansas City, before attending The University of Kansas in Lawrence. While an undergraduate, he earned degrees in neurobiology and philosophy despite an unhealthy obsession with Jayhawk basketball. Rob graduated with Highest Distinction from the University of Kansas, and was awarded the Warner Morse prize in metaphysics and epistemology. After graduation, Rob married his high school sweetheart, Rebecca, before starting medical school. They now share the responsibility of raising two obnoxious cats, and lament their not-so-gradual transformation into crazy cat people. Rob also enjoys reading modern and contemporary fiction, listening to music, and running. While in medical school, Rob spent time promoting the health of Kansas City refugees and working at a local student-run clinic. Rob is looking forward to the opportunity to explore Nashville and all that it has to offer, and he is very excited to be joining the team at Vanderbilt in the summer. Member of AOA

Dr. Katie McPherson is an Assistant Professor of Medicine on the clinician educator track at Vanderbilt University Medical Center. She earned her baccalaureate degree (2009) at Hanover College in Hanover, Indiana in chemistry and ethics. During her time at Hanover, she studied philosophy and theology with international content experts at Katolieke Universiteit, Leuven, Belgium. While there, Dr. McPherson went on to earn her medical degree from Indiana University School of Medicine in Indianapolis in 2013 and remained to complete her internal medicine training in 2016. She then served as chief resident (2016-2017) at Indiana Universities' affiliate, Methodist Hospital. Prior to joining the Vanderbilt faculty, Dr. McPherson completed a fellowship in pulmonary and critical care medicine in the Division of Pulmonary Sciences and Critical Care Medicine at the University of Colorado in Aurora (Anschutz Campus). During her fellowship, Dr. McPherson enrolled in the University of Colorado’s Teaching Scholars Program where she gained expertise in adult educational theory and scholarship in medical education. During her third year, she developed additional clinical expertise in the area of lung transplantation. Also during fellowship, Dr. McPherson realized her passion for medical education and development of learning climate. She focused her primary scholarship on curricula development, including a MICU curriculum and a "Fellow as Educator" curriculum that was awarded the 2020 American Thoracic Society (ATS) Innovations in Fellowship Education program's top abstract. In addition to her clinical duties in pulmonary and critical care medicine, Dr. McPherson currently serves on the Lung Transplant/Advanced Lung Disease service at Vanderbilt.

Mike Neuss was born in Durham, NC and raised in Cincinnati, OH. He studied history at Pomona College, and then completed his PhD in the history of science and medicine at Columbia University. Prior to medical school, Mike coached youth swimming and worked in IT. In 2013 Mike returned to Durham to attend Duke University School of Medicine. He hopes his two children, Elsie (4) and Matthew (2) will (like their dad) take an interest in the guitar and/or swimming while in Music City. Mike’s wife, Alex Borst, took a faculty position in pediatric hematology/oncology at Vanderbilt, starting this summer.

Dr. Parnell studied Biology at the University of Georgia and then attended Emory University School of Medicine. He then moved to Nashville for his Internal Medicine Residency at VUMC and  completed the VUMC Geriatric clinical fellowship. He has been married to Amanda Chandler Parnell since 2013. In their free time, they enjoy running, biking, hiking, tubing, and anything that allows them to be outdoors, especially in Tennessee mountains. They currently live in East Nashville.

David was raised in Plano, Texas.  He completed his undergraduate studies at Trinity University San Antonio, Texas and earned his MD/PhD from the University of Texas Southwestern.  David’s dissertation research was performed in the laboratory of Eric Olson and focused on the characterization of novel genes involved in cardiac hypertrophy and fibrosis.  He plans to pursue a career in cardiology and basic science and his research interests include the discovery of novel genes involved in adult cardiac disease.

Rachael grew up on Tim’s Ford Lake in Winchester, TN.  She attended Washington and Lee University in Lexington, VA and completed her BS in Biology.  During this time, she studied abroad at St. Andrews University in Scotland and spent a summer in Thailand working in various hospitals through the Shepherd Higher Education Consortium on Poverty organization (and eating way too much delicious food).  She returned to Tennessee to complete medical school in Memphis, Tennessee where she developed a love for the Grizzlies, Memphis barbecue, and the field of geriatrics while working at the Memphis VA hospital.  She moved back closer to home for residency and has developed some of the most meaningful relationships of her life with her medicine co-residents at Vanderbilt—a self-proclaimed “fan-girl” of VUMC IM.  Outside of the hospital, Rachael enjoys running, eating out at Nashville’s plethora of fantastic restaurants, seeing the occasional magic show, and (most recently) working her way through recipes in Bon Appetit magazine.  She is excited to serve the program she loves as VA Outpatient Chief for the 2020-2021 year.

Pierce grew up in New Smyrna Beach, Florida, a town known for its shark attacks and beautiful scenery. In 2008, he graduated from Davidson College in 2008 with a major in English. From 2008-2013, Pierce worked for the Pan American Health Organization, the regional office of the WHO, in vaccine-preventable diseases. He then attended Vanderbilt University School of Medicine, where he was involved with Choosing Wisely and Shade Tree Clinic. During internal medicine residency at Vanderbilt, Pierce has participated in high value care initiatives and care for the underserved. Outside of medicine, Pierce's interests include coffee shops, good books, gin and tonics, pick-up basketball, and spending time with friends and family. He lives in East Nashville with his wife, Frances, and their dog, Mr. Houston.

Jordan Wright is the 3^rd of six children, born in San Antonio, TX, but later lived in Germany and eventually settled in Utah, where his father practices radiology. He majored in Biology at the University of Utah, after which he received his MD/PhD from University of Michigan, with a specific research interest in Type 1 Diabetes. While at Michigan, he and his wife Pamela had two children: Jayda, born in 2011, and Houston, born in 2014. Most of Jordan’s non-hospital time is spent with his wife and children. He also enjoys most sports, especially golf, basketball, and volleyball.

Dr. Yoneda will be continuing his research with the AHA SFRN clinical project in atrial fibrillation. His research focuses on precision approaches towards management of atrial fibrillation using both pharmacologic and invasive techniques. He will be completing his MSCI in the coming year and hopes to pursue a career in electrophysiology the year after.