Congratulations to all our students, alumni, faculty, and staff on their recent success. The items below highlight the breadth of achievement and expertise that can be found at the George Washington University (GW) School of Medicine and Health Sciences (SMHS) in recent months. Submit your news about recent Appointments, Awards, Promotions, or Publications.
Acknowledgements:
Marissa Birkmeier, DPT, director of clinical education and assistant professor of health, human function, and rehabilitation sciences at GW SMHS; Matthew Garber, ScD, MPT, associate professor of health, human function, and rehabilitation sciences at GW SMHS; and Amy Phillips, DPT, clinical instructor of health, human function, and rehabilitation sciences at GW SMHS, presented, “Inpatient Mini-Clinics: Innovative Short-Duration Full-Time Clinical Education Experiences to Meet the Contemporary Needs of all Stakeholders,” at the Educational Leadership Conference.
Yan Cheng, PhD, assistant research professor of clinical research and leadership at GW SMHS; Yijun Shao, PhD, assistant research professor of clinical research and leadership at GW SMHS; and Qing Zeng, PhD, professor of clinical research and leadership at GW SMHS, presented, “Accuracies of Training Labels and Machine Learning Models: Experiments on Delirium and Simulated Data,” at Medinfo 2021, the International Medical Informatics Association conference.
Patrick Corr, EdD ’21, visiting assistant professor of clinical research and leadership at GW SMHS, and Catherine Golden, EdD ’14, associate dean, academic planning and assessment, and adjunct assistant professor of clinical research and leadership at GW SMHS, presented, “Innovative Academy: Leveraging Technology & Project Management to Improve Stakeholder Management,” at the Association of Schools Advancing Health Professions annual meeting.
Gretchen DeSilva, PhD, MPH, adjunct assistant professor of biomedical laboratory sciences at GW SMHS, was accepted into the American Society for Clinical Laboratory Scientists Leadership Academy for 2021-22.
Leigh Frame, PhD, executive director of the Office of Integrative Medicine and Health and assistant professor of clinical research and leadership at GW SMHS, presented, “Mixed Diets and the Microbiome — Challenges with Complexity,” at the Linus Pauling Institute earlier this month.
Rohini Ganjoo, PhD, program director of the Masters of Sciences in Health Science programs and assistant professor of biomedical laboratory sciences at GW SMHS; Maranda Ward, EdD ’17, MPH, assistant professor of clinical research and leadership at GW SMHS; Kathleen Thoma, EdD, assistant professor of clinical research and leadership at GW SMHS; and Heather Yoho, MSHS ’21, presented a poster, “Assessing Health Equity Knowledge and Capacity of Health Professional Students: A Validation Study,” at the 2021 American Society for Microbiology Conference for Undergraduate Educators.
Carol Rentas, MEd, director, BLS educational technology, and assistant professor of biomedical laboratory sciences at GW SMHS, presented, “Communicating Science to the Public,” at the Biocord Network Summer Conference in July.
Lisa Schwartz, EdD ’10, associate professor of biomedical laboratory sciences at GW SMHS, and Clifford Cymrot, MHA, director, Medical Laboratory Sciences undergraduate program, and assistant professor of biomedical laboratory sciences at GW SMHS, presented, “Factors Influencing MLS Career Choice Amid the COVID-19 Pandemic,” at the American Society of Clinical Laboratory Science Joint Annual Meeting in June.
Appointments:
Catherine Bollard, MD, director of the Center for Cancer and Immunology Research at the Children’s National Research Institute and professor of pediatrics and microbiology, immunology, and tropical medicine at GW SMHS, was recently named to the scientific advisory board of Catamaran Bio, a biotechnology company developing off-the-shelf CAR-NK cell therapies to treat cancer.
Andy Garrett, MD, MPH, section chief for emergency health operations, medical director for emergency health programs, and associate professor of emergency medicine and of clinical research and leadership at GW SMHS, was recently named co-director of the Disaster Medicine Program at GW SMHS.
Donald S. Karcher, MD, professor of pathology at GW SMHS and chief of flow cytometry at the GW MFA, was selected as president-elect of the College of American Pathologists.
Anton N. Sidawy, MD, MPH ’99, FACS, professor and Lewis B. Saltz Chair of the Department of Surgery at GW SMHS, was elected to the position of chair of the American College of Surgeons Board of Regents.
Linda Zanin, EdD, adjunct assistant professor of biomedical laboratory sciences at GW SMHS, was appointed to a three-year term on the Virginia Board of Education Career and Technical Education Advisory Committee.
Aisha Terry, MD, MPH, FACEP, associate professor of emergency medicine at GW SMHS and chief executive officer of the Minority Women in Science Foundation, was recently elected to serve as vice president of the Board of Directors for the American College of Emergency Physicians.
Awards:
Geoff Shapiro, EMT-P, director of emergency medical services and tactical/operational medicine at GW SMHS, and Andy Garrett, MD, MPH, section chief for emergency health operations and medical director for emergency health programs, co-director of the Disaster Medicine Program, and associate professor of emergency medicine and of clinical research and leadership at GW SMHS, received the 2021 Cooperative Achievement Award from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Office of the Inspector General.
Andrew Choi, MD ’08, BA ’03, associate professor of medicine and of radiology at GW SMHS and co-director of Cardiac CT and MRI at the GW Medical Faculty Associates (MFA), received the 2021 Distinguished Service Award, given by the American College of Cardiology Maryland Chapter.
Deepika Darbari, MBBS, professor of pediatrics at Children’s National Hospital and GW SMHS, received the 2021 American Society of Hematology (ASH) awards, during the ASH Annual Meeting in December.
Marcia Firmani, PhD, MSPH, chair of the Department of Biomedical Laboratory Sciences at GW SMHS, is the co-investigator on a $39,434 grant from the GW Cross-Disciplinary Research Fund for “An Amphibian Surrogate Model of Mycobacterial Immune Evasion.”
Leigh Frame, PhD, executive director of the Office of Integrative Medicine and Health and assistant professor of clinical research and leadership at GW SMHS, received a Top 100 Health Care Leaders for 2020-21 award from the International Forum on Advancements in Healthcare.
Mandi Pratt-Chapman, PhD ’20, associate center director for patient-centered initiatives and health equity at the GW Cancer Center and associate professor of medicine at GW SMHS, was awarded one of three 2021 National Institutes of Health Sexual and Gender Minority Research Investigator Awards.
Lisa Schwartz, EdD ’10, associate professor of biomedical laboratory sciences at GW SMHS, received a $30,000 research grant from the American Board of Genetic Counseling for an 18-month study, “Exploration of the Need for Additional Credentialing for Laboratory-Based Genetic Counselors.”
Publications:
Mountasser Kadrie, PhD, associate professor of clinical research and leadership at GW SMHS, co-authored the article “Knowledge of Mother-to-Child Transmission of HIV as a Predictor of HIV Testing in Some Women of Childbearing Age in Nigeria,” published in the October 2021 edition of Science World Journal.
Gaetano Lotrecchiano, PhD, associate professor of clinical research and leadership, at GW SMHS; Joan Butler, EdD ’09, program director for clinical research administration at GW SMHS; and Kevin Bugin, adjunct instructor of clinical research and leadership at GW SMHS, co-authored, “Evaluating Integration in Collaborative Cross-Disciplinary FDA New Drug Reviews using an Input-Process-Output Model,” in the September 2021 edition of the Journal of Clinical and Translational Science.
Samar Nasser, PhD, MPH, associate professor of clinical research and leadership, co-authored the chapter, Cardiovascular Disease in Minorities: Unique Considerations: Hypertension in African and Hispanic Americans, in Cardiovascular Disease in Racial and Ethnic Minority Populations, published in September.
