Congratulations to the following faculty and staff for achieving special distinction this quarter:
Biochemistry and Molecular Biology
Suresh K. Alahari, PhD, has been elected as an American Society for Cell Biology (ASCB) fellow. ASCB Fellows are described as top-performing scientists who have contributed significantly to cell biology and to the community of scientists studying the cell. Only 14 fellows were chosen for the 2021 cohort. Dr. Alahari is the only fellow from Louisiana.
Cardiovascular Center of Excellence
Dr. Traci T. Goodchild became an ad hoc grant reviewer for the NHLBI Study Section Therapeutic Development and Pre-Clinical Studies (TDPS).
Family Medicine
The LSU Medical Alumni Board recently announced Dr. Danette Null as the Honorary Alumna of the Year. Dr. Hull is an Assistant Professor of Family Medicine in the Family Medicine Residency Program at Lake Charles Memorial Hospital. Dr. Null was recognized for her work during the days and weeks following Hurricane Laura to create a detailed plan for submission to ACGME to keep the resident training program on track despite the hospital's temporary closure.
Internal Medicine
UMC has identified several “Difference Makers” among the department faculty and fellows, as identified by recently discharged patients as having made a difference in the patients' care. Difference Makers identified recently include Drs. Jameel Ahmed, Pedro Cox Alomar, Paul Lelorier, and Frank Smart (Cardiology); Drs. James Aiken, Jacques Ancelet, Nicole Bergeron, Annelies DeWulf, Mary DiFranco, Jeffrey Elder, Meghan Maslanka, Jorge Martinez, Justin Meunier and Victor Tuckler (Emergency Medicine); Dr. Stephen Landreneau (Gastroenterology); Drs. William Baumgartner, Brittany Boudreaux, Andrew Burke, Jordan Callender, Garreth Clines, Lee Engel, Corey Gregg, Spencer Hart, Michael Lysek, and Katie Oakden (Hospital Medicine); Dr. Ashaur Azhar (Infectious Disease); Dr. Farshid Yazdi (Nephrology); and Drs. Amita Krishnan and Carol Mason (Pulmonary/Critical Care).
Allison C. Augustus-Wallace, PhD, MS, MNS, DEIC has been selected as a new member of the Minority/Multicultural Affairs Committee of American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology (ASBMB). The committee seeks to increase cultural diversity in the fields of biochemistry and molecular biology by increasing participation, visibility, and status of under-represented groups within the ASBMB. The organization noted Dr. Augustus-Wallace's commitment to diversity and inclusion.
Jennifer Avegno, MD ('01) was selected as Alumna of the Year by the LSU Medical Alumni Board. Dr. Avegno completed her residency in Emergency Medicine in 2005 and serves as Associate Emergency Medicine Program Director and Clerkship Director. She has also served as Director of the New Orleans Health Department since 2018. She is currently the Incident Commander of the New Orleans COVID Pandemic Response and has spent countless hours serving as a regional advisor to both governmental and healthcare agencies. She has been named Person of the Year by the Urban League of Louisiana and Woman of the Year by the Girls Scouts of Louisiana and has received numerous teaching awards from residents and students.
Dr. Marcus Bachhuber has been appointed as the Medical Director for Louisiana Medicaid; the Associate Editor, Addiction Science and Clinical Practice; to the Medicaid Pharmaceutical & Therapeutics Committee (appointed by Gov. Edwards); to the Metropolitan Human Services District Board (appointed by Mayor Cantrell); to the Medicaid Quality Committee (Chair, Appointed by Secretary Rebekah Gee); and to the National Committee on Quality Assurance Public Sector Advisory Committee.
Dr. Brian Boulmay was elected to serve a three-year term as a National Cancer Institute Community Oncology Research Program (NCORP) Community Oncologist on the Head and Neck Steering Committee.
Dr. Fred Lopez is a faculty contributor for the Infectious Diseases module for the recently released Medical Knowledge Self-Assessment Program (MKSAP) 19.
Dr. Efrain Reisin was invited to serve on the American Heart Association's Hypertension Fellowship Peer Review Committee.
Dr. Randy Sorge, Assistant Program Director LSUHSC New Orleans Emergency Medicine Residency, has received the Emergency Medicine Resident Association's 25 under 45 Award. “Randy Sorge's energy and enthusiasm are changing the future of medicine. While challenging residents and attendings with innovative ideas as head of the Curriculum Development for the Emergency Medicine Residency, he also advocates for self-care environments for the retention of future emergency medicine professionals. He has masterfully promoted equity and inclusion in the recruitment process and has been instrumental in championing diversity in his resident program.”
Dr. Elyse Stevens (Section of Community and Population Medicine) was awarded “Attending Physician of the Quarter, 2nd Quarter, 2021” by University Medical Center, New Orleans.
Dr. Jennifer “Gala” True has been awarded the Excellence in Research Award (with Melissa Dichter and Clara Wagner), Society for Social Work and Research and the Mentor of the Year, South Central MIRECC, Department of Veterans Affairs.
Dr. True has also been named to several positions, including Guest Co-editor, Frontiers in Public Health; Warrior Writers (Secretary, Governing Body); and NOLA Veterans Arts and Humanities Alliance (Chair).
Dr. Ashley Wennerstrom has been named to several positions, including Co-Chair of the Policy Committee for the National Association of Community Health Workers; Member of the Louisiana Prison Healthcare Study Committee (HCR-91); and Co-Chair of the Louisiana Medicaid Community Health Worker Workforce Study Committee.
Orthopaedic Surgery
Dr. Jessica Rivera was offered a Member-at-Large position on the AAOS Now Editorial Board . AAOS Now is a monthly news magazine published by the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons (AAOS). It is the No. 1 nonpeer-reviewed orthopaedic publication and is No. 2 of all orthopaedic publications. Dr. Rivera served 11 years of active duty military service, deploying twice in support of Operation Enduring Freedom/Inherent Resolve and Operation Spartan Shield and once to Tegucigalpa, Honduras for a pediatric orthopaedic medical training exercise. Following her honorable discharge from the military in 2018, she sought additional training as a pediatric orthopaedic fellow at the Rubin Institute for Advanced Orthopaedics and International Center for Limb Lengthening in Baltimore, Maryland. Her career goals involve specializing in pediatric and post traumatic limb lengthening and deformity correction and participating in translational research to advance the science of limb reconstruction.
Drs. Peter Krause, Vinod Dasa, Michael Hartman, William Accousti, Andrew King, and Christopher Marrero have been selected by Castle Connolly as the Top Orthopedic Surgeons in New Orleans. Every Day Health Group's (EHG) Castle Connolly Top Doctors is a healthcare research company and the resource for Top Doctors for the past 25 years. Castle Connolly's established nomination survey, research, screening, and selection process, under the direction of an MD, involves many hundreds of thousands of physicians as well as academic medical centers, specialty hospitals, and regional and community hospitals all across the nation. Physicians are nominated by other physicians in their respective medical specialties, both regionally and nationally. The selected physicians are then thoroughly screened for their educational and professional experience before the final selection process.
Otolaryngology - Head and Neck Surgery
Carlos Busso, PhD submitted a grant application to the LSU-Research Enhancement Program for “PNA based method for rapid SARS-CoV-2 (Covid-19) detection.”
Pediatrics
Dr. Isa Ashoor has been named to the Michael Sly, MD Endowed Professorship of Pediatric Immunology Research. Dr. Ashoor has demonstrated academic excellence in clinical service and program development, education, and clinical and translational research. His work with the Pediatric Renal Transplant Program focuses on the immunologic causes of graft rejection and the development of improved treatments to prevent transplant failure.
The Louisiana Chapter of the American Academy of Pediatrics presented Dr. Bonnie Desselle with the 2021 Master Pediatrician Award at their annual meeting.
Dr. Amanda Dumas was awarded a Louisiana Chapter of the American Academy of Pediatrics Special Achievement Award for “her partnership with the Louisiana Chapter and consistently pushing Medicaid policy that is supportive, evidence-based and child centric."
Dr. Ricardo Gomez has been appointed to the Richard Fowler Professorship for Pediatric Endocrinology. Dr. Gomez will use the funds to enhance the Pediatric Endocrinology Fellowship Program and advance his scholarly activities.
Dr. Cori Morrison has been named to the Pediatric Ethics Professorship. Dr. Morrison now leads the Pediatric Ethics Program for Children's Hospital and is responsible for ethics education in the department. The Professorship was established to support the departmental program.
The Children's Cancer Cause and the Stewart Initiative for Childhood Cancer Survivors awarded Dr. Pinki Prasad and her Treatment after Cancer and Late Effects Clinic (TACLE) with a $5,000 recognition award for program impact as part of the Survivorship Champion's Prize. The Survivorship Champion's Prize is awarded annually to a group, program, or institution making significant advances in programs and services to provide lifelong health maintenance for survivors of pediatric cancers. The award recognizes the importance of the unique challenges associated with the post-treatment services for these survivors, especially as they transition to non-oncology adolescent and/or adult health care services. The reviewers felt strongly the TACLE program should be acknowledged as the only Survivorship Clinic dedicated to taking care of pediatric cancer patients in the Gulf South region and providing needed services to a very large underserved population.
Dr. Maria C. Velez has been named the American Society of Pediatric Hematology Oncology (ASPHO) Board Liaison to the American Academy of Pediatrics Section on Hematology-Oncology (AAP-SOHO/ASPHO) Joint Policy Review Group. In this role, she will assist the joint effort in reviewing consolidated policy feedback from workgroups prior to, or at the same time as, submission to original policy author; providing guidance when agreement on an issue within a policy cannot be reached by the workgroup; and participating in review and final decisions of workgroup nominations (every three years), among other responsibilities.
Physiology
Dr. Patricia Molina was featured in “Scientist Spotlight” of NIH's Office of Research on Women's Health (ORWH) publication, Women's Health in Focus.
Dr. Lisa Harrison-Bernard began serving as a permanent member of the NIH-NIGMS TWD-D Training and Workforce Development Study Section.
Dr. Danielle Levitt was elected as the co-chair for the Early Career Leadership Committee (ECLC) of the National Hispanic Science Network (NHSN).
Dr. Christian Montanari served as reviewer (August 20 to September 10, 2021) for the Society for Research on Nicotine and Tobacco (SRNT) to select the scientific activity to be presented at the SRNT 2022 Annual Meeting in Baltimore, MD, USA (March 15-18, 2022).
Psychiatry
Dr. Charles Coleman was accepted into the Medical Justice in Advocacy Fellowship program which is being sponsored by American Medical Association (AMA) and Satcher Health Leadership Institute (SHLI) at Morehouse School of Medicine. Out of 300+ applications, only 12 individuals were selected to participate in this inaugural fellowship program which aims to "generate and exchange solutions and implement health equity projects that inform policy to ensure optimal health for all."
Dr. Cody Roi won first place in the poster competition for "Addressing Disparities" category at the Association for Academic Psychiatry's annual conference in 2021. His poster title was "Teaching Social Determinants of Health Using a 'Race to the Top' Board Game."