Macy Faculty Scholars

Marissa D. Abram, PhD, PMHNP, CARN-AP, FIAAN, is an Assistant Professor at the Duke University School of Nursing (DUSON). She serves as Secretary for the International Nurses Society on Addictions, Global Board. Dr. Abram's career is centered on preparing the future interprofessional healthcare workforce to care for individuals with substance use disorder with evidence and compassion. 

As a Macy Faculty Scholar, Dr. Abram will focus on addressing the national addiction health epidemic. Her proposed project, Compassionate Addiction Recovery Education (CARE), aims to equip pre-licensure healthcare workers with essential knowledge and skills to overcome the stigma of drug use and provide compassionate, equitable care. By incorporating evidence-based harm reduction practices, Dr. Abram's work seeks to enhance the capacity of healthcare professionals to effectively prevent, screen, diagnose, and treat substance use disorders, ultimately improving public health outcomes. 

Dr. Abram will be mentored by Sharron Docherty, PhD, PNP, RN, FAAN, Associate Professor of Nursing and Vice Dean for Research at DUSON, and Kevin Mulvey, PhD, Executive Director of the International Consortium of Universities for Drug Demand Reduction.  

Nupur Agrawal, MD, MPH, is an Assistant Professor of Internal Medicine and Pediatrics at the UCLA David Geffen School of Medicine. Her career focuses on providing comprehensive, compassionate, high-quality care to patients of all ages and mentoring learners across career stages. She cares deeply about empowering trainees with practical tools needed to address the myriad challenges providers face in delivering healthcare and improving outcomes for patients and communities. Dr. Agrawal serves as Co-Director of the Internal Medicine Health Equity and Advocacy Pathway and the Primary Care Medicine advocacy curriculum. She is an Educator for Excellence at the School of Medicine where she co-created and co-leads the advocacy education program for first-year medical students. 

As a Macy Faculty Scholar, Dr. Agrawal will use mixed-methods research methodology to delineate core competencies, training tools, and concepts in advocacy education. Research outcomes will guide the creation of a comprehensive, open-source, evidence-informed curriculum relevant to physicians across specialties and career paths.  

Alice Kuo, MD, PhD, MBA, Professor and Chief of Medicine-Pediatrics at the UCLA David Geffen School of Medicine and Professor of Health Policy and Management at the UCLA Fielding School of Public Health, will mentor Dr. Agrawal. 

Leah Burt, PhD, APRN, ANP-BC, CHSE, is a nurse practitioner (NP), Clinical Assistant Professor, and Director of the Adult-Gerontology Primary Care NP Program at University of Illinois Chicago College of Nursing, as well as a Clinical Assistant Professor and Director of Educational Quality Assurance at University of Illinois College of Medicine Simulation and Integrative Learning Institute. A former Fellow in Diagnostic Excellence through Society to Improve Diagnosis in Medicine, Dr. Burt is an educator passionate about discovering evidence-based ways to enhance diagnostic competence through innovative simulation.  

Influenced by experiences as an NP providing healthcare in medically underserved areas of Chicago, Dr. Burt’s Macy Faculty Scholars project, Lead-Dx (Learning Equity, Addressing Disparities in Diagnosis), is an educational program whose overarching goal is to prepare future clinician leaders to address diagnostic inequality. Lead-Dx will develop, implement, and evaluate a simulation-based educational curriculum to teach health professional students to better understand and mitigate diagnostic disparities.   

Andrew Olson, MD, Professor of Medicine; Director, Division of Hospital Medicine; and Director, Medical Education Research and Innovation of the Medical Education Outcomes Center at the University of Minnesota Medical School will mentor Dr. Burt.  

Cornelius James, MD, FACP, is an Assistant Professor of Internal Medicine, Pediatrics, and Learning Health Sciences at the University of Michigan Medical School (UMMS), where he practices as a primary care physician. Dr. James is the Director of the UMMS Evidence-Based Medicine Curricular Thread which equips students with essential skills for lifelong learning and evidence-based clinical practice. Dr. James also leads the interdisciplinary Data Augmented Technology Assisted Medical Decision Making (DATA-MD) team, which has developed innovative curricula to prepare clinicians for the transformative impact of artificial intelligence (AI) on the health system. 

Dr. James's career focuses on empowering clinicians to integrate digital health technologies, including AI, into their practice to augment decision-making and improve patient outcomes. For his Macy Faculty Scholars project, Dr. James will develop a novel web-based AI curriculum designed to prepare interprofessional team members, including patients, to be effective collaborators and vocal stakeholders in AI-driven clinical environments. This curriculum will serve as a foundation for more advanced interprofessional education activities, teaching learners to thrive on teams augmented by AI. 

Kimberly D. Lomis, MD, Vice President for Medical Education Innovation at the American Medical Association, will mentor Dr. James.  

Clare Whitney, PhD, MBE, RN, is an Assistant Professor in the School of Nursing and affiliated faculty in the Center for Medical Humanities, Compassionate Care, and Bioethics in the Renaissance School of Medicine at Stony Brook University. Her career is focused on reducing burnout and improving professional well-being in healthcare professionals, and she has established an interdisciplinary program of research that seeks innovative ways to address pressing relational and ethical issues for the healthcare workforce. 

For her Macy Faculty Scholars project, Dr. Whitney will develop, implement, and evaluate the Alda Healthcare Experience for Nursing (AHE-N), an interprofessional communication skills training designed specifically for nurses. The AHE-N will leverage the innovative approach of applied medical improvisation to attend to nursing-specific, socio-organizational needs and dynamics critical to intra- and interdisciplinary interprofessional communication. The development, implementation, and evaluation of the AHE-N will help to advance sustainable solutions for burnout prevention and health promotion in ​student ​nurses through enhancing interprofessional collaboration.  

Susmita Pati MD, MPH, Chief Healthcare Program Advisory at the Alan Alda Center for Communicating Science; Professor of Pediatrics; Division Chief, Primary Care Pediatrics; and Chair, Professionalism Committee at Stony Brook University and Stony Brook Children's Hospital will mentor Dr. Whitney. 

Sneha Mantri, MD, MS, is an Associate Professor of Neurology and Director of Medical Humanities at Duke University, where she leads interprofessional programming in narrative medicine, arts, and well-being across the health system. Her academic interests include the imaginative and moral formation of health professional learners as they prepare to care for a diverse patient population.

In 2020–2021, Dr. Mantri initiated the Moral Movements in Medicine interprofessional elective for pre-clinical learners at Duke University Schools of Medicine and Nursing, which has grown into a four-year longitudinal track for medical students interested in health humanities and ethics as a force for health justice. As a Macy Faculty Scholar, Dr. Mantri proposes to expand this longitudinal track to include clinical-phase learners in advance practice nursing, physical and occupational therapy, and the physician assistant program, with an explicit focus on social justice and community-engaged practice. Drawing on collaborative resources across the professions, the project would give students the theoretical and practical skills needed to thrive in the modern healthcare environment.

Dr. Mantri will be mentored by Rita Charon, MD, PhD, Bernard Schoenberg Professor of Social Medicine & Professor of Medicine and Chair of the Department of Medical Humanities and Ethics at Columbia University Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons, and by Jeffrey P. Baker, MD, PhD, Professor of Pediatrics and the Practice of History and Director of the Trent Center for Bioethics, Humanities, and History of Medicine at Duke University School of Medicine.

Christopher (Chris) Martin serves as an Assistant Clinical Professor in the Auburn University College of Nursing (AUCON). His career focuses on developing professionalism in undergraduate nursing students while promoting diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging. Dr. Martin serves as Chair of the AUCON Diversity and Inclusion Committee and oversaw the inaugural AUCON Diversity Day. He also acts as the AUCON representative to the Auburn University Senate and the Diversity Leader’s Roundtable. Dr. Martin serves in the uniformed services as an Assistant Nurse Officer in the United States Public Health Service Commissioned Corps Reserves.

Dr. Martin’s Macy Faculty Scholars project, Active Community Engagement for Teaching Equity and Collaboration in Healthcare (ACE-TEACH), will develop a blueprint for the use of community engagement as a teaching strategy for advancing equity, diversity, and belonging; enhancing interprofessional education; and exposing underrepresented groups to the field of nursing as a viable career option.

Linda Gibson-Young, PhD, ARNP, MBA, FAANP, Professor and Outreach Coordinator at Auburn University College of Nursing, will serve as Dr. Martin’s mentor. 

Rebecca Philipsborn, MD, MPA, is an Associate Professor of Pediatrics at Emory University School of Medicine where she cares for children from birth through adolescence. As Director of both the Pediatrics Clerkship and the Climate Change and Environmental Health Thread for medical students, she aspires to train future leaders to recognize environmental influences on health, embrace interprofessional solutions, and envision healthcare transformation towards enhanced disease prevention and greener care delivery.

As a Macy Faculty Scholar, Dr. Philipsborn will prepare learners to address the influences of climate change on human health and health equity. Her Macy Faculty Scholars project will develop, implement, and disseminate a longitudinal and interprofessional climate change and environmental health curriculum for the clinical years. The curriculum will be co-created with students and promote adaptive expertise, applying the climate crisis as a model paradigm through which to hone this skill.

Linda Lewin, MD, Professor of Pediatrics at Emory University School of Medicine and Clinical Professor of Nursing at Nell Hodgson Woodruff School of Nursing, will mentor Dr. Philipsborn. 

Teresa Schiff-Elfalan, MD, is a Family Medicine physician and Assistant Professor in the Office of Medical Education at the University of Hawaiʻi John A. Burns School of Medicine. She serves as the inaugural Director of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion, Social Justice, and Underserved Care and is the Medical Director of the Hawaiʻi HOME Project, a student-led outreach clinic for individuals experiencing houselessness. Her work focuses on teaching skills for patient empowerment and promotion of health equity, which includes anti-racism training, trauma-informed care, and cultural humility.

As a Macy Faculty Scholar, Dr. Schiff-Elfalan will coordinate and create assessments for an integrated place-based health equity curriculum that invites self-compassion, builds connection, and provides skills for transformative change in critically conscious medicine. In developing graduates equipped with skills to be advocates for their patients and ready to challenge the status quo, she hopes this will be one step toward redefining culturally-grounded healthcare delivery.

Richard T. Kasuya, MD, MSEd, FACP, Professor in the Office of Medical Education at the John A. Burns School of Medicine, will serve as Dr. Schiff-Elfalan’s mentor.

Philip Solomon, MD, is an Assistant Professor of Medicine at the Donald and Barbara Zucker School of Medicine at Hofstra/Northwell—an internist and Geriatrics physician with education and leadership experience. He is currently Program Director for the Geriatrics Fellowship Program and Director of Geriatric Education and Clinical Integration at Northwell Health. Dr. Solomon also serves as President of the New York Metropolitan Area Geriatrics Society.

Dr. Solomon’s educational focus is expanding the field of Geriatrics through the lens of health system optimization and aligning care priorities with older adult patients. His Macy Faculty Scholars project aims to develop and implement Geriatrics curricula across the interprofessional clinical spectrum of a large health system. Overall project goals are to foster interprofessional education and collaborative clinical practice amongst learners to optimize care for older adults and drive interest towards the field of Geriatrics.

Edith Burns, MD, Professor of Medicine and Director of Research in the Division of Geriatrics and Palliative Medicine at the Zucker School of Medicine at Hofstra/Northwell, will serve as Dr. Solomon’s mentor.

Sara Arter is an Assistant Professor at Miami University Department of Nursing. Her career focuses on mitigating effects of the opioid epidemic on children and families through policy and innovative education and research approaches. Her ability to address complex social issues using diverse strategies is reflected through her appointment as chair of the Ohio Registered Nurses Association Public Policy Committee and award nominations for development of a design thinking course. She is a Principal Investigator on a study funded by the Ohio Attorney General to use machine learning on a linked dataset to explore interactions between social determinants and health of children with prenatal opioid exposure.

As a Macy Faculty Scholar, Dr. Arter will create and test a novel educational intervention to support nursing students’ ability to examine the influence of personal values and development of ethical decision-making while providing care to mothers with substance use disorder and their children. 

Brooke Flinders, DNP, RN, APRN-CNM, Professor of Nursing and Interim Associate Dean for Academic Affairs at Miami University College of Liberal Arts and Applied Sciences, serves as Dr. Arter’s mentor.

Andrew Dwyer is a board-certified family nurse practitioner and an Associate Professor of Nursing at Boston College, William F. Connell School of Nursing. He serves on the American Academy of Nursing’s Genomic Nursing & Health Care Expert Panel, the Global Genomic Nursing Alliance Steering Group, and the International Society of Nurses in Genetics Education Committee. Dr. Dwyer’s work addresses inequities in genomic healthcare.

Dr. Dwyer’s Macy Faculty Scholars project combines interdisciplinary perspectives to build critical nursing capacity to overcome disparities in the genomic era. He will develop, implement, and evaluate novel training experiences (simulations) to equip advanced practice nurses with genomic competencies needed to address genetic conditions as well as the ethical, legal, and social implications of genomic healthcare. In parallel, asynchronous faculty learning activities and resources will provide an exemplar for embedding genomic nursing competencies into nursing curricula.

Christopher Sean Lee, PhD, RN, FAHA, FAAN, FHFSA, Barry Family/Goldman Sachs Endowed Chair in Nursing and Professor at Boston College, William F. Connell School of Nursing, will serve as Dr. Dwyer’s mentor.

Olanrewaju (Lanre) Falusi is an Assistant Professor of Pediatrics at the George Washington School of Medicine and Health Sciences focused on the intersection of health equity, advocacy, and education. As Medical Director of Advocacy Education in the Child Health Advocacy Institute of Children’s National Hospital, Dr. Falusi develops community-based curricula for trainees and faculty and researches the health outcomes of governmental policies. She directs the Children's National LAUnCH Track, which trains pediatric residents to become leaders in advocacy and community healthcare delivery. She has held local and national leadership positions in the American Academy of Pediatrics and has spoken at conferences, in Congress, and in the media on topics including poverty, immigrant health, and antiracism. 

As a Macy Faculty Scholar, Dr. Falusi will convene a workgroup to create and implement a tool for patients and their families to provide feedback on how well trainees address social determinants of health and health equity in a clinical encounter, thereby guiding and improving curricula.

Aisha Barber, MD, MEd, FAAP, Associate Professor of Pediatrics and Director, Pediatric Residency Program at the George Washington University School of Medicine and Health Sciences, will mentor Dr. Falusi.

Brenessa Lindeman is an Associate Professor of Surgery and Medical Education and Assistant Dean for Graduate Medical Education at the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB) Heersink School of Medicine. At UAB, she also serves as the Section Chief and Fellowship Director for Endocrine Surgery and Co-Director of the Multi-Disciplinary Endocrine Tumor Clinic. Her research interests are in development and assessment of competency in surgical trainees and evaluation of the learning climate/physician wellbeing. 

As a Macy Faculty Scholar, Dr. Lindeman will use entrustable professional activities (EPAs) to define gaps in general surgery training. More specifically, she will identify entrustment levels of general surgery residents longitudinally across the first year of training; identify variables that predict entrustment in entering general surgery residents; and identify differences in EPA assessment scores based on gender, race, and ethnicity.

John Mellinger, MD, FACS, Vice President, American Board of Surgery and Professor Emeritus, Southern Illinois University School of Medicine, will mentor Dr. Lindeman.

Geoff Stetson is an Associate Professor of Clinical Medicine and Medical Education at the University of Illinois Chicago (UIC) College of Medicine. Until 2022, Dr. Stetson worked at the University of California San Francisco.

Through his role as Director of Clinical Faculty Development at UIC, Dr. Stetson works to optimize learning in clinical environments with an emphasis on diversity and inclusion. Additionally, he is an expert in technology-enhanced education.

Dr. Stetson’s Macy Faculty Scholars project investigates how master researchers in health professions education utilize theoretical frameworks and make them accessible to mentees. Lessons learned will inform the creation and study of an interactive website for novice scholars from diverse backgrounds, geographies, and institutions, to foster scholarship, mentorship, and community. You can find that website at: www.MedEdMENTOR.org. 

Alan Schwartz, PhD, the Michael Reese Endowed Professor of Medical Education in the Department of Medical Education at the UIC College of Medicine, serves as Dr. Stetson’s mentor.

Rahul Vanjani is an Assistant Professor of Medicine at the Warren Alpert Medical School of Brown University, as well as a physician at the Amos House, which serves the homeless, individuals struggling with substance use disorders, and those who are living in poverty. At Amos House, Dr. Vanjani runs an interprofessional clinic that integrates social care into the practice of medicine. His work focuses on interprofessional collaboration, such as the medical-criminal legal partnership, and implementation of practical, easy-to-use tools that empower health systems to address patients’ social challenges.

As a Macy Faculty Scholar, Dr. Vanjani will expand the existing Social Medicine elective, which he launched in 2021 at Brown University, to professions beyond medicine, including nursing, pharmacy, social work, and law. The Social Medicine elective asks learners to see the value in partnering, cooperating, and learning with patients to tackle seemingly insurmountable challenges, such as gaining access to housing, pursuing medical treatment in lieu of incarceration, and securing reliable transportation.

James Ryczek, MSW, LICSW, Director of the Rhode Island Collaborative for Interprofessional Education and Practice, serves as Dr. Vanjani’s primary mentor. He will also be mentored by Helena Hansen, MD, PhD, Interim Chair, Department of Psychiatry and Interim Director, Semel Institute for Neuroscience and Human Behavior at David Geffen School of Medicine at University of California, Los Angeles.