Thirteen Faculty Promoted to Associate Professor

The following BUSM faculty have been promoted to the rank of Associate Professor:

COM-people_M-Gerber Megan R. Gerber MED, Medicine, is a nationally recognized expert intimate partner violence (IPV) detection and intervention in medical settings. Her research has focused on medical outcomes after interpersonal trauma.  She currently serves as the Medical Director of women’s health at VA Boston Healthcare System (VABHS) and was appointed as Senior Consultant to Women’s Health Services, VA Central Office in October, 2016. Dr. Gerber co-chaired the national VA Taskforce on IPVthat drafted and implemented system-wide guidelines and recommendations. She leads the Boston site for the VA Women’s Health Practice-Based Research Network and serves as the Boston site director for the BU-VABHS Women’s Health Fellowship. In 2014, she received the David Littman Award for excellence in clinical care and teaching at VA Boston.
COM-people_K-Iverson Katherine Iverson, MED, Psychiatry, is an expert in identifying and treating intimate partner violence (IPV) among women veterans. A recent recipient of the Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers, she co-developed an innovative model of brief counseling for women who experience IPV, called Recovering from IPV through Strengths and Empowerment (RISE). In addition, she led the development of an IPV brochure to guide clinical response to IPV disclosures and raise awareness within VHA. Both the IPV screening items and brochure resulting from her VA-funded Career Development Award have been disseminated nationally within VHA. Dr. Iverson has chaired the National VHA Women’s Health IPV Research Work Group and the International Society for Traumatic Stress Studies’ Gender and Trauma Special Interest Group. She routinely consults with clinicians and policy makers to enhance the implementation of IPV services throughout VHA. Dr. Iverson is also a practicing therapist and supervisor in the VA Boston Healthcare System Women’s Stress Disorder Clinic.
COM-people_J-Kalish Jeffrey Kalish, MED, Surgery & Radiology, is widely recognized for his clinical research in endovascular and open vascular interventions, which has significantly improved the quality and effectiveness of ultrasound-guided access during peripheral vascular intervention. As Director of Endovascular Surgery and Associate Chief Medical Information officer at BMC, he developed and led the hospital’s Inferior Vena Cava Filter Retrieval Taskforce and presented the results at national meetings. In 2014 Dr. Kalish won the Society for Vascular Surgery’s  E.J. Wylie Traveling Fellowship for his leadership in improving care for the survivors of the Boston Marathon bombing.  He adopted advaces observed at visits to military centers to his civilian practice and formed a multi-disciplinary team (STRONG) to benefit amputee patients at BMC. Dr. Kalish has been an excellent teacher and mentor to medical and physician assistant students, residents and fellows in vascular surgery, as well as junior faculty, not only improving their surgical skills but also encouraging clinical research initiatives.
COM-people_B-Kamholz Barbara Kamholz, MED, Psychiatry, a Behavioral and Cognitive Psychologist is Associate Director, Outpatient Mental Health Services at VA Boston Healthcare System and Director of Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) Education for BMC’s Psychiatry Residency Training.  She is nationally recognized for her well funded work in CBT practice and Education. Dr. Kamholz serves as Associate Editor of the journal, Cognitive and Behavioral Practice, Coordinator for Convention and Education Issues for the Association for Behavioral and Cognitive Therapies, and Chair for the Professional Development Subcommittee of the Convention Committee for the Anxiety and Depression Association of America.
COM_people_P-Kavanagh Patricia Kavanagh, MED, Pediatrics, has a national reputation in systems approaches to improve the care of children and adults with sickle cell disease (SCD). The Quality Lead for the Department of Pediatrics, and attending physician in the BMC Pediatric ED, she and colleagues defined and refined treatment standards for children with sickle cell disease, relevant to the Boston-area patient population but also globally. Her federal grants include a K23 from the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute. She led the Health Resources and Services Administration’s (HRSA’s) Sickle Cell Disease Newborn Screening Program at BMC. Nationally she Co-Founded and Chaired the Taskforce for Emergency Department Sickle Cell Care Collaborative and serves on the Oversight Steering Committee of HRSA’s Sickle Cell Disease Treatment Demonstration Program, its Data and Measurement Workgroup, the Steering Committee for the American Society of Hematology’s Sickle Cell Disease Coalition, and on the national Sickle Cell Disease Council for Change.
COMpeople_B-Linas Benjamin P. Linas, MED and SPH, Medicine and Epidemiology, respectively, is a national leader in hepatitis-C virus (HCV) infection and HCV/HIV co-infection comparative- and cost-effectiveness research using computational biology, clinical epidemiology and clinical economics methods. Dr. Linas has an excellent track record of productivity, ample funding from the NIH and CDC, and a growing core of successful trainees. Dr. Linas Directs the HIV/HCV core of the Center for Health Economics of Treatment Interventions for Substance Use Disorders, HCV, and HIV, funded by the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) in collaboration with Cornell, U Penn and Miami.
COM-people_M-Logue Mark Logue, MED, Psychiatry, is nationally recognized for his genetic work in PTSD, Alzheimer Disease, and panic disorderand for publishing the first genome-wide association study (GWAS) of PTSD and the first GWAS of Alzheimer Disease in African Americans. Dr. Logue is deeply involved in a PTSD genomics consortium whose large-scale meta-analysis GWAS was recently published in Molecular Psychiatry. He plays a leadership role in the PTSD consortium subgroup investigating the epigenetics of PTSD and co-leads a consortium subgroup examining the genetics of neuroimaging and PTSD. Dr. Logue holds a position at the National Center for PTSD and is a Review Editor in Neurogenomics: Frontiers in Genetics.
COM-people_circle_Pokines James Pokines, MED, Anatomy & Neurobiology, a Diplomate of the American Board of Forensic Anthropology (ABFA) is a leader in the fields of taphonomy, forensic archaeology, Paleolithic archaeology, and zooarchaeology. His worldwide field research includes the Nile Delta of Egypt, Jordan, Kenya, South Africa, Cantabrian Spain, and Bolivia.  Dr. Pokines is the course director of five Forensic Anthropology graduate courses, and also the Forensic Anthropologist for the Commonwealth of Massachusetts.  He is the incoming Vice President for the ABFA, where he also serves on multiple committees.
COM-people_A-Upadhyay Ashish Upadhyay, MED, Nephrology, is a recognized expert in cardiovascular disease in chronic kidney disease. He has examined the mechanisms of cardiovascular disease risk factors in kidney disease, led the evidence review team for the Kidney Disease Improving Global Outcomes (KDIGO) clinical practice guidelines on lipid management in kidney disease, and participated in the evidence review teams for the KDIGO guidelines on blood pressure and anemia management in kidney disease. Dr. Upadhyay is also an Associate Director of the Internal Medicine Residency Program where he leads the program’s scholarship curriculum, and oversees the inpatient education and evidence-based medicine teaching. Dr. Upadhyay also serves on the Association for the Advancement of Medical Instrumentation’s Renal Disease and Detoxification Committee, the primary source of national and international consensus standards for hemodialysis technology and dialysis water sterilization processes.
COM-people_XVarelas Xaralabos Varelas, MED, Biochemistry, a creative cellular and molecular biologist whose research focuses on  the development of tissues and organs, and how the underlying homeostatic signals go awry in cancer. His well-funded work on the regulation and function of the Hippo signaling pathway, an essential developmental pathway that has emerged as a central mediator of cancer,has identified novel regulators and functions for Hippo pathway signaling, and described important roles for this pathway in various cancers and in animal development.Dr. Varelas also mentors students within his research program and serves on a many student thesis committees on the Medical and Charles River campuses.
COM-people_A-Walley Alexander Walley, MED, Medicine, has gained national and international prominence for his work examining and implementing naloxone rescue kits for the prevention of opioid overdose. His landmark publication in the British Medical Journal in 2013 is among the most influential papers documenting the effectiveness of this treatment. Dr. Walley founded the Boston Medical Center Addiction Consult Service in 2015.  He directs the Addiction Medicine Fellowship program, one of the nine inaugural fellowships credentialed in 2011 by the American Board of Addiction Medicine, and National Institute on Drug Abuse-supported Fellow Immersion Training in Addiction Medicine Program. He is a core faculty member for the Chief Resident Immersion Training in Addiction Medicine Program and medical director of the Massachusetts Department of Public Health’s Opioid Overdose Prevention Program, which provides overdose prevention education and naloxone rescue kits to high risk individuals and their social networks in Massachusetts.
COM-people_Wiener Renda Renda Soylemez Wiener, MED, Pulmonary, Allergy, Sleep and Critical Care, an accomplished scholar in pulmonary and critical care outcomes research, has more than 80 publications (five among the top 1% of the most highly cited papers in clinical medicine per the Web of Science). Dr. Wiener’s research examines the harms of overly aggressive medical care and seeks to improve medical decision-making, implementation of patient-centered care, and de-implementation of low value and harmful practices. She has served on multiple clinical practice guideline panels and led development of regional and national policy for lung cancer screening and pulmonary nodule evaluation. She currently serves as the Acting Associate Director for the Bedford VA Center for Healthcare Organization & Implementation Research.
COM-people_E-Wolf Erika Wolf, MED, Psychiatry, a highly regarded clinical psychologist and scientist,has gained national acclaim for showing that PTSD is associated with accelerated cellular aging in DNA methylation data and that PTSD-related metabolic syndrome is associated with substantial cortical thinning. Her follow-up work suggested that metabolic syndrome occurs prematurely among veterans with PTSD and that PTSD longitudinally predicts increasing metabolic syndrome risk over time. Dr. Wolf received the Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers, a VA Patient Care Service Award, and early career investigator awards from the International Society for Traumatic Stress Studies and Division 56 of the American Psychological Association. Dr. Wolf supervises and trains clinical psychology interns and post-doctoral fellows at VA Boston Healthcare System in psychological assessments, psychotherapy, and research skills, including data analyses and manuscript writing. She also serves on the editorial boards of four scientific journals.