Eleven Faculty Promoted to Professor

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

Christopher Andry, Pathology & Laboratory Medicine and Family Medicine, is well recognized in the field of biospecimen science. In a team-based setting at BU and BMC, he has established evidence-based protocols and standards to ensure curation and distribution of high-quality, well-annotated biospecimens. Dr. Andry has served as the PI on more than $2 million in grants and contracts to set standards for the science of biospecimen collection. A mentor for many medical and graduate students, he directs the Master of Science in Pathology Laboratory Sciences program and serves as course director, lecturer and laboratory instructor in medical, dental and graduate courses. Dr. Andry has raised the profile of BU in biobanking and provides the expertise for obtaining usable tissue samples for medical campus research faculty. He has chaired the BU Laboratory Safety committee for 12 years and directs the Cancer Tissue Archive for Precision Medicine, BU-BMC Cancer Center.
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Lawreen H. Connors, Pathology & Laboratory Medicine, focuses her basic science research on uncovering the protein and genetic determinants that underlie the formation of amyloid. The early stages of her career featured structural studies of amyloid-causing transthyretin (TTR) mutants, mainly those causing cardiac dysfunction. More recently, her studies have been focused on wild-type TTR amyloidosis, an age-related disease now recognized as an under-appreciated cause of heart failure in the elderly. She has received continuous support from the NIH and foundation grants, as well as industry-sponsored research agreements. In 2009, she played a major role in establishment of the Amyloid Pathology Diagnostic Testing Laboratory in the Amyloidosis Center, a CAP-accredited and CLIA-certified facility that offers histologic and molecular testing for amyloid. Dr. Connors teaches GMS classes on systemic amyloidosis, and has mentored more than 20 master, doctoral, and postdoctoral students. She has served on multiple local, national and international committees, and is Director of the Amyloidosis Center Gerry Laboratory and co-Director of the Amyloid Pathology Diagnostic Testing Laboratory.
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Shoumita Dasgupta, Medicine/Biomedical Genetics, is a scientist educator whose scholarly work is focused on integrating genetic and genomic science in medical and graduate education. She has made significant contributions to the reform of medical school education in genetics, introducing curricula using team-based teaching and flipped classroom learning, with an additional focus on education in diversity and ethics. She has constructed and published several innovative teaching activities that integrate cultural, ethical and genetic/genomic concepts. Through her leadership in the Medical Course Directors of the Association of Professors of Human and Medical Genetics, she has played a major role in the revision of the Medical School Core Curriculum in Genetics that provides the foundation for genetics courses taught at most medical schools in the country. Several curricula have also been shared in multiple countries (one in 19 countries; another in eight). Several articles (including one in Trends in Genetics and another in Genetics in Medicine) are featured in the CDC’s Public Health Genomics Knowledge Database. A paper on training future physicians in the era of genomic medicine has been used as the basis for curriculum development in England’s Genomic Education Programme. Dr. Dasgupta also was selected to lead NIH genomic medicine education initiatives on emerging genomic technologies and their responsible, inclusive implementation for trainees and providers.
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Karen E. Lasser, General Internal Medicine, a primary care-physician researcher, has dedicated her career to improving health conditions in vulnerable populations, spanning primary care practice-based research; interventions to promote preventive services in vulnerable populations; outpatient medication safety; and interventions related to addiction (e.g. tobacco use disorder, opioid management). She is the first-author of a highly influential JAMA Internal Medicine publication investigating how patient navigation and financial incentives promote smoking cessation among primary care patients served at an urban safety-net hospital. Dr. Lasser has been continuously funded from NIH, non-federal foundations, and intramural programs with A total of more than $5.2 million in direct costs since her promotion to Associate Professor in 2009. She also has served as a research mentor to more than 35 trainees (medical students, residents, master’s students and fellows) and junior faculty. The majority of her mentees have been women and/or underrepresented minorities. Dr. Lasser has received numerous awards, and been appointed to national and international committees, and has served on AHRQ, NIH and PCORI study sections.
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Stephanie Lee, Medicine/Endocrinology, Diabetes & Nutrition, is recognized for her NIH funded work in clinical thyroid disease, specifically improving differentiation of malignant v. benign thyroid nodules. Dr. Lee is PI on two externally funded grants using ultrasound for diagnosis of thyroid nodules and developing a multi-institution thyroid cancer registry. In 2015 she received the ATA Woman of the Year award and has served on the ATA guidelines committee for managing patients with thyroid nodules and on the faculty of the Thyroid World Congress. She directed two of the largest ultrasound courses for endocrinologists associated with the 2018 annual meetings of The Endocrine Society and the American Thyroid Association (ATA). She developed a two-year didactic curriculum, part of the core curriculum for the Endocrine Fellowship and developed and directs a monthly multidisciplinary Endocrine-Pathology-Surgery Clinical Conference on thyroid cytology and pathology. In 2017, she created an 80-hour curriculum required for the certification of Endocrinologists for the human administration of radioactive iodine. In 2018, she was selected as an Evans Clinician, a lifelong designation awarded to Department of Medicine faculty that recognizes outstanding clinicians who possess the skills, attributes and professionalism that define excellence.
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Mark Miller, Psychiatry, is a Clinical Psychologist in the Behavioral Sciences Division of the National Center for PTSD at VA Boston Healthcare System. He is an internationally recognized expert in the genetics, neurobiology, and assessment of PTSD. As a Principal Investigator, he has been continuously funded by the National Institute of Mental Health and/or the US Department of Veterans Affairs for almost 20 years. He has published more than 100 peer-reviewed papers on the topic of PTSD and related conditions and this body of work has been cited approximately 6,000 times. Dr. Miller is currently an Associate Editor for the American Psychological Association’s flagship publication, the Journal of Abnormal Psychology, and he previously served in the same capacity for two other leading journals in the field of traumatic stress. He is a frequent grant reviewer for the NIH and other US and international funding agencies and he has served as a research mentor to numerous pre- and post-doctoral trainees in Boston University training programs.
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Joanne Murabito, General Internal Medicine, is an outstanding clinician-scientist trained in epidemiology with specific interests in aging, cardiovascular disease and genetic epidemiology. Her research using the Framingham Heart Study (FHS) database focuses on the epidemiology and genetics of longevity, healthy aging and reproductive aging (menopause). She is investigating the use of mobile health technologies to study overall and cardiovascular health. Dr. Murabito has a history of current and prior NIH funding, and is the author of 173 original peer-reviewed articles, with some first-author publications reflecting her emphasis on team science with leadership of large consortia, and others with more restricted author teams. She has published in Nature Genetics, Circulation and JAMA.
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Timothy Naimi, General Internal Medicine, is a CDC-trained epidemiologist with a focus on adult binge drinking, youth drinking and the health effects of ‘moderate’ alcohol consumption. He has been the PI on three NIH-funded R01 projects to develop better measures of state alcohol policy environments and to study their relationships with excessive alcohol use and related outcomes, including fatal motor vehicle crashes and alcohol-related homicides and suicides. Dr. Naimi has 106 peer-reviewed papers with seven published in the last five years (11 as first author and 10 as last author).
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Elizabeth Pearce, Medicine/Endocrinology, Diabetes & Nutrition, is a renowned clinical investigator, endocrinologist and epidemiologist who has made significant contributions in iodine nutrition, thyroid disease in pregnancy, environmental thyroid disrupters and the association of thyroid function with cardiovascular risk. Her internationally cited publications have changed recommendations in the US for iodine supplementation and iodine use in pregnancy. Among her 87 articles, 22 include a mentee as first author. President of the American Thyroid Association (ATA), Dr. Pearce is the recipient of the prestigious Van Meter Award and she recently co-chaired the ATA’s Thyroid in Pregnancy Guidelines Task Force. She has been part of the leadership of the Iodine Global Network, a nongovernmental agency devoted to the elimination of iodine deficiency disorders, since 2007.
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Jillian C. Shipherd, Psychiatry, is a leader in the field of PTSD and LGBT health. She has directed the national LGBT Health Program for the VA since 2012. Her national fellowship program on LGBT Heath has been adopted at VA sites across the country, including Boston. She worked at the national level to develop a VA policy on care for transgender veterans and a policy for veterans who identify as lesbian, gay or bisexual. She has served on 39 national committees, (with leadership roles in 10), and on nine editorial boards. The recipient of the American Psychological Association’s Award for Distinguished Contribution to Education and Training, and the Health Professionals Advancing LGBT Equality (GLMA) 2018 Achievement Award, she has published more than 100 peer-reviewed papers and has served as a PI on six awards with funding exceeding $2M and in non-PI roles on 12 awards
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Weiming Xia, Pharmacology & Experimental Therapeutics, is an expert in Alzheimer’s disease (AD) and related neurodegenerative disorders. His post-doctoral research linking presenilin and gamma secretase and the associated seminal paper published in Nature in 1999 directly led to a specific therapeutic target for AD. His current research is focused on identifying therapeutic targets for AD, and developing biomarkers for AD diagnostics and therapeutics. He is the PI on VA Merit and Pilot Awards and a foundation grant from the Cure Alzheimer’s Fund. He is also site PI on an R01 and serves as a co-investigator on two additional R01s and other grants. Dr. Xia has 95 peer-reviewed journal articles as well as 13 invited peer-reviewed critical reviews, 12 book chapters, and one book, which have appeared in high-impact journals (e.g., Nature, PNAS, Cell) and leading specialty journals in AD and neuroscience.