BUMC Faculty Appointments, Promotions – January 2023
Congratulations to the following Chobanian & Avedisian School of Medicine faculty on their recent appointment or promotion.
Professor
Ekkehard Kasper, MD, PhD, Neurosurgery, is a clinician-scientist who focuses on brain tumors, radiosurgery and functional disorders such as lesional epilepsy. He has collaborated on experimental studies of DNA repair and cancer biology, and works on genetic analysis of intrinsic brain tumors to predict their response to various treatments. Since 2021, Dr. Kasper is chief of regional neurosurgery services for Stewart Medical Group and chief of neurosurgery at St. Elizabeth’s Medical Center in Brighton. Previously, he served as an attending neurosurgeon at Massachusetts General Hospital, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Mount Auburn Hospital, and Hamilton Health Sciences/Juravinski Cancer Center in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada.
Clinical Professor
David Lichtenstein, MD, Medicine/Gastroenterology, specializes in therapeutic endoscopy, specifically in pancreaticobiliary tract malignancies and calculus disorders, advanced polyp resection techniques, Barrett’s ablation, GI bleeding, small bowel enteroscopy, palliation of malignant enteral obstruction, and endoscope reprocessing/safety. He is a master educator in endoscopy technical skills, training generations of gastroenterologists across the United States in innovative endoscopic approaches to treat GI disorders throughout the GI tract. Dr. Lichtenstein has made significant contributions to the advancement of endoscopic technologies and training in the U.S., and has chaired national committees on this topic for the American Society of Gastrointestinal Endoscopy and American Board of Internal Medicine. For more than 20 years, he was the director of endoscopy for the GI Section at Boston Medical Center (BMC), during which time he brought many new technologies to the BMC patient population. He also led the design and build of the new endoscopy unit in 2017, and chaired or sat on hospital committees for colorectal cancer screening, infection control and patient safety. In 2019 he was appointed director of advanced endoscopy, overseeing recruitment of new faculty, training in new techniques, and determination of which devices warrant inclusion in the BMC care pathway.
Howard Wolpert, MBBCh, Medicine/Endocrinology, Diabetes and Nutrition, focuses on diabetes technology and care delivery innovation. He joined BU/Boston Medical Center in July 2021 from Eli Lilly where he served as vice president of medical innovation for five years. Prior to that he was senior physician at Joslin Diabetes Center and associate professor at Harvard Medical School. Dr. Wolpert is a pioneer in the development and clinical use of Continuous Glucose Monitoring (CGM). He was a member of the three guideline committees regarding the use of CGM in diabetes management and the senior author publishing Consensus Guidelines for Continuous Glucose Monitoring in 2008, the Endocrine Society Guidelines on Continuous Glucose Monitoring in 2011 and Continuous Subcutaneous Insulin Infusion Therapy and Continuous Glucose Monitoring in Adults in 2016. He is the inventor of three issued patents; one of them – a decision support tool that has been incorporated into the Abbott Libre CGM system, one of the two dominant clinical CGM devices in the United States – is in clinical use.
Clinical Associate Professor
Uri Avissar, MD, Medicine/Gastroenterology, is a clinician-educator who specializes in hepatology and management of end-stage liver disease. On staff at South Boston Community Health Center, during the transition of treatment of chronic viral hepatitis to a community-based program, he led the GI Section’s integration of these treatments into community practice. Dr. Avissar serves as the section’s Subspecialty Education Coordinator and is actively involved in the training of fellows, residents and medical students. He also serves as the Education Director of the Massachusetts Gastroenterology Association.
Christopher Shanahan, MD, Medicine/GIM, is a long-contributing clinician-educator concentrating in three domains: clinical and research medical informatics/information technology, substance use disorders and safer prescribing of opioid medications for the treatment of chronic pain, and community medicine as both a clinician in a community health center and expertise in community-engaged collaboration with organizations, clinicians, and patients. A primary care physician at the Mattapan Community Health Center for 25 years, Dr. Shanahan was the founding medical director of the Massachusetts Consultation Service for Treatment of Addiction & Pain, which serves as model for other consultative programs across the country. He is the 2021 recipient of the American College of Physicians award for Distinguished Contributions to Behavioral Medicine.
Amy Silberbogen, PhD, Psychiatry, is a clinician-educator at the VA Boston Healthcare System (VABHS) where she is a clinical psychologist, assistant chief of psychology and psychology program manager on the mental health and psychology service. Since 2007 she has been training director of the VA Boston Psychology Postdoctoral Fellowship Program. Dr. Silberbogen has served as a member of and chair of the national VA Psychology Training Council, which advises on the structure and practices in psychology training nationwide within the VA and has held various elected roles for the Association of Psychology Postdoctoral and Internship Center (APPIC), which has influence on all advanced training programs in psychology, both in and out of the VA. Since 2018, she has served as a site visitor for the American Psychological Association, the accrediting agency for psychology training programs. In addition, she is a mentor for psychologists nationwide who are seeking board certification in clinical health psychology.
Colleen Sloan, PhD, Psychiatry, is a clinician-educator specializing in the areas of LGBTQ+ health, with a particular focus on transgender and gender diverse health, minority stress, Prolonged Exposure for PTSD, and dialectical behavioral therapy. She is training director for the Clinical Psychology Internship Program at VA Boston Healthcare System (VABHS) and is clinically based within the Women’s Trauma Recovery Team, which serves women veterans with trauma-related mental health problems. Until earlier this year, she served as the chair of the VABHS Interdisciplinary Transgender Treatment Team and the LGBTQ+ Veteran Care Coordinator. She co-chairs the VABHS Psychology Diversity and Inclusion Committee, within which she co-developed a multicultural clinical consultation team, which has received considerable positive feedback for its utility to clinicians seeking to provide more culturally responsive mental health care to veterans with diverse cultural identities.
H. Christian Weber, MD, Medicine/Gastroenterology and Pathology & Laboratory Medicine, focuses on the clinical conditions associated with gastrointestinal (GI) hormones and motility. He spent the early part of his career investigating gastrointestinal peptides at the NIH, and in recent years has pivoted to integrate this knowledge into managing Functional GI Disorders (FGID), acid-related disorders and neuroendocrine tumors. He serves as associate chief and clinical director of the Section of Gastroenterology & Hepatology at VA Boston Healthcare System (VABHS), where he oversees clinical care for veterans with gastrointestinal conditions and supervises clinical teaching in gastroenterology for residents and fellows from training programs at Boston Medical Center and Brigham & Women’s Hospital.