DOM ROAR: Research Operations & Administration Retreat – Sept. 16th

Join us for a day of insightful discussions and networking opportunities! If you have any questions or suggestions, please reach out to Havens Kon or Christine Choi

Submit your questions below!

Tuesday, Sept. 16, Evans Conference Room 1

Zoom Link
Meeting ID: 956 6641 6664
Passcode: 203811

10:00 – 10:15 AM
Welcome & Introduction

10:15 – 10:45 AM
Guest Presentation:
Conflict of Interest (COI): Financial Conflicts of Interest in Research at BU/BMC

11:00 AM – 12:00 PM
BMC Guest Presentation:
BMCHS Research & Sponsored Programs: 101
Proposal Development, Jennifer Flemming
Pre-Award (SPA) Gina Nadler
Post-Award (SPF) Tyler Flack

12:00 – 1:00 PM
Break

1:00 – 3:00 PM
Grant Management Workshop (by invitation)

DOM ROAR: Research Operations & Administration Retreat Q&A Collection Form

Please add your questions, input, and feedback about each of the topics below the appropriate heading:

Example: What is the root issue of the slow sub agreement process? How can we help sub agreements be completed/updated faster, so that we receive project #s faster, so that we can do accurate accounting with less cost transfers and salary allocations later?
Example: Why do our cost allocations sometimes get returned because the justification language is judged as inadequate? We are telling the story from our most honest perspective, how else are we supposed to populate the justification fields?

July 2025 DOM Chobanian & Avedisian School of Medicine Faculty Promotions

Congratulations to the following BU DOM Chobanian & Avedisian School of Medicine faculty on their recent appointment or promotion!

Clinical Professor

Ashish Upadhyay, MD, medicine/nephrology, serves as director of the nephrology fellowship and director of research for the internal medicine residency. Previously, he led evidence review teams for international nephrology clinical practice guidelines (2009-2012), was associate director of the internal medicine residency (2012-2018), and director of the nephrology clerkship (2018-2025). His scholarly contributions spanning clinical nephrology and medical education have been cited over 5,500 times. He also is an investigator in multiple kidney disease-related clinical studies, a member of AAMI’s Renal Disease and Detoxification Committee, and chair of the school’s Committee on Appeals. Dr. Upadhyay received Boston Medical Center’s 2021 Program Leadership Award and the department of medicine’s 2022 Evans Special Recognition Teaching Award.

Associate Professor

Devin Steenkamp, MBChB, medicine/endocrinology, diabetes, nutrition & weight management, is an endocrinologist with a particular interest in type 1 diabetes, atypical diabetes phenotypes and the application of diabetes technologies in care. He is director of the clinical diabetes program in the section of endocrinology, diabetes and nutrition and weight management and established the diabetes technology program, specifically focused on caring for underserved adults living with diabetes. Dr. Steenkamp has been an investigator on multiple multi-center clinical trials and translational projects and is currently a co-I on two NIH-funded R01 clinical studies investigating diabetes technology in novel populations (underserved adults with type 1 diabetes and non-diabetic members of the longitudinal Framingham Heart Study).

Alysse Wurcel, MD, medicine/GIM, specializes in implementation science and carceral health with a robust research portfolio examining health disparities. Dr. Wurcel has delivered clinical care as an infectious diseases physician at various institutions, including Tufts Medical Center, Lemuel Shattuck Hospital, Beverly Hospital and several Massachusetts county jails. She has more than 20 years of experience as a clinician and researcher working with communities of color, people with HIV, people who use drugs and people who have experienced incarceration. She is a member of the leadership team of the Academic Consortium for Criminal Justice Health and is editor-in-chief of the Journal of Correctional Health Care.

June 2025 DOM Faculty Promotions

Congratulations to the following BU Chobanian & Avedisian School of Medicine DOM faculty on their recent appointment or promotion!

Professor

Valerie Gouon-Evans, PhD, PharmD, Medicine/Gastroenterology, studies liver development and therapeutic strategies to alleviate liver diseases using human induced pluripotent stem cell (iPSC) and innovative nanoparticle mRNA platforms. Earlier this year she was named the inaugural BMC Research Excellence Award winner. She has a track record for training postdoctoral fellows, graduate students and technicians who have remained in the research field either in academia or with industry/consulting firms. She also mentors junior and peer faculty members through her position as the director of the BU Liver Biologist (BULB) program, which provides intellectual and technical resources for peers in the liver field at a local and national level. In addition, she is associate director of the molecular and translational medicine PhD program.

Clinical Associate Professor

Dellara Terry, MD, MPH, Medicine/Geriatrics, specializes in geriatrics and performs cognitive assessments at Boston Medical Center’s (BMC) Geriatrics Memory Disorders Clinic. Her primary role is chief and vice president of Value Based Care for the BMC Health System, where she addresses opportunities to improve clinical care delivery and risk-based contractual performance using a data-driven approach. Dr. Terry brings 20+ years of experience working in large integrated healthcare systems, venture-backed companies and academic medicine to her current role.

Deborah Whalen, MSN, MBA, APRN, Medicine/Cardiovascular Medicine, is a clinician and leader whose career over the last 30 years epitomizes individual clinical excellence. She currently serves as the director of quality and patient safety for the department of medicine. Through her extensive accomplishments in championing methodologies of quality assessment and improvement (QA/QI), she has inspired generations of MD-trained clinicians and advanced practice providers in the cardiovascular medicine section and larger department of medicine to incorporate QI into their clinical practice. Ms. Whalen has played a leadership role in shaping the clinical environment through numerous contributions that have been recognized at local, national and international levels.

2025 Top BMC Faculty Based on Resident Feedback!!

Thank you for all your hard work and dedication - Congratulations!

Deepa Gopal, MD
Nicholas Bosch, MD
Linda Paniszyn, MD
Aala Jaberi, MD
Justin Lui, MD
Michael Schwartz, MD
Omar Siddiqi, MD
Ryan Chippendale, MD
Miriam Nathan, MD
Deepthi Gunasekaran, MD
Ricky Cruz, MD
Bailey Chang, MD
Laura Wung, MD
Kelly Schuering, MD

Announcing the Chair of the Department of Medicine, Vicki Jackson, MD, MPH – Starting in September

We are pleased to share that Vicki Jackson, MD, MPH, has been named Chief and Chair of the Department of Medicine at Boston Medical Center and Boston University Chobanian & Avedisian School of Medicine, beginning Sept. 2, 2025.

Dr. Jackson joins us from Massachusetts General Hospital, where she has served with distinction for more than two decades. She currently serves as the Blum Family Endowed Chair in Palliative Care and the Chief of the Division of Palliative Care and Geriatric Medicine. Dr. Jackson is also a Professor in the Department of Medicine at Harvard Medical School, Co-Director of the Harvard Medical School Center for Palliative Care, and the founding Director for the Harvard Palliative Medicine Fellowship.

A nationally recognized leader in palliative care, Dr. Jackson is a co-investigator and mentor on numerous studies funded through the National Institutes of Health, the National Cancer Institute, and the Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute investigating the effect of early, integrated palliative care for patients with advanced cancer. In 2019, she received Harvard Medical School’s prestigious A. Clifford Barger mentoring award. She is the co-author of the book “Living with Cancer: A step-by-step guide to coping medically and emotionally with a serious diagnosis” and “What’s in the syringe? Principles of early Integrated Palliative Care.” Nationally, Dr. Jackson serves as the Immediate Past President for the American Academy of Hospice and Palliative Medicine.

Dr. Jackson completed her residency and chief residency in Internal Medicine at Cambridge Hospital. She received training in research methods through the Harvard general medicine fellowship and completed a master's in public health at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. She also completed training in palliative care at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and Brigham and Women's Hospital.

As a compassionate clinician and a visionary leader, Dr. Jackson brings a patient-centered approach, a strong academic foundation, strategic insight, and a deep personal commitment to equitable care that will greatly benefit the Department of Medicine and the broader BMC and BU communities.

We would like to thank the search committee, headed by David Henderson, MD, Chief and Chair of Psychiatry, for their thoughtful leadership throughout the selection process. We are also grateful to Sushrut Waikar, MD, for leading the Department of Medicine as interim Chief and Chair while continuing in his role as Section Chief of Nephrology.

Please join us in welcoming Dr. Jackson to Boston Medical Center and BU Chobanian & Avedisian School of Medicine later this year.

2025 DoM Evans Days Abstract Submissions Are Now Open!

Key Dates

Abstract Submission dates:         June 3 – July 1

Poster submission dates:             August 6 – September 12

Poster presentation date:            October 16

Please note: By submitting an abstract, you are committing to submit a poster through ePosterboards online platform.

Click here to submit your abstract!

Abstract Submission Guidelines

Instructions for Completing the Online Abstracts Form

  1. In order to submit an abstract, we request some information about you. Please provide the following.
    1. Your name
    2. Section/Department
    3. Your Mentor
    4. Research Collaborators
    5. Preferred email and phone number
    6. Home mailing address
    7. Recent Headshot
    8. Include a brief bio of yourself (where did you go to school, research interest, etc.)
    9. Is this research Basic Science or Clinical?
    10. 3 Keywords

Once step one is complete and reviewed you will then be able to submit your abstract(s). Abstract submission will be open on Tuesday, June 3; it must be submitted by Tuesday, July 1 by 11:59pm EST.

  1. Evaluation of abstracts will be based on the following considerations. You will be asked to address each of these items in separate text boxes. The total character limit is 1470 for the four boxes combined.
    1. Objective: Research rationale, objectives and/or hypothesis are well defined and clearly stated.
    2. Methods: Research methods are appropriate for the study objectives/hypothesis and describe what was done concisely.
    3. Results: Results are clearly presented and directly address the objectives and convincingly support or refute them.
    4. Conclusions: Conclusions are supported by the data, indicate the novelty and/or impact of the research and address the limitations and/or future directions.
    5. Image Size: No larger than 2in high x 4in wide for publication purposes.

 

  1. The abstracts receipt deadline Tuesday, July 1, by 11:59pm will remain firm and any abstracts received after the deadline will not be accepted.

 

  1. Everyone is encouraged to submit an abstract and all will be considered for presentation on Evans Day. However, previous winners of the trainee Evans Days Oral Presentation & Poster Awards within the past three years will not be eligible for an award this year unless the subject of the abstract is completely different than the previous award-winning submission.

Submission Rules

  1. Abstracts submission portal will open on Tuesday, June 3, and will close after Tuesday, July 1 at 11:59 PM, EST.
  2. Character Count: Abstracts are limited to 1470 characters, not including spaces. Image size should be no larger than 2in high x 4in wide for publication purposes.
  3. Make abstracts as informative as possible, including a brief statement of the purpose of the study or why it was done, the methods used, the results observed, and the author(s)' conclusions based upon the results. Actual data should be summarized. It is inadequate to state "the results will be discussed" or "the data will be presented." Abstracts must be written in English.
  4. You will be asked to partition your abstract into four section: Objective, Methods, Results and Conclusions. The total limit for all four sections combined is 1470 characters.
  5. NO REVISIONS to abstracts will be allowed after the deadline.
  6. Authorship on multiple abstracts permitted (1st authorship is permitted on one abstract only).
  7. All Department of Medicine faculty, fellows, house staff, post-docs, and graduate students may submit abstracts.
  8. Submissions are accepted from any BUMC member but ONLY DOM Trainees, Students, and Post docs will be eligible for competitive awards.
  9. Work done at another institution can be accepted as long as It was done in collaboration with a DOM faculty member.
  10. Upon completion of your submission you will receive an email confirmation.
  11. Please be prepared to submit a poster in PDF or Powerpoint format to accompany your abstract. We will reach out to you once the abstract submission deadline has closed with more information on how to prepare your poster. The deadline for poster submissions will be September 12.

If you have any questions please feel free to reach out to Christine Choi at choikp@bu.edu.

Announcing DoM Mentoring & Mission Career Development Professorship Recipient!!

We are delighted to announce that Dr. Shana Burrowes, Assistant Professor of Medicine at the Chobanian & Avedisian School of Medicine, has been selected as the recipient of the Department of Medicine Mentoring & Mission Career Development Professorship.

This endowed professorship was established to support an outstanding Assistant Professor in the Department of Medicine who has distinguished themselves through their research, teaching, and/or mentoring, particularly as leaders in advancing diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility (DEIA). Dr. Burrowes exemplifies the mission and spirit of this professorship through her scholarship, mentorship, and steadfast commitment to equity in academic medicine.

Dr. Burrowes received her MPH in Global Communicable Diseases from the University of South Florida and her PhD in Molecular Epidemiology from the University of Maryland Baltimore. She completed postdoctoral training at Boston University in the Social Innovation on Drug Resistance (SIDR) program and currently serves as a faculty member in the Section of Infectious Diseases and the Evans Center for Implementation & Improvement Sciences (CIIS).

Dr. Burrowes brings expertise in both quantitative and qualitative methods to her research, which spans a broad range of topics including HIV/AIDS, cardiovascular disease, chronic pain (with a focus on migraine), sickle cell disease, antibiotic use, and infectious diseases with a particular emphasis on health disparities in the Caribbean, minority, and immigrant communities in the U.S. She is especially interested in understanding barriers to care and the influence of social and cultural norms on health-seeking behaviors. Her current research centers on examining how cross-cultural communication barriers in the outpatient setting impact non-prescribed antibiotic use in the Latin American and Caribbean community. The professorship will continue to support her work in this area as she expands her focus to non-prescribed antibiotic use outside of the healthcare setting.

In addition to her scholarly accomplishments, Dr. Burrowes is a dedicated mentor and advocate for underrepresented students in STEM. She fosters an inclusive and supportive environment, providing research opportunities and holistic mentorship that spans academic, career, and personal development.

Please join us in congratulating Dr. Burrowes on this well-deserved recognition. We are proud to support her continued work and look forward to all she will accomplish in this new role.

DoM Faculty Appointments and Promotions – April 2025

Congratulations to the following Chobanian & Avedisian School of Medicine faculty on their recent appointment or promotion.

Clinical Associate Professor

Marcin Trojanowski, MD, Medicine/Rheumatology, specializes in the treatment of systemic sclerosis. He directs the Scleroderma Program, overseeing scleroderma clinical trials, a biorepository and a clinical research database. He oversees the Scleroderma Clinic at Boston Medical Center, which is New England’s largest scleroderma program. Dr. Trojanowski is also recognized as an expert in macrophage activation syndrome, a rare but potentially fatal complication of inflammatory autoimmune rheumatic diseases.

Research Associate Professor

Britta Lassmann, MD, Medicine/Infectious Diseases, is an infectious diseases physician and healthcare technology innovator with expertise in building applications at the intersection of clinical care, public health, analytics and technology. Her research also integrates advanced analytical methods and artificial intelligence (AI) to optimize disease surveillance and outbreak response. She is a co-founder of BEACON, the Biothreats, Emergence, Analysis and Communications Network, a first-of-its-kind, open-source global surveillance platform built to detect emerging infectious diseases in near real time, worldwide. The platform merges the power of AI with a global network of human subject matter experts to provide fast, verified alerts to potential outbreaks. BEACON is housed at BU’s Center on Emerging Infectious Diseases.

2025 Annual School Award DoM Recipients

Join us in congratulating the following awardees!!!!

Stanley L. Robbins Award for Excellence in Teaching

Christine Phillips, MD
Assistant Professor of Medicine

Excellence in Faculty Mentorship, Senior Faculty

Craig Noronha, MD
Clinical Associate Professor of Medicine

Community Service & Engagement

Kaku So-Armah, PhD
Associate Professor of Medicine

Above and Beyond Staff Award

Laura Anastasi
Administrative Director, Geriatrics Section, Department of Medicine