DoM Community Volunteer and Continued Learning Opportunities!

Volunteer and Continued Learning Opportunities

FriendshipWorks

FriendshipWorks provides support and companionship to seniors to deter and alleviate elder isolations. Connect with Ellen Duncan (eduncan@fw4elders.org) for more information.

Boys and Girls Club of Boston - Volunteer Tutoring

If anyone is looking for a recurring volunteer opportunity, BGCB is currently recruiting volunteer tutors across multiple sites. Please have anyone interested sign up here and BGCB staff will follow up with you directly!

BMC Organizational Development International Transgender Day of Visibility Through Learning (For BMC staff)

Creating a welcoming, respectful, and affirming environment is essential to delivering equitable care and living our mission. This session will help staff deepen their understanding of gender diversity and strengthen inclusive communication practices in everyday interactions. Participating in this session is one way we can continue building the knowledge and skills needed to support our patients, colleagues, and community.

During this training, participants will:

  • Define key terms related to gender identity, gender expression, and sexual orientation
  • Describe the importance of gender-affirming care and its impact on patient experience and health outcomes
  • Practice affirming and inclusive communication strategies when engaging with everyone, including Trans and Gender Diverse individuals

In-person session: Tuesday, March 31, 10-11:30 a.m. (Yawkey Building)
Virtual session: Tuesday, March 31, 2-3:30 p.m. (Microsoft Teams)

Register here

Boys and Girls Club of Boston - Week of Service
April 21-24th

Projects typically include outdoor landscaping, with some indoor organizing of program spaces. Groups are perfect for this opportunity. Sign up here. For more information contact Alexis Armstrong (aarmstrong@bgcb.org).

BMC South: In Your Corner: Men's Health Night
April 10th | 6:30-8:30PM | BMC South Moakley Conference Center - 235 N Pearl St., Brockton, MA 02301

This event will bring together healthcare leaders and community partners to share trusted information about men’s health. Through an engaging panel discussion, speakers will address mental health, primary care, heart health, and prostate health—highlighting prevention, routine checkups, access to care, and the importance of knowing your health status. The event will also reconnect attendees with the BMC South Team and available services. For more information, contact the Community Engagement and External Affairs Team (bmccommunityengagement@bmc.org).

Me Period: A Community Film Screening
April 12th | 12-2:20PM | WBUR CitySpace - 890 Commonwealth Ave., Boston, MA

Boston Medical Center Health System is honored to present the Me Period documentary to the community. Produced by the Black Women’s Health Imperative, this powerful film explores menstruation, puberty, and motherhood through heartfelt intergenerational conversations. For more information, contact the Community Engagement and External Affairs Team (bmccommunityengagement@bmc.org).

30th Annual Mother's Day Peace Walk
May 10th | 9-11AM | Town Field Park - 1520 Dorchester Ave., Dorchester, MA 02122

We invite you to join the Louis D. Brown Peace Institute’s 30th Annual 5k Mother’s Day Walk for Peace. Each year, families, community leaders, and neighbors gather to honor loved ones lost to violence, support healing, and promote peace. We walk alongside founder Clementina Chéry in memory of her son, Louis D. Brown.
We’d love for you to join us. You’re welcome to register here and walk with us. Please RSVP by Friday, April 17.

2026 Haitian Flag Day
May 17th | 11AM-3PM | Harambee Park - 930 Blue Hill Ave., Boston, MA 02124

BMC is a proud sponsor of Boston’s Haitian Unity Parade, an annual event that takes place during the weekend-long Haitian Flag Day festivities.
This year’s parade will run from Mattapan Square to Harambee Park and will include music, food, and more! Join us to celebrate Haiti's independence and help empower our neighbors by providing resources that support all aspects of health. For more information, contact the Community Engagement and External Affairs Team (bmccommunityengagement@bmc.org).

Chelsea Research Festival | May 18th, 2026

The Chelsea Research Festival highlights Chelsea residents' contributions to science and bridges the gap between community and research. Learn more on their website. 

Boston Wellness Day: Building a Healthier Boston
May 30th | 12-4PM | Boys and Girls Club, Berkshire Partners Blue Hill Club - 15 Talbot Ave., Dorchester, MA 02124

Boston Medical Center (BMC), Boston Public Health Commission (BPHC), and Boys & Girls Clubs of Boston (BGCB) will partner to host a Community Wellness Day in 2026. This collaborative event is designed to engage and support BGCB children, staff, and Boston families. The event will combine education, engagement, and entertainment to create an inclusive and energizing environment centered on whole-person and family wellness. For more information, contact the Community Engagement and External Affairs Team (bmccommunityengagement@bmc.org).

DoM Chobanian & Avedisian School of Medicine Faculty Awards!

2026 Dahod Breast Cancer Research Awards

Mollie Barnard, ScD, and Ruben Dries, PhD, both assistant professors of medicine/hematology & medical oncology, will test whether tumor samples from the Black Women’s Health Study can support high‑resolution mapping of immune cells in breast cancer. They will assess data quality and identify the most effective tissue‑sampling approaches for creating accurate and representative views of each tumor’s immune environment.

Ignaty Leshchiner, PhD, assistant professor of medicine/computational biomedicine, and his team previously identified that metastatic ER-positive breast cancers frequently develop resistance to targeted inhibitors and endocrine therapy through diverse, coexisting mechanisms, including convergent loss-of-function alterations in the chromatin modifier genes across independent resistant subclones, driving reduced ER signaling and multidrug resistance. This project will investigate how chromatin dysregulation promotes therapy-resistant progression and potential therapeutic vulnerabilities.

2026 Shipley Prostate Cancer Research Awards

Ignaty Leshchiner, PhD, assistant professor of medicine/computational biomedicine, and Gerald Denis, PhD, professor of medicine/hematology & medical oncology, previously found that plasma exosomes from diabetic patients carry distinct microRNAs that reprogram prostate cancer cells, inducing epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition and stable transcriptional changes via epigenetic pathways. This project will investigate how diabetic exosomes drive persistent metastatic phenotypes on the epigenetic level.

2026 Sexual Medicine Research Funds Awards

Ann Zumwalt, PhD, associate professor of anatomy & neurobiology, and Carl Streed, MD, MPH, associate professor of medicine/GIM, will build on prior work by their research team that demonstrated faculty development and institutional culture are significant drivers of medical training quality regarding gender- and sexuality-diverse (GSD) populations. They now will expand these investigations to a national context and support developing GSD trainings for educators.

2026 Wing Tat Lee Awards

Chao Zhang, PhD, assistant professor of computational biomedicine, will collaborate with Dr. Jiguang Wang, associate professor at The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology. They will develop a physics-informed deep learning framework to model cell relationships and temporal transitions, addressing limitations in biological conservation during data integration and advancing insights into brain aging and glioblastoma progression.

DoM Faculty Named to Boston Magazine Top Docs

Boston Magazine has published its annual list of “Top Docs,” and I’m pleased to share that many of our DOM BMC clinician-faculty – across a variety of fields and specialties – are included on the list. Please join me in congratulating them on this achievement and for providing exceptional care to their patients and the community.

BMC’s “Top Docs” 2026

Top Docs are selected through a nomination process run by Castle Connolly for Boston Magazine.

Cardiac Electrophysiology

Katy Bockstall
Robert Helm
Kevin Monahan

Cardiovascular Disease

Eric Awtry
Gary Balady
Katy Bockstall
Robert Eberhardt
Omar Siddiqi

Clinical Genetics

Jodi Hoffman

Endocrinology, Diabetes & Metabolism

Sonia Ananthakrishnan
Beth Cohen
Kathryn Fantasia
Alan Farwell
Stephanie Lee
Katherine Modzelewski
Elizabeth Pearce
Ivania Rizo

Gastroenterology 

Christopher Huang
Robert Lowe
Arpan Mohanty
Ansu Noronha
David Nunes
Sharmeel Wasan

Geriatric Medicine

Heidi Auerbach
Lisa Caruso
Hollis Day
Won Lee

Hematology 

Vaishali Sanchorawala
J. Sloan

Infectious Disease

Carlos Acuna-Villaorduna
Sabrina Assoumou
Maura Fagan
Gopala Yadavalli

Internal Medicine

Melissa DiPetrillo
Amy Fitzpatrick
Warren Hershman
Angela Jackson
Susan Phillips
Lucy Schulson
Carl Streed
Charles Tifft

Interventional Cardiology

Claudia Hochberg
Anthony Litvak
Ashvin Pande

Medical Oncology

Gretchen Gignac
Adam Lerner

Pulmonary Disease 

Konstantinos-Dionysi Alysandratos
John Bernardo
Nicholas Bosch
Christine Campbell-Reardon
Finn Hawkins
Elizabeth Klings
Frederic Little
George O'Connor

Rheumatology

Andreea Bujor
Monica Crespo-Bosque
Eugene Kissin
Tuhina Neogi
Michael York

2026 Antman Bair-Merritt Gender Equity Endowed Fund Award

We are pleased to announce DOM's Dr. Maya Abdallah was one of two recipients of the 2026 of the Antman Bair-Merritt Gender Equity Endowed Fund award. Created in 2021 through a donor gift and a $50,000 NIH prize, the fund supports BU faculty pursuing research or educational projects on gender equity in biomedical science. Two $5,000 awards were offered this year, usable for career-advancing needs such as project costs, grant writing, conferences or caregiving. 

Maya Abdallah, MD, assistant professor of medicine/hematology & medical oncology, will examine how factors including gender shape patients’ and caregivers’ communication needs, navigation challenges and experiences engaging with supportive care services in safety-net oncology settings. Dr. Abdallah is conducting a study focused on integrating guideline-recommended geriatric assessments (GA) into real-world oncology practice. Although GA improves communication and treatment decision-making for older adults, its implementation remains limited by workflow constraints, documentation burden, interpreter needs and care-navigation challenges. These barriers meaningfully impact care and disproportionately affect women, who more often shoulder caregiving responsibilities and face compounded communication and system-level challenges.

DOM Faculty Appointments and Promotions – December 2025

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


Clinical Professor

J. Mark Sloan, MD, Medicine/Hematology & Medical Oncology, is a hematologist at Boston Medical Center (BMC) with research interests in HTLV-1 associated adult leukemia/lymphoma (ATLL), AL amyloidosis, and Duffy-null associated neutrophil counts (DANC). His pioneering work on DANC has helped transform clinical management for individuals of African descent, who are disproportionately affected by low white blood cell counts. Nationally, Dr. Sloan led a landmark multi-center trial for the frontline treatment of ATLL, demonstrating that long-term survival is an achievable goal for patients in the United States. Beyond his research, Dr. Sloan serves as program director for the Hematology/Oncology fellowship and director of the Gene Therapy Program for hemoglobinopathy at BMC. His serves on NIH study sections and European Medicines Agency panels. The clinician-scientist and mentor also is the co-founder of the Engraftment Project, a non-profit dedicated to expanding opportunities for sickle cell disease survivors following curative treatment.

Associate Professor

Avik Chatterjee, MD, MPH, Medicine/GIM, has implemented innovative treatment models for opioid use disorder and harm reduction interventions for people experiencing homelessness. He led the creation of a first-of-its-kind, shelter-based opioid addiction treatment program, and recently published an analysis of the health and economic outcomes of rolling out shelter-based buprenorphine to emergency shelters across Massachusetts, demonstrating that the strategy would not only save lives, but also save money. He is a physician at several shelter-based clinics for adults and children through Boston Health Care for the Homeless Program and serves as a site PI or Co-I on four NIDA grants. Dr. Chatterjee recently was named to the Massachusetts Attorney General’s Advisory Council on Substance Misuse. He is the recipient of numerous teaching and advising awards, including the Thomas Hoopes Prize, the STAR Family Prize for Excellence in Advising, and the John R. Marquand Award for Exceptional Advising.

Jessica L. Fetterman, PhD, Medicine/Vascular Biology, is a basic and translational scientist studying the intersections of mitochondrial physiology, mitochondrial genetics and cardiovascular disease. She has developed and applied bioinformatics methods for identifying and annotating mitochondrial DNA variants in population-based cohorts. She has published a rigorous protocol for biobanking of whole human hearts preserved to maintain the spatial resolution for multiomics, which served as the basis for her funded MPI R01 to build a cardiovascular biobank in the Framingham Heart Study. Dr. Fetterman’s second research focus is on the cardiovascular health effects, health perceptions and social media marketing of new and emerging tobacco products to inform policy. Her research has shown that e-cigarette use is associated with increased vascular stiffness, and the flavoring additives used in tobacco products induce endothelial cell toxicity. She is a Framingham Heart Study investigator and fellow of the American Heart Association.

Astrid Suchy-Dicey, PhD, Medicine/Preventive Medicine & Epidemiology, is a neuroepidemiologist focusing on health inequities in cognitive aging with a particular emphasis on Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias in Native American populations. Dr. Suchy-Dicey received a BA in history and biology from Smith College and MS and PhD in epidemiology from the University of Washington School of Public Health. A T32 trainee for the entirety of her graduate training, Dr. Suchy-Dicey subsequently became research assistant professor at Washington State University Elson S. Floyd College of Medicine, and was promoted to assistant professor in 2018, funded by her K01 in neurology and neuropsychology. She became an associate professor and director of clinical neurosciences at Huntington Medical Research Institutes in 2023 before joining BU Chobanian & Avedisian School of Medicine in 2025.

Xueling Wu, MD, PhD, Medicine/Infectious Diseases, studies HIV and other viruses with pandemic threat, with a focus on developing broad and potent neutralizing antibodies and more effective vaccines. Her work has demonstrated antibody escape favors HIV mother-to-child transmission and her research in neutralizing antibodies has advanced to multiple clinical trials. Dr. Wu received a BS in Clinical Medicine from Tongji Medical College in China and did her residency in internal medicine at Guilin People’s Hospital. Dr. Wu earned her PhD in microbiology from the University of Alabama at Birmingham. She completed her postdoctoral training in Molecular Virology at Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center before becoming a staff scientist at the NIH Vaccine Research Center and then joining the faculty at Aaron Diamond AIDS Research Center, an affiliate of Rockefeller University. While there, Dr. Wu was promoted to associate professor of medical sciences at Columbia University Medical Center before joining BU Chobanian & Avedisian School of Medicine in 2025.

Clinical Associate Professor

Fabio Petrocca, MD, Medicine/Hematology & Oncology, is a clinician-investigator focused on cellular therapy and hematology. He is the founding director of the Cellular Therapy Program at Boston Medical Center (BMC), where he helped build a comprehensive CAR T service offering both FDA-approved and investigational therapies. Dr. Petrocca has served as PI/co-PI or study director on multiple CAR T clinical trials in hematologic and autoimmune diseases and leads CAR T-focused translational research within the Hem/Onc Translational Research Laboratory. Previously, he was a medical director in the biotech industry, where he played a key role in advancing the first multiple myeloma CAR T therapy from phase 1 through regulatory approval, and PI of an NCI-funded cancer research laboratory at Boston University. He has served on NIH study sections and industry advisory boards for Bristol Myers Squibb, Novartis, Tessera Therapeutics, and Catamaran Bio.

January STARDoM Awardee!!

Join us in congratulating this month's STARDoM awardee!!!

Patrick Brown, Operations Supervisor, General Internal Medicine

"Patrick has been a huge asset to the GIM Ops team. He is constantly present on the floor, providing support to the entire clinic and making sure that things are working smoothly. I've noticed a change in how well things flow in clinic since his promotion, and it has been a huge relief to always feel like there is someone who is available and on point to solve the many hiccups that inevitably happen throughout a busy clinic day."

How many years have you been at BUSM/BMC? 19 years

Describe your role within the Department of Medicine: I am the supervisor for the medical assistants. I am the direct contact for any clinic flow issues.

What do you like best about your job? The staff is the best part of this job. We are a big clinic and have a lot of great people from different backgrounds

Favorite thing to do outside of work? I like video games and camping.

Little known fact: I am a big fan of Liverpool

Home For Dinner: DOM’s Epic Coaching Program

Welcome to the Department of Medicine’s new Epic coaching program - Home For Dinner!

Boost Your efficiency in Epic with Personalized One-on-One Coaching

We are excited to offer our clinical faculty a unique opportunity to enhance efficiency and effectiveness with the Epic electronic medical record system. This personalized one-on-one coaching program is designed specifically to help you save time, reduce frustration, optimize your workflow using Epic and get home for dinner! It consists of one-hour video conference sessions with a specially trained Epic facilitator outside of your clinic hours. Start with one session and then sign up for as many more as you would like.

Why participate?
  • Tailored sessions focused on your individual needs and goals
  • Learn tips and tricks to navigate Epic more smoothly and quickly
  • Discover how to customize your Epic workspace for maximum productivity
  • Get hands-on help creating note templates, SmartSets, and SmartPhrases
  • Improve management of your InBasket with quick actions
  • Master new AI-powered documentation and dictation tools
  • Get Risk Management CME Credit!
How Does It Work?

Meet individually with an expert Epic facilitator in one-hour video conference session(s) during which you share your Epic screen and get personalized instruction. During the session, you can:

  • Discuss your current challenges and what you want to improve
  • Get answers to your specific questions about Epic functionality or pick from a menu of workflow options.
  • Sign up for additional sessions if you want to dive deeper into particular topics
Partnership and Support

This program is a collaborative effort between the Department of Medicine and BMC IT, under the direction of clinicians (Phil Knapp and Jonathan Berz). The training is modeled after successful evidence-based programs other institutions*.

Sign Up Today - Book time with Abisoye Odubona!

Group sessions are also possible.  If you’d like to sign up as a group with one or more of your colleagues to have the opportunity to learn from each other under the guidance of our trainer, please email Abisoye Odubona and he can work with you to set up a time.

Ready to transform your EPIC experience? Sign up now to schedule your personalized coaching session and start working smarter, not harder.

For questions or more information, please contact Jonathan Berz or Phil Knapp.

*Reducing electronic health record-related burnout in providers through a personalized efficiency improvement program. Lourie et al. J Am Med Inform Assoc 2020 Nov 9;28(5):931–937 doi: 10.1093/jamia/ocaa248. PMID: 33166384.

DOM Faculty Appointments and Promotions – October 2025

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

Clinical Professor


Charles Tifft, MD’73, Medicine/GIM, specializes in the prevention and treatment of hypertension and cardiovascular disease. The clinician-educator has been a member of the BU/Boston Medical Center (BMC) community since he was a medical student and he joined the faculty as an assistant professor in 1978. He was promoted to associate professor in 1985. His research contributed to landmark studies on the treatment of hypertensive emergencies with angiotensin converting enzyme inhibitors. Since 1991, Dr. Tifft has run a busy clinical general medicine practice affiliated with BMC and continued his academic pursuits with regular participation in grand rounds and occasional publication reviews and commentaries on hypertension.

 

Associate Professor

Stacy Andersen, PhD, Medicine/Geriatrics, studies cognition, particularly cognitive resilience, in cohorts with exceptional longevity. She is the co-director of the New England Centenarian Study and multiple PI of two National Institute on Aging-funded U19 grants, the Resilience/Resistance to Alzheimer’s Disease in Centenarians and their Offspring study and the Long Life Family Study. She is a core faculty member of the behavioral neuroscience doctoral program and has served on its admissions committee since 2018. She also is an ad hoc reviewer for 17 journals related to aging, cognition and Alzheimer’s disease; and has served on six NIH study sections reviewing career development awards (K awards), research project grants (R awards), and cooperative agreements (U19s), as well as study sections for the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs and a private foundation.

 

Clinical Associate Professor

Rivka Ayalon, MD, Medicine/Nephrology, is a clinician-educator specializing in nephrology and hypertension. Dr. Ayalon founded the multidisciplinary hypertension clinic and collaborates with colleagues across multiple disciplines to advance the care of patients with complex and resistant hypertension. The clinic provides education for providers at all levels and has received national recognition as a specialized center for the evaluation and management of primary aldosteronism. It also offers advanced diagnostic and management tools, including antihypertensive drug testing to assess medication adherence. In addition, Dr. Ayalon implemented the use of unattended automated oscillometric blood pressure measurement across multiple clinics to improve accuracy and standardized assessment. Dr. Ayalon attends on the inpatient nephrology service and provides ongoing care for patients with end-stage kidney disease at DaVita Boston. She teaches residents on the renal medicine service and fellows on the nephrology consult service.

Lilani Perera, MD, Medicine/Gastroenterology, specializes in inflammatory bowel disease (IBD). Dr. Perera earned her MD with honors from the University of Colombo, Sri Lanka, and completed fellowships in gastroenterology at the Medical College of Wisconsin and an IBD immunology research fellowship at Mount Sinai Medical Center, New York. She brings extensive experience directing multidisciplinary IBD programs in both academic and clinical settings, including as director of the IBD Program at the Medical College of Wisconsin (2010-2014), a leadership role in the IBD Program at Aurora Health System (2014-2023), and director of the IBD Center at Tufts Medical Center (2023-2025). In these positions, she developed programs providing care to thousands of patients and established dedicated IBD rotations for GI fellows. Dr. Perera is a fellow of the American Gastroenterological Association (AGA) and Crohn’s & Colitis Foundation, serves on the National Scientific Advisory Committee of the Crohn’s & Colitis Foundation, and chairs the Women’s Committee for the AGA. She also represents the Massachusetts Medical Society as a delegate to the American Medical Association House of Delegates. She joins BU/BMC as director of the Crohn’s and Colitis program.

Sally S. Vanerian, MD, Medicine/GIM, is a clinician-educator who has provided care to medically complex and diverse patients for more than 25 years at the VA Boston Healthcare System. The recipient of many teaching awards, throughout her career she has been an attending resident preceptor, working with residents in their continuity clinics, and has taught medical students. Since 2021, she has also precepted residents during their ambulatory rotations in the Ambulatory Diagnostic and Treatment Center. Most recently, Dr. Vanerian was appointed the VA site director for the advanced ambulatory care rotation for fourth-year Chobanian & Avedisian SOM students. She is a career-long member of the Armenian American Medical Association (AAMA). Since 2022, Dr. Vanerian has volunteered in the mentorship program of the American University of Armenia Turpanjian College of Health Sciences, in collaboration with the AAMA, meeting virtually with physicians in rural Armenia, providing guidance on challenging clinical cases in their practices, and giving lectures on the management of various medical conditions.