The University of Michigan
RWJ Clinical Scholars Program
Current Scholars


First Year Scholars: COHORT XII (2006-2008)

Cristi Cavaliere, MD- VA Scholar is a plastic surgeon from the University of Michigan. She is interested in studying factors leading to the development of chronic wounds and evaluating barriers to achieving wound closure.

Carla Keirns, MD, PhD is an internist from the University of Pennsylvania who holds a PhD in the History and Sociology of Science. The topic of her PhD is also the clinical topic she would like to study – asthma – particularly the association of high community rates of asthma with low socio-economic status.

Manya Newton, MD is an emergency medicine physician from the University of Michigan. She's interested in the relationship between the un- and underinsured population and the emergency department, methods of improving health status among the uninsured, and methods of expanding insurance coverage among the working poor.
Ann-Marie Rosland, MD is a general internist who received residency training at the University of Pennsylvania Primary Care Program. Prior to entering the Clinical Scholars Program she worked as a clinician for the Philadelphia Department of Public Health. Her research interests center on community-based interventions in chronic disease
Peter Schilling, MD is a general surgery resident from Stanford who wishes to learn how to evaluate the outcomes of surgical procedures, including bariatric surgery. He is also interested in obesity, especially in the pediatric population, and in preparedness for catastrophic events.
Cheerage Upadhyaya, MD - VA Scholar is a neurosurgeon from the University of Michigan who wants to do research designed to improve outcomes for patients with two relatively common problems: low back pain and subarachnoid hemorrhage.

Michael Volk, MD - VA Scholar is a transplant hepatologist who completed his residency training at the University of Virginia, and fellowship training at the University of Michigan. His research interests include outcomes in liver transplantation, and the ethics of resource allocation.


Second Year Scholars: COHORT XI (2005-2007)

Katherine Gold, MD, MSW is a family physician who attended medical school at the University of Michigan, where she recently completed her family medicine residency. Prior to medical school, she worked as a Senior Policy Analyst for the United States Environmental Protection Agency on issues related to clean air and climate change. She also earned a Master's Degree in Social Work at Michigan. Her research interests include obstetrics (pre-conception counseling and health disparities in premature birth) and grief (care of patients with perinatal loss, parental experience of grief and bereavement following the loss of a child, and family presence at pediatric resuscitation).

Crista Johnson, MD is an obstetrician/gynecologist who received her undergraduate degree from Johns Hopkins University, and her medical degree from the Weill Medical College of Cornell University. She completed her residency in Obstetrics & Gynecology at the George Washington University Medical Center, where she also served as Administrative Chief Resident. Crista subsequently completed a fellowship in Female Sexual Medicine at the University of California, Los Angeles. Her research interests focus on investigating strategies to improve health outcomes for immigrant women who have undergone female genital cutting by improving health care access and utilization of services, reproductive health education and counseling as well as improving the allocation of resources/services for these women. In addition, she will explore strategies to enhance the knowledge base and cultural competency among health care providers who care for these women. With her expertise in female sexual health and dysfunction, she also aims to explore the cultural implications of Female Genital Cutting on psychosexual sequela.

Jennifer Waljee, MD is a general surgery resident at the University of Michigan who is interested in studying health care disparities among surgical patients and barriers to utilization of preventive health care programs. She completed her undergraduate degree and an M.P.H. at the University of Michigan, and received her MD degree at Emory University.

Third Year Scholar (2004-2007)
Ellen Hummel, MD is an internist who is a VA fellow. She completed her MD degree and did her internal medicine residency at Columbia University. Ellen wishes to study how medical decision making drives rising health care costs. One of her projects involves exploring the factors that influence providers to adopt novel medical technologies that lack adequate evidence to support their efficacy. Another project involves assessing and comparing how physicians and the general public perceive variation in healthcare quality.

 

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