Appointments & Promotions Committees

Nancy J. Brown, M.D. is the Jean and David W. Wallace Dean of Yale School of Medicine and the C.N.H. Long professor of Internal Medicine. A graduate of Yale College and Harvard Medical School, Dr. Brown has led a translational research program that focuses on developing new pharmacological strategies to prevent vascular disease in patients with high blood pressure and diabetes. Throughout her career, Dr. Brown has worked to promote the development of physician-scientists. She established the Vanderbilt Master of Science in Clinical Investigation in 2000. From 2006-2010, she served as the Associate Dean for Clinical and Translational Scientist Development and established an institutional infrastructure to support physician-scientists in the transition to independence. From 2010 to 2020, Dr. Brown served as chair of the Vanderbilt Department of Medicine and physician-in-chief of Vanderbilt University Hospital. Dr. Brown was a member of the NIH National Advisory Research Resources Council and the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Advisory Council. Her research has been recognized by the American Heart Association (Harriet Dustan Award), the E.K. Frey-E. Werle Foundation, the American Society of Hypertension and the American Federation for Clinical Research. In 2018, she was named the Robert H. Williams, MD, Distinguished Chair of Medicine by the Association of Professors of Medicine. Dr. Brown is a fellow in the American Association for the Advancement of Science and a member of the American Society for Clinical Investigation, the American Association of Physicians, the National Academy of Medicine, and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.

Dr. Linda Bockenstedt is the Harold W. Jockers Professor of Medicine, Section of Rheumatology, and Deputy Dean for Faculty Affairs at Yale School of Medicine. She received her undergraduate degree in chemistry and physics from Harvard College and is a graduate of the Ohio State University School of Medicine. After completing residency training in medicine and serving as Chief Resident in Medicine at Yale, Dr. Bockenstedt obtained rheumatology clinical and research fellowship training at the University of California, San Francisco. She has been a faculty member at Yale School of Medicine since 1989, where she directs a research program devoted toward understanding the pathogenesis of Lyme disease, an infection-related rheumatic disease. Her research has been continually supported by the National Institutes of Health since 1990, and she is internationally recognized for her studies of the host immune response to spirochetal infection. As a physician-scientist, she also is an active clinician and educator for medical trainees. Dr. Bockenstedt is a Master of the American College of Rheumatology, and an elected member of the Kunkel Society and the Interurban Clinical Club. She is a former standing member of the Immunity and Host Defense Study Section at NIH and former member of the Board of Directors for the American College of Rheumatology Research & Education Foundation. She currently serves on the NIH NIAID Council and the DOD Tick-Borne Disease Research Program Programmatic Panel. Since 2006 she has been active in faculty affairs at Yale School of Medicine and in 2017, was appointed YSM Deputy Dean for Academic Affairs.

Dr. Angélique Bordey holds the rank of Professor of Neurosurgery, and Cellular & Molecular Physiology. Dr. Bordey is an active participant in teaching and training of graduate and medical students at Yale School of Medicine. Dr. Bordey is an  Editor for several journals and on the advisory board of CURE epilepsy and the TSC Alliance preclinical consortium. She has served as a permanent member on several grant review committees and NIH study sections. Finally, she is a McKnight awardee and holds several federal and foundation grants as well as patents for the treatment of epilepsy.

Dr. Alan Dardik is a surgeon-scientist who harnesses the power of molecular biology to achieve a modern understanding of vascular disease, and then use the basic science laboratory to ultimately benefit patients with vascular diseases. Dr. Dardik trained at Yale, the University of Pennsylvania, and the Johns Hopkins Hospital before his appointment to the Yale faculty in 2001. Dr. Dardik focuses his clinical practice on teaching at the VA Connecticut, where he was formerly the Chief of Vascular Surgery. Dr. Dardik has won the C. Elton Cahow Award for Outstanding Faculty Teaching from Yale’s Department of Surgery and the Faculty Teaching Award from St. Mary’s Hospital. Dr. Dardik is also a Vice Chair of Yale’s Department of Surgery where he is charged with Faculty Affairs, and he has served as Yale's Interim Division Chief of Vascular and Endovascular Surgery. The Dardik laboratory studies the healing and function of blood vessels, fistulae and vessel patches that are used in patients having vascular surgery. The laboratory is trying to understand the fundamental molecular mechanisms by which vein graft adaptation and arteriovenous fistula maturation result in positive remodeling and successful adaptation to the arterial environment, yet often proceed, in the long-term, to neointimal hyperplasia and failure. The laboratory also studies novel methods to deliver stem cells to diabetic wounds. The laboratory is funded from the NIH as well as Yale's Department of Surgery. Dr. Dardik currently serves as the Editor-in-Chief for the translational science journal JVS-Vascular Science; he is the past President of the New England Society for Vascular Surgery, the Association of VA Surgeons as well as of the International Society for Vascular Surgery. Dr. Dardik has run several national and international meetings, including the Society for Vascular Surgery Vascular Research Initiatives Conference, and has served on numerous peer review committees including review for the NIH, the VA, and Vascular Cures. Dr. Dardik has edited several textbooks including “Vascular Surgery: A Global Perspective” and “Stem cell therapy for vascular diseases.”

Esperanza Díaz M.D. attended Javeriana University in Bogotá, Colombia, and completed Psychiatry residency training at Yale. She graduated from the Western New England Institute for Psychoanalysis. As medical director of the Hispanic Clinic and its expansion to the community, mental health services for Limited English proficiency populations are a model. She founded the Hispanic Psychiatry Fellowship addressing mental health disparities in Latinos. Along with residents, she developed the Cultural Psychiatry curriculum, a predecessor of the Social Justice and Health Equity curriculum. Her work with the medical school Teaching and Learning Center addresses cultural sensitivity and microaggressions management training. Using an experiential model, she leads interviewing training for residents. She chairs the evaluation committee to review and revise the Yale Psychiatry evaluation system.

Dr. Friedlaender received his BA and MD degrees from the University of Michigan and his orthopaedic surgical training at Yale-New Haven Hospital and Newington Children’s Hospital. In 1976, after 2 years service in the U.S. Navy assigned to the Naval Medical Research Institute in Bethesda, Dr. Friedlaender joined the full-time faculty of Yale University School of Medicine and since 1986 has served as the Wayne O. Southwick Professor and, until 2016, Chair of the Department of Orthopaedics and Rehabilitation and Chief of Orthopaedics and Rehabilitation at Yale New Haven Hospital. Dr. Friedlaender has also trained at Massachusetts General Hospital in musculoskeletal oncology, which remains his primary clinical and research interest.Learn more about Dr. Friedlaender>>Dr. Friedlaender has served as President of the American Association of Tissue Banks (1983-85), the American Council on Transplantation (1983-85), the Orthopaedic Research Society (1994-95), the Academic Orthopaedic Society (1995-96), the Association of Bone and Joint Surgeons (2001-02) and the American Orthopaedic Association (2010-11). He has also chaired the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeon’s Council of Musculoskeletal Specialty Societies and served as a member of the Academy’s Board of Directors and as a member of the AAOS Committee on Ethics. In the past, Dr. Friedlaender served as Chair of the National Arthritis Board, NIAMS (NIH), as a member of the Orthopaedic Study Section at NIH and as a member of the Advisory Council of NIAMS. He was chair of the Research Committees of the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons and the Academic Orthopaedic Society and chaired the AAOS work group on Tissue Banking Issues. He served or serves on the editorial boards of several journals, including the Journal of Bone and Joint Surgery, Clinical Orthopaedics and Related Research, Spine, Journal of Orthopaedic Research and the Journal of the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons; and he has written numerous scientific publications and received national awards for his basic science research (Kappa Delta Award of the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgery and the Nicholas Andry Award of the Association of Bone and Joint Surgeons).

Elizabeth Jonas received training in Neurology and Internal Medicine. She developed an interest in Neuroscience while studying as a medical student with Dr. Rodolfo Llinas at N.Y.U. and at the Marine Biological Laboratory. With Dr. Llinas she developed an interest in calcium control of synaptic transmission. She pursued this interest as a post-doctoral fellow in the laboratory of Dr. Leonard Kaczmarek, Yale Pharmacology. Dr. Jonas developed a technique for recording from ion channels on intracellular membranes and has used this and other techniques to study mitochondria. Mitochondria are necessary for life and death of neurons and other cells. Regulation of mitochondrial metabolism is also key to energy efficiency in the nervous system. Dr. Jonas is now studying the role of mitochondria and energy efficiency in neurodegenerative disease states and in learning and memory formation in healthy brain. Her lab has recently characterized the molecular identity of the cell death channel known as the mitochondrial permeability transition pore and is now studying how inhibiting gating of the pore may ameliorate stroke, neurodegenerative and developmental brain diseases.

James C. McPartland, Ph.D., is Professor of Child Psychiatry and Psychology at the Yale Child Study Center. He is a licensed child psychologist and Director of the Yale Developmental Disabilities Clinic. He is Director of Undergraduate Studies at the Child Study Center and teaches an undergraduate seminar on autism spectrum disorder. Dr. McPartland’s program of research investigates the brain bases of neurodevelopmental conditions to develop biologically-based tools to improve detection and treatment. His research has been continuously supported since 2007 by both federal (NIMH, NICHD, NINDS, NIDCD; R21, R03, K23, R01, U19) and private research grants (NARSAD, the Autism Science Foundation, the Waterloo Foundation, Autism Speaks, the Patterson Trust, the Simons Foundation, the Nancy Taylor Foundation, the Alan B. Slifka Foundation, the Hilibrand Foundation). He is the Principal Investigator of the Autism Biomarkers Consortium for Clinical Trials, a US-based effort to identify biomarkers to support intervention research in autism. His contributions to the field have been recognized by multiple awards, including the NARSAD Atherton Young Investigator Award, the International Society for Autism Research Young Investigator Award, the Patterson Trust Clinical Research Award, the Brain & Behavior Research Foundation Klerman Prize, and the APA Sara S. Sparrow Early Career Research Award. He is a Fellow of the American Psychological Association and the Association for Psychological Science and has published 5 books and over 170 scholarly works on autism and related topics. He has served on the executive boards of the International Society for Autism Research and the APA Division of Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities/Autism Spectrum Disorder and is on the editorial boards of the Journal of Neurodevelopmental Disorders, the Journal of Mental Health Research in Intellectual Disabilities, the Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, and the Encyclopedia of Autism and Related Disorders.

Dr. Ehud Mendel joined Yale in September 2021 as a Professor of Neurosurgery. He serves as the Disease Center Director of the Spine Oncology Program and member of the Executive Leadership Group at Smilow Cancer Hospital/ Yale Cancer Center at Yale New Haven Hospital. He also serves as the Division Chief of the Spine section, Neurosurgery, and the Executive Vice Chair in the Department of Neurosurgery at the Yale School of Medicine.Dr. Mendel comes to Yale from Wexner Medical Center at The Ohio State University (OSU) and the James Cancer Hospital Solove Research Institute, where he served as the director of the Spine Oncology Program and clinical director of the Ohio State University Spine Research Institute. While at OSU, Dr. Mendel led a multidisciplinary team that made incredible advances in oncological spine surgery. Among many things, his team pioneered a new surgical technique to reconstruct the spine following surgery to remove spinal tumors and has spent his career developing numerous spine tumors research protocols and spine surgery techniques. A true academic surgeon, Dr. Mendel comes to Yale with a wealth of experience in teaching, research, and clinical affairs. In 2006, he became the first honoree of The Justine Skestos Endowed Chair in Minimally Invasive Neurological Spinal Surgery and was recognized for his excellent contributions to education with the Lawrence Mervis, MD Teacher of the Year award in 2016. In addition to seeing patients, Dr. Mendel also served as vice chair for clinical affairs and was elected by his peers to the OSU University Senate and OSU Faculty Council. An honors graduate from Louisiana State University School of Medicine in New Orleans, Dr. Mendel also holds an MBA from The Ohio State University Max M. Fisher College of Business. He completed his residency at the University of Southern California Medical Center and a fellowship in reconstructive spinal surgery-combined neurosurgery/orthopedics at the University of Florida School of Medicine.From 2017 to 2019, he served as president of the Ohio State Neurosurgical Society. He is a fellow of the American College of Surgeons (FACS) and a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS). He is a member of AOA Honor’s Society and was selected for the American Academy of Neurological Surgery.

David C. Mulligan, MD, is an abdominal organ transplant surgeon performing both living and deceased donor liver, kidney, and pancreas transplants. He currently serves as Professor of Surgery, Transplantation and Immunology in the Department of Surgery at Yale School of Medicine/Yale New Haven Health System. His clinical and academic focus surrounds living donor liver transplantation, expanding donation, and working on ways to utilize ex-vivo organ perfusion systems to increase transplantation in the United States. Dr. Mulligan and his team are testing novel strategies in immunosuppression; improved biomechanical organ preservation methods to reduce ischemia/reperfusion injury and promote regeneration; and working in the field of 3D bioprinting to collaborate in finding ways to grow new organs from stem cell precursors. He has performed more than 250 living donor transplants and has authored more that 180 publications. He also has served on numerous editorial review boards and presented across the U.S. and internationally. Dr. Mulligan’s leadership in solid organ transplantation across national and international platforms has grown considerably and he now serves as Past President of the United Network of Organ Sharing (UNOS)/Organ Procurement Transplant Network (OPTN), Member at-large on the Governing Board of the American Association for the Study of Liver Diseases, Past Chair of the Advisory Council on Transplantation (ACOT) to the Secretary of HHS, special government employee for FDA Medical Device Advisory Committee and chair of the Business Practice Committee of the American Society of Transplant Surgeons. He also contributes to the oversight and recommendations regarding the impacts of COVID-19 on solid organ transplantation in the U.S. for both the AASLD and the ASTS. In these visionary roles, he has led major changes in organ allocation and distribution and will hopefully culminate in substantial increases in organ transplants. Passionate about patient-centered care and building more resilient teams, he makes time to share his enjoyment of spending time in nature, especially near the ocean, with his wife and three children.

Dr. Pashankar completed his basic medical training in India and in the UK. He completed fellowship training in Pediatric Gastroenterology at BC Children's Hospital in Vancouver, Canada.  He has MBA in healthcare from Yale School of Management and has expertise in process and quality improvement. His clinical and research interest is in inflammatory bowel disease in children.  He is the director of Yale Pediatric Inflammatory Bowel Disease Program. He runs a multidisciplinary Inflammatory Bowel disease clinic at Yale New Haven Children's Hospital in New Haven. He has published a number of clinical studies in pediatric gastroenterology and inflammatory bowel diseases. He is a medical director of  Yale Clinical Optimization Service and works to improve efficiency in ambulatory operations of Yale Medicine clinical sections in pediatric and adult specialties. He is a regional medical director of Yale Medicine ambulatory services and oversees Yale Medicine clinics in New Haven region.

Chris Pittenger earned his MD and Ph.D. degrees from Columbia University, where his graduate work was done with Nobel Prize recipient Eric Kandel. He returned to Yale University, his undergraduate alma mater, for residency and research training in psychiatry in 2003. He joined the faculty as an Assistant Professor in 2007 and is now Elizabeth Mears and House Jameson Professor of Psychiatry, Professor of Psychology and in the Child Study Center, and Deputy Chair for Translational Research in the Department of Psychiatry .Chris has always been fascinated by the question of how the brain, a complex but ultimately a physical structure, creates thought, feeling, consciousness, and other aspects of the mind.  As a psychiatrist he is additionally focused on how these processes go wrong - how brain dysregulation leads to dysregulated cognition, emotion, and behavior and to mental suffering, and how advancing our understanding of these relationships can guide us to new strategies to alleviate that suffering.  Much of his work has focused on obsessive-compulsive disorder and Tourette syndrome and on the cortico-basal ganglia circuitry that is implicated in their pathophysiology.  More recently he has co-founded the Yale Program for Psychedelic Science, focused on understanding how molecules like psilocybin and LSD can teach us about brain and behavior and may lead to new treatments for a range of neuropsychiatric pathology.  He is also one of the founding Directors of the Yale Center for Brain and Mind Health, which seeks to bridge disciplines and levels of analysis to bring new therapeutics to individuals suffering from disorders of the mind and brain.Dr. Pittenger's research and clinical work have been acknowledged by a number of prestigious awards, including grant funding from the National Institute of Mental Health, the National Institute of Neurological Disease and Stroke, NARSAD, the Tourette Syndrome of America, the Doris Duke Charitable Trust, and other organizations.  He has won a number of awards, including from the National Institute of Mental Health, the Society for Neuroscience, the American College of Neuropsychopharmacology, the American Psychiatric Association, and the American College of Psychiatrists. He is a member of the Scientific Advisory Board of the International OCD Foundation and Chair of both their Grant Review Committee and their Annual Research Symposium Planning Committee.  He is a Fellow of the American College of Neuropsychopharmacology, the American Psychiatric Association, and the American Neurological Association.