The Department of Internal Medicine is pleased to highlight the following appointments and promotions to professor of medicine.
Ali Abu-Alfa, MD, FASN, FAHA, FISN (
BS: American University of Beirut
MD: American University of Beirut
Residency: Northwestern University
Fellowship: Yale School of Medicine
What does your promotion mean to you?
Now honored with a promotion to professor adjunct, I can more effectively share and spread the values of YSM beyond New Haven while I continue with collaborative work. The global reach of Yale, channeled through my dual appointment at the American University of Beirut and my involvement in global renal organizations, has had a clear and long-lasting positive impact on students, physicians-in-training, practicing nephrologists, and younger colleagues as they progress in their academic career. It is also bound to stimulate interest in scholarly work, encourage adaptation of standards, improve patient care, and prepare the next generation of physician-leaders for successful, productive, and satisfying careers.
What was the first thing you did when you found out you were promoted to professor?
I was most excited to first share the promotion news with my family as well as express immense gratitude to my Yale colleagues Stefan Somlo, MD, and Gary Désir, MD, for their continued support over the past years.
What are you proud of most thus far in your career?
Such a promotion is reassurance to me that the efforts and contributions I have made in collaboration with others, along with the dedication of my professional life to an academic career at two institutions, are valued and have an impact on renal medicine and other aspects of academia. This makes me feel proud of what I have collectively achieved with my many colleagues since joining Yale as a renal fellow 33 years ago, progressing through the ranks first under the mentorship and guidance of Peter Aronson, MD. It also gives me the impetus to keep pushing forward with academic and service efforts.
What is your favorite part of academia?
Aside from mentoring and guiding, I most cherish the ability to develop expertise in one area while not feeling locked within it. One can grasp opportunities to follow a hint or an observation to explore a new domain, take on novel initiatives, influence or create programs, shape policies, advocate for patients, or work with national and international professional organizations to make their contributions more equitable and impactful as circumstances change.
Above all, I constantly feel liberated from any intellectual confines as I interact and learn from a younger generation who challenges set ideas, pushes dogmas aside, and takes on new directions.
Tell us a fun fact about you—something people may find surprising.
Besides the pleasure I take in my daily work, I most cherish the company of my wife Leila, be it at home or during our travels, savoring delicacies in New Haven, Beirut, or another city. I also enjoy discussing various matters relating to the sciences, languages, or music with my daughter and son and unexpectedly teasing them with math trivia.
Jonathan A. Dranoff, MD (Digestive Diseases)
BA: Lehigh University
MD: Drexel University
Residency: Boston University Medical Center
Fellowship: Yale School of Medicine
What does your appointment mean to you?
It means that my career has come full circle in a way that is meaningful to me. My professional career started at Yale, as my first appointment was as associate research scientist right out of fellowship in 1999. A year later I was an assistant professor, and I was subsequently promoted to associate professor. I was on track to have a long career at Yale, but I was recruited to be a division director and professor at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences (UAMS) in Little Rock in 2010. I served in that role for more than a decade before being recruited back to Yale last year. While my family and I learned a lot about the world living in Arkansas, and I enjoyed my professional role at UAMS, Yale is my academic home, and Greater New Haven is our spiritual home. Being a professor at Yale means that I have a meaningful position at an extraordinary medical school that is where I feel I belong.
What was the first thing you did when you found out you were appointed as professor?
I stealthily told my wife by sitting quietly on the couch next to her and mentioning it offhand. How could I not start there? My wife had been waiting on this with me for such a long time, and our journey is a shared one. What I did second was tell my older son, because he has been waiting on this more impatiently than anyone. Then the rest of the family joined us, and we had a big group hug.
What are you proud of most thus far in your career?
This is an easy one—the friendships that I have made. One of the most exciting things about returning to Yale has been re-energizing old friendships dating back more than 20 years. It’s easy to know who your real friends are—they are the ones with whom you can have a conversation as though it’s only been weeks since you last talked, when in fact it has been years. And my field, academic hepatology, is a relatively small one. I have friends throughout the world with whom it’s always fun to share ideas.
What is your favorite part of academia?
I’d say that it’s being part of a multigenerational tradition. One starts out as a trainee, seeing a select few faculty members as “old masters.” As a young faculty member, those old masters become one’s senior colleagues. Eventually, mid-career sets in, and there is an even balance of trainees, up-and-coming junior faculty members, and more seasoned colleagues. Although I am a bit loathe to consider myself “senior” at this point in my career, I was recently referred to by a colleague as a veteran presence, which brought a smile to my face. One can do a lot worse than providing ideas, stability, and leadership to his/her peers.
Tell us a fun fact about you—something people may find surprising.
I’m a music nut. There is music in my head for most of the day. If we’re having a conversation, and you see my hands moving in an unexpected pattern, I might be playing a saxophone part from a piece I haven’t played in 30 years or reminding myself of a harmonic minor scale on guitar subconsciously. As a musician, I’m pretty competent. My strongest instrument is guitar, and I can play at a gigging level in blues, rock and roll, soul, and country. I’m getting better at bass, because it is the primary instrument I play in a synagogue band. I’ll send a shout out to the Telecaster, which is my favorite guitar of all time.
I am also an enthusiastic music fan, and I have a moderate-sized but ever-growing record collection. One of my favorite ways to welcome a new faculty member at the VA (where I am based) is to put together a playlist based on something about that person. I had a fun time putting together a playlist for a colleague from Ruston, Louisiana, home of the neo-psychedelic Elephant 6 collective, and I am now assembling a playlist based on a new colleague who loves Afrobeat, which is a genre I need to learn more about.
Manisha Juthani, MD (Infectious Diseases)
BA: University of Pennsylvania
MD: Cornell University Medical College
Residency: New York-Presbyterian Hospital, Weill Cornell (intern and resident, assistant chief resident); Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center (chief resident)
Fellowship: Yale School of Medicine
What does your promotion mean to you?
I left Yale on a leave for public service in September 2021 to serve as commissioner of the Connecticut Department of Public Health. Given that I came to Yale in 2002 and joined the full-time faculty in 2006, it has been my dream to be promoted to professor. It is very gratifying despite being on leave to have achieved this academic goal.
What was the first thing you did when you found out you were promoted to professor?
I told my husband, children, parents, and siblings, who were all so proud. My mom cried.
What are you proud of most thus far in your career?
I am proud to have had an impact on medical trainees, furthered research on infections in older adults, built academic programs at Yale, and advanced infectious diseases and public health communications in our society.
What is your favorite part of academia?
I love the ability to pursue different interests, focusing on different aspects of academia over the course of a career. I was initially immersed in investigation and had an R01 research grant. Later, I chose to concentrate more on medical education as the infectious diseases fellowship program director for almost 10 years. As the COVID-19 pandemic hit our community, I turned to educating our Yale community, Connecticut population, and national audience. As someone with diverse interests, I have valued the ability to reinvent myself while remaining intellectually challenged.
Tell us a fun fact about you—something people may find surprising.
I love all forms of dance. Indian folk and Bollywood dancing are my favorites.
Ian Krop, MD, PhD (Medical Oncology)
BA: Johns Hopkins University
MD, PhD: Johns Hopkins School of Medicine
Residency: Johns Hopkins School of Medicine
Fellowship: Dana-Farber Cancer Institute
What does your promotion mean to you?
I am truly honored to have the work that I have done in my career recognized by an institution as esteemed as Yale. As I am relatively new to Yale, having arrived in March 2022, this faculty appointment further cements my commitment to help our team at Yale Cancer Center continue to make real progress against cancer. I do not want to have my new institution think that my promotion was a mistake!
What was the first thing you did when you found out you were promoted to professor?
I told my wife and my mother (not necessarily in that order).
What are you proud of most thus far in your career?
That the work that my team and I have done contributed to the FDA approval of several new targeted breast cancer therapies that have meaningfully improved the lives of patients with this disease.
What is your favorite part of academia?
My favorite part of academia, by far, is having the opportunity to work with very smart, very dedicated colleagues, all committed to the mission of helping patients with cancer.
Tell us a fun fact about you—something people may find surprising.
Despite being well past my prime (and quite prone to injury), I still play basketball at Payne Whitney twice a week with the undergrads and grad students. For me, it is the most enjoyable way to get exercise, and I am almost managing to hold my own (i.e., they have not banned me from the court yet).
Sandra Ann Springer, MD (Infectious Diseases)
AB: Harvard University
MD: University of Massachusetts Medical School
Residency: Yale School of Medicine
Fellowship: Yale School of Medicine
What does your promotion mean to you?
The promotion to professor is validation for the work I have done that means so much to me, trying to help those who have no voice—persons who use drugs, are at risk or living with HIV, including those involved in the justice system and those who are unhoused. I have been a clinician focusing on HIV and addiction treatment but also an NIH-funded clinical researcher for over 20 years evaluating interventions to help improve outcomes at the intersection of infectious diseases and addiction. It is nice to be recognized for something I love to do!
What was the first thing you did when you found out you were promoted to professor?
I was driving back from a meeting in New Hampshire, and my section chief called to let me know. At first, I was a bit in disbelief. It was somewhat of a surreal experience. However, I called my mother, my biggest fan and supporter. Then I called two of my sons who are both in college. Then I called the director of my InSTRIDE research program, Dr. Cynthia Frank. Later I celebrated with my husband opening a lovely bottle of wine given to us by his father over 15 years ago for a special occasion.
What are you proud of most thus far in your career?
I am most proud of the fact that I have stayed true to who I am and what I always wanted to do—help those who are most vulnerable and have been affected by addiction and living with or at risk of HIV and other infectious diseases. I am proud of my clinical research program that I built, InSTRIDE, that evaluates ways to better improve access to substance use disorder and HIV/Infectious Disease prevention and treatment services including now using mobile health units that provide treatment and prevention to people where they live. I have to say winning an Avant-Garde Award from the National Institute on Drug Abuse was pretty special last year as well and something I am very proud of.
What is your favorite part of academia?
Having the ability to do creative and important work and collaborating with talented people who are trying to make a difference for those who need us the most.
Tell us a fun fact about you—something people may find surprising.
I love supernatural and science fiction movies and TV shows.