Hi everyone,
This morning, I’m delighted to announce that two new Associate Program Directors are joining our residency leadership team: Drs. Isabel Bazan and Shaili Gupta. Both are elite clinician educators with extensive experience in Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI). They were recruited after a rigorous selection process, which included interviews with department leadership, current APDs, Chief Residents, former Chiefs Drs. Jana Christian and Rachel (Schrier) Bennett, and several residents. Together, they will lead major DEI efforts, including but not limited to recruitment, retention, learning climate, and curriculum-development. They will officially join residency leadership in June. Special thanks to Drs. Christian and Bennett for spearheading the idea to create the position of DEI APD.
For those of you who don’t know Drs. Bazan and Gupta, please allow them to introduce themselves:
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| My family is from Trujillo, a coastal city in Peru, and I grew up in New Hyde Park, New York. I went to medical school at the University of Rochester, and then came to the Yale Primary Care program for residency. I stayed on for fellowship in Pulmonary & Critical Care, and I joined the faculty in 2020. My clinical work is focused on health disparities in chronic lung diseases including asthma, sarcoidosis, and post-COVID syndromes. I have worked with the Department of Medicine’s Diversity committee since my first year of fellowship, working to improve trainee recruitment of students that are underrepresented in medicine (URM). Since then, the committee has grown and I now chair the Scholarship working group, focused on evaluating Diversity, Equity & Inclusion (DEI) initiatives and conducting DEI research that I hope will not only improve DEI culture at Yale but also add to the sparse literature. I am a faculty leader for the Race, Bias, Advocacy in Medicine (RBAM) distinction pathway, and next year I will be part of the ACES program, a faculty development program during which I hope to develop a DEI curriculum. I am passionate about equitable recruitment, an inclusive culture within our department, and mentorship. I would not be where I am without the invaluable mentorship and guidance I have had throughout my training, and look forward to supporting residents of such an outstanding program. Outside of work I enjoy dance, gymnastics, and time with family – my husband and beautiful daughter Sofia who will be 1 ½ this month! I am honored to join the residency leadership and look forward to working with everyone! |
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| After completing medical school in India, and residency training at University of Maryland, I completed fellowship training in Infectious Diseases here at Yale, where my focus was on Clinical Virology. After a brief stint at UT Southwestern Dallas kickstarting their co-infection program, I moved back to Yale and joined the VA to work in Medicine and Infectious Diseases. In the last two years, I have been immersed in the hospital operations for COVID-19 at VA, and in clinical research on vaccine-generated immune responses, as well as clinical correlates of COVID-19. I serve as the Vice-Chief for DEI at the VA. Since 2019, I have devoted effort into enhancing diversity, equity, inclusivity, including work climate optimization at the VA, mistreatment resolution, and upstander trainings. This year, I have expanded this work to a school-wide level by surveying trainees and faculty at all sites for their identity-based experiences. I hope to use the results to create SOPs and other measures to help advance a happy learning and work environment. I have been involved with the IM program for planning and designing didactic education curricula with Dr. Sankey since 2019, and co-chairing the program evaluation committee with Dr. Grant since 2020. At work, I find the day-to-day interactions with residents during clinical rotations the most fulfilling part of my clinician educator role. At home, I have a daughter (Anushka, turning 13 on March 23!), a dog, a rabbit, and some fish, and they all fill my life with love and laughter. |
On a bittersweet note, Dr. Chris Sankey will be stepping away from his APD role at the close of this academic year. Dr. Sankey has made countless contributions to our program, just a few of which include leading our Hospital Medicine elective, revamping our highly regarded didactic lecture series (all recorded to allow asynchronous learning), serving as a leader for the Clinician Educator Distinction, advising the Beeson Beat editorial team, and mentoring several groups of Chief Residents. Dr. Sankey has been a tireless advocate for resident procedure training, served as a liaison to our partners in NEMG, and has been an indispensable source of wisdom within our leadership group. We will miss having Dr. Sankey as an APD, but he isn’t going far! He will remain a Core Faculty member as he assumes his new role as the inaugural Chief of our new Hospital Medicine Firm, starting this June. We can’t thank Chris enough for his contributions and many more to come.
Enjoy your Sunday, everyone. Today, we’re celebrating my birthday with lunch at the River Tavern in Chester, CT.
Mark
PS: This will be a busy week! I’ll be rejoining my MICU Blue Team tomorrow and don’t forget, Match Day is Friday!
PPS: For my birthday, we’ve raised over $5000 for Direct Relief, a wonderful organization that provides medical humanitarian relief around the globe, now with an additional focus in Ukraine. It’s not too late to contribute! Thanks for considering.
MDS