Alumni Scholars

Julia Bregand-White, MD is an Assistant Professor in the Division of Maternal Fetal Medicine in the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology. She was trained at the University of Illinois at Chicago in Obstetrics and Gynecology and completed her Maternal Fetal Medicine Fellowship at the University of Pittsburgh, Magee Womens Hospital. Clinically, she focuses on the care of pregnancies complicated by fetal anomalies and has taken the administrative and clinical lead in developing the Fetal and Neonatal Care Center (FNCC). The FNCC is a brand new program which has coordinated the care of over 200 patients in just over a year offering accurate evaluation and diagnosis of complex fetal conditions and facilitating prenatal collaboration with pediatric subspecialists to improve the outcome of these complicated pregnancies. Dr. Bregand-White has an interest in medical education, serves as the Associate Fellowship Program Director and oversees the fourth year sub-internship. She has developed a series of educational initiatives within the Division of Maternal Fetal Medicine to improve evidence based clinical consensus as well as the education of sonographers and trainees.

In 2020, Dr. Bergand-White joined the faculty at the University of California, Irvine Health (UCI) in Orange, CA.

Annie Dude, MD, PhD, is an Assistant Professor in the Division of Maternal Fetal Medicine in the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology. A University of Chicago graduate (Pritzker School of Medicine and Harris Graduate School of Public Policy Studies), she was trained at Duke University and the University of Illinois at Chicago in Obstetrics and Gynecology and completed her Maternal Fetal Medicine Fellowship at Northwestern Prentice Women’s Hospital. Clinically, she focuses on the care of pregnancies complicated by maternal medical illness, especially diabetes, HIV, and cardiac disease. She also works with patients through the Fetal and Neonatal Care Center (FNCC) whose pregnancies are complicated by fetal anomalies, often life-threatening. Optimal management for these pregnancies often involves coordinating care across multiple specialties, as well as complex decision-making that takes into account not just medical information, but patient values and goals. Dr. Dude has an interest in medical education, especially improving research during medical education, and serves as the Associate Fellowship Program Director for Maternal Fetal Medicine.

In 2020, Dr. Dude became an Assistant Professor of Maternal-Fetal Medicine at the University of North Carolina School of Medicine.

Dr. Yolanda T. Becker is a professor of surgery and director of kidney and pancreas transplantation at University of Chicago Medicine. She attended Johns Hopkins School of Medicine and completed her residency at Vanderbilt University. She them completed her transplant fellowship at the University of Wisconsin where she joined the faculty prior to coming to the University of Chicago.

Dr. Becker is a past Board President of the OPTN/UNOS (Organ Procurement and Transplant Network/United Network for Organ Sharing). She has served on the UNOS corporate affairs, nominating committee, and board governance subcommittees. She has chaired the Policy Oversight Committee, setting policy for organ transplantation nationwide. Dr. Becker has served as an elected member of the American Society of Transplantation (AST) board of directors and led several AST committees. In recognition of her work, Dr. Becker was named a Fellow of the American Society of Transplant and has also been awarded the “Friend of Nursing Award by the International Transplant Nurses Society.

Her current research interests include education of patients across the health literacy divide as well as the treatment of obesity in patients with kidney failure. Dr. Becker is committed to education; she have developed curriculum focused on communication, professionalism and practice-based learning, and she has received the Department of Surgery Excellence in Teaching award multiple times since 2011. Please join me in welcoming Dr. Yolanda Becker as a Senior Faculty Scholar.

In 2021, Dr. Becker retired from the University of Chicago and became a consultant at Transplant Solutions, LLC.

Julia Bregand-White, MD is an Assistant Professor in the Division of Maternal Fetal Medicine in the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology. She was trained at the University of Illinois at Chicago in Obstetrics and Gynecology and completed her Maternal Fetal Medicine Fellowship at the University of Pittsburgh, Magee Womens Hospital. Clinically, she focuses on the care of pregnancies complicated by fetal anomalies and has taken the administrative and clinical lead in developing the Fetal and Neonatal Care Center (FNCC). The FNCC is a brand new program which has coordinated the care of over 200 patients in just over a year offering accurate evaluation and diagnosis of complex fetal conditions and facilitating prenatal collaboration with pediatric subspecialists to improve the outcome of these complicated pregnancies. Dr. Bregand-White has an interest in medical education, serves as the Associate Fellowship Program Director and oversees the fourth year sub-internship. She has developed a series of educational initiatives within the Division of Maternal Fetal Medicine to improve evidence based clinical consensus as well as the education of sonographers and trainees.

In 2020, Dr. Bergand-White joined the faculty at the University of California, Irvine Health (UCI) in Orange, CA.

Dr. Silva is an Assistant Professor in the Section of Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery. She trained at the University of Chicago for Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery and completed an additional Reconstructive Microsurgery Fellowship at New York University.

Her research interests include improving the patient experience and outcomes in head and neck reconstruction. She is specifically interested in long-term outcomes, quality of life, and investigating how reconstructive details such as flap choice, design, and inset can improve outcomes. She is also interested in the benefits of collaboration amongst specialties who overlap in scope of practice and investigating avenues and barriers to collaboration.

Clinically, she focuses on complex reconstruction from head to toe and has a particular interest in head and neck and facial reconstruction for cancer and traumatic defects including facial nerve surgery.

Dr. Silva is the Quality and Patient Safety Improvement committee member for the division of Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery and is a member of the new formed Department of Surgery Wellness Taskforce.

In 2020, Dr. Silva joined the faculty at the University of Kentucky in Lexington, KY.

Dr. Lisa Cannon earned her medical degree from the University of Rochester School of Medicine and Dentistry. While there, she took a year to focus on narrative medicine and received a distinction in medical humanities. She also received the John J. Morton and John H. Morton Memorial Scholarship for her focus on patient care.

Dr. Cannon went on to complete her general surgery residency at New York Presbyterian/Columbia University Medical Center. She completed her colon and rectal fellowship at the University of Chicago, and stayed on as faculty. She serves on several committees for the American Society of Colon and Rectal Surgeons. Her clinical interests include inflammatory bowel disease and benign colorectal disorders, implementing enhanced recovery pathways for the section, and prudent use of minimally invasive techniques.

Dr. Cannon has a strong interest in the patient-physician interaction and surgical quality with emphasis on safe patient handoffs and interdisciplinary team communication. She is the recipient of the Department of Surgery Excellence in Teaching Award ’16.

In 2012, Dr. Cannon joined the faculty at the University of Rochester in New York.

Daniel Brauner has worked as a geriatrician for 33 years, seeing patients in the clinic, nursing home, hospital and their homes, first at UIC and then at the U of C arriving in 1994 when he also joined the faculty at the MacLean Center. Previously at UIC he also had an appointment in the Department of Medical Humanities where he worked with Suzanne Poirier teaching literature to young students of the health professionals and was among the first to apply critical theory to the medical endeavor, deconstructing the chart and medical presentation in the early 1990s. This was also when he began his obsession with understanding the resonant meaning behind advance directives as embodied by the DNR order. He began this enquiry at the U of C working with Victor Yngve professor of Anthropology and Linguistics where they studied the discourse of persons with dementia, and he ultimately developed an instrument for assessing decision-making capacity using linguistic theory. His most recent work for the past several years has focused on an historical analysis, specifically of resuscitation as a metaphor for understanding the current crisis in American Medicine. As a result of this work he is currently working on a new model for physicians, he calls the Patientist. Among his administrative responsibilities Dr. Brauner has served as the director of the Geriatrics Fellowship Program and is currently the Co-director the MacLean Center for Clinical Medical Ethics, Consult Service and is also a long time Assistant Director of the Center.

Dr. Holly Shiao is an Assistant Professor of Psychiatry and Director of Emergency Psychiatry. She has a special focus on Psycho-Oncology, providing care to cancer patients both in hospital and clinical settings. She is also an attending on the Consultation/Liaison Psychiatry service.

Dr. Shiao attended medical school at John P. and Kathrine G. McGovern Medical School at the University Health Science Center at Houston. She then completed a General Psychiatry residency at the University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston, followed by a Consultation/Liaison fellowship at Dell Medical School at the University of Texas at Austin.

Dr. Shiao is interested in the benefits of mindfulness and supportive psychotherapy for patients. She also teaches and serves as a mentor for the residents.

In 2020, Dr. Shiao joined the faculty at the University of Washington in Seattle, WA.

Abena Appah-Sampong graduated with honors from the University of Chicago in 2016 with a BA in Public Policy and Biology. As an undergraduate, Abena volunteered childcare and tutoring services at the Maria Shelter. After college, Abena completed a public interest fellowship at the Cook County Health and Hospitals System, where she worked to build infrastructure implementing the health system’s strategic plan and conducted analyses advocating for the addition of bilingual nursing staff.

As a medical student, Abena is the co-director of the Maria Shelter clinic and serves on the Wellness committee. She co-organized a conference for Black and Latina Women in Medicine in the Chicagoland area and was also as a mentor for HPREP, a healthcare pipeline program for underrepresented minorities. She is also working with Dr. Neda Laiteerpong to forecast future racial disparities in diabetes complications using simulation modeling.

Dr. Appah-Sampong is currently a surgical resident at Brigham and Women’s Hospital.

Jamila Picart graduated with honors in Psychology and a minor in Biology from the University of Chicago in 2017, where she was selected as a student marshal. Jamila participated in the 3-year Clinical Excellence Scholar Tract (CEST), which is a collaboration between the College and the Bucksbaum Institute. As an undergraduate, Jamila researched the impact of emotion on memory recollection accuracy.

At Pritzker, Jamila is the Physician/Student Volunteer Coordinator for the Maria Shelter Clinic, a student-run clinic that serves homeless women and children on the South Side. She also was the Student National Medical Association (SNMA) Pritzker chapter Vice-President. As Vice-President, she began a dinner series that created spaces for students of color to seek mentorship from faculty of color and helped to plan the 2018 Midwest Regional Medical Education Conference.

Under the mentorship of Dr. Matthew Churpek, Jamila has also conducted epidemiological research to identify differences in characteristics and outcomes of high-risk ward patients evaluated by rapid response teams.

Dr. Picart is currently a surgical resident at University of Michigan Medicine.