Alumni Scholars

Dr. Scott Stern is Professor of Medicine and Assistant Dean for Technology at the University of Chicago.

Dr. Stern is Co-Director of the Clinical Pathophysiology and Therapeutics, one of the most highly regarded courses in the Pritzker curriculum. Dr. Stern served as Co-Director of the Junior Clerkship in Internal Medicine from 1995-2013. Drawing upon his experiences as clerkship director, Dr. Stern served as the lead author of the textbook, Symptom to Diagnosis: An Evidence Based Guide, now in its 3rd edition.

Dr. Stern’s teaching has been recognized with numerous honors, including twelve-time receipt of a “Favorite Faculty Award”, three time recipient of The Robert and Susan Doroghazi Clinical Teaching Award for outstanding clinical teaching and two-time recipient of the Larry Wood Award for “selfless, tireless, and excellent teaching of medical students.” Dr. Stern was named as one of the six inaugural members of the University of Chicago Academy of Distinguished Medical Educators.

Dr. Jason Strelzow is an orthopaedic trauma and upper extremity surgeon, who provides comprehensive care for patients with fractures and injuries throughout the body with a special interest in upper limb pathology.

Jason completed medical school and orthopaedic surgery training at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, Canada. He then completed additional fellowship training in Hand and Upper Extremity at the Hand and Upper Limb Center in London Ontario, Canada and a Trauma fellowship at the Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh in Scotland in the United Kingdom.

Along with being dedicated to his clinical work, Dr. Strelzow was the Associate Residency Program Director for Orthopaedic surgery and was heavily involved in clinical research. He is currently exploring research on patient-reported outcomes related to elbow trauma, shoulder trauma, and total elbow replacements. He has an active interest in evaluating the functional outcomes around urban trauma, PTSD and urban ballistic injuries with the goal of improving patient care and returning patients to normal activity as soon as possible. Dr. Strezlow received a 2019 Bucksbaum Institute Pilot Grant with co-PI Dr. Jennifer Wolf a Senior Faculty Scholar. And, he is an associated editor for the Journal of Hand Surgery.

Audrey L. Tanksley MD was born and raised on the south side of Chicago in the Roseland community. She attended Southern Illinois University Carbondale and received a Bachelor of Arts in Biological-Sciences. Following this she attended Southern Illinois University School of Medicine in Springfield, IL and completed studies in general medical education. During the time in Springfield, Dr. Tanksley, was vice president of the class of 2009, served as a student representative to the AAMC, assisted with LCME accreditation and received a grant to provide health and oral screenings to the people of Sangamon County. Dr. Tanksley returned to the Chicagoland area to complete her Internal Medicine residency training at UIC/ Advocate Christ Medical Center where she also served as chief resident. Upon completion of chief year, Dr. Tanksley transitioned into a 2 year Medical Education Research Fellowship at The University of Chicago Medical Center.

As a Medical Education, Research, Innovation, Teaching and Scholarship (MERITS) fellow at the University of Chicago, Dr. Tanksley’s academic work focused on healthcare disparities, communication, professionalism and resident supervision. She also assisted with investigations of the TEACH pipeline program for high school students. Her scholarly work has been presented at various regional and national conferences, including the Association of American Medical Colleges and the Society for General Internal Medicine. She is currently conducting an analysis of a novel curriculum created to teach residents how to obtain Informed Consent using a culturally sensitive approach. She has also worked on improving patient safety through resident supervision in the ambulatory environment.

As a General Internist, Dr. Tanksley supervises internal medicine residents and students caring for patients in the primary care clinics and general medical floors. She has worked closely with Drs. Arora and Farnan on qualitative research with high school students using focus groups, and is experienced with the use of Atlas software. She has also worked on quantitative projects as well and is experienced with the use of STATA software.

Dr. Tanksley now practices with ACCESS Community Health in Chicago, IL.

Kathryn Thompson graduated magna cum laude from the University of Notre Dame with a BS in pre-professional science and theology. As an undergraduate, Kathryn worked as a caretaker for a neighbor with cerebral palsy and was as a mentor-in-faith through the Institute for Church Life. She conducted audiology research at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital and was a part-time surgical technician. She also performed piano bi-weekly at the Holy Cross House retirement home in South Bend, Indiana.

At Pritzker, Kathryn is a laboratory coordinator for the Community Health Clinic and volunteers as a minister of spiritual care at the hospital. She participated in Pritzker’s annual REMEDY service-learning trip to Peru. Under Dr. Bree Andrews and the Preeme+You project, Kathryn researched parent engagement at the NICU bedside. Under the mentorship of Dr. John Yoon, Kathryn conducts a focus group at Montgomery Place, exploring how seniors process aging through the lens of the Christian faith.

Ashley graduated from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 2010 with a B.S. in Public Health, and minors in Mathematics and Chemistry. She spent two years working as a CDC public health associate in infectious disease epidemiology at the New Mexico Department of Health. As a 2013 Schweitzer Fellow, Ashley designed and implemented the first ever overdose prevention program at Cook County Jail. Under the mentorship of John Schneider, a Bucksbaum Faculty Scholar, Ashley has conducted research on the social networks of injection drug users in an HIV outbreak in Athens, Greece.

Dr. Tsang is a family medicine physician in San Francisco, CA.

Dr. Jennifer Tseng is a board-certified surgical oncologist and Assistant Professor of Surgery with the University of Chicago Medicine. She earned her medical degree from the University of California, Davis and completed her general surgery residency at Oregon Health and Science University. She received fellowship training in clinical immunotherapy at the National Cancer Institute and complex general surgical oncology at the University of Chicago Medicine. She is a senior fellow with the MacLean Center for Clinical Medical Ethics and previously was a theme issue editor for the American Medical Association’s Journal of Ethics. Her research interests include ethical considerations in clinical trials, the use of surrogate decision makers and prophylactic surgery.

Dr. Tseng integrates the latest research in clinical trials in caring for patients with breast cancer, melanoma and sarcoma. She is a prior national resident representative for the Surgery Residency Review Committee of the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME) and is an Associate Program Director for the general surgery residency and complex general surgical oncology fellowship. She is an Education Scholar with the American Society of Clinical Oncology and is pursuing a Masters in Health Professions Education with the University of Illinois at Chicago.

As of 2022, Dr. Tseng is a surgeon with City of Hope Cancer Treatment and Research Center in California.

Dr. Sandy Tun is an Assistant Professor of Medicine and is specialized in Palliative Medicine. She attended medical school at the University of Illinois in 2013. She then completed both an Internal Medicine residency and a fellowship in hospice and palliative medicine at Stanford University. She joined the faculty of University of Chicago in 2017.

Dr. Tun has strong interests in palliative medicine curricular development for medical students and residents, as well as improv theater as a medium for communications training, and mindfulness practice. Dr. Tun joined the staff of Sutter Health in 2025.

Dr. Kiran K. Turaga is a renowned surgical oncologist with a specific expertise in metastatic cancers. He grew up in India and completed his medical training from the prestigious All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS). He completed his surgical residency from Creighton University and his fellowship from The Moffitt Cancer Center. He also holds a Master’s in Public Health from Johns Hopkins School of Public Health.

Dr. Turaga is interested in the patient centered management of patients with complex malignancies. Prior to joining the University of Chicago, he was the Sharon Wadina Endowed Professor at the Medical College of Wisconsin. Some of his initiatives have included patient navigation, trimodality prehabilitation for patients undergoing complex cytoreductive surgery and early use of supportive oncology in the management of patients. Along with the regional therapies team, he has successfully created one of the premier programs for cytoreductive surgery and regional therapies in the nation which attracts patients from across the country.

Dr. Turaga’s research has focused on patient outcomes with oligometastatic cancers and he has published over 110 journal articles. He has contributed scholarly works to foremost oncological textbooks about peritoneal surface malignancies and is currently the section editor for the Annals of Surgical Oncology for the regional therapies section. He is interested in disease prediction, modeling and delivery of optimal care for his patients.

He is also the fellowship director for the Complex General Surgical Oncology Fellowship program at the University of Chicago/Northshore program. He has been awarded the Department of Surgery Excellence in Teaching award in 2016-17.

As of 2023 Dr. Turaga joined the faculty at Yale School of Medicine

Jasmine graduated summa cum laude from Washington University in 2010 with a BA in anthropology and election to Phi Beta Kappa. As a medical student, under the mentorship of Melissa Gilliam, MD, MPH, professor of obstetrics/gynecology and pediatrics, Jasmine has conducted research on social services used by teenage mothers during their first post partum year.

Jasmine was the co-coordinator of the Maria Shelter Clinic, a student-run clinic for homeless women and children. She served as Academic Co-Chair of the Student National Medical Association and participated as the student liaison to the search committee for the Associate Dean for Multicultural Affairs.

Dr. Taylor Umana is a pediatrician at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia in Philadelphia, PA.

Nikhil Umesh graduated from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 2015 with a B.S. in Environmental Health Science and a minor in Chemistry. Prior to joining Pritzker, Nikhil worked as a violence prevention educator and community health researcher, instructing courses in political economy, race, and the history of social movements. In his free time, he enjoys deepening his interest in cooking, gardening, and propagating fruit trees.

Nikhil serves as a Co-Director of the Maria Shelter Clinic, which serves women and children experiencing homelessness on the South Side. He is also a Student Representative on the Pre-Clinical Review Committee, Community Grand Rounds Student Liaison, and a Student Leader of Students for a National Health Program and Chicago Homelessness Health Response Group for Equity.

Under the mentorship of Dr. Elizabeth Tung and Dr. Monica Peek, Nikhil is conducting research on the urban geography of plasma donation centers and their association with race, place, and poverty. He hopes his work will bring greater public awareness to the global supply chain of plasma, where poor, racialized communities have become a central link.