Alumni Scholars

2014-2015 Senior Faculty Scholar – Retired

Anita Blanchard, MD’90, is a Professor of Obstetrics and Gynecology (OB-GYN) at UChicago Medicine and serves as Associate Dean for Graduate Medical Education and Designated Institutional Official, supervising and supporting 133 residency and fellowships programs including 1023 residents and fellows. She maintains accreditation standards, promotes professional development, and fosters strategic initiatives and innovation in medical education. She served as the associate program director in OB-GYN for 5 years and residency program director for OB-GYN for 13 years prior to her promotion to the GME office in 2017. She has devoted 22 years of her career to medical education.

As a practicing gynecologist, Dr. Blanchard specializes in treatment of cervical dysplasia, menopause management, and geriatric gynecologic care. She is a former trustee and past vice president of the board of directors for the American Board of Obstetrics and Gynecology, a former member of the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME) OB-GYN review committee, and the University’s co-PI of the ACGME Pursuing Excellence Initiative.

Dr. Blanchard is committed to enhancing Chicago’s South Side community by increasing the diversity of physicians and building programs to fulfill community needs. She has created innovative community programs including seminars highlighting maternal and adolescent topics. She also founded the Graduate Medical Education Resilience Initiative focused on physician wellbeing. Together with the Urban Health Initiative team, her Graduate Medical Education team launched a new program, Community Champions, facilitating resident and fellow participation in community engagement in Winter 2021.

Dr. Blanchard earned a bachelor’s degree in Neurobiology and Physiology from Northwestern University and completed medical school and her OB-GYN residency at the Pritzker School of Medicine. She is active in many civic organizations and enjoys living in the South Side community she serves with her husband, Martin Nesbitt and their five children.

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.

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.

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. Melanie Brown is an Associate Professor of Pediatrics with a focus on Critical Care, Palliative Care, Integrative Medicine and Clinical Medical Ethics. She is the medial director of the Comer Pediatric Comfort Team that has a primary mission of improving the quality of life of children with complex medical conditions. Dr. Brown’s research interests include a Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute funded project, which examines ways to improve communication in the PICU for patients facing life-changing decisions. Dr. Brown is active in medical education and has leadership roles in the Pediatric Residency Program, the medical school, and the South Side community. She is a former Associate Program Director for the pediatric residency program, and currently is Chair of the parallel admissions committee at the Pritzker School of Medicine as well as Chair of the BSD Office of Diversity and Inclusion’s Trainee Committee. Dr. Brown is helping to develop and evaluate novel international curricula in Integrative Medicine.

Dr. Brown is now a physician at Children’s Hospital of Minneapolis in Minneapolis, MN.

Dr. Halina Brukner is Professor of Medicine and Associate Dean for Medical School Education. She led the planning and implementation of the Pritzker Initiative curriculum and oversees all aspects of curricular and academic issues for the Pritzker School of Medicine. Dr. Brukner is also the Director of the Academy of Distinguished Medical Educators. A graduate of Yale University and the New York University School of Medicine, Dr. Brukner did her internship and residency training in Internal Medicine at the University of Chicago. She joined the faculty in General Medicine in 1985, and has served as clerkship director in Internal Medicine (1986-1999); Director of the Primary Care Group (1995-99); Vice-Chairman of the Department of Medicine (1999-2004); and Associate Dean for Medical School Education (2004-present). Dr. Brukner was a general internist in the University of Chicago Primary Care Group and is currently enjoying retirement.

Dr. Caldarelli is a neonatologist specializing in the treatment of premature and critically ill infants in the neonatal intensive care unit. She completed her residency and fellowship at The University of Chicago and now serves on the faculty. In addition to her clinical work, Dr. Caldarelli works on improving the quality of medical care, researching medical outcomes and improvements in clinical care.

Her publications include articles on the long-term outcomes of neonatal intensive care and the effectiveness of new teaching methods. She is a dedicated educator and is interested in developing curricula. She also works with education in simulation centers.

As of 2015, Dr. Caldarelli joined the faculty at Northwestern University in Chicago, IL.

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.

Kristen Chalmers graduated summa cum laude, Phi Beta Kappa from Dartmouth College in 2017 with a B.A. in Anthropology and a minor in Neuroscience. Following graduation, she spent three years conducting qualitative research on emergency department design at Build Health International and adolescent diabetes care at Seattle Children’s Hospital. She also began volunteering as a rape hotline crisis counselor with the Boston Area Rape Crisis Center, where she now works as a staff counselor and shift supervisor.

At Pritzker, Kristen is the co-chair of Physician Advocates for Survivors of Sexual Assault and the Emergency Medicine Interest Group. She is also collaborating with fellow medical students on a project to identify disparities and improve care for survivors of sexual assault in Chicago-area emergency departments with Drs. Keme Cater, Sonia Oyola, and Jeanne Farnan. Under Dr. Julie Chor, she is also working on a qualitative research project aiming to develop trauma-informed abortion care principles for survivors of sexual assault, interpersonal violence, and adverse childhood experiences.

Mark Chee graduated from Duke University with a B.S. in Chemistry and minors in Biology and Global Health. Mark is the Patient Satisfaction and Quality Improvement Co-Chair at the Bridgeport Free Clinic, a student-run clinic that serves an Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) community on the South Side of Chicago. He also served as the Asian Pacific American Medical Student Association’s National Conference Co-Chair, helping to plan the 2016. Mark has worked on health policy and medical education issues as Pritzker’s representative in both the Illinois State Medical Society and Chicago Medical Society Medical Student Sections as well as the Association of American Medical Colleges Organization of Student Representatives.

Under the mentorship of Dr. Vineet Arora, Mark is conducting research about the barriers and facilitators of generic prescribing among providers and how effective messaging about generics can promote generic prescribing.

Dr. Chee is an Internal Medicine Resident at the Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston, MA.