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. Brian H. Williams earned a degree in Aeronautical Engineering from the United States Air Force Academy. After six years of military service, he enrolled at the University of South Florida Morsani College of Medicine.

Dr. William completed his general surgery residency at Harvard Medical School/Brigham and Women’s Hospital and a fellowship in trauma surgery and surgical critical care at Emory University/Grady Memorial Hospital in Atlanta. Dr. Williams served as a trauma and acute care surgeon at UT Southwestern Medical Center/Parkland Memorial Hospital in Dallas where he also taught and mentored students, residents, and fellows.

Dr. Williams is known for his role in treating victims of the July 2016, Dallas police shooting. He was the surgeon working the night seven injured officers were transported to Parkland Memorial Hospital. At a press conference following the tragedy, his heartfelt comments about racism, gun violence, and policing touched thousands.

Dr. Williams’s interests focus on racial inequities in healthcare, diversity in medical education, and addressing the root causes of gun violence. In addition to his work as an academic surgeon, Dr. Williams travels the country speaking and sharing his unique insight on resilience, racial equity, and social justice.

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.

Dr. Golden is Associate Professor, Medical Student Clerkship Director, and Associate Residency Program Director in the Department of Radiation and Cellular Oncology. He completed residency at the University of Chicago. He is a graduate of the Pritzker School of Medicine Medical Education Research Innovation Teaching and Scholarship (MERITS) fellowship and completed a Masters of Health Professions Education (MHPE) at the University of Illinois at Chicago.

Dr. Golden’s clinical practice is at the University of Chicago Medicine Comprehensive Cancer Center at Silver Cross where he treats a broad array of cancers with external beam radiation. Dr. Golden focuses on educating his patients about their disease and treatment process with the goal of reducing anxiety and improving treatment compliance and outcomes.

His academic interests focus on patient and trainee education. In 2017 Dr. Golden received a pilot grant from the Bucksbaum Institute to develop a graphic narrative discussion guide to help providers communicate to patients what to expect during the radiotherapy treatment process.  Along with additional extramural funding from the Radiation Oncology Institute and collaborators at The University of Chicago, IIT Institute of Design, UIC, and Harvard, he has since developed a series of seven Communicating the External Beam Radiotherapy Experience (CEBRE) guides and three Communicating the Gynecologic Brachytherapy Experience (CoGBE) guides. In addition, the CEBRE en Español guides are culturally appropriate translations of the original CEBRE guides in Spanish.  The discussion guides have been downloaded for use internationally.  Dr. Golden also founded the Radiation Oncology Education Collaborative Study Group (ROECSG), which develops, implements, and evaluates radiation oncology curricular innovations using a collaborative group study model. As of 2022 ROECSG has over 600 members representing more than 200 member institutions around the globe.  Dr. Golden enjoys spending time teaching and mentoring medical students and residents and he received the Radiation and Cellular Oncology Resident Physician teaching award in 2015. As of 2023, Dr. Golden has joined the Radiation Oncology staff at Rush University in Chicago, IL.

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.