Alumni Scholars

Maria completed her undergraduate studies Washington University in St. Louis, receiving a bachelor’s degree in Anthropology and Biology. In college, she developed her passion for working with Latinx communities through her work at Casa de Salud and at Nurses for Newborns. After graduation, María spent a year in Guatemala working with an NGO that promotes health and educational equity for individuals with disabilities. She then embarked her Global Health Corps fellowship at Community Pediatric Programs of Montefiore in the South Bronx, where she worked to facilitate access to medical care and legal services for children and immigrants.

In medical school, María was the Chair of the Dean’s Council, serving a liaison between school leadership and the student body. She also served as co-president of the Latinx Medical Student Association. In this role, she supported various COVID-19 relief efforts for Spanish speaking communities in Chicago, and launched an anti-racism reading program for incoming first year medical students. Under the mentorship of Dr. Julie Chor, she is conducting an interview study to understand the experiences of LGBTQ individuals with the first pelvic exam. To honor her service, María was selected as the 2020 Valerie Bowman Jarrett Scholar in Medical Education. María is now a resident physician at The University of California – San Francisco.

Camron Shirkhodaie graduated with honors from Vanderbilt University in 2019 with a B.S. in Biological Sciences and Medicine, Health and Society and a minor in Chemistry.

At Prtizker, Camron was the co-director of Maria Shelter Free Clinic, where he, along with the rest of free clinic leadership, were able to implement telemedicine to continue seeing patients during the COVID-19 pandemic. In addition, Camron was also a part of Reach Out and Read, Students for a National Health Program, and Middle Eastern and North African Student Association.

Under the mentorship of Dr. John Blair, Camron conducted research on outcomes of and risk factors associated with patients with concomitant deep vein thrombosis and pulmonary embolism who receive catheter-directed therapy.

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.

Michele Nassin, MD, MS, is an Assistant Professor in Pediatrics in the Section of Pediatric Hematology Oncology and the Clinical Director of the Pediatric Stem Cell Transplant Program. Her academic and clinical work focuses on curative strategies in treatment of sickle cell disease and understanding immune reconstitution post stem cell transplant. She has worked closely with mentors to develop a novel haploidentical stem cell transplant approach for patients with sickle cell disease and that investigator initiated study is currently underway. A dedicated educator, Dr. Nassin also serves as the associate program director for the pediatric hematology/oncology fellowship. Today, Dr. Nassin is an attending physician at The University of Utah Health.

Mary Qiu, MD, is an ophthalmologist who specializes in glaucoma and cataract surgery. She completed her ophthalmology residency at the Wilmer Eye Institute at Johns Hopkins and her glaucoma fellowship at the Cole Eye Institute at Cleveland Clinic. Her clinical practice focuses on the surgical and medical management of complex glaucoma patients, and she has brought new minimally invasive glaucoma surgical techniques to the University of Chicago. In addition to her clinical roles, Dr Qiu is initiating a clinical trial and editing a textbook about neovascular glaucoma. Her other academic work is related to glaucoma residency education, outcomes after both minimally invasive as well as traditional glaucoma surgical techniques, and interdisciplinary collaborations with pharmacy and bariatric surgery. Dr. Qiu has authored numerous articles in peer-reviewed scientific journals and presented her work nationally and internationally. Dr Qiu is also dedicated to resident and medical student education; she directs the resident glaucoma rotation, volunteers as a longitudinal preceptor for the first-year medical students, and teaches medical students on the ophthalmology clerkship.

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.

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. Rebecca Garza earned her medical degree from the University of Illinois and then went on to complete an integrated plastic surgery residency at Stanford University. She then pursued an additional fellowship year of training in reconstructive microsurgery at the University of Chicago before joining the faculty as an Assistant Professor in the Section of Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery.

Dr. Garza’s primary clinical focus is on breast reconstruction, lymphedema surgery, and complex reconstructive surgery of the head and neck, extremities, and trunk. She has additional expertise in cosmetic surgery and is working to strengthen resident education in this facet of plastic surgery.

Dr. Garza’s research interests include clinical outcomes in breast reconstruction and lymphedema surgery, as well as studying gender issues and parenthood in surgery. Dr. Garza left UChicago to pursue private practice.

Dr. Kelly Hynes earned her medical degree from the Memorial University of Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada. She then went on to complete her Orthopaedic Surgery residency at the University of Ottawa in Ontario, Canada. She completed her Orthopaedic Foot and Ankle Reconstruction Fellowship at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, Canada.

Her clinical interests are foot and ankle trauma surgery, adult foot deformity correction and reconstruction and Arthroscopic surgery of the Foot and ankle. She sits on several committees at a national and international level including the Canadian Orthopaedic Foot and Ankle Society Executive Committee, the Ruth Jackson Orthopaedic Society Mentoring Committee and the American Orthopaedic Foot and Ankle Society Young Physicians Committee.

At the University of Chicago, she was the Ambulatory Medical Director for Orthopaedic Surgery, Medical Director of Informatics and a core member of the Quality Committee for Orthopaedic surgery. She is interested in improving efficiency and quality of care through informatics.