Associate Junior Faculty Scholars

Dr. Rosenberg is currently an Assistant Professor of Medicine at the University of Chicago. He completed his residency in internal medicine at the University of Illinois at Chicago and his fellowship training in medical oncology and hematology at Northwestern University. He is a medical oncologist and clinical investigator focusing on head and neck cancer. Dr. Rosenberg develops and conducts clinical trials that incorporate novel tissue and blood-based biomarkers, and he has a particular focus on novel therapies and immunotherapeutic strategies, as well as developing multimodality treatment paradigms to reduce treatment-related toxicity.

Katie Rowland is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Surgery, Section of Pediatric Surgery, at the University of Chicago.  She received her Bachelor of Arts degree from Baylor University, majoring as a University Scholar with an emphasis in biology and the medical humanities.  She earned her Doctor of Medicine and Master of Population Health Science degrees from Washington University in Saint Louis.  She completed her general surgery residency training at Washington University in Saint Louis and fellowship training in pediatric surgery at Oregon Health and Science University.  At the University of Chicago she is a pediatric surgeon with a clinical emphasis on minimally invasive techniques.  She has an interest in quality improvement in the delivery of pediatric surgical care.  She has an academic research focus in moral and professional formation in medical education.  She is a Faculty Fellow at the Hyde Park Institute and the course director of the Scholars in Ethics and Medicine program, where she teaches University of Chicago medical and undergraduate students in the cultivation of character, using a virtue ethics framework to promote flourishing as a physician and in life. As of October of 2025, Dr. Rowland joined the faculty of WashU in St. Louis, MO.

Arlene Ruiz de Luzuriaga is an Assistant Professor of Medicine in the Section of Dermatology, and Vice-Chief for Dermatopathology Operations. She is a graduate of Duke University School of Medicine. Dr. Ruiz de Luzuriaga also holds an MPH from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and an MBA with honors from the University of Chicago, where she received the Vashee Promising Entrepreneur Award from the Polsky Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation in 2017. She completed her dermatology residency at the University of Chicago, serving as Chief Resident in her final year of residency, and then also completed her dermatopathology fellowship. Dr. Ruiz de Luzuriaga is a dermatologist and dermatopathologist. She is interested in epidemiologic studies in dermatology and dermatopathology, clinical informatics, and the use of information technology for the improvement of patient care, diagnosis and treatment algorithms, quality improvement, and medical education. Her clinical focus is on total body photography, dermatoscopy, skin cancer surveillance, and melanoma prevention and early detection. She hopes to explore the decision-making experience surrounding ambiguous melanocytic neoplasms, and how patients and dermatologists incorporate additional data from novel ancillary diagnostic tests for melanocytic lesions.

Yasmin Sacro is an outstanding junior clinician-educator who’s been named as a Core Faculty member for the University of Chicago Internal Medicine residency program, based on her superior clinical skills and teaching abilities. She sees a high volume of adult primary care patients and is known by patients as an outstanding clinician. Yasmin teaches residents in the Primary Care Group and also at Community Health — the community-based free clinic, where she’s taking the lead on developing curriculum for residents about providing care in this underserved and very challenging setting.

As of 2015, Dr. Sacro is a physician at Denver Health in Colorado.

Dr. Sargis is an Assistant Professor in the Section of Endocrinology, Diabetes and Metabolism. He completed his MD/PhD at Rush University before coming to the University of Chicago for his Internal Medicine and Endocrinology training. Rob’s clinical interests focus on diabetes, obesity, and lipid disorders, and in taking care of these patients, he places a strong emphasis on patient empowerment in effecting lifestyle change. In addition to seeing patients, Rob has an active research lab that studies the connections between environmental pollutants and metabolic diseases in hopes of generating sound scientific support for the development of public policy aimed at mitigating the deleterious effects of environmental contaminants on human health.

As of 2016, Dr. Sargis joined the faculty at the University of Illinois in Chicago.

Theiju Sebastian is a neonatologist who specializes in neurodevelopmental outcomes and follow-up of newborns who have been discharged from the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU). She provides care in both the NICU and the Center for Healthy Families at the University of Chicago Medicine Comer Children’s Hospital to babies who need extra attention after discharge from the NICU. Her work has been published in Journal of Perinatology and NeoReviews.

Sebastian graduated magna cum laude from St. Bonaventure University in New York. She received an MD from the George Washington University School of Medicine and Health Sciences. She completed a pediatrics residency at Yale New Haven Hospital and a neonatal-perinatal medicine fellowship at NewYork-Presbyterian Morgan Stanley Children’s Hospital, where she was named chief fellow.

Dr. Neil Sengupta is an Assistant Professor in the Section of Gastroenterology, Hepatology, and Nutrition. He completed his medical degree at the University of Florida College of Medicine, and his residency training in Internal Medicine at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania. He subsequently completed his fellowship in Gastroenterology and Hepatology at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center.

Dr. Sengupta’s research interests lie in optimizing the care and outcomes of patients hospitalized with gastrointestinal bleeding. He has conducted work defining the role of endoscopic and radiologic testing in patients with lower gastrointestinal bleeding, and has specific interests in complications of patients who have bleeding while on systemic anticoagulation. In addition, Dr. Sengupta serves as the Quality Improvement director for the Section of Gastroenterology, and has several active projects focusing on improving the quality of colorectal cancer screening at a local and institutional level. He is currently mentoring medical students, residents, and fellows in outcomes research, as well as quality improvement research initiatives.

Dr. Namrata Setia is an Associate Professor in the Department of Pathology and specializes in gastrointestinal pathology and cytopathology. Her clinical interests are focussed on medical and neoplastic gastrointestinal disease diagnoses. She is a dedicated educator and works closely with fellows and residents, mentoring them in clinical outcomes research. In her clinical research, Namrata is working on developing prediction models for personalized medicine in gastric carcinoma with a goal to integrate advanced genomics in routine clinical practice. She is also working on promoting international academic and diagnostic collaborations. As a part of this effort, she is establishing a working group focused on inflammatory bowel disease with the support of the University of Chicago’s Global Engagement program.

Dr. Baddr Shakhsheer is a pediatric surgeon and surgical ethicist at the University of Chicago. He earned his undergraduate degree with the University of Virginia and his medical degree from Eastern Virginia Medical School. He completed residency training in General Surgery at the University of Chicago. He completed a fellowship in Clinical Medical Ethics at the MacLean Center at the University of Chicago. He then completed a pediatric surgical fellowship at Washington University in Saint Louis. Dr. Shakhsheer’s clinical interests lie in the surgical care of children, especially those with congenital disorders and pediatric cancers, including complex hepato-pancreato-biliary problems. He specializes in the application of minimally invasive techniques to pediatric patients. His research interests include clinical medical ethics, especially surgical ethics and informed consent. He serves as faculty in the MacLean Center and as Co-Director for the ethics consult service.

Dr. Sharma is a medical oncologist and clinical pharmacologist who focuses on the development of novel therapies for patients with all types of cancer, and gastrointestinal cancers in particular. His research involves computer-based modeling and simulation using data (including patient-reported outcomes) from oncology clinical trials. The broad objective of this research is to improve the development (by informing clinical trial design) and use of anticancer therapies. He has designed and conducted clinical trials that involve genotype-guided dosing of chemotherapy and repurposing of old drugs (such as sirolimus and metformin) as potential anticancer therapies. He is also using model-based phenotypes to develop genomic prediction tools for response to anticancer therapies. In an educational capacity, Dr. Sharma has an interest in improving doctor-patient communication with respect to informed consent for phase I cancer clinical trials.

Dr. Sharma is now a physician at the Cancer and Hematology Centers of Western Michigan.