Associate Junior Faculty Scholars

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.

Sachin Shah, MD, provides comprehensive primary care to adults and children of all ages in both inpatient and outpatient settings. He also has an active interest in global health.

Dr. Shah is working to improve meaningful use of electronic health records. He hopes that this work will lead to improved communication between physicians and patients, and better outcomes in the medical management of chronic disease.

Committed to teaching medical students and residents, Dr. Shah serves as the Associate Director for Education in the Med-Peds Residency Program. He works closely with trainees, emphasizing the foundations of clinical medicine, clinical reasoning, and the role of humanities in medicine.

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.

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.

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.

Ruchi Singla, MD, is an Assistant Professor in the section of Allergy/Immunology. She is board certified in providing care to both pediatric and adult populations with allergic diseases and congenital immune deficiencies.

She received her undergraduate education at The Ohio State University and attended medical school at Northeast Ohio Medical University. She completed pediatrics residency at the University of Michigan and specialized in allergy/immunology at The Ohio State University and Nationwide Children’s Hospital before joining the faculty of the University of Chicago.

She is actively involved in resident and medical student education and serves as the director of trainee elective rotations to provide exposure to the field of allergy/immunology. She is currently working to establish the first ever allergy/immunology fellowship training program at the University of Chicago.

She has special interest in removing penicillin allergy labels, which have been shown to lead to inferior treatments and increased healthcare costs and complications. She is dedicated to engaging multiple disciplines across the healthcare system to de-label such allergies and ultimately improve patient care. She is equally passionate about patient education and continually seeks ways to improve provider and patient communication.

Dr. Skondra, Associate Professor of Ophthalmology and Visual Science at the University of Chicago. Dr. Skondra is the Director of the J. Terry Ernest Ocular Imaging Center who focuses on the medical and surgical treatment of vitreoretinal diseases. She in an expert in delivering care for diabetic eye disease, age-related macular degeneration, retinal detachment, retinal vein occlusions, eye trauma, proliferative vitreoretinopathy and intraocular infections, with advanced training and expertise in surgical repair of complex diabetic retinal detachments.

As a physician-scientist, Dr. Skondra is dedicated to investigating methods to improve prevention, diagnosis and treatment strategies for retinal conditions with special focus on the role of microbiome in age related macular degeneration and retinal disorders. Throughout her career, Dr. Skondra has received several prestigious awards for her translational research on diabetic retinopathy, ocular angiogenesis and age related macular degeneration, including the Retina Society Raymond Margherio Award, Harvard /Alcon Clinical Scholar Award, AUPO Research Award, ARVO/Alcon Early Career Clinician Scientist Award, Joslin/Tonseth Research Fellowship Award and the Knights Templar Award. She trained at Weill Cornell Medical College (residency) and Harvard Medical School (postdoctoral research fellowship and vitreoretinal surgical fellowship).

Dr. Mark Slidell is an Associate Professor of Surgery in the Section of Pediatric Surgery at The University of Chicago. He earned his medical degree from Brown University School of Medicine and went on to complete his general surgery residency at Georgetown University Hospital in Washington, DC. During his residency, Dr. Slidell completed a Master’s in Public Health at The Johns Hopkins University, Bloomberg School of Public Health with a concentration in Epidemiology and Biostatistics. He subsequently went on to complete a fellowship in Pediatric Surgery at Children’s National Medical Center in Washington, DC. Following that, Dr. Slidell joined the faculty at The University of Chicago Medicine.

Dr. Slidell has specific expertise in advanced minimally invasive surgery in children and newborns, and he applies these skills to the treatment of children with a broad range of diseases such as pediatric pancreatic, liver and bile duct diseases, aerodigestive diseases such as GERD, and to chest wall reconstruction for patients with pectus excavatum and carinatum deformities. Dr. Slidell frequently collaborates with other surgeons and clinicians across disciplines to enhance the care we can provide to pediatric patients. He is a co-founder of The Chest Wall Deformity Program at the University of Chicago, and the Pediatric Aerodigestive Center at The University of Chicago. Dr. Slidell also partners with adult general and transplant surgeons to offer total pancreatectomy with islet cell autotransplantation (TP-IAT) for children with genetic forms of chronic pancreatitis.

Dr. Slidell is also the Director of Pediatric Trauma at Comer Children’s Hospital, which is a high acuity Level One Pediatric Trauma Center. He is currently involved in conducting patient safety, quality improvement and clinical outcomes research to improve the quality of trauma care provided to injured children. He is also an active member of the Outcomes and Evidence Based Practice Committee, of the American Pediatric Surgical Association.

Dr. Slidell is a dedicated educator and mentor, and is passionate about educating and training the next generation of physicians, surgeons and scientists. He has been the recipient of numerous teaching awards throughout his academic career.