Associate Junior Faculty Scholars

Dr. Stanford is an Assistant Professor in the Section of Emergency Medicine and the Director of ED HIV and STI Screening at the Chicago Center for HIV Elimination (CCHE). Dr. Stanford received her Doctor of Medicine at Columbia University, followed by a residency in emergency medicine at Harvard MGH/Brigham & Women’s, and then a Master of Public Health degree at Johns Hopkins University. Dr. Stanford is active in social emergency medicine, chairing both state and national Social EM committees. She runs a robust ED HIV screening program and developed an innovative universal syphilis screening program. Her research focuses on the use of the emergency department visit to address the social determinants of health, including infectious diseases, sexual and reproductive health, homelessness, and human trafficking. Utilizing implementation science methods to inform program development, implementation, and expansion, Dr. Stanford hopes to improve early diagnosis and access to care through innovative ED screening and referral programs.

Dr. Stepan is an orthopedic surgeon who specializes in hand and upper extremity surgery. He has specific clinical expertise in treating in brachial plexus and complex nerve injuries. For patients with these life altering injuries, he has started a multi-disciplinary brachial plexus and complex nerve injury clinic at the University of Chicago.

His research interests include understanding how social determinants of health affect outcomes in hand surgery and creating a better understanding and treatment pathway for ballistic upper extremity trauma, specifically nerve injury. He also has partnered with Community Health to provide hand care and surgery for uninsured patients.

Prior to arriving in Chicago, Dr. Stepan graduated from St. John’s University where he played Division I soccer. He then earned an MD and Masters of Science in Clinical Investigation while completing his NIH TL1 Pre-doctoral grant at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis. After medical school he completed an orthopedic surgery residency at the Hospital for Special Surgery in New York followed by a hand and microvascular surgery fellowship at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis.

Robert Steppacher, MD FACS and assistant professor in the Department of Surgery. Dr. Steppacher specializes in the medical, surgical, and endovascular management of aortic, carotid, and peripheral vascular disease. His interests also include treatment of venous disease and dialysis access. In addition to his clinical pursuits, Dr. Steppacher is also a Medical Director of Informatics at the University of Chicago. He has extensive expertise and interest in improving the electronic health record at UCM. Dr. Steppacher serves on numerous committees and taskforces at the local, regional, and national level. He is the director of arterial quality for the Mid-America Vascular Study Group and the chair of the medication optimization and EHR integration committees for the Society for Vascular Surgery. Dr. Steppacher research interests include using large data sets to foster improvement in vascular care and increasing the usability of the EHR.

In 2016, Dr. Steppacher joined the faculty at the University of Massachusetts Memorial Medical Center in Worcester.

Dr. Tang is an Assistant Professor of Medicine and Comprehensive Care Physician in the Section of Hospital Medicine. Her clinical work is devoted to providing longitudinal primary care across inpatient and ambulatory care settings for a panel of patients with high health needs and frequent hospitalization. She leads qualitative research efforts for the Comprehensive Care Program, with a focus on patient perspectives and preferences related to care, the doctor patient relationship, and reasons for variation in patient response to the program. She also developed and leads an educational program called the Patient Centered Longitudinal Experience, in which first year medical students are partnered with patients with complex chronic disease, with whom they co-navigate their patients’ clinical care experiences across multiple settings.

Audrey L. Tanksley MD was born and raised on the south side of Chicago in the Roseland community. She attended Southern Illinois University Carbondale and received a Bachelor of Arts in Biological-Sciences. Following this she attended Southern Illinois University School of Medicine in Springfield, IL and completed studies in general medical education. During the time in Springfield, Dr. Tanksley, was vice president of the class of 2009, served as a student representative to the AAMC, assisted with LCME accreditation and received a grant to provide health and oral screenings to the people of Sangamon County. Dr. Tanksley returned to the Chicagoland area to complete her Internal Medicine residency training at UIC/ Advocate Christ Medical Center where she also served as chief resident. Upon completion of chief year, Dr. Tanksley transitioned into a 2 year Medical Education Research Fellowship at The University of Chicago Medical Center.

As a Medical Education, Research, Innovation, Teaching and Scholarship (MERITS) fellow at the University of Chicago, Dr. Tanksley’s academic work focused on healthcare disparities, communication, professionalism and resident supervision. She also assisted with investigations of the TEACH pipeline program for high school students. Her scholarly work has been presented at various regional and national conferences, including the Association of American Medical Colleges and the Society for General Internal Medicine. She is currently conducting an analysis of a novel curriculum created to teach residents how to obtain Informed Consent using a culturally sensitive approach. She has also worked on improving patient safety through resident supervision in the ambulatory environment.

As a General Internist, Dr. Tanksley supervises internal medicine residents and students caring for patients in the primary care clinics and general medical floors. She has worked closely with Drs. Arora and Farnan on qualitative research with high school students using focus groups, and is experienced with the use of Atlas software. She has also worked on quantitative projects as well and is experienced with the use of STATA software.

Dr. Tanksley now practices with ACCESS Community Health in Chicago, IL.

Melissa Tesher, MD is an Associate Professor of Pediatrics, in the Section of Pediatric Rheumatology. She cares for children with juvenile arthritis, lupus, and a wide variety of other complex chronic diseases. Dr. Tesher has a long-standing commitment to caring for underserved children. Following her residency in Social Pediatrics at the Children’s Hospital at Montefiore in the Bronx, Dr. Tesher came to the University of Chicago as a pediatric rheumatology fellow, then joined the faculty in 2011. She has a particular interest in helping patients navigate the psychosocial aspects of coping with chronic disease, especially chronic pain. In addition to providing patient care, Dr. Tesher serves as the director of the Pediatric Rheumatology fellowship training program at the University of Chicago and also directs the rheumatology elective rotation.

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. Verma is a general internist who specializes in the comprehensive care of adult patients in both the inpatient and outpatient settings. After earning her undergraduate degrees in Chemistry and Public Policy Studies from Duke University, she received her medical training at UNC-Chapel Hill and completed her residency in Internal Medicine at the University of Chicago. She then joined the section of Hospital Medicine as part of the Comprehensive Care Program.

Dr. Verma’s academic interests include health care delivery innovation and quality improvement. She is especially interested in ways to reduce costs and improve clinical outcomes for frequently hospitalized and medically complex patients. Dr. Verma is also active in medical education, and spends time precepting both residents and medical students.

Dr. Verma now practices at the Johnston-Willis Hospital in Richmond, VA.

Dr. Zeytinoglu’s clinical practice emphasizes management and prevention of endocrine disorders, including diabetes, osteoporosis, and obesity, in older adults.

Individuals’ risk of acquiring these conditions rises substantially with aging, and older adults represent the largest demographic with these diseases. Unlike many younger adults, as individuals age and acquire different medical conditions, their health status often begins to look very different from that of their age-matched peers.

Despite this, there is limited evidence to guide health-care providers and patients in how to optimize care for metabolic diseases in geriatric patients with heterogeneous health conditions — a group which has frequently been excluded from randomized clinical trials. Dr. Zeytinoglu’s research interests are focused on helping to improve this gap and studying methods and treatments for optimizing management of chronic metabolic conditions such as diabetes and osteoporosis in older adults. Dr. Zeytinoglu is now the Executive Medical Director at Eli Lilly and Company.

Dr. Zisman is an Associate Professor in the Section of Nephrology and the Clinical Director of the Kidney Stone Prevention Program at the University of Chicago. She also serves as the Ambulatory Clinic Director for the Nephrology clinic. She received her MD at the University of Wisconsin – Madison and completed internal medicine residency training at the McGaw Medical Center of Northwestern University. She received her nephrology fellowship training at the University of Chicago where she has remained on faculty.