Associate Junior Faculty Scholars

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.

After completing her undergraduate degree at the University of California at Davis and her master’s in biomedical sciences at Tufts University, Dr. Stark obtained her medical degree from Georgetown University and completed both her pediatric residency and neonatology fellowship at Duke University. During her fellowship, she was awarded the Thrasher Research Foundation Early Career Award and completed a research fellowship at the Duke Clinical Research Institute.

Dr. Stark has been an Assistant Professor in Pediatrics at the University of Chicago since 2024. Her areas of research interest include screening methodologies and clinical outcomes of cytomegalovirus, particularly in preterm infants.

Dr. Lindsay Jaeger is an Assistant Professor of Pediatrics in the Section of Pediatric Emergency Medicine, and the Medical Director of the Comer Children’s Emergency Room. She is also the Medical Directors of the UChicago Medicine sections of Emergency Medical Services and Disaster Preparedness. Dr. Jaeger received her medical doctorate from Tulane University School of Medicine and completed her pediatric residency training at The Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children’s Hospital of Chicago. Her post-doctoral training also included fellowships in pediatric emergency medicine and emergency medicine ultrasound at Washington University in St. Louis School of Medicine and an EMS fellowship at UChicago Medicine.

Dr. Jaeger presented research at several national conventions, including an EMS Telemedicine Pilot project at the National Association of EMS Physicians Annual Meeting. Much of her research experience is multidisciplinary, focusing on pediatrics as well as obstetrics, gynecology, nephrology, and cardiology, among others. Dr. Jaeger also serves on the EMS Medical Directors Consortium committee for Chicago EMS, the EMS for Children Illinois Chapter, and is the Co-Chair of a subcommittee of the National EMS for
Children. Through working with each of these organizations, her focus is on developing EMS protocols, policies, procedures on pediatric cardiac arrest and airway care, transport protocols, and education on medication administration. This focus on pediatric prehospital care reduces health disparities by addressing educational and policy gaps and barriers. As of 2023, Dr. Jaeger has joined the faculty at Emory University.

Dr. Dhara Amin is an accomplished emergency medicine physician and educator. She holds a Bachelor of Science in Biology from Illinois Wesleyan University and earned her Doctor of Medicine from Rush Medical College. She completed her residency in Emergency Medicine at Los Angeles County + USC Medical Center, followed by a fellowship in teaching through the American College of Emergency Physicians.

Dr. Amin’s career has centered on improving healthcare quality and patient safety, particularly for vulnerable populations. She has led numerous quality improvement initiatives at safety-net hospitals in Los Angeles and Chicago, focusing on communication strategies for patients with limited English proficiency (LEP). Her work on reducing diagnostic errors in LEP patients earned her a prestigious DxQI Seed Grant from the Society to Improve Diagnosis in Medicine (SIDM) and the organization’s Emerging Leader award in 2022.

Currently, Dr. Amin is the Assistant Medical Director of the Emergency Department at the University of Chicago Medical Center and an Assistant Professor in the Department of Medicine. Her academic interests include advancing diagnostic safety and enhancing physician-patient communication through innovative practices such as simulation training. Dr. Amin’s commitment to healthcare equity and her extensive leadership in emergency medicine continue to impact the field at both local and national levels.

Rajesh K. Jain, MD, specializes in endocrinology and focuses on metabolic bone diseases. This includes osteoporosis, osteopenia, calcium disorders (including hyperparathyroidism and hypoparathyroidism), Vitamin D deficiency, Paget’s disease, and other metabolic bone disease. He is certified by the International Society of Clinical Densitometry to read and interpret bone density testing.

Dr. Jain conducts research in a variety of areas within osteoporosis and metabolic bone disease. Some of the areas he conducts research in include trabecular bone score, the effects of physical activity and body fat on bone, diabetes-related fracture risk, and differences in fracture risk factors in racial and ethnic minorities. He is also an investigator for clinical trials in hypoparathyroidism.

Luka Pocivavsek, MD, PhD, is a highly skilled vascular surgeon who specializes in a wide range of vascular conditions, including peripheral vascular, cerebrovascular disease and aortic disease.

As an active researcher, Dr. Pocivavsek advances vascular care by investigating innovative treatments and techniques for better outcomes and quality of life for his patients. His research focuses on improving treatment for patients with aortic dissections, a condition in which inner layers of the aorta tear and/or rip. Dr. Pocivavsek evaluates patients using specific aortic parameters to identify what treatment(s) would be most effective depending on each individual patient’s aortic anatomy. His research highlights the importance of examining both size and shape – as well as other features – of a dissected aorta before determining the right treatment. Appraising factors beyond size alone provides a more holistic picture of a damaged aorta, which not only indicates which patients will benefit from surgery, but also classifies patients that will have better long-term outcomes with medical management alone.

His research has been published in several peer-reviewed journals, such as Science, Nature Physics, Journal of Vascular Surgery, Biophysical Journal, Soft Matter, Biomaterials and Annals of Vascular Surgery. Dr. Pocivavsek also presents his findings at conferences and meetings both domestically and internationally.

In addition to his clinical practice, Dr. Pocivavsek is also the co-founder of ArugaTechnologies, a medical device company that designs synthetic vascular grafts using new surface technology inspired by nature.

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. 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.

Dr. Walid Hussain is an Assistant Professor of Pediatrics in the Section of Neonatology. Dr. Hussain received his medical degree from Creighton University School of Medicine and completed his pediatric residency training at Children’s Mercy Hospital. Following residency, he completed his fellowship in Neonatology here at the University of Chicago. Prior to returning to the University of Chicago in the summer of 2022, he was an Assistant Professor of Pediatrics in the Division of Neonatology at Loyola University. While in fellowship he developed an academic interest in quality improvement and patient safety, and has completed extensive formal training in QI.

Dr. Hussain’s academic interests are quality improvement in neonatology, specifically in areas of neonatal sepsis and antibiotic stewardship as well as minimally invasive surfactant administration. He also has a special interest in health-care economics. In addition to his academic work, clinical time spent in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit, Dr. Hussain is also actively involved in medical education. He serves as the Director of Neonatal Quality Improvement.