Associate Junior Faculty Scholars

Deirdre De Ranieri, MD,RhMSUS is an Assistant Professor of Pediatrics, in the Section of Pediatric Rheumatology. She completed her undergraduate degree in Mathematics at Washington and Lee University, graduated from Tulane University School of Medicine in 2008, and did her medical training, including residency and fellowship, at the University of Chicago. She is currently serving as the Director of the Pediatric Rheumatology Fellowship Program. Dr. De Ranieri has a large clinical practice, mostly comprised of children with Juvenile Idiopathic Arthritis (JIA), and has been involved in several clinical trials which focus on the treatment of children with JIA. Dr. De Ranieri’s main research interest is in using musculoskeletal ultrasound (MSK US) to diagnose, monitor and treat children with JIA. She is involved in an international collaboration designed to standardize views of children’s joints. This year, she received a grant from CARRA (Childhood Arthritis and Rheumatology Research Alliance) to help identify subclinical disease in children with JIA, in the hopes of providing earlier more aggressive therapy (that is currently limited to polyarticular JIA) to these children, with the goal of minimizing disease sequelae, such as joint deformity, limitation, and pain. She is involved in teaching MSK US to her colleagues and fellows, as well as the Peds ER fellows, and is a part of the American College of Rheumatology MSK US examination certification program, which certifies rheumatologists in MSK US.

In 2020, Dr. deRanieri became an Assistant Professor of Pediatrics (Rheumatology), Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine.

Dr. Ami Desai is an Assistant Professor of Pediatrics in the Section of Pediatric Hematology/Oncology and Stem Cell Transplantation. Dr. Desai earned a BA in economics, with highest honors, from Rutgers University and an MD from the Rutgers-Robert Wood Johnson Medical School (7-year Baccalaureate/MD Program). She completed her internship and residency in pediatrics at Yale-New Haven Children’s Hospital and a fellowship in pediatric hematology/oncology at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia. She also completed the Master of Science in Clinical Epidemiology (MSCE) Program at the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania, with a concentration in pharmacoepidemiology, during her fellowship.

Dr. Desai’s research focus is on clinical drug development for childhood and young adult cancers, and understanding treatment-related toxicities, particularly with regard to solid tumors such as neuroblastoma and sarcomas. She is also interested in the discovery and use of biomarkers of drug toxicity and disease response in drug development and treatment paradigms. Dr. Desai has served as an Alex’s Lemonade Stand Foundation Developmental Therapeutics Scholar, among other honors. In addition to her efforts in the solid tumor program and developmental therapeutics, Dr. Desai serves as the Director of the Pediatric Cancer Risk Program.

Dr. Laura Dickens earned her medical degree from Emory University School of Medicine in Atlanta, Georgia.  She then completed her Internal Medicine residency and Endocrinology fellowship at the University of Chicago. 

Her clinical interests include diabetes and osteoporosis.  She is the co-founder of the University of Chicago Diabetes in Pregnancy Clinic (DIPP), a centralized

specialty care program for patients with pregestational type 1 or type 2 diabetes and complex gestational diabetes in pregnancy.  The DIPP program incorporates patient care, education, and research initiatives aimed at improving diabetes care in pregnancy.     At the University of Chicago, in addition to her clinical endeavors, Dr. Dickens is the Associate Program Director for the Endocrinology Fellowship.  She is actively involved in research related to monogenic diabetes and quality improvement for diabetes in pregnancy.

David Dickerson, MD is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Anesthesia and Critical Care (DACC) and Director of the Acute Pain Service. He is board-certified in anesthesiology and pain medicine. Dr. Dickerson’s clinical interests are acute postoperative pain, peripheral nerve injury, autonomic pain syndromes, and cancer pain. His research interests include continuous neural blockade for joint replacement, patient-centered pain care, and using the electronic health record to track patient postsurgical pain experience. Dr. Dickerson teaches medical students, residents, and fellows in the outpatient pain clinic, on the inpatient acute pain service, and in the operating room. He received the DACC’s teacher of the year award in 2015.

Dr. Dickerson is now the Medical Director of Anesthesia Pain Management Services at NorthShore University Health System in Evanston, IL.

Vincent A DiMaggio, MS, MD, is a physician who practices in both the inpatient and outpatient settings at the University of Chicago. After completing graduate and medical education at Georgetown Univeristy, he went on to residency at the University of Chicago. Dr. DiMaggio is trained in both internal medicine and pediatrics, sometimes referred to as “Med-Peds.” This practice includes care for patients from newborns to the elderly. His specific clinical interest involves the Transition from pediatric to adult general care of adolescents and young adults with chronic medical conditions of childhood. Academically, Dr. DiMaggio is a dedicated medical educator with ambitions to focus on the doctor-patient relationship. Notably, he completed a Fellowship in Clinical Medical Ethics at the MacLean Center of the University of Chicago in his last year of residency and completed a Chief Residency in Pediatrics in the following year. During residency, he was admitted to the Alpha Omega Alpha Honors Society as a resident educator by the Pritzker School of Medicine. Currently, he remains at the University of Chicago as Assistant Professor of Medicine and Pediatrics in the Comprehensive Care Program providing longitudinal care for high risk patients in both primary care and hospital medicine settings.

As of 2022, Dr. DiMaggio had joined the faculty of Brown MED-PEDS.

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. Gina Dudley completed her Medicine-Pediatrics residency at the University of Cincinnati in 2004. She currently serves as the director of the Adult Sickle Cell Care Team at the University of Chicago, where she treats patients with sickle cell disease in the inpatient and outpatient settings. She is a faculty preceptor for internal medicine and internal medicine/pediatrics residents and a clinician in the primary care group. Her clinical experiences and interests include transitional care for young adults with chronic diseases and health care for the homeless and vulnerable populations.

2012 Pilot Grant Project: Development of a Patient Care Card for Individuals with Sickle Cell Disease

As of 2013, Dr. Dudley entered private practice in Memphis, TN.

Dr. Edens is currently an Assistant Professor at the University of Chicago where she is an adult and pediatric rheumatologist and the pediatric rheumatology fellowship program director. She is originally from New Mexico where she graduated from medical school. She completed her combined Internal Medicine and Pediatrics residency at the University of Michigan and adult and pediatric rheumatology fellowship at University Hospitals/Rainbow Babies and Children’s Hospital. Her clinical and research concentration lies in the interplay between the pregnancy, sexual health, contraception, and rheumatic diseases across ages but particularly in teens and young adults. She is active in the American College of Rheumatology Reproductive Health Initiative and the co-leader/founder of the Childhood Arthritis and Rheumatology Research Alliance Reproductive Health Work Group. She is also interested in health care transition for those with pediatric-onset rheumatic diseases.

Jonathan Emerson Kohler, MD MA is the senior fellow in pediatric surgery at the University of Chicago. Dr. Kohler holds degrees with honors from Brown University, where he studied biology and theatre, and from the Pritzker School of Medicine at the University of Chicago, as well as a masters degree in health communications from Emerson College. Prior to medical school, he worked in theatre and as a health care reporter for the daily Standard-Times in New Bedford, MA. His research interests include the effect of patient and parent expectations on outcomes in pediatric surgery, and on the role of mass media in forming and modulating those expectations. Projects include production of several patient and parent education programs for the University of Chicago, University of Washington, and Boston Children’s Hospital, and development of several medical drama pilots for network television with Imagine Television and CBS Studios. He is the founder of the medical narrative consulting company RxCreative, which helps produce accurate medicine on television, and helps doctors use narrative techniques to teach their patients. He completed his general surgery training at the University of Washington.

Dr. Kohler is a member of the faculty at the University of Wisconsin in Madison.

Dr. Asim V. Farooq is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Ophthalmology and Visual Science. He received his medical degree from the University of Illinois College of Medicine where during his time there, he was awarded a grant from Research to Prevent Blindness, allowing him to devote a year to study the pathogenesis of herpes simplex virus (HSV) infection in the cornea. Following, he then completed ophthalmology residency training at the University of Illinois Eye and Ear Infirmary, and a fellowship in cornea and external disease at the Washington University in St. Louis. During his fellowship, Farooq trained under Dr. Todd Margolis, an expert in herpetic corneal disease.

Dr. Farooq has published 40 peer-reviewed articles and 3 book chapters. His clinical and research interests are focused on ocular surface disease, corneal manifestations of autoimmune disease, as well as corneal infections, especially those caused by HSV, herpes zoster virus (HZV), and cytomegalovirus (CMV). His goal is to better understand the pathogenesis of these viruses, as well as to improve diagnostic accuracy.