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Associate Junior Faculty Scholars

Each year, the nomination process for Junior Faculty Scholars consistently generates many exceptional candidate recommendations from all clinical departments. In an effort to retain involvement from these superb faculty, the position of Associate Junior Faculty Scholar was created in 2012. Associate Junior Faculty Scholars are eligible to participate in all Bucksbaum Institute programs and each spring they may apply for funding through the Bucksbaum Institute Pilot Grant Program.

C. Maxwell Medert, MD

C. Maxwell Medert, MD

2021–2022 ASSOCIATE JUNIOR FACULTY SCHOLAR

Department of Ophthalmology and Visual Science
Bio

Dr. C. Maxwell Medert is an ophthalmologist, who will serve as a Glaucoma specialist in the Department of Ophthalmology & Visual Science at the University of Chicago as an Assistant Professor. He completed his medical degree at Emory University School of Medicine before completing his residency in Ophthalmology at the Bascom Palmer Eye Institute in Miami, Florida. He has dedicated himself to a fellowship in Glaucoma and Advanced Anterior Segment Surgery at Washington University in St. Louis. He is interested in creating educational tools for patients with Glaucoma to help them understand their disease, their care, and the surgical options available to them. He also has an interest in education and hopes to develop the first Glaucoma fellowship at the University of Chicago.

Diana L. Mitchell, MD

Diana L. Mitchell, MD

2011–2012 ASSOCIATE JUNIOR FACULTY SCHOLAR – ALUMNI

Department of Pediatrics
Bio

Diana Mitchell, M.D. is an Instructor of Pediatric Critical Care. She cares for critically ill patients in the Pediatric Intensive Care Unit.

Dr. Mitchell received a Bachelor of Arts in History from Indiana University. She worked for several years as a youth education director for AmeriCorps in Denver, Colorado before entering medical school at Southern Illinois University School of Medicine. Dedicated to working with children from the Southside of Chicago, Dr. Mitchell completed her Pediatric residency, Chief Residency, and subspecialty training in Pediatric Critical Care at The University of Chicago.

Dr. Mitchell’s research interest focuses on multidisciplinary medical education using medical simulation. Simulation based training uses high fidelity computerized mannequins to train members of the pediatric critical care team. Dr. Mitchell implemented and currently runs a curriculum for pediatric residents and nurses that focuses on caring for a critically ill pediatric patient. The goal of this curriculum is to train all members of the medical team to provide competent and compassionate care to the most critically ill children.

2012 Pilot Grant Project (joint project with Dr. Alisa McQueen): Communications During Pediatric Resuscitation

Dr. Mitchell practices at Advocate Children’s Medical Group in Illinois.

Elizabeth Murphy, MD

Elizabeth Murphy, MD

2020–2021 ASSOCIATE JUNIOR FACULTY SCHOLAR

Department of Pediatrics
Bio

Elizabeth A Murphy, MD, SFHM, completed her medical school and residency at the University of Michigan and is currently an Assistant Professor in the Section of Hospital Medicine at the University of Chicago. She serves as Director of Clinical Service Development for the section and her main responsibility is to develop and mentor multiple clinical service leaders. She broadly champions professional and leadership development, job satisfaction and retention within the section. She collaborates closely with the QI Director to embed QI priorities into clinical services and service leader responsibilities. Elizabeth is Director of Hiring for the section and partners with section leadership to recruit, hire, orient and onboard new hospitalists. Elizabeth co-created and runs the Passport to Clinical Teaching with the section’s Medical Education Director—a program designed to develop excellent clinical teachers and support developing clinician educators. She is a member of the SHM Academic Hospitalist Committee, the SGIM Academic Hospitalist Commission and the SGIM Women and Medicine Commission.

Michele Nassin, MD

Michele Nassin, MD

2020–2021 ASSOCIATE JUNIOR FACULTY SCHOLAR

Department of Pediatrics
Bio

Michele Nassin, MD, MS, is an Assistant Professor in Pediatrics in the Section of Pediatric Hematology Oncology and the Clinical Director of the Pediatric Stem Cell Transplant Program. Her academic and clinical work focuses on curative strategies in treatment of sickle cell disease and understanding immune reconstitution post stem cell transplant. She has worked closely with mentors to develop a novel haploidentical stem cell transplant approach for patients with sickle cell disease and that investigator initiated study is currently underway. A dedicated educator, Dr. Nassin also serves as the associate program director for the pediatric hematology/oncology fellowship. Today, Dr. Nassin is an attending physician at The University of Utah Health.

Rochelle Naylor, MD

Rochelle Naylor, MD

2020–2021 ASSOCIATE JUNIOR FACULTY SCHOLAR

Department of Medicine, Department of Pediatrics
Bio

Dr. Rochelle Naylor is an Assistant Professor of Pediatrics with a secondary appointment in Medicine, Section of Adult and Pediatric Endocrinology, Diabetes, and Metabolism. Dr. Naylor completed medical school training at Mayo Clinic in 2005. She has been at the University of Chicago since that time, completing pediatrics residency training, a chief resident year and pediatric endocrine fellowship prior to joining the faculty at the University of Chicago in 2012.

Dr. Naylor is a co-Investigator of the US National Monogenic Diabetes Registry housed at the University of Chicago. Her research focuses on maturity-onset diabetes of the young (MODY) – addressing delays in accurate genetic diagnosis and appropriate management of various subtypes, and racial and ethnic inequities in who benefits from diabetes precision medicine. She has an interest in other forms of atypical diabetes, and is an investigator in the Rare and Atypical Diabetes Network (RADIANT). She has mentored all levels of trainees, from undergraduate to post-graduate, in diabetes research.

Dr. Naylor also serves as an Associate Program Director for the Pediatrics Residency Program. She is actively involved in resident and fellow education and training. She additionally serves as an advisor to medical students, resident and fellows.

Kelly Nelson Kelly, MD

Kelly Nelson Kelly, MD

2020–2021 ASSOCIATE JUNIOR FACULTY SCHOLAR

Department of Pediatrics
Bio

Dr. Kelly Nelson Kelly is an Assistant Professor in the Section of Neonatology at The University of Chicago Comer Children’s Hospital. After attending The University of Notre Dame for her undergraduate degree, Dr. Kelly completed medical school at Loyola University Chicago, and then went on to complete her residency and fellowship at The University of Chicago. Since finishing her training, Dr. Kelly has been working in the Comer Children’s Hospital NICU as an attending neonatologist. Her additional interests include prenatal counseling through the Fetal and Neonatal Care Center (FNCC) as well as participation in the MacLean Center for Clinical Medical Ethics.

Nicole Leong, MD

Nicole Leong, MD

2019–2020 ASSOCIATE JUNIOR FACULTY SCHOLAR

Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology
Bio

Dr. Nicole Leong is an Assistant Professor in the Section of General Obstetrics and Gynecology at the University of Chicago. After attending Stanford University for her undergraduate degree, Dr. Leong completed medical school at Northwestern University and residency in obstetrics and gynecology at the University of Chicago. Immediately after residency, she joined the faculty at the University of Chicago where she cares for women through all stages of their reproductive health from adolescence to menopause. She has a special interest in female pelvic pain and is currently developing a comprehensive program of clinical care for women with this common but undertreated condition.

In addition, Dr. Leong is also dedicated to resident education, serving as director of the obstetrics and gynecology intern seminar series. In this role, she plans the curriculum, provides learning opportunities, and serves as a mentor for first-year residents in obstetrics and gynecology. She was awarded the Golden Apple Award for Excellence in Resident Teaching in 2015 and again in 2018.

Peter O’Donnell, MD

Peter O’Donnell, MD

2011–2012 ASSOCIATE JUNIOR FACULTY SCHOLAR

Department of Medicine
Bio

Peter H. O’Donnell, MD, specializes in the treatment of genitourinary malignancies, including prostate, kidney, and testicular cancers — with particular expertise in bladder cancer.

Dr. O’Donnell is a well-published researcher with advanced training in pharmacology and pharmacogenomics (the study of genetic traits that cause differences between patients in drug responses and side-effects). He has an interest in the study of individualized care, which involves considering each patient’s genetic profile when determining chemotherapy and other therapeutic decisions. Dr. O’Donnell has several ongoing research projects. Currently, he is investigating how genetic factors affect chemotherapy drug outcomes — specifically for patients receiving the widely used chemotherapy drugs cisplatin and capecitabine, and for patients receiving chemotherapy as part of their treatment for bladder cancer.

Additionally, Dr. O’Donnell serves as principal investigator of the “1200 Patients Project,” a clinical study operated through the Center for Personalized Therapeutics at the University of Chicago. In this role, he leads an initiative exploring the possibility and benefit of incorporating broad pharmacogenomic testing into routine clinical practice for patients with any type of disease.

Dr. O’Donnell is also a member of the University of Chicago Committee on Clinical Pharmacology and Pharmacogenomics. This committee aims to expand the educational mission of conducting research and training the next generation of scientists in clinical pharmacology, principles of therapeutics, molecular pharmacology, and pharmacogenomics.

2012 Pilot Grant Project: The 1200 Patients Project

Zainab Obaidi, MD

Zainab Obaidi, MD

2023-2024 ASSOCIATE JUNIOR FACULTY SCHOLAR

Department of Medicine
Bio

Zainab Obaidi is a clinical academic nephrologist and assistant professor of medicine at the University of Chicago. She earned her medical degree from the University of Sharjah in 2011 then completed her internal medicine residency at Southern Illinois University in 2018. She then pursued an academic hospitalist fellowship at Johns Hopkins followed by a 2-year fellowship in nephrology yat the Johns Hopkins Hospital. Her academic work has been focused on clinical excellence and bedside teaching and clinical interest in thrombotic microangiopathies and glomerular diseases.

She enjoys teaching and has been recognized for her teaching skills among residents and fellows by winning several teaching awards. Her other interests include advocating for awareness of kidney disease and is the leader of the UChicago Kidney Club.

Nathan Olson, MD

Nathan Olson, MD

2022-2023 ASSOCIATE JUNIOR FACULTY SCHOLAR

Department of Medicine
Bio

Dr. Nathan Olson is an accomplished Emergency Medicine physician and educator. He currently holds the position of Assistant Professor in the Section of Emergency Medicine at the University of Chicago Medicine. Dr. Olson his Bachelor’s degree in Microbiology from the University of California, San Diego earned his medical degree from Drexel University College of Medicine in Philadelphia.

Following his medical education, Dr. Olson completed his residency training in the Department of Emergency Medicine at Northwestern University’s Feinberg School of Medicine in Chicago. During his residency, he received the Education College Award for Best Procedure Teacher two years in a row. Dr. Olson is an expert in simulation education and held the title of Simulation Program Director for the Emergency Medicine Residency at the San Antonio Military Medical Center. He also served as the Emergency Medicine Clerkship Simulation Director and was responsible for implementing simulation-based training for the residency program.

Currently, Dr. Olson serves as the Simulation Education Director for the Emergency Medicine Residency at the University of Chicago. He has been actively involved in research and has published several peer-reviewed articles in medical journals. His research focuses on topics such as emergency medicine resident grit, non-cognitive characteristics, and wellness curriculum development.

Dr. Olson’s commitment to professional development is evident through his active membership in professional societies such as the American College of Emergency Physicians and the American Academy of Emergency Medicine. He has also received numerous awards and honors, including the Outstanding Emergency Medicine Faculty Educator Award from the University of Chicago.

In addition to his academic and research contributions, Dr. Olson remains actively involved in clinical practice. He currently works as an Emergency Medicine physician at the University of Chicago, where he provides clinical care and mentors residents.

Outside of his professional responsibilities, Dr. Olson has contributed to the field through invited speaking engagements, both nationally and regionally. He has presented on topics such as simulation education, wellness interventions, and resuscitation techniques.

Dr. Olson’s dedication to teaching extends beyond his own institutions. He has been involved in teaching and mentoring medical students, residents, and fellows throughout his career. He has served as a course director, facilitator, and instructor for various educational programs, including simulation sessions, procedural training, and clinical shifts.

Dr. Nathan Olson is a highly accomplished and respected Emergency Medicine physician and educator. His expertise in simulation education, commitment to research, and passion for teaching have made him a valuable asset to the medical community and the community of UChicago Medicine.