Junior Faculty Scholars

Alex Langerman is an Assistant Professor of Surgery in the Section of Otolaryngology – Head and Neck Surgery and is a specialist in the treatment of head and neck cancer and other diseases of the skull base, throat, and larynx as well as reconstruction of the head and neck.

Alex attended medical school at the University of Chicago Pritzker School of Medicine during which time he also served as a fellow of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute. He received his MD with Honors in 2005 and continued at the University of Chicago for his Otolaryngology residency training. He subsequently completed fellowship training in Head and Neck Surgery, Skull Base Surgery, and Microvascular Reconstruction at Vanderbilt University before returning to the University of Chicago as faculty in 2011.

Alex’s research centers on improving the care of head and neck cancer patients. He conducts comparative effectiveness, social science, and translational research on topics including patient decision-making, perioperative management, human tissue specimen workflow, and education in the operating room. As a Bucksbaum Scholar Alex is studying methods to augment the Primary Care Physician-patient relationship in the setting of multidisciplinary referral care for complex diseases. In addition to a busy clinical practice at the University of Chicago Medicine, Alex also participates in yearly humanitarian missions to the Dominican Republic as part of Medical Aid for Children of Latin America and he was recently appointed to the Humanitarian Efforts Committee of the American Academy of Otolaryngology – Head and Neck Surgery.

2013 Pilot Grant Project: Dynamic Operational Mapping – Annotation for Patient and Family Education

Dr. Langerman joined the faculty at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, TN.

Heather Leeper is a neuro-oncologist, neurologist, and palliative medicine physician. Her focus is on providing person-centered care, which includes symptom management and support to enhance the quality of life and relieve suffering for people with serious neurologic illnesses, as well as support for caregivers, from time of diagnosis through end of life. She has expertise in serious illness communication and patient-reported outcomes in routine care and research settings. Her research interests include clinical education of communication skills, symptom science, and addressing health care disparities among people living with serious neurologic illness, as well as race and gender disparities among neurology clinicians.

Her work has been published in Neurology, Neuro-Oncology, Neuro-Oncology Advances, Neuro-Oncology Practice, The Lancet Oncology, Cancer, and Journal of Pain and Symptom Management.

Leeper earned a BA in women’s studies from Simmons College and an MS in applied physiology from Rosalind Franklin University of Medicine and Science. She received her MD from Chicago Medical School at Rosalind Franklin University of Medicine and Science. She completed a residency in neurology at the University of Wisconsin Hospitals and Clinics and a fellowship in neuro-oncology at Mayo Clinic, where she also completed a postdoctoral diploma in clinical and translational science. She then completed a fellowship in hospice and palliative medicine at the University of Illinois College of Medicine Peoria.

Dr. Lyon’s academic interests encompass global health, human rights scholarship and advocacy, social medicine, prisoner health, and medical education. He has collaborated with Partners In Health [www.pih.org] in Haiti and at other sites for more than 18 years. He has been extensively involved in physician, nurse, and community health worker training for more than a decade. He is on the board of the Human Rights Program at the University of Chicago and teaches health and human rights at the College Dr. Lyon is the lead faculty on a University of Chicago Delhi Center funded project to advance “Rights-based Approaches to Tuberculosis” in collaboration with the Law School. Dr. Lyon is the lead faculty for the Global Hospital Medicine Fellowship at the University of Chicago, with fellows now working between Chicago and Haiti, Rwanda, and China.

Closer to home, Dr. Lyon is a primary care and hospital medicine physician in the University of Chicago Comprehensive Care Program. Continuing “global health at home,” Dr. Lyon delivers home-based primary care on the South Side of Chicago providing continuity between house calls and the hospital. Third year Pritzker students are now accompanying Dr. Lyon to learn from house calls during their core Family Medicine Clerkship.

In 2020, Dr. Lyon joined Partners in Health.

In 2016, Dr. Lyon joined the faculty at Heartland Alliance in Chicago, IL.

Dr. Dejan Micic earned his undergraduate and medical degrees from the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health. He completed his internal medicine residency at the University of Michigan where he received the Laurie Edmunds Award for his service as an intern. He completed his subspecialty training in gastroenterology at the University of Chicago where he received the Gastrointestinal Research Foundation (GIRF) fellows research award. Dr. Micic completed additional training in Clinical Nutrition at Northwestern University before returning to the University of Chicago to join the faculty in the Section of Gastroenterology, Hepatology and Nutrition.

His clinical interests include the treatment of inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) and the management of gastrointestinal conditions that result in nutritional disorders, such as short bowel syndrome and celiac disease.

His broad research interests include studying how patients respond to medical therapies in IBD and predicting their health outcomes. He is also active in IBD and nutrition related translational research studies. His interests in nutrition include the management of parenteral nutrition, identification of malnutrition and nutrition education.

Dr. Micic has a strong clinical and educational interest in improving the quality and management of patients requiring nutritional support.

Parth Modi is an Assistant Professor of Surgery in the Section of Urology and is a specialist in the management of urologic cancers, especially bladder and prostate cancer.

Dr. Modi attended medical school at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine and received his MD in 2011. He completed Urology residency at Rutgers Robert Wood Johnson Medical School in 2017. He subsequently went on to complete Urologic Oncology fellowship training and an MS degree in Health and Health Care Research at the University of Michigan before joining the faculty at the University of Chicago in 2020.

His research is focused on improving the delivery of health care by informing payment and workforce policy. As a Bucksbaum Scholar, he is studying how to optimize the training and utilization of nurse practitioners and physician assistants in the context of surgical care. In addition to his clinical practice and research, Dr. Modi is a faculty member of the MacLean Center for clinical medical ethics with interests in financial conflicts of interest, informed consent, and the ethical implications of health care policy.

Dr. Neethi Pinto received her Bachelor of Arts in Public Policy from Stanford University. She completed the Jane Addams fellowship in Philanthropy and directed an enrichment program for at risk youth before returning to Stanford for medical school. In 2001, she came to The University of Chicago where she completed a pediatric residency, chief residency, critical care fellowship and a Masters of Science in Health Studies and then joined the faculty. Dr. Pinto cares for patients in the pediatric ICU and on the Pediatric Sedation Service. She serves as a resident faculty advisor and directs a monthly journal club. She has established an evidence based medicine curriculum for pediatrics. She leads a cohort of undergraduate students in the Bucksbaum Institute Clinical Excellence Scholars track. Dr. Pinto’s research interests focus on the long-term outcomes of children who survive critical illness.

Dr. Pinto was appointed as a Senior Faculty Scholar in 2018.

In 2019, Dr. Pinto joined the faculty at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia in Pennsylvania.

Dr. Saunders is an Assistant Professor in the Section of General Internal Medicine. Since coming to the University of Chicago, she has completed a combined internal medicine-pediatrics residency, a research fellowship in hospital medicine, clinical medical ethics fellowship at the MacLean Center and medical education (MERITS). In addition to her clinical work in GIM, she serves as the Research Subject Advocate for the Institute of Translational Medicine and the University’s Living Donor Advocate Physician where she works with potential living donors to make sure they have the appropriate medical and psychosocial evaluation as well as a full understanding of the risks of living donation. Dr. Saunders’ research focuses on reducing disparities and improving the quality of care received by patients with advanced chronic kidney disease (CKD). She is currently NIH-funded to develop and test an educational module for hospitalized patients with advanced CKD in order to increase their knowledge about and preparation for renal replacement therapy. She is also the Assistant Dean of Multicultural Affairs at the Pritzker School of Medicine.

Kaitlin Seibert is a neurologist who specializes in the diagnosis and treatment of memory disorders, such as Alzheimer’s disease and frontotemporal dementia. She joined the faculty at the University of Chicago after completing her training as a resident and the inaugural fellow in Behavioral Neurology and Neuropsychiatry at the University of Chicago Medical Center. Prior to that, she received her Bachelor of Arts in Cognitive Science and Music Performance at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, Ohio and her Doctor of Medicine degree from University of Toledo Medical Center in Ohio. Her research interests include exploring the impact of creative arts therapies such as art and music in neurodegenerative disorders, exploring social cognition deficits across memory disorders and cultures and increasing access to care for patients with memory disorders and their caregivers.

Dr. Benjamin Shogan is an Assistant Professor of Surgery within the division of colon and rectal surgery. After completing medical school at New Jersey Medical School, he completed general surgery residency at the University of Chicago followed by a colon and rectal fellowship at the Mayo Clinic. Dr. Shogan treats all colorectal diseases with a particular expertise and interest in colorectal cancer.

In addition to being a busy clinician, Dr. Shogan runs an active NIH funded clinical, translational, and basic research program trying to improve the outcomes in patients with colorectal malignancies. His research focuses on how gut bacteria can be manipulated to decrease the cancer recurrence and the morbidity of surgery. He also has a passion for education and mentorship, mentoring the many medical students, residents, and fellows that rotate through surgical services and the research laboratory.

Sarah Shubeck, MD, MS, is a breast surgical oncologist who specializes in the care of patients with benign breast conditions and breast cancer. In addition to Dr. Shubeck’s commitment to her clinical practice, she is also passionate about using research to improve healthcare. Some of her research has included studying the value, variation and quality of surgical care. Dr. Shubeck’s research interests are focused on understanding current cancer care delivery and the development and implementation of evidence-based health care policy that can promote equitable outcomes experienced by individuals with breast cancer and beyond.