Senior Faculty Scholars

Dr. Culbertson is a Professor of Obstetrics and Gynecology and the Vice Chairman of Clinical Affairs. Dr. Culbertson is an expert in the diagnosis and treatment of urogynecologic conditions, including: urinary incontinence; prolapse of the vagina, bladder and/or uterus; and other disorders of the pelvic floor. She specializes in vaginal and minimally invasive surgical treatment of urinary incontinence and prolapse, including robotic surgery. She is part of an interdisciplinary care team in the Center for Pelvic Health.

Dr. Culbertson often lectures on the surgical treatment of urinary incontinence and prolapse at universities and scientific meetings. She has been recognized for outstanding resident teaching and has won the Golden Apple Award for teaching excellence three times at the University of Chicago. Dr. Culbertson is actively involved in increasing public awareness of female pelvic floor disorders through her work with the American Urogynecologic Society.

2013 Pilot Grant Project: Predictors of satisfaction with surgical decision-making in elderly women undergoing gynecologic surgery

Dr. Culbertson is now a physician at Geisinger Caring in Danville, PA.

Dr. John Cunningham is an internationally renowned pediatric hematologist with expertise in caring for adolescent patients requiring hematopoietic stem cell transplantation for malignant and non-malignant diseases of childhood. He has a particular interest in (the hemoglobinopathies,) a disease syndrome resulting from the commonest gene locus defect seen worldwide. He has specific expertise in the use of novel cellular therapeutics to treat leukemia and lymphoma. And recently, Dr. Cunningham has studied the role of stem cell regulatory pathways that are co-opted and perturbed during tumorigenesis.

Dr. Cunningham is an enthusiastic educator who trained students, residents, and fellows for nearly 15 years at St Jude Children’s Research Hospital prior to coming to the University of Chicago to lead the pediatric hematology/oncology program in 2007. He became Chair of the Department of Pediatrics in 2015. He lectures around the world, holds leadership roles in various national and international societies, and is the current chair of the Council of Extramural Grants of the American Cancer Society.

Dr. Dayle Davenport serves as the Associate Dean for Health Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion at the University of Chicago Pritzker School of Medicine. A graduate of Harvard Medical School with residency training in Emergency Medicine at the University of Chicago, Dr. Davenport brings extensive experience advancing equity and inclusion in medical education. Before returning to Pritzker, she held an academic appointment at Rush University Medical Center, where she served as Assistant Dean for Diversity and Inclusion at Rush Medical College and earned the 2022 Rush Excellence in Mentoring Award.

Nationally, Dr. Davenport contributes to multiple professional organizations focused on diversity in medicine and has published widely on gender and racial bias in medical education, as well as on recruitment strategies to enhance diversity in Emergency Medicine. At Pritzker, she directs the Health Equity, Advocacy, and Antiracism course and the Bowman Society Lecture Series, helping shape a curriculum that develops compassionate, culturally responsive physicians.

As a Bucksbaum-Siegler Scholar, Dr. Davenport’s work exemplifies the Institute’s mission to promote clinical excellence through compassionate, equitable, and patient-centered care.

Dr. Andy Davis is a Professor and Associate Vice-Chair for Quality in the Department of Medicine. He is board certified in both internal medicine and in public health, and is a practicing clinician educator with research interests in quality improvement, prevention, and chronic disease. He is a clinician-educator with precepting and direct patient care responsibilities in the Primary Care Group and the University of Chicago Student Health Clinic. He was volunteer Attending of the Year in 2014 for Community Health, and is faculty advisor for the Maria Shelter Free Clinic.

Dr. Davis earned his MD from the University of Chicago Pritzker School of Medicine, with residency at the University of Iowa, and his Masters in Public Health in occupational and environmental health from the University of Illinois at Chicago.

Dr. Davis is a section editor for practice guidelines for JAMA, was a visiting scientist at the CDC, and has led disease management programs for a managed care population of 400,000 individuals. Additional facets of his work include LGBT care, and healthcare disparities, including a national review on cardiovascular health disparities commissioned by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.

Dr. Marina Del Ríos is an emergency physician, researcher, and advocate dedicated to advancing health equity and improving outcomes for underserved communities. She serves as a Professor of Medicine at the University of Chicago, where her work bridges clinical care, community engagement, and public health advocacy.

Growing up in a low-income family, Dr. Del Ríos witnessed firsthand the effects of poverty and inequitable access to care—experiences that shaped her lifelong commitment to addressing the social determinants of health. Her research and advocacy focus on understanding how structural factors such as racism, poverty, and education influence health outcomes and access to care.

As the Community Sphere Physician Leader of the Illinois Heart Rescue Project, Dr. Del Ríos has led efforts to reduce disparities in out-of-hospital cardiac arrest survival by partnering with communities across Chicago to increase rates of bystander CPR. Under her leadership, bystander CPR rates in the city have tripled since the project’s inception in 2013, with significant improvements in historically underserved neighborhoods.

Dr. Del Ríos continues to champion community-centered approaches to emergency medicine, emphasizing that improving health outcomes requires more than access to care—it requires addressing the conditions that shape people’s lives.

Dr. Donington obtained her bachelor degree from the University of Michigan and her medical degree from Rush University. She completed general surgery training at Georgetown University, cardiothoracic training at the Mayo Clinic, and a surgical oncology fellowship in the Surgical Branch of the NCI. She was on faculty at Stanford and NYU prior to accepting her current position as chief of the section of Thoracic Surgery at the University of Chicago in 2018. Her clinical interest is in the diagnosis and surgical treatment of non-small cell lung cancer. She has unique expertise in the use multimodality therapy for locally advanced lung cancer, clinical trials in lung cancer, and treatment options for medically high-risk patients with lung cancer. She is a past president of the New York Society for Thoracic Surgery and the Women in Thoracic Surgery. She is the surgical chair for the thoracic section of NRG Oncology.

Linda Druelinger, MD, is an expert in emergency medicine, providing the highest level of care to acutely ill or injured patients. Her major clinical interests include airway management, maxillofacial trauma, and postpartum emergencies.

Dr. Druelinger has a particular interest in medical education. She has been actively involved in both resident and student education, helping to develop curriculum at both introductory and more advanced levels. She is highly recognized for her outstanding teaching skills and has been named Teacher of the Year by Emergency Medicine residents multiple times. In 2010, she was the recipient of the Pritzker School of Medicine Leonard Tow Gold Humanism Award.

Michael Earing, MD, specializes in adult congenital heart disease, Marfan Syndrome, familial aortic aneurysms, pulmonary hypertension and pediatric cardiology. Dr. Earing has a keen understanding of the complex care needed for long-term success, and he is an expert in navigating the challenges pediatric patients face when transitioning to adulthood with congenital heart disease.

As a deeply respected physician-scientist, Dr. Earing is passionate about research and continuously evaluates new and improved diagnoses and treatments for adult and pediatric cardiac patients. His work has been published in several highly regarded, peer-reviewed publications. Dr. Earing has also served as an author on multiple national guideline writing committees focused on the care for both adults with congenital heart disease and the pediatric patient with pulmonary hypertension.

In addition to his clinical and research pursuits, Dr. Earing is an experienced and successful educator. He lectures about current congenital heart disease topics to students and professionals, as well as mentors fellows, residents and medical students to help guide them through their medical careers.

Dr. Scott Eggener specializes in the care of patients with kidney, prostate, and testicular cancer. He is an experienced robotic and open surgeon but also has a clinical and academic interest in active surveillance for select patients.

His clinical research focuses on prostate cancer screening and treatment. He is the principal investigator on numerous clinical trials for patients with kidney, prostate, and testicular cancer, and collaborates on laboratory research investigating a novel protein identified in kidney cancer.

Dr. Eggener’s research — which has resulted in 100 publications — has been presented at national and international meetings. He is the chairman of the University of Chicago Cancer Committee and has participated in volunteer educational and surgical missions to Congo, Cuba, Honduras, Morocco, Myanmar, Rwanda, and the Palestinian territories.