Senior Faculty Scholars

Dr. Sherwin Ho is a Professor of Orthopaedic Surgery at the University of Chicago, The Frank and Tang Families Endowed Professor Sports Medicine, and Director of the Sports Medicine Fellowship. He has taught and lectured nationally and internationally, and has served as an official spokesman for the Americian Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons (AAOS), as well as course faculty and on many committees for the AAOS, the American Orthopaedic Society for Sports Medicine, and the Arthroscopy Association of North America. He is a member of the Herodicus Society, a principal reviewer for the American Journal of Sports Medicine, a founding member of the editorial board of the Orthopaedic Journal of Sports Medicine, and Editor-In-Chief for Sports Medicine for Medscape Reference (WebMD, formerly eMedicine). He has served as a team physician for the Chicago Blackhawks of the NHL, the Chicago Sky of the WNBA, and Concordia University Chicago where he was inducted into their Athletic Hall of Fame in 2012. As team physician for the USA Women’s Volleyball national team, he accompanied them to Beijing where they won a silver medal. More recently, as head team physician for the China Women’s national volleyball team, he accompanied them to gold medals at the 2015 World Cup in Japan, the 2016 Rio Olympic Games, and the 2019 World Cup in Japan.

Dr. Hoehn attended medical school at University of Kansas, then completed her pediatric residency at University of California San Francisco, followed by a pediatric critical care medicine fellowship at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia. She also obtained a Masters in Bioethics from University of Pennsylvania. She has been on faculty at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, St. Christopher’s in Philadelphia, Rush and Comer, plus University of Kansas. She is a national leader in pediatric palliative care, and has started and grown multiple palliative care programs. In addition, she has been a course director and taught a pediatrics ethics course at Kansas City University of Biosciences. She has done research in informed consent, difficult decision making and family support and communication. She serves on the editorial boards of AAP PREP and the journal, Pediatric Critical Care Medicine. She is on the Pediatric Advisory Committee of the FDA, and a national advocate for safe prescribing of opioids. She is an advocate for children, no matter where they are in their journey. Here at the University of Chicago she is director of supportive care, which focuses on pain, palliative and integrative medicine. She is also the co-director of the MacLean Ethics Consultation Service. As a Bucksbaum senior scholar, she is excited to mentor students, residents and fellows on topics of communication, equity and palliative care. In addition, she is working to develop clear connections between ethics and equity. As Amanda Gorman said, ‘just is isn’t always justice.’

Dr. Philip Hoffman is an expert in cancers of the lung and breast, and sees patients with all stages of these cancers. The author of more than 80 medical journal articles, Dr. Hoffman’s research interests include clinical trials in small cell and non-small cell lung cancer and breast cancer. Dr. Hoffman has been recognized for many years for his teaching skills in the medical school, as well as the internal medicine residency and hematology/oncology fellowship programs. He has appeared most years on the Pritzker School of Medicine’s graduating class composite portrait as one of their honored faculty, has recently won the Postgraduate Teaching Award of the Department of Medicine, and has been named a Master of the Academy of Distinguished Medical Educators at Pritzker.

Dr. Elbert Huang is Professor of Medicine, Director of the Center for Chronic Disease Research and Policy, and Associate Director of the Chicago Center for Diabetes Translation Research at the University of Chicago.

Dr. Huang is a primary care doctor who studies clinical and health care policy issues at the intersection of diabetes, aging, and health economics. Using methods from health economics, the decision sciences, and clinical epidemiology, his research has provided the theoretical and evidence-base foundation for the concept of personalizing diabetes care goals as well as the contemporary natural history of the disease in older people. Dr. Huang’s research has directly influenced modern diabetes care clinical practice guidelines for older people that now emphasize 1) individualization of glycemic goals, 2) the role of patient treatment preferences, 3) the clinical importance of hypoglycemia, and 4) management of geriatric conditions.

Dr. Huang’s research has been supported by the NIH, AHRQ, CDC, American Diabetes Association, and Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation. He has received numerous honors including the Research Paper of the Year Award from the Society of General Internal Medicine and elected membership to the American Society for Clinical Investigation.

Dr. Mahmoud Ismail is a Professor in the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology in the section of Maternal-Fetal medicine. Dr. Ismail is the Co-Director of the UChicago Medicine Perinatal Network and was previously the Section Chief of Maternal-Fetal Medicine.

Dr. Ismail’s areas of interests are infections in pregnancy, twin-to-twin transfusion, and mono-mono twins. Dr. Ismail has received numerous awards and recognitions including: America’s Top Doctors Award, Chicago Magazine’s Top Doctors award for 6 years, and the University of Chicago Distinguished Clinical Award Senior Professor.

Dr. Ismail devotes much of his leisure time to community service and is the founder and trustee of Aqsa School, an Islamic girls’ school, in Bridgeview, IL; and, he is a member of the National Arab American Medical Association.

Daniel Johnson, MD, has focused his career on improving access to quality healthcare. In 2010 he created ECHO-Chicago, a telehealth program for community level capacity building using case-based interactive sessions to education primary care providers in the diagnose and management of common chronic complex health conditions. The program has educated thousands of adult and pediatric primary care providers across Chicago and Illinois and contributed to the creation of ECHO programs elsewhere in the US and other countries.

Dr. Johnson is a physician, scholar and educator. He completed his training in 1986 and is certified by the American Board of Pediatrics in Pediatrics and Pediatric Infectious Disease. At University of Chicago Medicine since 2007, he is Professor of Pediatrics in the Department of Pediatrics where he serves as Vice Chair for Clinical Services and Section Chief of Pediatric Infectious Diseases. He has authored more than 100 peer-reviewed articles and abstracts.

Dr. Michelle Josephson is Professor of Medicine and Surgery, serves as Medical Director of Kidney and Pancreas Transplantation, and is Program Director of the Transplant Nephrology Fellowship.

After receiving her MD from University of Pennsylvania she completed a medical internship, residency and nephrology fellowship at University of Chicago. In 1992 she joined the faculty as the first transplant nephrologist at University of Chicago.

Dr. Josephson’s mission is to improve the care and outcomes of medically complex transplant patients through direct care, education, and clinical research. Her research projects examine the live kidney donor, post-transplant bone disease, BK virus, and post-transplant pregnancy.

Dr. Josephson is deeply committed to education and established University of Chicago’s transplant nephrology fellowship. Dr. Josephson is a member of several national and international working groups, societies, and advisory groups that have developed transplant care guidelines and policies. She served as Councilor for the Board of the American Society of Transplantation (AST) and Chair of American Society of Nephrology’s (ASN’s) Transplant Advisory Group.

Dr. Kelly is an Associate Professor in the Department of Neurology. He completed his medical school training and internship at Rush Medical College. Tom completed his Neurology residency training at the University of Chicago after which he joined the faculty as one its first dedicated general neurologists. Over the years, Dr. Kelly has held the positions of residency training director, outpatient clinic medical director, interim department chair, and co-chair for clinical operations.

As a general neurologist Dr. Kelly has built the outpatient urgent care component of the department as a service to patients who need to be seen quickly. In addition to his clinical dedication he is committed to student and trainee education. Tom supervises outpatient residents in both continuity and urgent care and Neurology residents have voted Dr. Kelly teacher of the year on 4 occasions. Also, each year, he delivers lectures to Pritzker students on the treatment of Parkinson’s disease and migraine, and he co-organizes the annual medical school clinical skills “Neuro Day.” This program is for Pritzker MS 2’s and provides the entire class exposure to neurology patients, neuroradiology, and instructive clinical video materials.

Karen Kim is the Sara and Harold Lincoln Thompson Professor of Medicine, Associate Director of the University of Chicago Medicine Comprehensive Cancer Center, and Director of the Center for Asian Health Equity.

As Vice Provost for Research, Kim works with faculty and deans to support and enhance research funding and manage large-scale research infrastructure such as University Research Administration (URA) and the University of Chicago Consortium for Advanced Science and Engineering (CASE), the Office of Research Safety, Research Computing Center, and Research Development Support.

Dr. Kim previously served as Dean for Faculty Affairs for the Division of the Biological Sciences and is the Associate Director of the University of Chicago Comprehensive Cancer Center. She is the founder and director of the University of Chicago Center for Asian Health Equity, the only research center dedicated to the study of Asian health disparities in the Midwest, and a national leader on policies for inclusion of Asian-Americans in research.

With extensive expertise in community-based participatory research (CBPR), dissemination and implementation science, intervention and minority health research, Kim has focused on the rigorous development and evaluation of multi-level strategies to advance health equity supported by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the National Cancer Institute Beau Biden Cancer Moonshot Initiative, and the Department of Health and Human Service’s Office of Minority Health and the National Institutes of Health. Kim’s research has a specific focus on the content domain of colorectal cancer prevention and on the methodological domain of implementation science. Recently, Kim’s research has focused on developing innovative technology-based solutions to address gaps in health care services among federally qualified community health centers.

In addition to her research, Kim is deeply committed to civic engagement and has dedicated significant time to advancing health through service to numerous nonprofit organizations and national boards. Kim has been nationally recognized for her advocacy and policy work and received the International Women’s Leadership Award, the Chicago Foundation for Women Impact Award and the Cancer Prevention Laurel for Increasing Health Equity.

She is a member of the American College of Physicians, American Gastroenterological Association, and the American Medical Association, American Association for Cancer Research and the American Public Health Association.

Dr. Kirschner is a Professor of Pediatrics and Director of the Pediatric Inflammatory Bowel Disease (IBD) Program at The University of Chicago Comer Children’s Hospital.

She has a longstanding interest in contributing to understanding the pathogenesis of IBD and improving care for children and adolescents with IBD. In this regard, she helped establish the PediIBD Research Consortium and has continued to collaborate with centers and consortia nationally to enhance knowledge relating to the genetics, microbiome and natural history of pediatric IBD. In addition, she is the site principal investigator for several clinical drug trials designed to determine the efficacy, safety and dosing of new therapeutic modalities for this patient population. She, along with colleagues within the Pediatric GI Section, have established one of the largest practices of children and adolescents with IBD and is considered to be an expert in the care of this population.

Dr. Kirschner has published over 130 peer-reviewed articles and book chapters in her field and has lectured nationally and internationally in topics related to pediatric IBD.

In addition to the clinical and research activities described above, Dr. Kirschner greatly enjoys teaching medical students, house staff, fellows and faculty and has been selected to receive an annual Teaching Award from the Pediatric Residents.