Medical Students, Residents, Fellows, Grad Students and Post-Docs
Internal Medicine
The department announced the following residents' fellowship matches:
- Dr. Allen Byl - Infectious Diseases – LSU
- Dr. Brian Coe - Infectious Diseases – LSU
- Dr. Allison Derise - Gastroenterology – LSU Shreveport
- Dr. Blane Edwards - Infectious Diseases – LSU
- Dr. Humza Malik - Cardiology – Baylor
- Dr. Sidney Mejia - Hematology-Oncology – LSU
- Dr. Michael Millet - Nephrology – LSU
- Dr. Michael Olejniczak - Pulmonary/Critical Care – LSU
- Dr. Thong Tran - Pulmonary/Critical Care – New Mexico
- Dr. Wayne Wheeler - Gastroenterology – LSU
- Dr. Brooke McVaney - Gastroenterology – UNLV
- Dr. Taylor Sanders - Hospice & Palliative Care – The Ohio State University
A number of residents recently represented the department at the National American
College of Gastroenterology Meeting in Philadelphia. Dr. Catherine Loehr (pictured, left), Dr. Farhan Mohiuddin (pictured below, left), and Dr. Allison Derise (pictured below, right) received the "Outstanding Poster Presenter" award. Other presenters included Dr.
Wayne Wheeler, Dr. Charlie Woodall, Dr. Michelle Livitz, Dr. Stephany Nguyen, and
Dr. Brooke Mcvaney.
Several New Orleans and Baton Rouge nephrology residents and fellows had posters represented at the recent American Society of Nephrology Conference:
Potassium of 8? It May Be Okay to Wait: Renal fellow Tammy Do, resident Arash Ataei, renal fellow Nahida Baigam, faculty
member Farshid Yazdi, and Rajesh Mohandas (image, Dr. Do, fellow with faculty member Dr. Yazdi)- Utility of Genetic Testing in Patients with CKD of Uncertain Etiology: Results from an Underserved, Predominantly African American, Urban Population: Nahida Baigam, Tammy Do, Annalisa Perez, Siddhartha Bajracharya, Rajesh Mohandas
- Combination Treatment of Difelikefalin and Tolvaptan for Late-Stage Polycystic Kidney Disease: Ashlyn Anderson, Daniel Kapusta, Kara Johnson, Madison Grace Haggard, Jacob Meariman, Ian Denys, Mihran Naljayan, Juan Gao
- Hereditary Angiopathy with Nephropathy, Aneurysms, and Muscle Cramp (HANAC) Syndrome: There Is More to Explore!: Nahida Baigam, Rajesh Mohandas, Siddhartha Bajracharya
- A Case of Pulmonary-Renal Syndrome (PRS) in ANCA-Negative, Pauci-Immune Necrotizing Glomerulonephritis with High IntelliSep Index: Caroline Stafford, Hollis Ray O’Neal, Christopher Thomas, Matthew Foy
Dr. Keyur Patel (IM/EM) was selected as the Resident of the Quarter at University Medical Center. He and other awardees were honored at a breakfast at UMC in November.
Scientific Sessions for the American Heart Association Meeting were held in Chicago in November. Dr. Swati Sharma, a post-doctoral research fellow in the laboratory of Dr. Rajesh Mohandas, gave the talk Microglia Mediated Neuroinflammation: Understanding Mechanisms of Augmented Sympathetic Nerve Activity in Chronic Kidney Disease.
Orthopaedic Surgery
The ACGME has approved the residency complement increase to 25, allowing the department
to match five residents per year. The department matched 5 PGY-1’s in July of 2024.
Daniel Gelvez, MD was voted resident of the year at UMC.
Charles Hansen, MD received the Jack Winter’s Award, given to the graduating resident with the best research.
Marc Schatz, MD received the Orthopaedics In-Training Award, given to the graduating resident with the highest In-Training Score averaged over four years (PGY2-5 year of training).
Resident Nathan Redlich, MD received the King Teaching Award, named after Dr. Andrew King (Emeritus Professor & Past Chairman of the department).
2025 fellowship matches include:
- Dr. Jestin Williams matched with his second fellowship. He will be studying Orthopaedic Oncology at MD Anderson and following that will be at the University of Virginia studying spine, under Director Frank Shen.
- Dr. Adam Miller matched with the University of Utah in Salt Lake City, where he will study foot and ankle under Devon Nixon.
- Dr. Nathan Redlich matched with Mass General Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston, Massachusetts, where he will study spine under Thomas Cha.
- Adam Haydel matched with Cleveland Clinic Hand Fellowship in Cleveland, Ohio, where he will be studying under Dr. Joseph Styron.
- Dr. Austin Broussard matched with American Sports Medicine Institute in Birmingham, Alabama, where he will study ASMI under Jeff Dugas.
Pediatrics
The department recognized the following residents who matched into fellowships:
- Alexis Brantley - Pediatric Hematology/Oncology, Vanderbilt University
- Shivani Patel - Pediatric Gastroenterology, Vanderbilt University
- Caroline Self Fulwyler - Neonatology, University of Alabama at Birmingham
- Morgan Viviano - Pediatric Hematology/Oncology, Northwestern University
Lurie Children's Hospital - Sneha Yadlapati - Pediatric Rheumatology, University of California San Francisco
- Brooke McVaney - Adult Gastroenterology, University of Las Vegas
- Taylor Sanders - Palliative Care, The Ohio State University
The department also recognized the fellowship programs who recently matched:
Allergy/Immunology:
- Nadjel Opamen, LSUHSC - University Hospital and Clinics, Lafayette, LA
Pediatric Cardiology:
- Jennifer Lopez, University of Chicago Pediatrics Residency
Pediatric Gastroenterology:
- Scarlett Flaz, Harlem Hospital Center
Pediatric Hematology/Oncology:
- Niveda Chellappan, Our Lady of the Lake, Baton Rouge, LA
Pediatric Hospital Medicine:
- Amanda Granier, LSUHSC-NO Pediatrics Residency
- Candyce Weeks, University of Mississippi Medical Center Internal Medicine/Pediatrics Residency
Neonatology:
- Karleigh Barkemeyer, LSUHSC-NO Pediatrics Residency
- Stephanie Pepper, UT Dell Pediatrics Residency
Dr. Amy Creel and Dr. Amanda Messer created and held the department’s first Scholarship
Academy, a week dedicated to fellows creating well-defined, literature reviewed research
questions and to the study of ideas.
Research topics included:
- Impact of nonpharmaceutical interventions during the COVID pandemic on non-COVID respiratory viral epidemiology
- EKG curriculum for Pediatric Residents
- SDH effects on healthcare utilization for children with medical complexity
- Multidisciplinary clinic outcomes for lupus nephritis patients
- Factors affecting response to insulin pump therapy
- HeartGift patient outcomes
- Diagnostic factors in predicting myocarditis
- NICU readmissions
- Language barriers in the NICU
- Building an accessible, electronic comprehensive care plan for patients with Sickle Cell Disease who present to the ED
- Outcomes in pediatric bone marrow transplants among Hispanic patients (CIBMTR database)
- Curriculum for patient communication for pediatric and internal medicine residents
- Evaluating a biomarker for GVHD in allogenic hematopoietic stem cell transplants
- Sedation medications in the Pediatric ER
Residents Alexis Brantley, Morgan Viviano, Leah Smith, and Nali Gillespie presented
a poster titled Role of Social Determinants of Health on Infection-Related Hospitalization in Pediatric
Hematopoietic Stem Cell Transplant Patients within the First 100 Days Post-Transplant
in an Underserved State at the American Society of Hematology Conference in San Diego. Dr. Zachary LeBlanc
and Dr. Maria Velez were the attendings for the residents' project.
Residents held a book drive for patients. They accepted new or gently used books in Spanish and English, appropriate for any age.
Students Keisha Patel (pictured, right) and James Amoss (pictured, left), both mentored by Dr. Regina Zambrano, recently presented at the 
Medical Student Research Symposium held in the Lions building.
Physiology
Nicholas Harris was awarded 3rd place for his poster presentation Dual Use of Nicotine Vaping and Chronic, Binge Alcohol: Cardiovascular Outcomes in
a Mouse Model at the 2024 Graduate Student Research Day.
Harris also presented From Puff to Pour: How Vaping and Drinking Impact Heart Health at the 2024 Graduate Student Research Day.
Stephanie Lee was awarded the Outstanding Young Scientist Travel Award from the Association for Women in Science (AWIS)-Southern Louisiana Chapter. Lee will use the award to support her travel to the 2025 American Physiology Summit in Baltimore, Maryland to present in the Sex Differences in the Genesis and Treatment of Psychiatric and Substance Use Disorder symposium.
Lee also organized and hosted an on-campus grantsmanship workshop in November for the American Physician Scientist Association (APSA) that included several NIH-funded students and faculty from the department.
Lee was also awarded a Student Merit and Junior Investigator Meeting Award to attend the Research Society on Alcohol annual meeting later this year.
Taylor Fitzpatrick-Schmidt received a Travel Award from the Winter Conference on Brain Research in Lake Tahoe, California. Fitzpatrick-Schmidt is chairing a symposium titled Winter Chill: Navigating the Cold Truths of Chronic Pain and Substance Use Disorders. She is also chairing the Sex Differences in the Genesis and Treatment of Psychiatric and Substance Use Disorder symposium.
Fitzpatrick-Schmidt has also been nominated for the Alcohol: Clinical and Experimental Research Journal Award for Early Career Investigator Outstanding Paper for Moderate-to-severe cognitive impairment is associated with both recent and chronic alcohol misuse in people with HIV: The New Orleans Alcohol Use in HIV (NOAH) Study. The full reference is Fitzpatrick-Schmidt T, Oral E, Welsh DA, Molina PE, Ferguson TF, Edwards S. Moderate-to-severe cognitive impairment is associated with both recent and chronic alcohol misuse in people with HIV: The New Orleans Alcohol Use in HIV (NOAH) Study. Alcohol: Clinical and Experimental Research 2024 48(7):1405-1416.
Eden Gallegos is elected Chair of the American Physician Scientist Association (APSA) Mentorship Committee.
Gallegos also gave the talk Alcohol and metabolic stressors synergistically alter lipid and mitochondrial homeostasis in a MetALD spheroid model at the December 2024 LSUHSC-NO Alcohol and Drug Abuse Center of Excellence Retreat.
Sarah Cohen was selected to give the talk The Role of Neutrophils in Binge Alcohol-Induced Intestinal Immune System Involvement at the annual meeting of the Alcohol and Immunology Research Interest Group (AIRIG).
Cohen also presented a poster at Loyola University Health Sciences Center in Chicago, IL
Kaitlin Couvillion gave the talk CD4 T cells and IFN-g mediate cellular injury in hepatocyte spheroids at the December 2024 LSUHSC-NO Alcohol and Drug Abuse Center of Excellence Retreat.