21 minute read
Faculty News
Appointments, Honors & Awards
Deborah StearnsKurosawa Appointed GMS Associate Provost Ad Interim Deborah StearnsKurosawa, PhD, associate professor of pathology & laboratory medicine, has been appointed associate provost/dean ad interim for Graduate Medical Sciences (GMS).
Dr. Stearns-Kurosawa joins the School of Medicine and Medical Campus senior leadership teams. She will oversee curricula and execution of all graduate programs, including recruitment, admissions, ongoing program activities, new program development, and student outcomes. In addition, she will continue to foster the collaboration of the basic science and clinical departments in education and graduate research.
Dr. Stearns-Kurosawa, who joined BU in 2008 as assistant professor of pathology & laboratory medicine, previously had served as an assistant member at the Oklahoma Medical Research Foundation and as chief research scientist at a pharmaceutical corporation in Tokyo. She earned a BS in biochemistry from Pennsylvania State University, a PhD in chemistry from Cleveland State University with graduate research at the Cleveland Clinic, and completed postdoctoral training in a Howard Hughes Medical Institute laboratory at the Oklahoma Medical Research Foundation focused on mechanisms of blood coagulation. She holds multiple patents and for two decades has continuously served as principal or co-investigator of numerous NIH and organizational grants.
She was a core faculty member of the BU Faculty Innovation Network that supported development of the $20M Innovate@BU initiative. The University-wide pioneering entrepreneurship resource for BU faculty, students, and alumni is designed to educate and provide resources to facilitate entrepreneurship, entrepreneurial innovation, technology transfer, and product development.
Dr. Stearns-Kurosawa serves on numerous School of Medicine and GMS committees, is a master educator in immunology for first-year medical students, and directs GMS PA510 Medical Immunology and GMS PA810/811 Seminars in the Business of Science. She codirects SDM MD520/GMS OH700 General Pathology for dental and graduate students, and lectures in other graduate and medical student pathology courses. n
Christopher Andry Appointed Chief, Chair of Pathology & Laboratory Medicine Christopher D. Andry, MPhil, PhD, has been named chief of pathology & laboratory medicine at Boston Medical Center (BMC) and chair of pathology & laboratory medicine at Boston University School of Medicine (BUSM).
Dr. Andry’s BU/BMC career has spanned more than 35 years, during which he has demonstrated a deep-rooted commitment to and passion for the mission of the BMC Health System, BUSM and the Medical Campus, Boston University, and the Boston community at large. As chief and chair, Dr. Andry will bring his clinical expertise and leadership to the role to ensure a high-quality, integrated, academic department that is innovative, well-resourced, and collaborative.
Previously, he served as the department’s vice chair for operations & management and administrative director. A professor of pathology & laboratory medicine and family medicine, he also is a member of the BU-BMC Cancer Center Executive Committee, cochair of the BU Laboratory Safety Committee, and liaison to New England Donor Services. Dr. Andry received his PhD in pathology from BUSM and his Bachelor of Science and Master of Philosophy in biological sciences from the University of Lancaster, United Kingdom. He has published and collaborated on more than 50 articles, reviews, and medical texts. n
Megan Young Receives AMA Inspiration Award Megan Young, MD, assistant dean for student affairs and assistant professor of medicine in the section of geriatrics, has received a 2019 Women Physicians Section Inspiration Award from the American Medical Association (AMA). The award honors and acknowledges physicians who have offered their time, wisdom, and support throughout the professional careers of fellow physicians, residents, and students.
Dr. Young is director for the geriatrics clerkship and one of the Academy of Medical Educators at BUSM. Clinically, she provides home-based primary care to frail elders in the community surrounding Boston Medical Center (BMC).
According to fourth-year medical student Jacqueline You, who nominated her for the award, “Dr. Young goes above and beyond her role as assistant dean within Student Affairs. She always is available to listen or give advice. She is a strong advocate and will reach out to others without hesitation to find answers for students. She is extensively involved throughout our medical school curriculum, serving as course director in both our first-year/secondyear clinical reasoning courses and in our fourth-year geriatrics clerkship. Many students have been inspired by her infectious enthusiasm and thoughtful approach to teaching and clinical care. She is a one-of-a-kind teacher, mentor, and physician.”
Dr. Young received her medical degree from the University of Chicago Pritzker School of Medicine and completed a primary care residency in internal medicine at BMC, where she served as chief medical resident. She also completed a clinician-educator fellowship in geriatrics at BUSM.
Founded in 1847 and incorporated in 1897, the AMA is the largest association of physicians—both MDs and DOs—and medical students in the United States. Their mission is “to promote the art and science of medicine and the betterment of public health.” n
Joshua Barocas Receives AAMC’s Nickens Fellowship to Advance Health Equity Joshua Barocas, MD, assistant professor of medicine, has been honored with the Herbert W. Nickens Faculty Fellowship, an annual award presented by the Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC) to a junior faculty member who has demonstrated leadership in the United States in addressing inequities in medical education and healthcare, demonstrated efforts in addressing the educational, societal, and healthcare needs of minorities, and is committed to a career in academic medicine. An infectious diseases specialist at Boston Medical Center, Dr. Barocas was selected from a nationwide pool of applicants and recognized at the AAMC’s Learn Serve Lead meeting last November.
Established in 2000, the fellowship includes a financial grant of $25,000 to conduct a project supporting underserved minorities. Toward this, Dr. Barocas will investigate the downstream consequences of opioid overdose interventions. “Treatment and prevention efforts are often designed to focus on communities with the highest current rates of overdoses,” he observes. “Yet the illicit drug market can adapt to these interventions and often moves to communities just beyond the periphery of targeted populations.”
Dr. Barocas hypothesizes that some large-scale interventions to combat the opioid overdose epidemic in one community may directly result in the emergence of the epidemic in another. To study this theory, he will examine data from Massachusetts to estimate changes in opioid overdose and healthcare utilization for opioid use disorder in communities adjacent to those that received expanded treatment and prevention services.
“The Nickens Faculty Fellowship will enable Josh Barocas to advance the understanding of structural and institutional barriers leading to health disparities,
inform public health policy, and promote an equitable culture of health. We are proud that he is being recognized by the AAMC for this prestigious national award,” said BUSM’s David Coleman, MD, John Wade Professor and chair of medicine. n
Ann McKee Receives Service to America Medal Ann McKee, MD, chief of neuropathology for VA Boston Healthcare System and director of the BU CTE Center, has been named a 2019 Service to America Medalist and received the Paul A. Volcker Career Achievement Medal from the Partnership for Public Service.
Named after the Partnership for Public Service’s late founder, who was inspired by President John F. Kennedy’s call to serve in 1963, the Samuel J. Heyman Service to America Medals recognize dedicated civil servants who have made important contributions to the health, safety, and prosperity of our country. Since its inception in 2002, the program has honored more than 500 outstanding federal employees who have made a difference and improved the lives of Americans and others around the world.
Dr. McKee, a William Fairfield Warren Distinguished Professor of neurology and pathology at BU, was one of six award winners chosen from more than 300 nominations submitted to the partnership. The medalists were chosen by a selection committee that included leaders from government, business, foundations, academia, entertainment, and the media.
This year, the partnership renamed its Career Achievement Medal to honor Paul Volcker, a public servant who completed two terms as Federal Reserve chairman and headed two nonpartisan commissions on public service that recommended sweeping federal government reforms.
Dr. McKee’s research focuses on the longterm effects of concussion, subconcussion, and blast injury in contact sports athletes and military veterans, including chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE). Her work has shifted the prevailing paradigm of scientific thought regarding head trauma; she has demonstrated that “mild” head trauma, particularly repetitive mild head trauma, is not just an acute injury and can provoke a persistent and progressive neurodegeneration, CTE, that continues long after the traumatic exposure. Dr. McKee has published more than 80 percent of the world’s reported cases of CTE and created the Veterans Affairs-Boston University-Concussion Legacy Foundation brain bank, the world’s largest repository of brains from individuals exposed to traumatic brain injuries (more than 780) and neuropathologically confirmed CTE (more than 400).
A board-certified neurologist and neuropathologist who has provided expert testimony to Congress and the Senate, Dr. McKee has also received the Moore Award from the American Association of Neuropathologists; the Ethos Award from Santa Clara University; the Spivack Distinguished Scholar in the Neurosciences from BUSM; the Vision Award from the Associated Industries of Massachusetts; the Neurology Faculty Research Award, also from BUSM; and the Scientific Impact Award from the Center for Neuroscience at the University of Pittsburgh. She was elected to the National Academy of Medicine and named 2017 Bostonian of the Year by the Boston Globe and to the 2017 TIME 100, TIME magazine’s annual list of the 100 most influential people in the world.
Dr. McKee completed her undergraduate studies at the University of Wisconsin and received her medical degree from the Case Western Reserve School of Medicine. She completed her residency training in neurology at Cleveland Metropolitan General Hospital and in neuropathology at Massachusetts General Hospital.
Naming of the Paul A. Volcker Career Achievement Medal was made possible through the generous support of Ray and Barbara Dalio and The Volcker Alliance, a nonpartisan organization that advances effective management of government to achieve results that matter to citizens. n
stronger than ever. BUSM is feeling
At the frontline of medicine, Boston University School of Medicine treats the underserved in Boston and globally, crosses disciplines to address complex problems, enhances clinical and laboratory collaborations to improve health, and provides a rich, experiential education to the physicians and scientists of tomorrow. The basic elements of the school’s DNA: to become the best place to learn, teach, and discover.
The Campaign for Boston University— which launched publicly in 2012 and concluded with a spectacular victory celebration at Agganis Arena on September 21, 2019—brought that goal closer than ever. With more than 175,000 donors, BU’s firstever comprehensive fundraising effort realized an astonishing $1.85 billion to support financial aid, faculty and research, facility improvements, and much more. The School of Medicine raised a total of $353 million, far exceeding the initial goal of $200 million. Every donation, small or large, was critical to that success. Here are some of the remarkable gifts that will help ensure the future of the school’s position on the frontline of medicine.
“The campaign has transformed the Medical Campus,” says Karen Antman, MD, BU Medical Campus provost and dean of the School of Medicine. “We
doubled BUSM’s endowed scholarships and added 17 new professorships and $247 million in research funding. We established the Shamim and Ashraf Dahod Breast Cancer Research Center, the Shipley Prostate Cancer Research Center, and the Spivack Center for Clinical and Translational Neuroscience. We built the Medical Student Residence, the Miselis family student study and relaxation spaces, and the L-11 Testing Center, and completed the Hiebert Lounge and library renovations. We bought tables for Talbot Green and added brick walkways and evergreens; additional measures to improve our students’ quality of life.” • Great Choices, Great Changes: A Celebration of BU at Agganis Arena on September 21, 2019. The evening marked the conclusion to BU’s first comprehensive campaign.
All thanks to our donors.
The entering Class of 2019 at their White Coat Ceremony last August.
SUPPORTING STUDENTS
The future of the school, BUSM students are the change agents of tomorrow. They are training to become leaders—skilled and caring physicians and scientists at the frontline of innovation. “We want the very best students, from all socioeconomic backgrounds, to be able to choose BUSM,” says Dean Antman. “And we want them to embark on their careers without an overwhelming debt burden.”
Of course, medical school is expensive and BUSM tuition continues to rise, albeit at a slower rate than at comparable institutions. Today, annual tuition is nearly $61,000, and students graduate with an average of $221,464 in medical school debt, which is particularly burdensome for those who choose careers in primary care or pediatrics rather than more lucrative specialties.
With a scholarship endowment of just $36 million at the start of the campaign, raising endowed scholarships to alleviate that burden was our top priority. Thanks to generous alumni, parents, and friends, BUSM now has $63 million in endowed scholarships, a total that generates about $2.5M per year.
A small sampling of the largesse demonstrated by so many:
In 2019, original BU International Advisory Board member B. R. Shetty established the Shetty Family Medical Scholarship with a $5 million gift to support graduates who accept residencies in pediatrics or family medicine. The gift, he says, expresses his gratitude to BU, where three of his children earned degrees. “I think it’s only fair that having benefited so much from this world-class university, we do our bit in giving back,” he says.
Endowed in 2013 with $2.5 million from the family foundation of Trustee Stephen Karp (CAS’63), the Karp Family Scholarships support graduates who specialize in pediatrics, and eliminated nearly $150,000 of debt for the seven 2019 recipients.
Kara Montbleau (MED’19) received a Karp scholarship and is now in the Boston Combined Residency Program at Boston Children’s Hospital and Boston Medical Center (BMC). “This generous gift has pro
foundly reduced my financial burden and reinforced my commitment to caring for vulnerable, underserved children with chronic illnesses, and supporting their families,” she says. “Indeed, it will allow me to remain dedicated to this patient population over the course of my career. I am deeply grateful.” Also in 2019, BU Trustee Alan Leventhal (Hon.’09) and Sherry Leventhal endowed the Leventhal Family Scholarship with a $1 million gift after witnessing the “extraordinary experience” their two daughters had as BUSM students. “Relating to patients in a personalized manner and communication skills are emphasized at BUSM, helping to develop the students into the compassionate physicians that we need more of in this day and age,” says Sherry Leventhal, a Dean’s Advisory Board member and former BUSM campaign chair. “I am particularly impressed by the diversity of the student population and desire of the students to help the underserved everywhere in the world.”
IMPROVING AND BUILDING FACILITIES
At BUSM, infrastructure decisions spring from educational and quality-of-life priorities that include affordable housing for students, technology in classrooms to enhance learning, and spaces conducive to concentrated study and intellectual and social collaboration. Facility improvements contribute to student success and attract and retain the most talented faculty.
Campaign gifts for new buildings and renovations totaling $10.5 million underscore that commitment.
The nine-story Medical Student Residence (MSR), BUSM’s first on-campus student housing, provides furnished apartments, a gym, a student lounge, bicycle storage, outdoor recreation space, vegetable gardens, and more for 208 medical students. Rents—which include utilities—are significantly below market rate, thanks to contributions totaling more than $11 million from members of the Dean’s Advisory Board; BU Trustee Shamim Dahod (CGS’76, CAS’78, MED’87) and her husband, Ashraf; a matching grant from the Leventhal Challenge, established by Alan and Sherry Leventhal; and hundreds of alumni contributions.
Safe, modern, and convenient, the MSR has become a vibrant hub of student life.
“Living at the MSR makes it extremely easy to attend classes, mandatory school activities, clubs, and optional functions, since we are less than a fiveminute walk away,” says Chandler Annesi (Sargent’19, MED’23). “You can go to the library when you need a change of scenery for studying, or go home after class for a break. And the gym in the building helps me stay healthy, which I think has helped me succeed so far.” Adds Rishabh Singh (MED’23), “It’s the most affordable option in the area, while having a modern interior and a short commute to campus. In addition, it lets us get to know The Medical Student Residence offers students an affordable housing option.
other medical students very quickly! Seeing our classmates every day helps us feel connected to the BUSM community, which is key to coping with the stress of med school.”
Indeed, contributions to the campaign have financed renovations and technological advances across the Medical Campus, including the cuttingedge Godley Digital Media Studio and the repurposing of the 13th floor of the Alumni Medical Library into an 11,000-square-foot, multifaceted study and relaxation space, launched with a gift of $1.7 million from the Miselis family.
Filled with light and featuring ceilings, walls, and floors with sound-mitigating properties, the study and relaxation space has something for everyone: individual carrels with expansive desk areas, study pods, group study rooms, tall, granite standing desks, and even enclosed soft seats with adjustable tables and footrests (perfect for a nap).
“Whatever you need study-wise, you’ll most likely find it on the 13th floor,” observes Magdalena Buczek (MED’17,’22). “I still remember the palpable excitement when we all walked in to see the finished renovations. We couldn’t believe our eyes! I feel a great comfort knowing that there is a quiet, beautiful space in the library at school where I know I can be productive. This new space also builds community; we spend hours studying alongside one another, each with a goal we are working toward. For these gifts, I am deeply grateful to the Miselis family.”
ADVANCING RESEARCH Along with BMC, its primary teaching affiliate, BUSM is a recognized research powerhouse. Our faculty are at the forefront of developing new treatments; using computational models to explore personalized therapies for cancer patients; learning how to diagnose chronic traumatic encephalopathy in the living; discovering how aging affects us, from the brain and heart to the liver and colon; and following the Framingham Heart Study, the country’s oldest cardiovascular disease cohort analysis for cardiac, stroke, and other disorders.
The $247 million BUSM raised for research during the campaign is a testament to our leadership. Significant contributions came from many sources, including individuals as well as foundations and corporations. Here are a few:
In 2010, Shamim Dahod and her husband, Ashraf, donated a gift of $10.5 million, the largest in BUSM’s history, to establish the Shamim and Ashraf Dahod Breast Cancer Research Center. All of BUSM’s research efforts into the causes, diagnosis,
treatment, and prevention of breast cancer have been brought together in this center. The gift also endowed an annual Dahod Assistant Professorship, as well as a Dahod International Scholar and pilot grants at the center.
As a BUSM medical student at Boston City Hospital (now BMC), Shamim Dahod, a breast cancer survivor, saw the plight of underserved patients firsthand. “There was no prevention for them, just emergency or catastrophic care,” she recalls. “They were really sick, and they came, and they got sicker, and that was it. So, when I went through breast cancer, I said, ‘I would like to do something to take care of that population.’”
Over the years, Jack Spivack, a founding member of the BUSM Dean’s Advisory Board who passed away in July of 2018, donated more than $15 million to the school, including a 2013 bequest of more than $7 million to support the Spivack Center for Clinical and Translational Neuroscience, which funds the work of a multidisciplinary group of basic and clinical researchers studying the structures and functions of the brain that make us uniquely human in order to find treatments for neurological disorders, ranging from Alzheimer’s disease to Parkinson’s.
“I am convinced that the center has great potential for coming up with answers to age-old questions,” Mr. Spivack said upon its founding. “The people involved are enthusiastic, dedicated, talented, and quite professional; there is so much promise of progress here.”
BU Trustee Shamim Dahod and her husband Ashraf donated $10.5 million for the Dahod Breast Cancer Research Center and MSR.
He also established the Jack Spivack Excellence in Neuroscience Awards to support outstanding BUSM faculty conducting neuroscience research, including the Spivack Senior Neuroscientists, the Spivack Emerging Leaders, and the Spivack Junior Scholars. In 2016, Trustee Richard C. Shipley (Questrom’68,’72) gave BUSM $10.5 million to create a prostate cancer research center and a website offering accurate, impartial information about treatment options to the general public. The gift sprang from personal experience: Mr. Shipley was diagnosed with prostate cancer in 2014 and chose a treatment called focal laser ablation rather than a prostatectomy, a surgical procedure that carries the risk of temporary— and sometimes permanent—sexual dysfunction or incontinence. “There are options, good options, that men don’t hear about,” he said at the time. “And I want to get that message out.”
The Shipley Prostate Cancer Research Center focuses on personalized medicine, finding genomic approaches to better determine which cancers are aggressive and need to be removed or irradiated and which can be dealt with less aggressively, eliminating unnecessary treatment that often comes with devastating side effects.
The gift, which came through the Shipley Foundation, endows a professorship at any rank (full, associate, or assistant professor) for a faculty member at the forefront of prostate cancer research and also allots $400,000 a year for 15 years to fund research projects, such as developing urine tests to screen high-risk individuals. BU Trustee Richard Shipley’s generous gift established the Shipley Prostate Cancer Research Center.
SUPPORTING FACULTY
BUSM faculty straddle many disciplines. They conduct pioneering basic research that increases our understanding of how diseases develop, and translational and clinical research that improves diagnostics or leads to therapies for conditions from brain trauma to addiction, infectious diseases to cancer. And they educate the clinicians and scholars who will follow in their footsteps, advancing frontline medicine through active engagement at the bench and the bedside.
The $34.3 million in campaign contributions toward faculty support acknowledged that investment in faculty is a direct investment in education and the understanding of disease—and in developing new approaches and treatments.
Trustee Stephen Karp understands that connection deeply. In 2012, his family foundation gave $2.5 million to create the Karp Family Professorship in Pediatrics.
Named in 2017, the First Karp Family Professor is Catherine Michelson, MD, program director for the Boston Combined Residency Program at BMC. “I feel extraordinarily honored to serve as the Karp Family Professor of Pediatrics,” she says. “I am exceptionally proud of the work we are doing to maintain our reputation as a leading pediatric training program nationally, where innovation in medical education and scholarship is fostered, prioritized, and realized. With the help of this professorship, I have been hard at work with my team, strengthening the residency locally, our reputation nationally, and moving the science of how we train pediatric doctors to meet the needs of our evolving pediatric workforce and population forward.”
The Department of Medicine itself—home to general internal medicine and medicine subspecialty clinicians, researchers, and educators—endowed several professorships that have also been augmented by campaign gifts. Each endowed chair celebrates an outstanding faculty member from one of the department’s clinical specialties, with colleagues, trainees, and friends of the clinical leader also contributing. Six such chairs were established during the campaign: the John Noble, MD, Professorship in General Internal Medicine; the Joseph A. Vita, MD, Professorship in Cardiovascular Medicine; the Norman G. Levinsky, MD, Professorship in Nephrology; the Franz J. Ingelfinger, MD, Professorship in Gastroenterology; the Louis W. Sullivan, MD, Professorship; and the David C. Seldin, MD, PhD, Professorship in Medicine.
“These professorships are incredibly important for the Department of Medicine,” stresses
”– Dean Karen Antman, MD
David Coleman, Wade Professor and department chair. “They immortalize the memory of the clinicians, teachers, and researchers who—through their achievements and their example—created a durable legacy for the department. The endowed professorships help us recruit and retain outstanding faculty, while celebrating the character of the medical profession and the history of this department.”
BUILDING ON MOMENTUM The Campaign for Boston University and the remarkable philanthropic support it engendered have launched the School of Medicine into a new era. “We increased our financial support from individuals and institutions, to expand our exceptional basic and clinical research programs,” says Dean Antman. “We raised additional scholarships and renovated our facilities to attract the most talented students and to facilitate their success once they’re here. We have endowed new professorships for faculty at all levels. In the face of increasing societal pressures and competition for the best students and faculty, we have much more to do. The success of the campaign provides renewed optimism. We double down on our commitment to become the best place to learn, teach, and discover on the frontline of medicine.” •
