The Office of Faculty Affairs and Faculty Development is pleased to continue its quarterly series to highlight new School of Medicine faculty hires. This fourth article includes new clinical and research faculty hired in May, June, and July of 2025.
To promote collaboration and connectivity among our new faculty and within the UVA Health community, there is a description of each new faculty member’s clinical and/or research interests. The included table is searchable by name, department, or other key words.
The next article in the series will feature the newly hired faculty arriving in August, September, and October; be on the lookout for the next article in Medicine in Motion this November.
Please join us in welcoming our new faculty to the School of Medicine and UVA Health!
| PHOTO | NAME | RANK | DEPARTMENT | STATEMENT |
|---|---|---|---|---|
 | Robert Alexander, MD | Assistant Professor | Anesthesiology | Dr. Alexander's main clinical interests are in mechanical circulatory support and resuscitation primarily looking at biomarkers as an endpoint for resuscitation in shock. |
 | Thaddee Valdelievre, MD | Associate Professor | Anesthesiology | Dr. Valdelievre's clinical and research interests are neuroanesthesiology and the appropriate use of intravenous methadone for both inpatient and outpatient surgery to reduce overall opioid consumption and pain scores postoperatively. |
 | MariCarmen Lafita Navarro, PhD | Assistant Professor | Biochemistry and Molecular Genetics | Dr. Lafita Navarro's research focuses on cancer cell biology. |
 | Scott Ficarro, PhD | Research Assistant Professor | Biochemistry and Molecular Genetics | Dr. Ficarro's research focuses on varius aspects of protein mass spectrometry. |
 | Jarrod Marto, PhD | Professor | Biochemistry and Molecular Genetics | Dr. Marto's research focuses on mass spectrometry and chemoproteomics. |
 | Colleen Bressler, MD | Associate Professor | Emergency Medicine | Dr. Colleen Bressler specializes in pediatric emergency medicine and child abuse pediatrics, with research interests in early recognition of abuse, EMS utilization, and medical education, offering collaborative opportunities in child protection, forensic evaluation, and interprofessional training. |
 | Brit Long, MD | Professor | Emergency Medicine | Dr. Brit Long specializes in emergency medicine with extensive academic, military, and publishing experience, focusing on critical care, trauma, and evidence-based practices, offering collaborative opportunities in clinical research, podcasting, and curriculum development. |
 | Seth Gerard, MD | Assistant Professor | Emergency Medicine | Dr. Seth Gerard is an emergency medicine physician with research interests in pediatric trauma, child protection systems, and wilderness medicine, presenting opportunities for collaboration in pediatric emergency care, injury prevention, and public health education. |
 | James MacNamara, MD | Assistant Professor | Medicine | Dr. MacNamara's clinical and research interests focus on understanding why patients with hypertrophic cardiomyopathy are limited with exertion and to use personalized therapies, including medicine and exercise prescriptions, to enhance patients with HCM’s quality of life. |
 | Venugopal Gunda, PhD | Research Assistant Professor | Medicine | Dr. Gunda's focus is on exploring novel therapeutic avenues to overcome drug resistance in disease and mass spectrometry management. |
 | Jonathan Vignali, MD | Assistant Professor | Medicine | Dr. Vignali is very passionate about the education and training of medical students and resident physicians; his goal in any interaction is to leave the trainee better than before he met them. |
 | Jonathan Pan, MD | Assistant Professor | Medicine | Dr. Jonathan Pan is a cardiologist specialized in advanced imaging with expertise in cardiac MRI and CT. His clinical and research interests involve using non-invasive imaging tools to better understand cardiomyopathies, especially heart failure with preserved ejection fraction (HFpEF). |
 | Alexander Schoifet, MD | Assistant Professor | Medicine | Dr. Schoifet is a Hospice and Palliative Medicine Physician that treats patients with serious illnesses. His primary clinical responsibility is inpatient consultation and his research interests include complex symptom management, particularly dysuria and neuropathic pain. |
 | Mohammad Shadab Siddiqui, MD | Professor | Medicine | Dr. Siddiqui’s research and clinical interests focus on metabolic dysfunction associated steatotic liver disease (MASLD), liver transplantation and these are impacted by metabolic co-morbidities. More recently, he has also become increasingly interested in how the transplant community allocates liver for transplantation and if that process can be improved. Dr. Siddiqui is a very successful clinical researcher and he states “A key draw of research for me is tackling the ‘unknown’ or an unmet need in clinical research. In my experience, research is rarely the ‘aha moment’ but rather a culmination of persistent effort. That’s why to see the translation of a concept into clinical practice takes time and patience." |
 | Pali Singh, MD | Assistant Professor | Medicine | Dr. Singh's professional interests include generalist clinical medicine with particular new interests in medical student education and advancing quality improvement initiatives. |
 | Benjamin Robinson, MD | Assistant Professor | Medicine | In addition to striving to provide high quality, high value clinical care, Dr. Robinson is interested in the care of vulnerable populations and addressing social determinants of health, especially homelessness. |
 | Nicholas Dernbach Ashur, MD | Assistant Professor | Medicine | Dr. Ashur is an advanced heart failure and transplant cardiologist with expertise in pulmonary hypertension, focusing clinically and academically on right ventricular failure. He is also deeply engaged in medical education at all levels, focusing on innovative curriculum development to enhance cardiology training. |
 | Sohel Shamsuzzaman, PhD | Research Assistant Professor | Molecular Physiology and Biological Physics | Dr. Shamsuzzaman is interested in understanding the molecular basis of atherosclerotic plaque development and calcification, with the long-term goal of identifying targeted strategies to improve plaque stability by preventing or reversing vascular calcification without affecting bone health. |
 | Hong-Yin Wang, PhD | Assistant Professor | Molecular Physiology and Biological Physics | Dr. Wang's research focuses on understanding how membrane homeostasis regulates cellular physiology and how its disruption contributes to disease, including osteoclast cell-cell fusion in bone disorders and neuronal degeneration in Alzheimer’s disease. |
 | Janina Manzieri Prado Rico, PhD, PT | Research Assistant Professor | Neurology | Dr. Manzieri Prado Rico's research focuses on motor control, particularly motor synergies, in neurodegenerative conditions such as Essential Tremor, Parkinson’s disease, and Alzheimer’s disease, as well as in populations exposed to environmental agents that may impact brain and motor function. I’m eager to connect with colleagues working in neural, environmental, or movement-cognition research. |
 | Nikolay Dokholyan, PhD | Professor | Neurology | Dr. Dokholyan’s research leverages integrated computational, experimental, and machine learning approaches to understand and control protein misfolding in neurodegenerative diseases, drive AI-powered drug discovery, and advance health intelligence through data-intensive, translational biomedical research. |
 | Elizabeth Proctor, PhD | Associate Professor | Neurology | The Proctor laboratory aims to define mechanisms of neurological disease risk, onset, and progression from the molecular through physiological scales, toward the creation of novel complex biomarkers and therapeutic strategies for precision preventative medicine. |
 | Jian Wang, PhD | Research Assistant Professor | Neurology | Dr. Wang's research focuses on AI-powered computational drug discovery and RNA design. |
 | Ashley Graziano, DO | Assistant Professor | Neurology | Dr. Graziano’s clinical interests focus on educational curricula for post-graduate trainees in Neurocritical Care in addition to leading the development of a Neurocritical Care consult service in non-neuroscience intensive care units. |
 | James Ross, PhD | Assistant Professor | Neuroscience | Dr. James Ross studies how tumor associated macrophages contribute to immune evasion and therapeutic resistance in high-grade glioma, with the goal of reprogramming these cells to reinvigorate the anti-tumor immune response. |
 | Ashley Nicole Brandebura, PhD | Assistant Professor | Neuroscience | Dr. Ashley Brandebura studies astrocyte dysfunction in neurodevelopmental and neurodegenerative disorders with a focus on targeting astrocyte-neuron and astrocyte-microglia communication to rewire braim circuitry. |
 | Erika Gazzetta, MD, MPH | Assistant Professor | Obstetrics and Gynecology | Dr. Erika Gazzetta brings expertise in global women’s health and reproductive health innovation that will enhance UVA’s efforts to expand global health education and provide residents with meaningful cross-cultural clinical experiences. |
 | Shannath Merbs, MD, PhD | Professor | Ophthalmology | Dr. Merbs has clinical interests in diseases of the eyes, eyelids, and orbit, specializing in reconstructive surgery of the eyelids, orbit, and midface, while focusing her research on treatment of patients with trachomatous trichiasis, the most common cause of blindness from infection in the world. |
 | Mark Esser, PhD | Chief Scientific Officer | Paul and Diane Manning Institute of Biotechnology | Dr. Esser is an immunologist with 25 years’ experience in the biotechnology and biopharmaceutical industry having helped develop several FDA approved medicines. He is passionate about working with faculty, students and entrepreneurs to help “Transform Science into Medicines”. |
 | April Bingham, MD | Professor | Pediatrics | Dr. Bingham is a pediatric rheumatologist with interest in all childhood rheumatic diseases, and is passionate about expertise in quality improvement. |
 | Timothy Heck, MD | Assistant Professor | Pediatrics | Dr. Heck's clinical and academic interests are in neonatal neurological pathologies such as post-hemorrhagic hydrocephalus of prematurity, as well as interest in QI initiatives such as regional anesthesia for NICU surgical patients or neuroprotective care to reduce IVH rates. |
 | Ava Tennant, MD | Assistant Professor | Pediatrics | Dr. Tennant's clinical interests include newborn care, nutrition, breastfeeding medicine, and community engagement. |
 | Richard Mailman, PhD | Professor | Pharmacology | Dr. Richard Mailman's research focuses on the function of dopamine receptors and the mechanisms of their interaction with clinical and experimental drugs. His contributions have included elucidating the novel phenomenon of drug functional selectivity (biased signaling), and championing the discovery and use of dopamine D1 agonists as next-generation treatment of Parkinson’s disease and other disorders. |
 | Michael Grant, MD, PhD | Professor | Plastic and Maxillofacial Surgery | New Craniofacial Chief, Dr. Michael Grant, is a dual-trained Plastic Surgeon and Ophthalmologist focused on complex facial and orbital reconstruction. His research includes custom implants, ocular surface repair, and regenerative techniques. |
 | Dirk Oviatt, DDS | Assistant Professor | Plastic and Maxillofacial Surgery | Dr. Dirk Oviatt will expand our UVA Health dentistry pediatric team and continue to grow our offerings for children with complicated medical or behavioral needs. Dr. Oviatt completed his Dental Education at The University of Alberta receiving his DDS in 2023 and recently graduated from his Pedodontics residency at NYU. |
 | Erawadi Singh, MD | Assistant Professor | Psychiatry and Neurobehavioral Sciences | Dr. Singh's clinical and research interests are in geriatric psychiatry with an emphasis on caring for aging LGBTQIA individuals; personality disorders, global mental health, therapy, the roles of creative expression/fine arts/media/pop culture in medicine, trainee education and wellness in the evolving culture of medicine, low income and first generation trainee mentorship, and working with marginalized groups through inclusive, culturally rooted practices. |
 | Julie Exline, PhD | Research Professor | Psychiatry and Neurobehavioral Sciences | Dr. Exline's research interests center on extraordinary experiences around the boundary between life and death, such as near-death experiences and perceptions of after-death communication. |
 | Stephen O'Connor, PhD | Associate Professor | Psychiatry and Neurobehavioral Sciences | Dr. O'Connor's primary research interest is suicide prevention in healthcare settings, and her clinical interests include mood and personality disorders with/without co-occurring medical conditions. |
 | Katherine Wu, MD | Assistant Professor | Psychiatry and Neurobehavioral Sciences | Dr. Wu is interested clinically in neuromodulation, consultation-liaison (primarily neuropsychiatry), and psychotherapy. |
 | Jayne Shadlyn, MD | Assistant Professor | Psychiatry and Neurobehavioral Sciences | Dr. Shadlyn's primary interests are curriculum development and global mental health/health equity. |
 | Mark Ahlman, MD | Professor | Radiology and Medical Imaging | Dr. Ahlman's research interests center on advancing PET and molecular imaging techniques to improve the diagnosis, treatment response assessment, and understanding of inflammatory and neoplastic diseases. |
 | Vishnu Chandra, MD | Assistant Professor | Radiology and Medical Imaging | Dr. Chandra's clinical and research interests focus on advancing minimally invasive image-guided therapies for patients, with a particular emphasis on oncologic interventions and vascular disease management. |
 | Nabeel Hassan, MD | Assistant Professor | Radiology and Medical Imaging | Dr. Hassan is part of the Division of Non-Invasive Cardiovascular and Thoracic Imaging with interests in medical education, post-transplant vascular imaging, and Cardiac MRI. |
 | Gustavo da Fonseca Monjardim, MD | Assistant Professor | Radiology and Medical Imaging | Dr. Monjardimis deeply interested in MSK radiology, specializing in sports imaging, particularly the diagnosis and grading of muscle injuries to predict return-to-play timelines. |
 | Juan Francisco Guerra, MD | Associate Professor | Surgery | Dr. Guerra is a transplant surgeon focused on adult and pediatric liver, living donor, and intestinal transplantation. He is passionate about building programs that deliver life-saving care with technical excellence, compassion, and equity. |
 | Jade Nunez, MD | Associate Professor | Surgery | Dr. Jade M. Nunez specializes in acute care surgery, surgical critical care, and trauma surgery, with a strong clinical focus on resuscitation, surgical systems development, and trauma care delivery in both domestic and global contexts. His research interests center on global surgery, rural surgical access, health systems strengthening, and the development and implementation of perioperative metrics to support surgical equity and quality improvement in low-resource and conflict-affected settings. |
Filed Under: Faculty