25 New Faculty Members Join 12 Departments in Medical School

Published December 10, 2014 This content is archived.

Story by Suzanne Kashuba

Twenty-five faculty members with diverse backgrounds and expertise have joined the school’s faculty during the past several months.

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New faculty include:

Rohit A. Gokhale, MD, is a clinical assistant professor specializing in cardiology who completed his fellowship in cardiovascular disease at UB.

He has research interests in stable ischemic heart disease, coronary artery calcification, muscle regeneration and exercise training in patients with cardiovascular disease.

Susan M. Glose, PhD, clinical assistant professor, earned her doctorate in nursing at the University of Rochester.

Pojchawan Yampikulsakul, MD, is a clinical assistant professor with an internal medical focus. She completed her residency at the Cleveland Clinic.

John C. Corbelli, MD, is an associate professor who specializes in cardiology and cardiovascular disease.

Heidi M. Beintrexler, MD, assistant professor, completed her residency in internal medicine at Albert Einstein College of Medicine and Montefiore Medical Center.

Rula Balluz, MD, MPH, is clinical associate professor and chief of cardiology.

She previously directed the ECHO laboratory at St. Christopher’s Hospital for Children and held a faculty position at Drexel University’s College of Medicine.

Sara K. Berkelhamer, MD, clinical associate professor, specializes in neonatal-perinatal medicine. She was an attending physician at Prentice Women and Lurie Children’s Hospitals and a faculty member at Northwestern University’s Feinberg School of Medicine.

Shilpa Jain, MD, MPH, is a clinical assistant professor and pediatric medical director of the Hemophilia Center of Western New York.

At the University of Pittsburgh’s School of Medicine, she was assistant professor of pediatric hematology and oncology.

Jahan Porhomayon, MD, is a clinical associate professor who specializes in cardiac pharmacology and critical care medicine. Porhomayon co-directs the medical intensive care unit at the Buffalo VA Medical Center and was formerly medical director of surgical critical care services at Rochester General Hospital.

His published research includes a study of stress hormones on post-traumatic stress disorders symptoms and memory.

Gerard Silva, MD ’03, is a clinical assistant professor and attending anesthesiologist at Roswell Park Comprehensive Cancer Center. He was previously assistant director of anesthesia at the Manhattan Surgery Center.

Three clinical assistant professors are attending anesthesiologists for the VA Western New York Healthcare System:

Bogdan K. Beirowski, MD, PhD, is assistant professor and principal investigator at the Hunter James Kelly Research Institute.

His research aims to elucidate causes of axon degeneration from within neurons and external (glial) events that trigger axon loss.

Gary D. Byrd, PhD, is co-director of UB’s new master of science degree program in biomedical informatics. He directed UB’s Health Sciences Library for the past 19 years.

Vaikuntanath Samudrala, PhD, is professor and chief of the Division of Bioinformatics.

Christine M. O’Connor, PhD, assistant professor, was a project scientist in molecular genetics at the Cleveland Clinic.

Her research includes the study of miRNAs in human cytomegalovirus infection.

Corey M. Leidenfrost, PhD, a research assistant professor, earned a doctorate in psychology from Walden University.

Leidenfrost’s varied research interests include aggression, violence, well-being, positive psychology topics, countertransference management, sex offender work, therapist effects and mood disorders.

Ricardo E. Romero, MD, is a clinical assistant professor who completed his fellowship in child and adolescent psychiatry at UB.

Shaveta Malik, MD, is a clinical assistant professor with research interests in reproductive endocrinology and infertility. She completed a residency in obstetrics and gynecology at Staten Island University Hospital.

Sirisa M. Kandel Amatya, MD, assistant professor, also is a surgical pathology fellow at Roswell Park Comprehensive Cancer Center.

She completed her residency in anatomic and clinical pathology at UB and her fellowship in surgical oncology at Roswell Park.

Vassilios G. Dimopoulos, MD, clinical assistant professor, comes to UB from the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine’s Department of Neurological Surgery.

Alyssa B. Fiddler, DO, is a clinical assistant professor.

Sherry A. Withiam-Leitch, MD, is a clinical assistant professor.

April A. Silva, MD, is an academic scholar of emergency medicine. She was previously an attending physician at North Shore-LIJ Glen Cove Hospital in the Department of Emergency Medicine.