Professional Summary:

I am a general internist and health services researcher, Professor of Medicine, Charles and Mary Bauer Endowed Chair, and Chair of the Department of Medicine at the University at Buffalo Jacobs School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences (UB). Additionally, I am the President and CEO of UBMD Internal Medicine Practice Plan.

Before coming to Buffalo, I worked at the Medical College of Wisconsin (MCW), starting in 2017. As Division Chief at MCW, I led a significant transformation in the Division of General Internal Medicine (GIM) by identifying opportunities for growth and restructuring. This division encompassed seven sections, 192 employees, and an over $40 million budget. My achievements at MCW include reorganizing the hospital medicine section, creating a sustainable leadership structure, and optimizing efficiency and productivity. Furthermore, I redesigned the primary care section, establishing clinical operations benchmarks, and increasing productivity and efficiency. Research endeavors at MCW were supported through my actions of increasing research funding and productivity by hiring new research faculty and supporting an expansion in protected time for new research faculty to focus on obtaining funding. I reorganized the administrative structure of the division, created new research support infrastructure that supports clinical operations, quality improvement, and research activities, and developed a new career development and mentoring structure for junior and mid-career faculty. In addition, I developed a deep understanding of the organizational culture of our health system and physician practice group, including institutional challenges, and opportunities for growth. At MCW, I experienced working in a matrixed environment, coordinating with the health system as it relates to staffing, developing clinical service lines, and working with the practice plan to develop metrics and incentives. I worked with the health system to set staffing, operational metrics, incentives, and growth targets. In this process, I developed margin targets and gained extensive experience working with clinical operations partners to develop shared visions and goals. I also developed a quality improvement and operations infrastructure support process for our clinical operations partners, adding value by linking them with our research infrastructure. During this time with MCW, I also worked towards sharpening my leadership skills by partaking in learning opportunities such as the 6-month Berkeley Executive Coaching Institute, became a certified executive coach, and worked alongside an executive coach for 6 months while we identified my strengths and weaknesses in my leadership style. Before working at MCW, I spent 17 years at the Medical University of South Carolina (MUSC) where I led two large research centers for 12 years and completed the MUSC Leadership Development Program.

Over the past 25 years, my contributions to science have focused on. 1) understanding, explaining, and reducing/eliminating health disparities; 2) understanding the impact of structural racism, social determinants of health and social risk on health outcomes; 3) advancing research on effectiveness and safety of telehealth and telemedicine as a modality for delivering effective clinical care; 4) understanding the role of behavioral economics on health and health outcomes for individuals with chronic disease; and 5) addressing impact of social determinants of health on health outcomes for non-communicable diseases (NCDs) in sub-Saharan Africa, Central America and the Middle East. I am currently the PI of multiple large NIH grants. I have extensive experience with clinical trial methodology, qualitative and mixed methods study designs, structural equation modeling/path analysis, observational study methodology, CBPR, and implementation science. I have published over 475 peer-reviewed manuscripts related to health disparities, psychosocial risk factors, cost of healthcare, and social determinants of health. I have served on multiple NIH, CDC, and VA study sections focused on psychosocial risk, health services, behavioral research, and implementation science. I lead a multidisciplinary team that has worked together on more than nine federally funded grants related to improving diabetes outcomes and eliminating health disparities since 2008. My broad expertise allows me to engage researchers across multiple fields and disciplines, which is instrumental in building the research enterprise of the future.

I believe that teaching is an integral part of training the next generation of change agents in healthcare. I am dedicated to ensuring courses are taught in a way that learners can digest information and apply it both during the course and in the future. This process requires the willingness to see each learner as an individual with strengths and weaknesses, processes to assess learners not for course grades but for purposes of adjusting course instruction, and consistent focus on how to apply skills and knowledge across a variety of topics.
I have demonstrated commitment to advancing diversity, equity, and inclusion. Of particular interest is the removal of pay gaps by gender for faculty working equal clinical time and creating a more diverse leadership team both by gender and race/ethnicity, and a clear process for ensuring continued equity in pay and incentives. Another area of focus is the ongoing review of faculty and staff recruitment processes, identifying new ways to promote positions to a diverse audience, creating an infrastructure to ensure a focus on increasing diversity through equitable recruitment efforts and compiling resources to support faculty and staff to conduct more evidence-based interviews.

In addition to my dedication to diversity, equity, and inclusion, my passion extends to supporting the next generation of investigators through mentorship, with a primary focus on those traditionally underrepresented in medicine, women and ethnic minorities. My commitment to mentoring is evident in the number of mentees I oversee, the quality of my interactions with faculty, trainees, and students, as well as strong trajectories of mentees moving from trainees to faculty, and promotion through faculty ranks. Over the past 15 years, I provided extensive mentorship opportunities to students, fellows, interns, post-doctoral fellows, and junior faculty members. In 2011, I was awarded an NIH NIDDK K24 grant that provided protected time for mentoring and funds that I used to support my mentees in conducting pilot studies to position them for federal funding opportunities. During the 11 years of my K24, I mentored 42 junior (Assistant Professors) and mid-level (Associate Professors) faculty, 20 fellows, 12 postdoctoral scholars, 13 doctoral students, 45 medical students, 11 undergraduate students, and 24 high school students. In addition, I served on 12 PhD committees and 4 Master’s Thesis committees. I currently serve as the primary mentor on 3 NIH funded K-grants, and an American Diabetes Association Junior Faculty Award focused on addressing health disparities through development and testing of innovative interventions incorporating social determinants of health.
In summary, I am committed to excellence in health care delivery, innovative research that changes policy and improves lives, training the next generation of change agents, faculty and staff development and mentorship, diversity, equity, and inclusion, and community engagement.

Education and Training:

• Certificate, Berkeley Executive Coaching Institute Leadership Intensive, University of California Berkeley Executive Education (2020)
• Certificate, Certified Executive Coach, University of California Berkeley Executive Education (2020)
• Certificate, Medical University of South Carolina Trustees Leadership Academy and Capstone Project, Medical University of South Carolina (2012)
• Fellowship, Health Services Research Fellowship, Medical University of South Carolina (2001)
• MS, Clinical Research, Medical University of South Carolina (2001)
• Residency, Internal Medicine, Greater Baltimore Medical Center (1999)
• Internship, Internal Medicine, Greater Baltimore Medical Center (1997)
• MD, Medicine, University of Benin (1990)

Employment:

• Chair, Department of Medicine, Jacobs School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences, Buffalo, NY (2024-present)
• President and CEO, UBMD Internal Medicine of the UBMD Physicians' Group (2024-present)
• Professor with Tenure, Department of Medicine, Jacobs School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences (2024-present)
• Inaugural Milwaukee Community Chair in Health Equity Research at the Medical College of Wisconsin, Medical College of Wisconsin, Milwaukee, WI (2021–2024)
• Chief, Medicine, General Internal Medicine, Medical College of Wisconsin, Milwaukee, WI (2017–2024)
• Director, Center for Advancing Population Science, Medical College of Wisconsin, Milwaukee, WI (2017–2024)
• Physician, Froedtert and the Medical College Hospitals, Milwaukee, WI (2017–2024)
• Professor (Dual Appointment), Institute for Health and Equity, Medical College of Wisconsin, Milwaukee, WI (2017–2024)
• Professor with Tenure, Medicine, General Internal Medicine, Medical College of Wisconsin, Milwaukee, WI (2017–2024)
• Director KL2 Program, Clinical and Translational Science Institute, Medical College of Wisconsin, Milwaukee, WI (2018–2023)
• Director, Master’s in Clinical and Translational Research Program, Clinical and Translational Science Institute, Medical College of Wisconsin, Milwaukee, WI (2018–2023)
• Eminent Scholar, Medicine, General Internal Medicine, Medical College of Wisconsin, Milwaukee, WI (2017–2021)
• Professor (Dual Appointment), Public Health Services, Medical University of South Carolina, Charleston, SC (2015–2016)
• Director, Charleston VA HSR&D Health Equity and Rural Outreach Innovation Center (HEROIC), Ralph H. Johnson VAMC, Charleston, SC (2013–2016)
• Allen H. Johnson Endowed Chair, Medicine, Medical University of South Carolina, Charleston, SC (2010–2016)
• Professor with Tenure, Medicine, Medical University of South Carolina, Charleston, SC (2010–2016)
• Professor, Medicine, Medical University of South Carolina, Charleston, SC (2009–2016)
• Full Member, College of Graduate Studies, Medical University of South Carolina, Charleston, SC (2007–2016)
• Director, Center for Health Disparities Research, Medical University of South Carolina, Charleston, SC (2005–2016)
• Section Head for Health Services Research, Medicine, General Internal Medicine and Geriatrics, Medical University of South Carolina, Charleston, SC (2005–2016)
• Physician, Ralph H. Johnson VAMC, Charleston, SC (2004–2016)
• Physician, Medical University Hospital, Medical University of South Carolina (1999–2016)
• Director, Center for Disease Prevention and Health Interventions for Diverse Populations, Ralph H. Johnson VAMC, Charleston, SC (2008–2013)
• Associate Professor, Medicine, Medical University of South Carolina, Charleston, SC (2005–2009)
• Director Charleston VA TREP, Understanding Health Disparities, Ralph H. Johnson VAMC, Charleston, SC (2004–2008)
• Assistant Professor, Medicine, Medical University of South Carolina, Charleston, SC (1999–2005)

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Awards and Honors:

• Inducted into the Association of American Physicians (AAP) (2024)
• National Institutes of Health Office of Disease Prevention 29th Robert S. Gordon Jr. Lecture Award in Epidemiology (2024)
• Awardee of the MCW President’s Inclusive Excellence Special Award (2022)
• Awardee of the MCW Department of Medicine G. Richard Olds Award for Mentorship in Medicine (2021)
• National Institute of Health Certificate of Appreciation as Member and Chair of Dissemination and Implementation Research in Health Study Section, United States Department of Health and Human Services (2014)
• Faculty Scholars Certificate for Service as National Advisory Committee Member, Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (2013)
• MUSC College of Medicine Student Teacher of the Month (February 2013) (2013)
• Community Service Award, Healthy Lifestyle Network, Inc (2008)
• Marquis Who's Who in Science and Engineering - 7th Edition, 2002-2003 (2003)
• Marquis Who's Who in Medicine and Healthcare - 4th Edition, 2002-2003 (2003)
• American Diabetes Association Young Investigator award (2003)
• Outstanding Resident Award (1998-1999), Internal Medicine Residency Program, Greater Baltimore Medical Center, Baltimore, MD (1999)
• First prize, Greater Baltimore Medical Center Resident Research Competition (1998)