MSTP students in the Sahoo lab
Medical Scientist Training Program

MCW MSTP Women in Science and Medicine

Clinical Staff 5F

This group was established from input with our female students who meet every-other-month over the lunch hour with on-campus female faculty involved in science and/or clinical endeavors. The goal of this time is to allow a casual atmosphere where faculty members can talk a bit about their professional as well as personal lives and the opportunities and challenges they face that may be unique to women. It is a relaxed interaction and trainees are encouraged to ask questions.

They give us a chance to discuss topics that are uniquely relevant to women in a comfortable small group setting, and to get advice from a variety of successful women scientists on campus on those topics.

Previous Faculty Speakers

Carmen Bergom, MD, PhD
Associate Professor, Radiation Oncology
Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis
Research: Genetic modifiers of radiation therapy-induced cardiotoxicity

Karen-Sue Carlson, MD, PhD
Associate Professor of Medicine, Hematology and Oncology
Medical College of Wisconsin
Medical Oncology, Hematology
Cancer Center - Froedtert Hospital
Research: Bone marrow microenvironment and its impact on normal and leukemic blood cell production

Deborah Costakos, MD, MS
Professor, Ophthalmology and Visual Sciences
Chair, Ophthalmology and Visual Sciences
Medical College of Wisconsin
Pediatric Ophthalmologist
Children’s Wisconsin
Research: Genetic disorders affecting the eye, retinopathy of prematurity and macular development in infants

Meredith Cruz, MD, MPH, MBA
Associate Professor, Obstetrics and Gynecology
Director, Maternal Fetal Care Center and Maternal-Fetal Medicine
Froedtert & the Medical College of Wisconsin
Research: Hypertensive and cardiac disease in pregnancy

Beth Drolet, MD
Chair, Dermatology - School of Medicine and Public Health
University of Wisconsin - Madison
Research: Birthmarks, vascular anomalies and infantile hemangiomas

Julie Freed, MD, PhD
Assistant Professor, Anesthesiology, Cardiothoracic, and Physiology
Medical Collage of Wisconsin
Research: Novel role of sphingolipids in maintaining vascular homeostasis

Veronica H. Flood, MD
Associate Professor, Pediatrics, Hematology and Oncology
Medical College of Wisconsin
Pediatric Hematology-Oncology, Pediatrics
Children’s Wisconsin
Research: Mechanism of Type 4 collagen interactions with Von Willebrand Disease

Anna Huppler, MD
Assistant Professor, Infectious Disease, Pediatrics, and Microbiology & Immunology
Medical College of Wisconsin
Research: Anti-candida activity of CCL28 in oropharyngeal candidiasis

Adina Kalet, MD, MPH
Professor, Health Sciences Education Department
Medical College of Wisconsin
Research: Medical education in the service of patient outcomes, Remediation of struggling trainees, Mentoring, Trainee Assessment, Philosophy of Medical Education Transformation

Iris Kassem, MD, PhD
Assistant Professor, Ophthalmology and Visual Sciences, Pediatrics
Medical College of Wisconsin
Research: Improving vision in pediatric and genetic disorders that affect the eye

Tammy Kindel, MD, PhD
Associate Professor, General Surgery
Medical College of Wisconsin
General and bariatric surgeon
Froedtert & the Medical College of Wisconsin
Research: The role of GLP-1 in cardiac recovery after bariatric surgery in obesity-induced heart failure

Jennifer Knight, MD, MS, FACLP
Assistant Professor, Psychiatry and Behavioral Medicine and Microbiology & Immunology
Medical College of Wisconsin
Research: Physiologic and immunologic effects that account for the relationship between psychosocial factors and clinical outcomes in hematopoietic stem cell transplant recipients

Laura J. Kopplin, MD, PhD
Assistant Professor, Ophthalmology and Visual Sciences
University of Wisconsin - Madison
Research: Uveitis therapeutics

Nicole Lohr, MD, PhD
Assistant Professor, Cardiology
Division Chief, Zablocki VA Cardiovascular Medicine, Clement J. Zablocki VA Medical Center
Medical College of Wisconsin
MCW MSTP Alumni
Research: Energy dependent reversal of endothelial dysfunction in wound healing

Silvia Munoz-Price, MD, PhD
Professor, Clinical Medicine at the Division of Infectious Diseases
Medical College of Wisconsin
Enterprise epidemiologist, Froedtert & the Medical College of Wisconsin
Research: Gut microbiome and intestinal pathogens such as Clostridium difficile

Page Morahan, PhD
Professor, Microbiology and Immunology
Founding Director, Hedwig van Ameringen Executive Leadership in Academic Medicine (ELAM) Program for Women
Co-director, Foundation for Advancement of International Medical Education and Research (FAIMER) Institutes
Drexel University College of Medicine
Research: Advancing Critical Mass of Women Faculty

Marja T. Nevalainen, MD, PhD
Professor, Eminent Scholar, Pathology and Pharmacology &Toxicology
Director, Prostate Cancer Center of Excellence
Associate Director (Education), Medical College of Wisconsin Cancer Center
Assistant Dean of Research
Medical College of Wisconsin
Research: Stat5 in progression of prostate cancer

Caitlin O’Meara, PhD
Associate Professor, Physiology
Medical College of Wisconsin
Research: IL13 - A novel therapeutic factor for cardiac regeneration

Janet Rader, MD
Professor, Obstetrics and Gynecology
Chair, Obstetrics and Gynecology
Medical College of Wisconsin
Research: Defining HPV integration sites of unknown significance in invasive cervical cancer

Nita Salzman, MD, PhD
Professor, Pediatrics and Microbiology & Immunology
Director, Center for Microbiome Research
Director, GI Clinical Laboratory
Associate Director, MSTP
CRI Research Unit Leader for Infection, Inflammation and Immunology Research Unit
Medical College of Wisconsin
Research: Intestinal enterococcal dynamics: modeling host-commensal and host-pathogen interactions

Joyce L. Sanchez, MD, FACP
Associate Professor of Medicine, Infectious Diseases
Medical College of Wisconsin
Medical Director, Travel Health Clinic
Medical Director, Infusion Clinics
Research: Travel medicine, vector-borne disease

Tara Sander Lee, PhD
Senior Fellow and Director of Life Sciences
Charlotte Lozier Institute
Research: Investigating congenital heart disease in children

Christina Spofford, MD, PhD, FASA
Associate Professor, Anesthesiology
Medical College of Wisconsin
MCW MSTP Alumni
Anesthesiology
Froedtert & the Medical College of Wisconsin

Aoy Tomita-Mitchell, PhD
Professor, Surgery-Congenital Heart
Medical College of Wisconsin
Research: Targeted, high sensitive, non-invasive cardiac transplant rejection monitoring

The lunches with women faculty really help show us different career paths for women in research. More importantly to me, they give us ideas for different strategies for having a family with such a demanding career. I think this is especially helpful because it's on a lot of our minds. It also gives us a support system to talk about some of the issues with fitting in family planning with the long road of our program and following training.

It is nice to hear words of wisdom from female faculty who have gone down the same path and succeeded in their journey.