Illinois Medicine

faculty news The la t est ac c omp lishmen t s o f o u r d i s t i n g u i s h e d fac u l t y VARMA APPOINTED OPHTHALMOLOGY & VISUAL SCIENCES HEAD, ASSOCIATE DEAN FOR STRATEGIC PLANNING Rohit Varma, MD, MPH, has been appointed head of the department of ophthalmology and visual sciences and associate dean for strategic planning at Illinois Medicine. Varma, recipient of the most NIH funding toward vision research in 2012, previously was a tenured professor of ophthalmology and preventive medicine, and director of the Glaucoma Service, Ocular Epidemiology Center and the Clinical Trials Unit at the Doheny Eye Institute at the Keck School of Medicine, University of Southern California. Varma's research focuses primarily on epidemiologic studies of eye disease in minority populations. He is an expert on how glaucoma changes the optic nerve and on how new imaging techniques assist in the early diagnosis of glaucomatous optic nerve damage. Varma is the principal investigator on three large NIH-funded community-based studies — the Los Angeles Latino Eye Study, the MultiRohit Varma Ethnic Pediatric Eye Diseases Study and the Chinese American Eye Study — and he also serves as principal investigator on World Health Organization-funded studies that assess the prevalence and socioeconomic burden of near vision impairment. He serves on the editorial board of Ophthalmology, the journal of the American Academy of Ophthalmology; as a member of several ophthalmological national and international organizations; and as the chair of the American Academy of Ophthalmology Public Health Committee. GOLEMON NAMED Thomas and Ellen FOSTER ENDOWED CHAIR Thomas B. Golemon, MD, chair of the Peoria department of family and community medicine, has been named the Thomas and Ellen Foster Endowed Chair in Family and Community Medicine. Golemon, also a professor of clinical family medicine, joined the department Thomas B. Golemon in 1989. He serves on several leadership committees at both the college and affiliated Methodist Medical Center and holds an active staff appointment at Methodist while serving on the education committee at the Heartland Community Health Clinic. Golemon also teaches patient care and outpatient clinical dermatology to residents and medical students. The Thomas and Ellen Foster Endowed Chair was created in 1997 to further the education and training of medical practitioners in family and community medicine, providing funding for faculty development, physician training and travel to national conferences. 10 | Spr i n g 2 013 BURNS named ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR OF MEDICAL MICROBIOLOGY Christopher Burns, PhD, has joined Illinois Medicine as associate professor of medical microbiology, where he will serve as course coordinator for medical microbiology and basic immunology for first- and second-year medical students in Urbana-Champaign. He arrives from the University of Virginia College of Medicine, where he played a major role as a course coordinator and curriculum development leader, Christopher Burns displaying a notable ability to integrate and coordinate several disciplines. Burns has gained practical experience in both problembased and team-based learning, and he has developed materials and trained faculty and students in these new teaching modalities. His expertise could also be made available through the campus Teaching Academy, making him a campuswide asset. SKIDGEL RECEIVES FREY & WERLE FOUNDATION RESEARCH PRIZE Randal A. Skidgel, PhD, was awarded the E.K. Frey & E. Werle Foundation Research Prize and gave an award lecture at the 3rd International Congress on Vasoactive and Inflammatory Mediators, Kinin 2012 in Paris Randal A. Skidgel last June. The E.K. Frey & E. Werle Commemorative Gold Medal is awarded to scientists who have made outstanding contributions to the body of knowledge about the role of the kallikrein-kinin system. TEKIAN AWARDED 2012 ASME GOLD MEDAL Ara Tekian, PhD, associate professor and associate dean, international affairs, has received the prestigious 2012 Gold Medal award from the Association for the Study of Medical Education, presented to an individual who has made outstanding contributions to high-quality research, medical excellence, good educational practices and stronger relationships throughout health care education. Tekian has organized and conducted more than 150 workshops in more than 40 Ara Tekian countries. He organized the first international medical education conferences in Germany, the United Emirates, Pakistan and Qatar, and he has established medical education departments in a number of different countries in the Middle East. Tekian also initiated the first health professions education master's programs in India and Brazil, and he co-initiated the first one in Switzerland. KASHIMA, ERICKSON Take INTERIM EDUCATIONAL AFFAIRS POSTS Kathleen Kashima, PhD, senior associate dean of students, has been named interim senior associate dean for undergraduate Kathleen Kashima medical education, and Timothy Erickson, MD, director for the Center for Global Health and a professor of emergency medicine and medical toxiTimothy Erickson cology, has been named interim senior associate dean for graduate and continuing medical education. They will combine to fill the shoes of Saul J. Weiner, MD, professor of medicine, pediatrics and medical education at the college, who has departed as senior associate dean for educational affairs to become vice provost for planning and programs at the University of Illinois at Chicago. SHAHIDI, NIEDERBERGER RECEIVE OTM AWARDS The Office of Technology Management at the University of Illinois at Chicago has named Mahnaz Shahidi, PhD,

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