Dear VTCSOM Family,

This year, there were 19 VTCSOM faculty members across seven academic departments who successfully underwent the process of promotion in rank. A hearty congratulations to each of these colleagues on achieving an important career milestone! We will recognize these newly promoted faculty at a reception on September 17, 2024.

Faculty promotion, which is a process based on peer recognition of achievement, is a topic of widespread interest across U.S. medical schools. Numerous scholarly articles describe the standards and processes followed to assess promotion candidates and/or comment on the equity of the process for various faculty groups. Surprisingly, however, there has been little written about the motivation for faculty to seek promotion. Why seek promotion in academic rank?

The answer is likely a combination of intrinsic and extrinsic factors.  A growth mindset and commitment to lifelong learning are characteristics of faculty who seek promotion.  Undoubtedly, promotion in rank is widely considered to be an important indicator of career success in academic settings. Achieving a higher rank may also be associated with increased prestige, leadership role opportunities, and (in many instances) financial rewards. Many faculty members are likely encouraged by a peer, mentor, or departmental leader to seek promotion.  

Promotion also benefits the wider communities of the faculty member. The reputations of both academic institutions and specific disciplines/specialties benefit as their faculty members achieve higher ranks. The recruitment of new faculty and resident physicians is likely also impacted positively by having a larger number of existing faculty at higher ranks. And, promotion in rank of faculty from underrepresented groups can help change the composition of leaders in academic medicine, thus broadening our leadership diversity.

Promotion and tenure are important career transitions for academic faculty. Academic medicine presents unique circumstances and challenges for faculty members who wish to be promoted and achieve their ultimate career goals. Much has been written about the need for active mentorship of junior faculty in support of their first promotion in rank (typically from assistant to associate professor). VTCSOM views the mentorship process, at both departmental and school levels, as critically important to overall faculty success at all career stages.

The Office of Faculty Affairs is here to assist any faculty member who desires to seek promotion in rank. For more information, please see the Faculty Affairs web page here and click on the “applying for promotion” tab. Your department chair can also lend great advice on this topic.  Our collective goal is to help you achieve your goals by providing personalized guidance at every step along the way!

David W. Musick, Ph.D.

Senior Dean, Faculty Affairs

Editor’s note: The next issue of Progress Notes will be published Monday, August 5. All submissions should be sent to Catherine Doss and Josh Meyer (cdoss@vt.edu,  meyej@vt.edu) no later than Monday, July 15.

News Around Campus

Social Media

Events 

  • July 9 @ 5:30 p.m. – Art show opening reception 
  • July 11 @ 5 p.m. – VTCSOM Alumni After Hours at Star Hill Brewery
  • July 25 @ 5:30 p.m. – VTCSOM new curriculum kick-off event
  • July 29 – Class of 2028 arrives on campus for orientation
  • August 16 – White Coat Ceremony

Humanism Notes 

Consider experiencing life from another person’s perspective. If you could hear what they hear, see what they see, and feel what they feel, would it change the way you treat them? This video from the Cleveland Clinic sends a simple, yet powerful message of which we all can be reminded. 

Empathy: The Human Connection to Patient Care

Recognitions

Congratulations to Angelica Witcher Walker, assistant dean for student vitality and director of student affairs, who was nominated and selected to serve as a 2024-2025 American Council on Education, Virginia Network Senior Leadership Seminarian.

TEACH faculty Mariah Rudd, Sarah Harendt, and Shari Whicker received a Virginia Tech Center for Excellence in Teaching and Learning grant to conduct a pilot study focused on applying novel self-direct learning modalities to Residents as Teachers (RaT) training.

Publishing

Nicholas Rider, professor in the Department of Health Systems and Implementation Science, and colleagues, published “A second slice of FPIES: A single center reappraisal of pediatric FPIES” in the Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology: In Practice.

Rider and collaborators published “Improving clinical practice through patient registries in allergy and immunology” in the Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology: In Practice.

Reporting on results from the Accelerating COVID-19 Therapeutic Interventions and Vaccines (ACTIV)-3: Therapeutics for Inpatients with COVID-19 (TICO) global clinical trial, Stephanie Nagy-Agren, professor in the Department of Internal Medicine, and many collaborators worldwide, published “Early trajectories of virological and immunological biomarkers and clinical outcomes in patients admitted to hospital for COVID-19: an international, prospective cohort study” in The Lancet Microbe.

Benjamin Tintera, Class of 2024, recently published as part of his domain research project, “Irreversible electroporation promotes a pro-inflammatory tumor microenvironment and anti-tumor immunity in a mouse pancreatic cancer model,” along with his mentor and VTCSOM and VT faculty member Coy Allen, Virginia Tech faculty members Sheryl Coutermarsh-Ott and Rafael Davalos, and a number of Virginia Tech students and alumni, in Frontiers in Immunology.

As part of his research domain project, Kory Cablay, Class of 2022, published “Total intravenous anesthesia with propofol reduces discharge times compared with inhaled general anesthesia in shoulder arthroscopy: A randomized controlled trial,” in the Journal of Bone and Joint Surgery, along with his mentor, VTCSOM faculty member, and Carilion physician John Tuttle, Lucas Arney, Class of 2025, Carilion physicians and VTCSOM faculty members George Smith, Ali Kazemi, and Julie Joseph, and Carilion colleagues Nicholas Peterman and Andrea Yu-Shan.

As part of his research domain project, Sankar Muthukumar, Class of 2025, along with his mentor, VTCSOM faculty member, and Carilion physician Mark Witcher, Steve Thomas, Class of 2027, VTCSOM faculty member and Carilion physician Jackson Kiser, and Carilion physicians Austin Hoggarth and James Crowley, published “Clinical theranostics in recurrent gliomas: A review” in Cancers.

As part of their research domain projects, Martin Barylak and Stephanie Hamlin, both Class of 2024, their mentor and VT faculty Robin Queen, and VT faculty member Sara Arena, published “End-stage ankle arthritis alters dynamic stability during gait as measured by margin of stability between limbs and compared to healthy controls in Gait Posture.”

Kasen Hutchings and Patrick Beck, both Class of 2024 and co-first authors with Kevin Pridham, formerly of FBRI, and their mentor and VTCSOM and FBRI faculty member Zhi Sheng, published “Selective regulation of chemosensitivity in glioblastoma by phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase beta” in iScience. Co-authors included Eileen Xu, Class of 2025, and other colleagues from FBRI and Pennsylvania State University.

Patrick Barrett, Class of 2023 and first author, along with his mentor, Peter Apel, and Cesar Bravo, both VTCSOM faculty members and Carilion physicians, and other researchers, published results of his research domain project as “Provision of a home-based video-assisted therapy program is noninferior to in-person hand therapy after thumb carpometacarpal arthroplasty” in the Journal of Bone and Joint Surgery. 

Liliana Ladner, Class of 2025, along with several other investigators, published “Global disparities in the presentation and management of aneurysmal subarachnoid hemorrhage (aSAH): A review and analysis” in World Neurosurgery.

Nneoma Edokobi and Brandon Ganjineh, both Class of 2024, along with VTCSOM faculty members and Carilion physicians Everett Magann and Megan Whitham (Class of 2015), and Mara Ulin, published “The impact of environmental and occupational noise on maternal and perinatal pregnancy outcomes” in Obstetrical and Gynecological Survey.

Casey Engel, Class of 2024, is first-author on “Virtual state-wide dermatology advocacy day promotes advocacy efforts amongst medical trainees,” which was published in Archives of Dermatological Research. Co-authors include VTCSOM faculty member Alison Tegge and others from around the country.

Engel, again first author, and VTCSOM faculty member and Carilion physician Zachary Holcomb published “A Review of the Use of Intravenous Immunoglobulin Therapy in Dermatology.”

Grace Casado, Class of 2026, is first author on “Paraneoplastic ocular sarcoid-like reaction in the setting of pulmonary sarcoid-like reaction and lung adenocarcinoma: A case report and literature review,” published in the American Journal of Ophthalmology Case Reports. Co-authors include VTCSOM faculty member and Carilion/Vistar physician Vishak John and colleagues from the University of Virginia School of Medicine. 

Ethan Nethery, Class of 2025, with colleagues from Mayo Clinic and MI Technological University, published “Are adverse events during surgery for benign prostatic hyperplasia device related? A review of the MAUDE database” in Urologia.

Posters and Presentations

Sarah Harendt, Mariah Rudd, and Shari Whicker with TEACH; Natalie Karp, Health Systems Science and Interprofessional Practice Domain Co-Director; and Lisa Allison-Jones, vice chair for interprofessionalism; presented their poster "Bringing Health Systems Science and Interprofessional (HSSIP) Education Alive in the Clinical Environment: An Innovative Faculty Development Approach to Prepare Health Professional Learners as Systems Citizens" at the 2024 International Association of Medical Science Educators annual conference last month.

Welcome New Faculty

  • Internal Medicine – David King
  • Family and Community Medicine – Christopher Olsen and Adam Tate
  • Surgery – Eric Mulkey
  • Health Systems and Implementation Science – Cara Spivey

Alumni Updates

  • Lindsay DeGeorge ’15 and Robert Varipapa ’15 had their second son Leo Phillip on July 12, 2024. He joins his big brother, Gus, who was born on May 8, 2021.
  • Anna and Brett Melnikoff , both Class of 2016 welcomed a baby girl Cecile Virginia “CeCe” on March 14, 2023. She joins big sister Ellie, age 5. The Melnikoff family has also recently moved to Chattanooga, TN, where Brett has joined The Chattanooga Heart Institute as an adult cardiothoracic surgeon and Anna continues in OB/Gyn private practice.
  • Andrew Barr ’19 was named Neonatal-Perinatal Medicine Chief Fellow for the 2024-2025 academic year at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center.
  • Ellen Hammett ’19 had a baby girl, named Louise, on November 5, 2022.
  • Adam Heilmann ’19 is a Medical Education Fellow at Washington University in St. Louis.
  • Justine McGiboney ’20 will graduate from Hospice and Palliative Medicine fellowship at UAB in June 2024 and will then stay on at UAB as faculty with dual appointments in both emergency medicine and inpatient palliative medicine.
  • Lena Turkheimer ’20 and Mark Owen welcomed their second baby boy, Becker Riley Owen, on April 2, 2024. He joins big brother Jack.
  • Michael Shlossman ’21 matched into the Pulmonary and Critical Care Fellowship at the University of Iowa.

Attention Roanoke Area Alumni! Please join us for an After Hours Social!
After Hours at Star Hill Brewery
July 11  5-7 p.m.
Let us know you’re coming  https://aimsbbis.vt.edu/vtcsomroahappyhour

Attention all VTCSOM Alumni:
Interested in returning to Roanoke or the surrounding areas to work and play?  Carilion Clinic has outstanding employment opportunities available in many specialties. Visit Carilionclinic.org, scroll to Careers and then Physician Careers for more information. You may also reach out to Andrea Henson, director of physician recruitment & onboarding  (ahenson@carilionclinic.org) or 540-224-5241.

Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Update 

Below are July holidays and celebrations.

July is Disability Pride Month

1: Canada Day/Fête du Canada 

4:  Independence Day

7-8:  Hijri New Year

9: The Martyrdom of the Bab

11:  St. Benedict Day

14:  International Nonbinary People’s Day

14: Bastille Day

15:  St. Vladimir of the Great Day

16–17 (sundown to sundown):  Ashura

18:  Nelson Mandela International Day

21:  Asalha Puja/Dharma Day

25:  St. James the Greater Day

26:  Disability Independence Day, anniversary of the Americans with Disabilities Act

27: Black Women’s Equal Pay Day 

30:  International Day of Friendship

Take Note

K-12 Student Engagement at VTCSOM 
Interested in opportunities to engage with K-12 students interested in health care? Click here to sign up for the upcoming session! For more information, contact Sophia Minor at sophiam@vt.edu.

Undergraduate Student Engagement at VTSCOM
Interested in opportunities to engage with Undergraduate Students in healthcare? Click here to sign up for the upcoming session! For more information, contact Sophia Minor at sophiam@vt.edu.

GME Newsletter
The GME office has a quarterly electronic newsletter that highlights our programs as well as the accomplishments of our residents, fellows, and faculty.  If you would like to receive the newsletter, please send an email to Alaina Lawrence at aabradford@carilionclinic.org.

The Last Note

“He was speechless!” A group of spirited VTCSOM students orchestrated a flash mob last month in honor of Senior Dean for Student Affairs Aubrey Knight as he prepares to step away from his current post to be Phase 2 Director. The student tribute was a testament to the indelible mark their dean had left on their lives and their journey through medical school.