Anesthesiology

Meera Gangadharan, MBBS
Assistant Professor

Dr. Gangadharan’s area of expertise is pediatrics with experience in cardiac and transplant anesthesia. She will practice at the Driscoll Children’s Hospital in Corpus Christi. 

Dr. Gangadharan earned her MBBS degree (Bachelor of Medicine and Bachelor of Surgery) from Jawaharlal Institute of Post Graduate Medical Education and Research in Pondicherry, India.  Following graduate training at the University of Connecticut Health Science Center, she completed a pediatric residency at the MetroHealth Medical Center, Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, OH.  She served a residency at the UT Health Science Center, San  Antonio and pediatric anesthesia fellowship at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia.

Michelle Simon, MD
Assistant Professor

Dr. Simon specializes in obstetric anesthesia and will practice in Galveston.

Dr. Simon earned her MD degree from the Medical School University of Costa Rica, San Jose, Costa Rica, where she completed her internship and an anesthesiology residency. Her postgraduate training includes rotations in pediatric and anesthesiology at the University of Miami. She also participated in a six-week observership in obstetric anesthesia and completed a fellowship in the Department of Anesthesiology at UTMB. 

Dr. Simon worked in private practice in San Jose, Costa Rica from 2005-2009.

Family Medicine

Tricia Elliott, MD, FAAFP
Associate Professor

Dr. Elliott’s interests include residency education, preventive medicine, chronic disease management, women’s health, community medicine, patient education and health care advocacy. She will lead the residency program as Director. Additionally, Dr. Elliott will be the Medical Director for the Family Medicine Clinic at UHC.

Dr. Elliott earned her Bachelor of Arts degree from Rice University, her medical degree from UTMB, and completed her residency in family medicine at the Albert Einstein/Montefiore Medical Center Residency Program in Social Medicine.  She is board certified in family medicine by the American Board of Family Medicine.  She is a fellow of the American Academy of Family Physicians, a member of the Harris County Medical Society, Texas Academy of Family Physicians, Harris County Academy of Family Physicians, Society of Teachers in Family Medicine, Association of Family Medicine Residency Directors, and the Medical Group Management Association.   Dr. Elliott previously served as the program director of the Baylor College of Medicine/Kelsey-Seybold Clinic Family Medicine Residency Program and Clinical Associate Professor of Family and Community Medicine at Baylor College of Medicine, while practicing at the Kelsey-Seybold Clinic. 

Obstetrics and Gynecology

Olga Swanson, MD
Instructor

Dr. Swanson specializes in gynecology.  She earned her MD degree from Wayne State University School of Medicine in Detroit, MI, and completed her residency in obstetrics and gynecology at the William Beaumont Hospital in Royal Oak, MI.  She will see patients at the Obstetrics and Gynecology clinic in Galveston.

Prior to coming to UTMB, Dr. Swanson was in private practice at Mount Clemens Medical Center in Michigan.

Otolaryngology

Paul Brindley, MD, FACS
Assistant Professor

Dr. Brindley’s clinical interest is general otolaryngology.  He is board certified by the American Board of Otolaryngology.  He will see patients at the TDC and UHC clinics.

Dr. Brindley earned his MD degree from UTMB, where he also completed an internship and residency training.  He previously was employed by the Houston ENT Clinic.

Farrah Siddiqui, MD
Assistant Professor

Dr. Siddiqui’s clinical interests are sinusitis, ear infections, tonsillitis, snoring, sleep apnea, tinnitus, and dizziness.  She is board certified by the American Board of Otolaryngology.  She will provide patient care at the Family HealthCare Center, Mainland Crossing in Texas City and the Ear, Nose and Throat Consultants, Brittany Plaza in League City.

Dr. Siddiqui earned her medical degree from the Aga Khan University Medical College in Karachi, Pakistan.  She completed an internship in general surgery and residency in otolaryngology, head and neck surgery from the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences.  She previously was employed at the Allergy ENT Clinic of Northeast Texas.

Tammara, Watts, MD, PhD
Assistant Professor

Dr. Watts’ clinical interests are head and neck surgery, sleep apnea, and microvascular and facial plastic reconstructive surgery.  She is board certified by the American Board of Otolaryngology.  She will see patients at  the Ear, Nose and Throat Consultants, Brittany Plaza in League City, and at the Cancer Center - Dickinson Clinic.

Dr. Watts earned her MD degree from the University of Maryland.  She completed her internship and residency in otolaryngology at the Medical College of Georgia.  She also completed a fellowship in microvascular and facial plastic reconstructive surgery at the Oregon Health and Science University, where she previously was employed.

Pathology

Patricia Aguilar, PhD

Assistant Professor

Dr. Aguilar earned her degree in pharmacy from the Universidad Nacional Mayor de San Marcos in Lima, Peru. She earned her PhD degree in microbiology and immunology from UTMB and later completed postdoctoral research at Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York from 2005-2008.

Prior to joining UTMB, Dr. Aguilar served as a Research Scientist in the Department of Virology, U.S. Naval Medical Research Center Detachment in Lima, Peru from 2008-2010.

Alexander Bukreyev, PhD

Professor

Dr. Bukreyev earned his PhD degree in 1993 studying Marburg virus, a filovirus, at the Vector Institute (Russia). In 1995, he joined the Laboratory of Infectious Diseases (LID) at the NIAID as a visiting fellow, and in 2000, served as a staff scientist.  At the NIH, his research focused on molecular and immunological studies of respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) and also on the development of vectored vaccines against emerging and respiratory viruses, including Ebola virus, RSV, human parainfluenza virus type 3 (HPIV3), SARS coronavirus, and highly pathogenic H5N1 avian influenza virus.  During his career, he has acquired experience in molecular virology of non-segmented, negative-strand viruses, including the use or development of reverse genetic systems of five such viruses, in viral immunology and in vaccinology. He has also acquired extensive experience working in BSL-4 and BSL-3 laboratories.

At UTMB he plans to focus on investigating molecular mechanisms of pathogenicity and immune evasion of Ebola and Marburg viruses and the development of vaccines against these and other highly pathogenic viruses.

Naomi Forrester, PhD

Assistant Professor

Dr. Forrester earned her PhD degree from the University of Liverpool in the UK, where she studied the molecular epidemiology of rabbit haemorrhagic disease virus. This led to her interest in the evolution of viruses within the host and vector. In 2007 she completed a post-doctoral fellowship at UTMB in the lab of Dr. Scott Weaver. In her current lab under the mentorship of Dr. Weaver she is studying the role that intra-host variation plays in the evolution and maintenance of the virus in the environment.

Dr. Forrester is currently working on Venezuelan equine encephalitis virus and the mosquito vector Culex taeniopus to understand the way in which the virus adapts to infecting both the mosquito and mammalian host. Her research should provide valuable insight into the strategies the virus employs to successfully infect both the host and vector, potentially leading to more effective therapies. Her career goal is to pursue academic research in the field of viral evolution.

Alex Freiberg, PhD

Assistant Professor

Dr. Freiberg’s areas of interest are viral pathogenesis, virus assembly, and vaccine and antiviral drug development. His special focus is on host immune responses to Nipah and Hendra virus infection, as well as structural studies on bunyaviruses. In collaboration with partners in academia and in biotechnology, his laboratory is also working on the identification and characterization of broad spectrum antivirals and on testing novel vaccine platforms against diverse BSL-4 viruses.

Dr. Freiberg earned his PhD degree in physical biochemistry from the University of Potsdam, Germany. He completed postdoctoral research at UTMB from May 2005 – November 2009, where he was trained in arbovirology and structural virology.

Bin Gong, MD, PhD

Assistant Professor

Dr. Gong is currently the Assistant Scientific Director of the Experimental Pathology Core in the Galveston National Laboratory.  His research activities include studies on the vascular pathobiology of infectious diseases.

Dr. Gong attended the Second Military Medical University in Shanghai, China, where he earned his medical degree, and his PhD degree at Changhai Hospital. He continued his education at the Department of Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgery, Massachusetts General Hospital as a visiting surgeon before joining UTMB’s Center for Biomedical Engineering as an exchange visiting scientist in March 2000.  He trained in Dr. Paul Boor’s laboratory as a postdoctoral fellow beginning in June 2003, during which time he won three nationwide trainee awards for his outstanding achievement in the study of “Fetal Basis of Dissecting Aortic Aneurysm.”

Nikos Vasilakis, PhD

Assistant Professor

Dr. Vasilakis earned his BA and MA degrees in biology from Hofstra University. He worked for a number of years at Wyeth Research, where he developed vaccine candidates for pediatric diseases based on alphavirus gene delivery systems.

Dr. Vasilakis returned to academia to obtain his PhD degree from UTMB, studying sylvatic dengue in the lab of Dr. Scott Weaver.  After a brief postdoctoral position at the University of Pittsburgh, he came back to UTMB, where he studies the evolution and pathogenesis of arthropod-borne viruses, virus–mosquito, and virus–host interactions using sylvatic dengue as a model.

Pediatrics

Natalie Ayala, MD

Assistant Professor

Dr. Ayala specializes in pediatric urgent and emergent care.  She will see patients at the Pediatric Urgent Care Clinics in Galveston and League City.

Dr. Ayala earned her medical degree from UTMB, where she completed her residency training in pediatrics in 2010.

Sapna Sutaria, MD

Clinical Assistant Professor

Dr. Sutaria specializes in pediatric urgent and emergent care.  Her interests include medical student education and global health. She will see patients at the Pediatric Urgent Care Clinics in Galveston and League City.  She is board certified as a Diplomate of the American Board of Pediatrics and is a Fellow of the American Academy of Pediatrics.

Dr. Sutaria earned her undergraduate degree with honors from the University of Texas at Austin and her MD degree from the Texas A&M Health Science Center College of Medicine. After completing her residency in pediatrics at UTMB, Dr. Sutaria joined Baylor College of Medicine in Houston as full-time faculty in the Department of Pediatrics, Section of Emergency Medicine. She was appointed to the medical staff on the emergency medicine service of Texas Children’s Hospital and on the pediatrics service of Ben Taub General Hospital.

Prior to joining UTMB, Dr. Sutaria was in clinical practice at a private pediatric urgent care clinic in Sugar Land, TX.

Preventive Medicine and Community Health

Sarah Tom, PhD, MPH 

Assistant Professor

Dr. Tom’s research examines health and mortality from mid-life through later life, with emphasis on menopause, sleep, and disability. She is currently an Interdisciplinary Women's Health Research (IWHR) Scholar. Dr. Tom joins the Department of Preventive Medicine and Community Health following postdoctoral experience at the Medical Research Council Unit for Lifelong Health and Ageing in the United Kingdom, the National Institute on Aging, and the Group Health Research Institute.

Dr. Tom earned four degrees from the University of California, Berkeley: BA in economics, MA in demography, MPH in epidemiology, and PhD in demography. 

Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences

Soo Chong, MD
Assistant Professor

Dr. Chong has studied chemical synthesis of non-hydrolyzable neurosteroid sulfate mimic via utilization of parallel synthetic. 

Dr. Chong earned his BA degree in chemistry from Boston University, Boston, MA, graduating magna cum laude, and his MD from the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey, Robert Wood Johnson Medical School in Piscataway, NJ.  He completed a residency in the Department of Psychiatry at the University of Florida College of Medicine.  Prior to coming to UTMB, Dr. Chong served a fellowship in addiction psychiatry at the Dallas VA Medical Center.

Dr. Chong provides care for adult patients at the Psychiatry clinic in Webster.

Lisamar Maldonado, MD

Assistant Professor

Dr. Maldonado’s areas of clinical interest are psychosomatic medicine and pediatrics as well as, depression, anxiety and attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD).

Dr. Maldonado earned her Bachelor’s degree in biology and her medical degree from the University of Puerto Rico.  She completed a combined residency training program in pediatrics, adult psychiatry and child and adolescent psychiatry at Tulane University in New Orleans, where she also was previously employed. 

Dr. Maldonado provides care at UTMB through telepsychiatry and will also see patients at the new Pediatrics clinic n League City.

Radiation Oncology

Todd Swanson, MD, PhD
Assistant Professor

Dr. Swanson earned his Bachelor of Arts and Sciences (BAS) degree in political science and genetics at the University of California-Davis.  He earned his MD degree and PhD degree in microbiology and immunology from Rosalind Franklin University of Medicine and Science.  He completed a transitional year internship and a residency in radiation oncology at the William Beaumont Hospital in Royal Oak, MI, where he served as chief resident. 

Dr. Swanson will provide care at the UTMB Department of Radiation Oncology.

Surgery

Lorraine Choi, MD

Assistant Professor

Dr. Choi specializes in vascular surgery. Her areas of interest are endovascular and open aortic reconstruction, complex peripheral arterial disease (PAD), vascular trauma, thoracic outlet syndrome, and clinical outcomes research.

Dr. Choi earned her MD degree from SUNY Downstate, Brooklyn, NY.  She completed a residency in general surgery and a fellowship in vascular surgery at the Michael E. DeBakey Department of Surgery, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, TX.

Dr. Choi will provide patient care in Galveston and at the Surgical Specialty Care Clinics at Victory Lakes

Aakash Gajjar, MD

Assistant Professor

Dr. Gajjar specializes in colorectal surgery.  His areas of interest are colonoscopy, inflammatory bowel disease, laparoscopy, diverticular disease, rectal prolapse, fecal incontinence, hemorrhoids, colon and rectal cancer. 

Dr. Gajjar earned his MD degree from the University of Texas Health Science Center-San Antonio, San Antonio, TX.  He completed a residency at the University of Oklahoma College of Medicine, Tulsa, OK, and a fellowship at the University of Texas Health Science Center-Houston, Houston, TX.

Dr. Gajjar will provide patient care in Galveston as well as the Medical and Surgical Clinic in Friendswood and the Surgical Specialty Care Clinics at Victory Lakes.

Institute for the Medical Humanities

Orkideh Behrouzan, MD, PhD

Assistant Professor

Dr. Behrouzan is an Assistant Professor in medical anthropology at the UTMB Institute for the Medical Humanities. Her research focuses on mental health, medicalization, subjectivity, health policy, and comparative cultural critique of biomedical paradigms. She has used comparative analysis of societal and professional cultures in the United States and Iran as a template for critical interdisciplinary approaches in global health policy.

Dr. Behrouzan earned her MD degree from Tehran University School of Medicine, Iran, and PhD from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) History and Anthropology of Science Technology and Society (HASTS) Program, Cambridge, MA. Before coming to the United States in 2005, she was a graduate student and a research scholar in the Department of Clinical Medicine at the University of Oxford, UK , where she studied molecular genetics of fibrodysplasia at the Botnar Research Centre, University of Oxford Institute of Musculoskeletal Sciences.

Dr. Behrouzan is fluent in English and French (as well as her native Persian), and competent in Spanish and classic Arabic.

Mark Clark, PhD

Assistant Professor

Dr. Clark’s areas of expertise include literature and medicine, narrative medicine, life-writing, and spirituality and health. 

He earned his PhD degree at Michigan State University, where his fields of specialization included Literary Theory, British Romanticism, and Victorian Literature.  While teaching pre-med students at Michigan State, he developed an interest in medical humanities, and, as an Assistant Professor at Saint Louis University, he continued to cultivate this interest.  In St. Louis, he established and directed a 21-semester hour undergraduate certificate program in medical humanities.  He remains committed to promoting education in the medical humanities at the undergraduate level.

Jerome Crowder, PhD

Assistant Professor

Dr. Crowder trained as a medical anthropologist, earning his PhD degree in anthropology from the University of Pittsburgh.

Dr. Crowder has ongoing research projects in east Houston, studying the use of technology in underserved communities, as well as in La Paz, Bolivia, investigating the processes of migration and urbanization on health decision-making strategies.

Rebecca Hester, MA, PhD

Assistant Professor

Dr. Hester specializes in health disparities, cultural competency, immigration and health politics, and social studies of the body.

Dr. Hester earned her PhD degree in politics with an emphasis on Latin American and Latino Studies at the University of California, Santa Cruz.  She has worked closely with the Mexican migrant population as a consultant, evaluator and researcher for the development and implementation of health promotion programs.

Institute for Translational Sciences

Suresh Bhavnani, PhD

Associate Professor

Dr. Bhavnani is associate professor of biomedical informatics in the Institute for Translational Sciences (ITS), and holds a secondary appointment in the Department of Preventive Medicine and Community Health, and an adjunct associate professor appointment at the School of Biomedical Informatics in UT Houston. Prior to joining the faculty at UTMB, he was a faculty member at the Center for Computational Medicine and Bioinformatics, University of Michigan Medical School.

Dr. Bhavnani earned a PhD degree in computational design and human-computer interaction from Carnegie Mellon University. He specializes in network visualization and analysis of biomedical data, with translation of the results to the design of decision-support systems. His research in network analysis has received an outstanding paper award in bioinformatics, and a distinguished paper award in medical informatics from the American Medical Informatics Association. In addition, he has received an outstanding research mentorship award from the University of Michigan, and the Rising STARs award for $250,000 from the University of Texas Systems to establish the new Discovery and Innovation through Visual Analytics (DIVA) lab at UTMB. Dr. Bhavnani is PI of a recent grant from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which will enable him to use networks and other visual analytical methods to help first responders rapidly identify toxic chemicals during emergencies.

In the picture, Dr. Bhavnani shows two networks which, through close collaboration with physicians and researchers at UTMB, revealed complex patterns related to the co-occurrence of cytokines across asthma patients (left), and across burn patients (right). Such analysis should lead to more effective ways for classifying patients based on molecular profiles resulting in improved diagnosis and treatment. More about Dr. Bhavnani’s research is available at: http://skbhavnani.com/DIVA/

School of Health Professions

Laura Lawrence, MPAS, PA-C

Assistant Professor

Ms. Lawrence is a licensed and board certified Physician Assistant.  She earned a BA degree in biology with a minor in chemistry from St. Mary’s University in San Antonio, TX.  She earned her Master’s degree in Physician Assistant Studies from UTMB in 2006. 

Ms. Lawrence previously worked at Bay Area Gastroenterology in Webster, TX.

Timothy Reistetter, PhD, OTR

Assistant Professor

Dr. Reistetter’s areas of research are upper extremity movement and function, spasticity and movement disorders, community integration and driving, and rehabilitation approaches for adults with neurological difficulties. His clinical expertise is primarily adult rehabilitation with a focus on brain injury and stroke rehabilitation.

Dr. Reistetter earned his Bachelor’s degree in psychology from Old Dominion University, and his Master’s and Doctorate degrees in occupational therapy from Shenandoah University and Texas Woman’s University, respectively. In 2006, he joined the faculty at East Carolina University and started an upper extremity motion laboratory focusing on measurement and intervention approaches for rehabilitation. He is a board certified and licensed occupational therapist in Texas and North Carolina.

Kyle Timmerman, PhD

Assistant Professor

Dr.  Timmerman joins the SHP in the Division of Rehabilitation Sciences and also serves as a Fellow in the Sealy Center on Aging.  His area of expertise is exercise physiology and muscle metabolism.

Dr. Zimmerman earned a BS degree in psychology and BA degree in zoology and exercise science from Miami University.  He also earned MS and PhD degrees in exercise physiology at Purdue University.

Prior to his appointment in the SHP, Dr. Timmerman completed a postdoctoral research fellowship at the Sealy Center on Aging.

Jianzhi  Zhang, MD, MS

Assistant Professor

Dr. Zhang’s research interests generally fall into two categories: pathogenesis, host defense and immunity, and diagnostics of obligate intracellular bacteria, such as Rickettsia, Ehrlichia and Chlamydia; and diagnostic virology and microbiology.

Dr. Zhang earned a MS degree in microbiology and immunology from the Chinese Academy for Preventive Medicine in Beijing, and MD degree from the University of Shihezi, Shihezi Medical College, Xinjiang province, P.R. of China.  She completed the Categorical Certification Program in Microbiology in the Department of Clinical Laboratory Science at UTMB, where she also received postdoctoral training from 2001-2007.        

School of Nursing

Ginger Davis, RN, MSN, MHA

Nursing Instructor

Ms. Davis' area of expertise is maternal and child health nursing. As Director of a Women's Service Line, her area of interest was to drive changes to implement evidence-based, family-centered care in the hospital setting. 

Ms. Davis earned her BSN, MSN and MHA degrees from the University of Phoenix. She previously was employed as a nursing consultant to manage the maternal educational segment for a fortune 500 company.