Faculty

Amy Blatt, MD 
Professor of Medicine and Pediatrics
William L. Morgan, Jr. Professorship in Medicine

Dr. Blatt is Program Director for the Internal Medicine Residency. She was a resident and chief resident in the Medicine-Pediatrics Residency at the University of Rochester from 2002 to 2007. She served as Director for the Internal Medicine Third Year Clerkship from 2016 through 2021 and Associate Program Director for the Internal Medicine and Internal Medicine-Pediatrics residencies before becoming Program Director in 2022. She has worked as an adult and pediatric hospitalist and currently attends on the adult inpatient teaching service at Strong Memorial Hospital. Her academic interests include learner assessment, addressing bias in the clinical learning environment, and the transition from undergraduate to graduate medical education. Outside of work, she enjoys hiking, running, kayaking, and local music and theater with her family.

Catherine Gracey, MD, MS 
Professor of Medicine

Dr. Gracey serves as Associate Program Director for Ambulatory Education and directs our Primary Care Program. She chairs the residency program’s Clinical Competency Committee and directs the Medical Educator Pathway. In addition to having her own primary care clinical practice, she precepts residents in the residency continuity clinic practice and develops curriculum for the Ambulatory Block Education Thursdays.

Her research interests include teaching humanism and communication skills, in part through her work with the American Academy on Communication in Healthcare. Outside of work, she enjoys cooking, running, and playing with her family.

Joseph Nicholas, MD, MPH 
Professor of Medicine
William and Sheila Konar Family Professor of Geriatrics, Palliative Medicine, and Person-Centered Care

Dr. Nicholas is the Director of Medical Education and the Associate Chief of Medicine at Highland Hospital, and serves as Associate Program Director for the Internal Medicine residency program. His training has included residencies in Internal Medicine, Pediatrics, and Preventive Medicine and Public Health. His educational interests include clinical reasoning, medical decision making, and individualizing guideline-directed care for hospitalized older adults. He has an academic focus in orthogeriatric care for fragility fracture patients and attends on the Highland Inpatient Geriatrics teaching service. His interests include all things Finger Lakes.

William Novak, MD 
Professor of Clinical Medicine

Dr. Novak is an Associate Program Director and serves regularly as a hospitalist on the inpatient resident teams at Strong Memorial Hospital. He also directs the residency’s point-of-care ultrasound program and can be found scanning most days with residents during their ultrasound rotation.

An Internal Medicine resident, chief resident, and Infectious Diseases fellow at the University of Rochester from 1999 to 2005, Dr. Novak then joined the faculty. His outside interests include all things outdoors in the Finger Lakes region, particularly off-road cycling and skiing.

Meghan Train, DO 
Associate Professor of Medicine
Assistant Program Director for the Internal Medicine Residency

Dr. Train serves as Associate Program Director for the Internal Medicine Residency with a focus on resident learning and assessment. She completed her combined Internal Medicine and Pediatrics residency at the University of Rochester in 2014. Since then, she has worked as an Academic Hospitalist at Strong Memorial Hospital and a Clinic Preceptor in the Strong Internal Medicine resident practice. Her academic interests focus on medical education, quality improvement, and high-value care.

She has been a core faculty member in the Internal Medicine Residency program since 2021, serving as the Assistant Program Director for Quality Improvement and Patient Safety. In this role, she developed a longitudinal QI and Patient Safety curriculum, expanded residents’ involvement in interprofessional QI projects, created a Healthcare Systems, Leadership, and Quality Elective, and developed an immersive QI and Patient Safety training track. Dr. Train has been recognized for her support and mentorship of resident scholarship with the 2021 and 2024 Internal Medicine Research Mentoring Awards. Dr. Train is the Medical Director of the 6-1400 inpatient unit and also serves as a course director within the School of Medicine. She was selected for the 2025–2027 Dean’s Teaching Fellowship. Outside of her professional responsibilities, Dr. Train enjoys spending time with her family, dog, and friends and staying active outdoors.

Chunkit Fung, MD 

Vice Chair of Community Engagement, Health Improvement and Wellbeing, Department of Medicine
Professor, Department of Medicine, Hematology/Oncology
Professor, Cancer Center
Professor, Department of Health Sciences

Chunkit Fung, MD, MSCE, is Vice Chair of Community Engagement, Health Improvement and Wellbeing for the Department of Medicine. He leads development of community engagement initiatives, increases community participation in clinical research and interventions, and works to improve the wellbeing of faculty, staff, and the community. A professor of Medicine, he is dedicated to advancing research and care for people living with genitourinary cancers.

Daniel King, MD 
Associate Professor of Clinical Medicine
Medical Director, Highland Hospital

Dr. King is the Associate Medical Director of the GAMA (Highland Hospital Ambulatory) practice and the medical director of the Highland Hospital residency practice. His training has included residency in Internal Medicine/Pediatrics and fellowship in Geriatric Medicine, both at the University of Rochester. His professional interests include care of the community-dwelling older adult and primary care for older adults with concurrent memory disorders.

Dr. King is a Rochester native and spends most of the warmer months wondering when the next big snowfall will be. He enjoys all things related to snow, but tolerates long runs on nice trails during the spring, summer, and fall. When not in Rochester, he can often be found attempting to convince his two daughters that the Adirondacks are really and truly “that” amazing.

Melissa Mroz, MD, MPH 
Associate Professor of Medicine
Medical Director, Strong Internal Medicine

Dr. Mroz is the Medical Director of the Strong Internal Medicine Faculty-Resident Practice. She also serves as the Diversity, Equity and Inclusion champion for the Division of General Internal Medicine and facilitates the Evidence-Based Medicine curriculum in ambulatory education. She has been involved in maintaining the practice’s certification as a Patient-Centered Medical Home and has experience in quality improvement addressing health disparities. Through these roles, she aims to continue to improve upon a practice structure that provides both excellent patient care and education of Internal Medicine residents.

Dr. Mroz practices primary care and supervises residents as a clinical preceptor. She has clinical expertise in obesity medicine and has presented regionally and nationally on this topic. She also has an interest in addressing bias, stigma, and discrimination in the workplace. Outside of medicine, she enjoys spending time with friends and family, being outdoors, and trying new foods.

Katherine Arden, MD 
Assistant Professor of Clinical Medicine
Assistant Program Director for Primary Care

Dr. Arden is the Director of the Primary Care Residency Program and an Assistant Director for Primary Care. She was a resident and chief resident in the Internal Medicine Residency at the University of Rochester from 2017 to 2021. She is a primary care physician at Geriatric and Medicine Associates at Highland Hospital, and she works as a clinical preceptor for the resident primary care practice at Strong Internal Medicine. For the first two years of her primary care practice, she additionally worked as a part-time hospitalist seeing her own primary care patients at Highland Hospital. Dr. Arden greatly enjoys teaching medicine residents how to improve their diagnostic framework for approaching clinical problems and how to approach therapeutic options from a patient-based perspective. Outside of work, she enjoys singing, running, and downhill skiing.

Amit Bansal, MD 
Assistant Professor of Medicine, Cardiology
Assistant Program Director for Research and Scholarship

Dr. Bansal is a cardiologist at the University of Rochester, where he provides comprehensive cardiovascular care in both the outpatient setting and on the inpatient cardiology consult and Heart Center services at Strong Memorial Hospital. His clinical interests include cardiovascular imaging, with a particular focus on echocardiography, nuclear cardiology (SPECT and PET), and cardio-oncology. He also serves as a Physician Advisor for Utilization Management team at Strong Memorial Hospital.

Dr. Bansal’s research focuses on cardio-oncology, cardiovascular imaging, and clinical outcomes research, with the overarching goal of advancing evidence-based, multidisciplinary care for patients with cardiovascular disease and cancer.  He is actively involved in teaching and mentoring medical students, residents, and cardiology fellows, with interests in clinical reasoning, evidence-based medicine, medical education, and trainee scholarship. He also serves on the Education Committee and Board Examination Committee of the International Cardio-Oncology Society, where he contributes to educational initiatives and the continued development of training in the field of cardio-oncology.

Outside of medicine, Dr. Bansal enjoys spending time with family and friends and discovering and exploring new cuisines.

 Andrea Garroway, PhD 
Assistant Professor of Medicine and Psychiatry
Assistant Program Director for Communication Coaching and Wellness

Dr. Andrea Garroway is an Assistant Professor of Psychiatry and Medicine, Assistant Program Director for Communication Coaching and Wellness in the Internal Medicine residency, and Director of Behavioral Health Integration at Strong Internal Medicine. She teaches patient- and family-centered communication skills, psychosocial medicine, and promotes physician wellness and self-care. She is a clinical psychologist and enjoys collaborating with residents and faculty on patient care as an embedded behavioral health clinician in Strong Internal Medicine. Her professional interests include integrating mental health into primary care settings and teaching trauma-informed approaches to medical care. She is also a site director and clinical supervisor for the URMC Psychology postdoctoral fellowship Integrated Care Family Track. Outside of work, she spends time with her family, plays tennis, and enjoys reading fiction.

Sara Gianfagna, DO, MS MEd 
Assistant Professor of Medicine
Assistant Program Director for Ambulatory Education

Dr. Gianfagna serves as the Assistant Program Director for Ambulatory Curriculum, coordinating the residents’ longitudinal ambulatory curriculum. She completed her undergraduate education at Georgetown University and medical education at Lake Erie College of Medicine in Erie, Pennsylvania, where she received a Doctor of Osteopathic Medicine degree and Master’s Degree in Medical Education. She completed internal medicine residency and chief residency at the University of Rochester. She practices academic primary care at Strong Internal Medicine, where she also precepts and advises residents. She is interested in medical education focusing on clinical reasoning and strategies to engage learners. She has been recognized as a clinician educator with the 2023–2025 Kohn Teaching Fellowship and the 2025 Arthur W. Bauman Award for General Medicine Teaching. When not at work, she enjoys spending time with her husband, walking their dog, skiing, playing tennis, and traveling.

John Grable, MD, PhD 
Professor of Medicine
Assistant Program Director for Research

Dr. Grable works on the Hospitalist service half time and serves as a preceptor in the resident clinic while maintaining a small private practice. His research interests include tobacco cessation treatments. He directs the Rochester Model inpatient tobacco treatment program.

He is an Assistant Program Director for research activities, organizes scholarly activities such as Resident Poster Day, and is the Research Track Director.

Kathryn Leyens, MD, MS 
Assistant Professor of Medicine
Assistant Program Director for Quality Improvement and Patient Safety

Dr. Leyens is a Rochester native from Brighton. She attended McGill University in Montreal for her undergraduate degree and transitioned to SUNY Upstate Medical University in Syracuse for medical school. She completed her Internal Medicine-Pediatrics residency followed by her Master’s in Medical Education at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, where she remained on faculty as a med-peds hospitalist and clinician educator for nine years. There, she developed a passion for medical education, patient safety, quality improvement, and hospital operations.

She is excited to return to Rochester, where she will continue as an academic med-peds hospitalist and further develop her interests in medical education, patient safety, and quality improvement. Outside of medicine, she enjoys spending time with family and friends, trying new restaurants, and apple and berry picking.

Christine Osborne, MD 
Associate Professor of Clinical Medicine
Assistant Program Director for Inpatient Curriculum

Christine M. Osborne, MD, is an Associate Professor of Clinical Medicine and a member of the Hospital Medicine Division at Strong Memorial Hospital. She is a native of Buffalo, New York, and attended the College of the Holy Cross in Worcester, Massachusetts, with a double major in biology and Deaf Studies. Following college, she worked at the National Institutes of Health performing HIV research. She graduated from the University of Rochester School of Medicine and Dentistry in 2010 and completed an Internal Medicine-Pediatrics residency and chief residency at URMC. She has been a faculty member in the Department of Medicine since 2014.

In addition to her clinical work, Dr. Osborne serves in educational roles across the Medical Center. She is the Assistant Program Director for inpatient curriculum for the Internal Medicine Residency Program, Associate Clerkship Director for the Internal Medicine Clerkship, Course Director for the Residents As Teachers course, a faculty facilitator and trainer for the Advanced Communication Training program, and former Course Director of the Quality Safety and Interprofessional Course in the School of Medicine. She enjoys working with faculty, residents, and students on curriculum development, educational initiatives, and quality improvement projects. In her free time, she enjoys traveling with her husband and children, exploring Rochester-area parks, attractions, restaurants, and ice cream stands, and volunteering with the PTA at her children’s school.

Mahala Schlagman, MD 
Associate Professor of Medicine
Assistant Program Director for Health Equity

Dr. Mahala Schlagman is the Assistant Program Director for Health Equity, overseeing residency education on the social determinants of health and their impact on individual patient and community health. As a primary care doctor, she serves her own patient panel and precepts residents in continuity practice. She has a particular interest in care for patients with complex medical, social, and psychiatric needs.

She also acts as the Medical Director of a Medical Legal Partnership that provides free civil legal services to patients at Strong Internal Medicine. Dr. Schlagman trained at Barnard College in English Literature and at Weill Cornell Medicine. She completed her residency at the University of Rochester in Internal Medicine. Outside the hospital, Dr. Schlagman enjoys canoeing, hiking, and spending time with her children.

Jessica Stern, MD, MS 
Associate Professor of Medicine and Pediatrics
Assistant Program Director for Resident Engagement and Enrichment

Dr. Stern is an Assistant Program Director for Resident Engagement and Enrichment for the Internal Medicine Residency Program. She is an Associate Professor in the Divisions of Pediatric Allergy and Immunology, and Allergy, Immunology, and Rheumatology in the Departments of Medicine and Pediatrics. She graduated from Bowdoin College and received her medical degree from the University of Rochester School of Medicine and Dentistry, where she stayed to complete her combined Internal Medicine and Pediatrics residency training, Allergy and Immunology Fellowship, and Master’s Degree in Clinical Investigation.

Her research interests include the intersection of public health and allergic disease, including the use of implementation science to improve equity in allergic disease. Her career goals are to center justice and equity and reduce health care disparities in asthma and allergic disease by integrating systems that address co-morbid allergic conditions, environmental triggers, and social determinants of health. Her outside interests include traveling, spending time with her family, and exploring new nature trails.

Jennifer Anolik, MD, PhD 
Professor of Medicine, Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, and Microbiology and Immunology
Associate Chair of Research, Department of Medicine
Program Co-Director, Physician Scientist Training Program

Dr. Anolik is an adult rheumatologist who practices in the University of Rochester’s Lupus Clinic. Her research interests include the role of B cells in the pathophysiology of human systemic lupus, the study of new immunomodulatory treatments for lupus, and B-cell regulation of bone homeostasis in rheumatoid arthritis. As part of the research group at the University of Rochester, she has been one of the pioneers in the use of B-cell depletion for the therapy of autoimmune diseases and investigation of the effects of B-cell depletion on immune function in patients with systemic lupus erythematosus. She has also pioneered the use of tonsil and bone marrow biopsy as a means of probing immune dysregulation in autoimmune diseases, including systemic lupus erythematosus and rheumatoid arthritis.

Kah Poh (Melissa) Loh, MD, MS 
Associate Professor of Medicine, Hematology/Oncology
Program Co-Director, Physician Scientist Training Program

Kah Poh (Melissa) Loh, MD, MS, is an Associate Professor of Medicine in the Division of Hematology/Oncology and serves as Director of Geriatric Hematology. She is also the Program Co-Director of the Physician Scientist Training Program and is actively involved in mentoring residents, fellows, and junior investigators pursuing careers in clinical and translational research.

Dr. Loh is a hematologist and clinical researcher whose work focuses on improving the care of older adults with blood cancers. Her research integrates shared decision-making, supportive care, digital health, and behavioral interventions into cancer care and clinical trials. She leads several supportive care and therapeutic clinical trials. Dr. Loh is passionate about mentoring trainees and helping them develop careers in research, hematology/oncology, and aging-related research. Outside of work, she enjoys spending time with her family and running.

 Learn more about the Physician Scientist Training Program