Department News
Building Partnerships at 2026 Research in Health Equity Symposium
Tuesday, February 17, 2026
From left: Ahona Shirin, MBA, Olveen Carrasquillo, MD, MPH, Laura Stamm,
PhD, and Chunkit Fung, MD. Photo credit: Keith Burris.
Building sustainable solutions that address community needs and improve health equity takes a village. At our 4th Annual Research in Health Equity Symposium over 200 health care providers, researchers, trainees, and community leaders gathered to exchange expertise and learn how to build partnerships across disciplines and with the community to improve health for all.
Keynote speaker Olveen Carrasquillo, MD, MPH, associate dean for Clinical and Translational Research at the University of Miami’s Miller School of Medicine, shared his experience co-developing community health worker programs to address conditions such type 2 diabetes. Community partners shaped research questions, clinical interventions, and cultural alignment of health education.
Other panel presentations stressed the importance of working across institutions and sectors, from music therapists working with dentists to quell patients’ dental anxiety, to psychiatry residents riding along with law enforcement officers to better understand how they respond to mental health emergencies. A workshop featured research teams composed of University and community researchers, sharing strategies to build sustainable partnerships.
“This meeting exemplifies our commitment to advancing health equity, fostering collaboration, and engaging with our community to address pressing health care challenges,” said DOM Chair Ruth O’Regan, MD, who opened the meeting with a welcome message.
At the end of the day, judges selected the top projects and presentations from the symposium:
From left: Karina Hiroshige, MD, London Smith, and Drea Hacker. Photo credit:
Keith Burris.
- Best Community Partnership Project:
- Presenter: Karina Hiroshige, MD, trauma surgery research fellow at the University of Pennsylvania
- Project: “Increasing Patient Volume at a Student-Run Free Clinic: 21-Month Follow-Up of a Two-Phase Community Outreach Initiative”
- Best Oral Presentation:
- Presenter: Drea Hacker, fourth year undergraduate student at Hamilton College
- Project: “Adapting Individualized Care Plans for Inpatient Sickle Cell Care(I-PIC)”
- Best Poster Presentation:
- Presenter: London Smith, medical student at the University of Rochester School of Medicine & Dentistry
- Project: “Rochester Outreach Catering Dermatology Education: Outreach and Education Dermatology Initiative Serving Underserved Communities in Rochester, NY”
Congratulations to this year’s awardees and a special thank you to our conference coordinating team: Chunkit Fung, MD, DOM’s associate chair for Engagement, Enrichment, and Well-Being, Laura Stamm, PhD, assistant professor of General Medicine and Health Humanities & Bioethics, and Ahona Shirin, MBA, project manager for DOM Engagement, Enrichment, and Well-Being.
Fung to Lead DOM Well-Being as Anandarajah Departs for Chief Role at Indiana
Thursday, January 29, 2026
Allen Anandarajah, MBBS
Allen Anandarajah, MBBS, who has been part of the DOM for 25 years, will start a new chapter on April 1 as chief of Rheumatology at the Indiana School of Medicine. In preparation for his move, he is stepping down as the DOM’s associate chair for Wellness and this role will be assumed by Chunkit Fung, MD, now the associate chair for Engagement, Enrichment, and Well-Being.
“I am grateful to Allen for his years of service in this role,” said DOM Chair Ruth O’Regan. “I can’t think of a better person to carry on our work in well-being than Chunkit, a proven leader in Engagement and Enrichment.”
As the new leader of Engagement, Enrichment, and Well-Being, Fung plans to take a practical approach to wellness.
Chunkit Fung, MD
“My vision for wellness is to streamline our work processes and improve team work to allow physicians and teams more time to focus on what they enjoy and what is meaningful to them,” said Fung.
Fung sees opportunities to refine workflows in systems like eRecord to reduce duplicative efforts and interruptions from excessive notifications, improve communication among teams, and to foster more collaboration among teams. His goal is to build a workplace culture where everyone feels respected and supported.
He will begin by building a wellness infrastructure within his office. Through an inclusive and transparent process, he will recruit three to four people from the department to implement wellness efforts under his leadership.
Curran Takes Acting Cardiology Chief Role as Rosero Takes Sabbatical
Monday, January 26, 2026
Thomas Curran, MD
Spencer Rosero, MD, will pursue a year-long sabbatical from his role as chief of the Division of Cardiology, and cardiologist Thomas Curran, MD, will serve as acting chief beginning February 1. Rosero will focus on advancing his research efforts in clinical cardiac electrophysiology for the next 12 months.
“Tom’s expertise in clinical care combined with his leadership skills position him well for this role and I look forward to working with him,” said Department of Medicine Chair Ruth O’Regan, MD.
Curran is vice chief of Clinical Cardiology Services, overseeing outpatient cardiology and this additional role expands his leadership to include inpatient care. He joined the Medical Center in 2015 along with colleagues from the former Rochester Cardiopulmonary Group. His experiences with both private practice and now being part of an academic medical center provide a solid foundation for this role.
“We have a strong team of clinical providers, and support and administrative staff dedicated to providing our patients the highest quality care,” said Curran. “I’m pleased to have the opportunity to make a positive difference in our institutional operations for our patients, faculty, and staff.”
Mehmet Aktas, MD, vice chief of Academic Affairs, and Rosero will continue to lead the division’s education and research programs, respectively.
Rosero was appointed chief of the Division of Cardiology a year ago after five years as interim chief, guiding the department through the challenges of the pandemic and programmatic growth.
A longtime electrophysiologist and active clinician/scientist, he studies arrhythmias and is involved in the development of implantable high-tech biosensors. He will collaborate with multidisciplinary teams from the Center for Health + Technology, Clinical Cardiovascular Research Center, and Cardiovascular Research institute (CVRI). The overall goal is to further our understanding of the mechanisms underlying electrical rhythm abnormalities seen in patients with neuromuscular diseases. The knowledge will be used to advance clinical guidelines addressing the cardiac risk associated with this group of complex diseases.
Jared Walsh Appointed Chief of General Medicine
Wednesday, January 21, 2026
Jared P. Walsh, MD, a former Department of Medicine faculty member, will return to the Medicine Center as the next chief of General Medicine, starting May 18. As chief, Walsh will focus on faculty development and wellness, fostering resident training, retaining graduates, and supporting a culture of equity.
Walsh’s appointment comes after a national search, during which time Catherine Gracey, MD, deftly steered the division.
“I’m delighted to welcome Dr. Walsh back to the Medical Center,” said Department of Medicine Chair Ruth O’Regan. “His previous experience in educational scholarship and quality improvement here and at Rutgers make him a great fit for chief of our General Medicine Division and I’m excited to see him take on this leadership role.”
Walsh completed his internal medicine residency here in 2017, was chief resident the following year, and served as faculty in our Division of General Medicine from 2018 to 2022. During that time, he chaired the Treatment Subcommittee of the Opioid Task Force, developed a primary care addiction medicine program, helped develop the Internal Medicine Residency Program’s ambulatory curriculum, and received the Marshall Litchman Dean’s Teaching Fellowship.
“It's incredibly meaningful coming back to the place that made me the physician I am,” said Walsh. “I have so much respect for the division and everything it's accomplished in its educational mission, clinical mission and academic mission, to be able to be a part of taking that to the next step is really very exciting.”
Walsh is an assistant professor of Medicine and associate program director of the Internal Medicine Residency Program at Rutgers New Jersey Medical School. As program director, he has redesigned the residency program to foster individualized learning and mentorship training, and to reduce the burden on faculty mentors. He has also directed quality improvement, research curriculum redevelopment, and integrated behavioral health and addiction medicine in primary care.
Walsh cares deeply about the community and has a long history of service. At Rutgers, Walsh established several community partnerships, including one between primary care and community organizations that provide food assistance that helped reduce community members’ cardiovascular risk.
When he rejoins the faculty as chief of General Medicine, he plans to repeat that trend by expanding existing community partnerships and having a greater presence in the community. He envisions developing partnerships that allow care to be delivered in the community while also partnering with community groups to address social determinants of health in our patients.
He is also dedicated to supporting faculty development and wellness. He hopes to foster collaboration across divisions, enhance development opportunities like those offered by the Harvard Macy Institute, and streamline opportunities for quality improvement and medical education scholarship.
“Rochester is a very unique place in its culture and its values,” said Walsh. “The culture really supports the idea that whatever we do, the patient's best interest must come first. That's the kind of culture and mission I want to support, because it leads to amazing care for patients, educational experiences for trainees, and faculty success.”
Remembering Esteemed Rochester Endocrinologist Alvin Ureles
Tuesday, January 6, 2026
Alvin Ureles, MD, internationally renowned thyroidologist and founder of the University of Rochester Medical Center’s Wolk Thyroid Clinic, passed away at the age of 104 on December 14. Ureles served the Rochester community for over half a century and pioneered the use of nuclear and ultrasound medicine to diagnose and treat thyroid disease.
Ureles earned his medical doctorate from the University of Rochester School of Medicine and Dentistry in 1945, with support from the U.S. Army. He served as captain in a Mobile Army Surgical Hospital unit in the Pacific Theater, witnessing firsthand the impact of nuclear radiation at Hiroshima.
After completing residency at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Ureles undertook a teaching and research fellowship at Harvard under the mentorship of famed physician Saul Hertz, MD. Together they published seminal work using radioactive iodine to treat hyperthyroidism and thyroid cancer, therapies still used today.
Ureles returned to Rochester in the 1950’s and worked at Genesee Hospital for over twenty years, serving as chief of Medicine and leading the Wolk Thyroid Center. In 1967, he joined URMC bringing new technologies with him. He was one of the first endocrinologists in Rochester to offer thyroid ultrasounds and ultrasound-guided biopsies in the office.
A pillar of both the Rochester community and Medical Center, Ureles was deeply involved in philanthropic organizations that helped URMC develop and expand its Endocrinology Division. He was instrumental in establishing URMC’s Wolk Thyroid Clinic and the Louis S. Wolk Distinguished Professorship in Medicine now held by Endocrinology Chief Stephen Hammes, MD, PhD. He also bought the Endocrinology Division’s first ultrasound with his own money.
“Al is a legendary endocrinologist in the region and at URMC,” said Hammes. “He was an incredibly intelligent, well-respected, yet humble person. He was a big reason that I came to Rochester and was instrumental in building our Endocrinology program over the past several decades.”
Ureles also loved mentoring. He taught many residents and fellows over four decades at URMC and continued to teach into his 80’s. The Farash Foundation, which Ureles helped found, created a scholarship in his name to encourage URSMD medical students to emulate his high standards of medicine and dedication to patients.
“Al took me under his wing when I went into practice,” said Louis Papa, MD, a UR Medicine primary care physician. “He was retiring from his primary care practice and had me come to his office once a week for months to meet his patients individually. It was enormously reassuring for the patients and an automatic vote of confidence in me. I took care of those patients for decades and as they aged, they would still ask how Al was doing. He was truly a Rochester giant and an exemplary mentor.”
Outside the clinic, Ureles was an avid astronomer, watching the skies through his home telescope and at the Marian and Max Farash Center for Observational Astronomy. When he moved into a retirement community, he brought his telescope with him and established an astronomy club.
Ureles was also an accomplished author, publishing several novels with a scientific or medical bent. In 2008, he pledged all proceeds from his historical fiction “Following Joe: The Patriot Doctor and the Siege of Boston” to the URMC Endocrinology Division to fund endocrine and diabetes research.
Ureles’ giving spirit lives on through several funds named in his honor, including the Ureles Research & Education Fund, the Alvin L. Ureles, M.D. Scholarship Fund, and the Palliative Care Program. If you would like to make a contribution to one of these funds in his memory, please visit the UR Advancement websiteand follow the instructions under the Obituary category.