VP&S Academy of Clinical Excellence Rising Star Award Honors Residents, Fellows

Sixty-one residents and fellows from the Columbia University Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons were recognized for outstanding patient care at the inaugural Academy of Clinical Excellence Rising Star Award Ceremony. The awards were presented May 8.

The Rising Star Award celebrates early-career physicians who consistently exceed expectations, demonstrate unwavering dedication to patient care, and exhibit a deep knowledge base with the ability to apply and communicate their skills effectively across clinical practice, education, and research.

Carrie Ruzal-Shapiro, chair of the ACE executive committee and professor of radiology at VP&S, welcomed attendees to the event on behalf of the ACE executive committee; Brian Donley, executive vice president and chief operating officer of NewYork-Presbyterian, gave brief remarks.

The 2025 Bill Campbell Clinical Champions Symposium was delivered alongside the award ceremony. James M. McKiernan, interim dean of VP&S, delivered this year’s lecture, titled “The Pursuit of Clinical Excellence in Academic Medicine: Challenges and Solutions.”

James M. McKiernan, interim dean of VP&S, delivered the 2025 Bill Campbell Clinical Champions Symposium.

The Academy of Clinical Excellence began in 2011 after former VP&S Dean Lee Goldman asked McKiernan to look into the newly founded academy at Johns Hopkins University and what it would take to create a similar institution at VP&S. In his lecture, McKiernan argued for the role of clinical excellence in building the reputation of an academic medical center, highlighting Columbia clinicians who cared for major figures in history as well as Columbia doctors who shaped clinical practice.

McKiernan also shared pragmatic advice for the Rising Star Awardees, addressing many challenges facing clinicians, including lack of resources, lack of recognition, and lack of protected time to devote to clinical care.

“Our profession is made up of systems and processes that steal your time, and time is your most precious asset,” McKiernan said. “New hires will often ask how much protected time they’ll be given, but who do you expect to protect it? You have to prioritize your time, and no one else is going to do that for you. The system will eat your time up if you don’t know how to protect it. You have to figure out how to maintain and invest that time in yourself. You are your own most precious asset.”

In the face of cuts to federal research funding and attacks on higher education across the board, McKiernan said he believes clinical care has never been more important in sustaining health care and academic medical centers.

“You’re going to live in a different world than we lived in,” he told the honorees. “You’re different from our generation, you went into medicine for different reasons, and the generation after you will have their own reasons. Our health care system is under stress, and it’s probably going to continue to get worse, and the government situation will continue to be dynamic. You’re going to have opportunities and challenges that we’ve never had, and you have to achieve excellence in spite of that.”

This marks the first year of the ACE Rising Star Award, which will be presented biennially. The mission of the Academy of Clinical Excellence is to define, recognize, and perpetuate excellence in clinical care by faculty, trainees, and students. The Academy is composed of members from every clinical department at VP&S.

2025 ACE Rising Star Awardees

• Chelsea Banks, MD, Anesthesiology
• James Cavalcante, MD, Anesthesiology
• Elizabeth Day, MD, Anesthesiology
• Jeremy S. Ho, MD, Anesthesiology
• Olivia Mallari, MD, Anesthesiology
• John E. Rouck, MD, Anesthesiology
• Anthony J. Schramm, MD, Anesthesiology
• Megan H. Trager, MD, MS, Dermatology
• Rachel Rosengard, MD, MS, Emergency Medicine
• Katherine Ryan, MD, Emergency Medicine
• Carolyn R. Stewart, MD, Emergency Medicine
• Tyler Wise, MD, Emergency Medicine
• Fatimah A. Alkhunaizi, MD, MS, Medicine
• Metodi Balev, MD, Medicine
• Alexa M. Choy, MD, Medicine
• Brendan R. Emmons, MD, Medicine
• Richard A. Greendyk, MD, Medicine
• Sarah E. Hill, MD, MPH, Medicine
• Miriam P. Klahr, MD, Medicine
• Michael P. Lavelle Jr., MD, Medicine
• Lauren K. Lynch, MD, PhD, Medicine
• Ansa Razzaq, MD, Medicine
• Cristiana G. Salvatori, MD, Medicine
• Sarah M. Schwartz, MD, Medicine
• Suraj S. Shah, MD, Medicine
• Evan F. Joiner, MD, Neurological Surgery
• Adomas Bunevicius, MD, PhD, Neurology
• Alec R. Friedman, MD, Neurology
• Alexandra R. Rabin, MD, Neurology
• Brittany (Bree) Arditi, MD, MSCR, Obstetrics and Gynecology
• Katherine A. Yoh, MD, Obstetrics and Gynecology
• Luke J. Oh, MD, Ophthalmology
• Kyle K. Obana, MD, Orthopedic Surgery
• Grace C. Plassche, MD, Orthopedic Surgery
• Victoria X. Yu, MD, Otolaryngology/Head and Neck Surgery
• Vladislav (Vlad) Korobeynikov, MD, PhD, Pathology and Cell Biology
• Barbara (Bobbie) W. Pelham-Webb, MD, PhD, Pathology and Cell Biology
• Isabelle Falcon, MD, Pediatrics
• William Fyke, MD, PhD, Pediatrics
• Caroline L. Katzman, MD, Pediatrics
• Delia M. O’Shea, MD, Pediatrics
• Ami J. Patel, MD, Pediatrics
• Mahrukh Shah, MD, Pediatrics
• Katarzyna M. Stoj, MD, Pediatrics
• Gabrielle Young, MD, Pediatrics
• Osama M. El-Gabalawy, MD, MS, Psychiatry
• Yaakov S. Green, MD, MBA, Psychiatry
• Mary (Meg) E. Guard, MD, Psychiatry
• Quadrina Noori, PhD, Psychiatry
• Warren L. Wu, MD, PhD, Psychiatry
• Jared L. Pasetsky, MD, Radiation Oncology
• John Filtes, MD, Radiology
• Eleanor H. Kim, MD, MS, Radiology
• Ella C. D’Amico, MD, Rehabilitation and Regenerative Medicine
• Peter J. Keefe, MD, Surgery
• Grace E. Kennedy, MD, Surgery
• Ann K. Kogler, MD, Surgery
• Naaz F. Nasar, MD, Surgery
• Stephanie N. Nguyen, MD, Surgery
• Shelby R. Sferra, MD, MPH, Surgery
• David S. Han, MD, MS, Urology