Faculty Mentoring Program

• SOM 239 (Renal System II). I was the block director for this course from 2012-2016 and continue participating in teaching. This is a two-week block with lectures and small group case discussions, the latter designed to reinforce the concepts presented during the lecture. This course has been very well received by the students.
• I have taught medical students as part of their Medicine 401 Clerkship. During my ward attending rotation, I was involved with teaching three to six medical students as part of their rotation in the VA inpatient wards.
• At the postgraduate level, I am involved with teaching interns and residents in the Internal Medicine training program. I attend regularly Morning Report, and I am also involved in supervising the house staff while I serve as an attending in the Renal Service at the VA.
• I am also involved in teaching Nephrology Fellows both in the inpatient setting as well as mentoring them when they participate in laboratory activities.

I have over 26 years of experience conducting observational and interventional research on subjects ranging from describing the epidemiology of HIV and HCV infection among people who inject drugs, to designing and evaluating behavioral interventions to prevent these infections, to evaluating molecular diagnostic assays for rapid detection of antibiotic resistant tuberculosis, to developing and evaluating a mobile phone application for remotely monitoring anti-TB medication adherence (video directly observed therapy). These studies have taken place in the US and abroad, and led to over 160 peer reviewed publications and over 170 peer reviewed conference abstracts.

These studies were funded by grants and cooperative agreements from the NIH, CDC, and private foundations. Prior to joining the UCSD faculty, I was a project officer at the CDC, where I learned the funding process from the funder’s perspective. I am currently a standing member of an NIH study section (IRAP), and have served on ad hoc review committees for the NIH, CDC and other funding agencies. These experiences can be shared with junior faculty mentees to help them understand the ins and outs of the funding process.

I have served on committees at the division, department, school and university levels. For example, I have served as the chair of my division’s Committee on Appointments and Promotions (CAP) and a member of the Department of Medicine CAP, giving me insights into the academic review process. I was a Steering Committee Member for the UCSD/San Diego State University Joint Doctoral Program in Global Health, the School of Medicine Electives Curriculum Working Group, and the UCSD International Staff Council.

I also serve on committees outside of the university. Locally, I am an Executive Board Member (Mayoral Appointment) on the San Diego Clean Syringe Exchange Program (CSEP) Facilitation Committee; nationally, I am a Publication Committee Member for the CDC Tuberculosis Epidemiologic Studies Consortium; and internationally, I am a member of the World Health Organization, Global Task Force on Digital Health for Tuberculosis.

In addition to the clinical service, I have enjoyed my teaching role at UCSD. I work very closely with the Infectious Diseases Fellows in the inpatient setting, as well as residents who rotate through the inpatient Thornton ID service. The Moore’s ID/Cancer outpatient clinic intermittently has residents rotate through on their outpatient months, giving me an opportunity to interface with the residency program in both the outpatient and inpatient arena In addition to teaching on rounds, I give several yearly lectures for the Core Curriculum ID series for ID fellows, as well as a lecture for the core lecture series for Heme-onc fellows on infections in compromised hosts; I have also lectured in the Pulmonary/Critical Care Fellows Core Curriculum. In the past two years I have also participated in teaching medical students in the Micro/Infectious Diseases Core Curriculum.

In addition to teaching the residents and fellows, I have had played an active role in teaching nurses, pharmacists, and respiratory technicians. In addition to lecturing in the hospital setting, I have given invited seminars at Statewide Pharmacy and Infection Control Practitioner conferences, as well lecturing in the BMT nursing curriculum, and lecture in a variety of other national venues on infections in compromised hosts as an invited speaker.

My scholarship activities at UCSD are in three major areas; in developing clinical research in the area of Transplant Infectious Disease; in developing translational research in Transplant and general Infectious Diseases; and in promoting the academic side of Hospital Epidemiology. Additionally, some of the work that I have done in collaboration with the La Jolla Institute of Allergy and Immunology has come to fruition.

Since moving to UCSD eight years ago, I have become increasingly active in clinical research. In the past several years I have initiated three investigator-initiated clinical/translational trials as PI (with funding through ACTRI and Cancer Center grants), four industry-sponsored research trials as Principal Investigator, and have been the institutional PI on two NIH-funded contracts. I publish 2-5 articles a year, and have written book chapters, requested articles and reviews.

My involvement in clinical transplant infectious diseases research has led to my invitation to serve on the Infection and Immune Reconstitution working group of the Center for International Blood and Marrow Transplant Research Group (CIBMTR). I also serve on the National Comprehensive Cancer Network (NCCN) panel, whose goal is to advance the quality, effectiveness, and efficiency of oncology care by developing and publishing practice guidelines. I am co-author on the 2015-16 “Prevention and Treatment of Cancer-Related Infections” guideline. I have also been asked to co-lead the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) committee charged with writing the Infection prophylaxis guidelines in Cancer patients in 2017. In this way, I am developing a national and international reputation, which along with my research and clinical work permits me to be in the Clinical X series.

In moving to UCSD, I accepted multiple service and committee positions. I am the Clinical Service Director of Infectious Diseases; the Associate Medical Director of Hospital Infection Control and Epidemiology; the Chair (now Co-Chair) of the Antibiotic Subcommittee (2008-present); member of the Pharmacy and Therapeutics Committee; a member of the Medicine Peer Review Committee; serve on DOMCAP (2011-present); serve on the Leadership Council, on the Nomination Committee, and on Dr. Dillman’s Medicine Cabinet. As Clinical Services Chief, I continue to work to standardize and improve the Infectious Diseases consult service and expand and improve outpatient clinical Infectious Diseases care.

In addition to the above listed service and committee work, I have been active in community and non-UCSD healthcare worker education, participating in Dine out for Life and AIDS walks, Light the Night Leukemia and Lymphoma Society walk, presenting a lecture to BMT survivors at the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society meeting, and presenting to Future doctors of UCSD undergraduate student club.

My primary goals at UCSD have been to continue to work to establish and maintain a consistent and reliable Infectious Diseases presence on the clinical service. Additionally, I wished to develop a Transplant Infectious Diseases focus for bone marrow transplant, and to foster and mentor a Solid Organ Transplant Infectious Diseases focus. In order to accomplish this, I have continued to attend on the Inpatient consult service at Thornton for approximately 5-6 months each year for the past several years. I am integrally involved in the infectious diseases issues of the BMT patients; I help guide diagnosis and therapy of infectious complications and follow the patients through their inpatient and outpatient visits. I attend the weekly BMT patient care conference and have created and update yearly guidelines for infectious diseases prevention in this patient population, and present these to the BMT group and the Antibiotic Subcommittee of the Pharmacy and Therapeutics Committee. I have worked closely with the BMT Attendings, Nurse Practitioners and Outpatient Care Coordinators in order to develop a continuum of Infectious Diseases care for this complicated population.

For the past five years, I have been the sole provider in an Infection in Cancer outpatient clinic in Moore’s Cancer Center. Patients are referred to me from throughout the Cancer Center and beyond UCSD for issues relating to prophylaxis, evaluation and treatment of infections in Cancer patients.

In my role as active clinician, I have been selected as a “Top Doc” by San Diego Magazine each year for the past four years (2013-2016), am a selected member of the UCSD Academy of Clinical Scholars, and was selected to participate in the UCSD Leadership Academy (2012-13).