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Each month, the Dean’s Office recognizes and celebrates the achievements of our students, faculty, and staff with this summary.


Michael Botros, MD, PGY-1, CMS internal medicine resident, recently co-authored an article titled “Impact of Moderate to Severe Mitral and Tricuspid Valves Regurgitation After Transcatheter Aortic Valve Replacement,” published in the American Heart Journal.


Alayna Dieter, CMS ’26; Marie Nunez Duarte, CMS ’25; and Rebecca Silver, CMS ’26, authored a publication titled “Intestinal Duplication in an Adult Presenting as Acute Small Bowel Obstruction with Malrotation and Volvulus: Case Report And Updated Review of the Literature.” The article was published in the Journal of Case Reports and Images in Surgery.


Rikhil Makwana, CMS ’26, won the Stroke Interdisciplinary Special Interest Group Early Career Investigatory award at the annual American Congress of Rehabilitation Medicine conference for his poster titled “Community Delivered Self-Management Programs Mostly Do Not Address Key Domains and Health Determinants: A Call to Action for Improving Chronic Disease Self-Management Intervention Design.” Rikhil identified several key components proven to improve coping and function in stroke survivors that were missing from over 100 published interventions aimed at stroke rehabilitation. This finding will help guide the development of new interventions to aid persons with stroke in their recovery.

(Included in the photo is Rikhil’s mentor, Dr. Julie Schwertfeger, whom he would like to acknowledge and thank for her constant encouragement and tutelage.).


Martin Pelletier, CMS ’26, presented two posters at the National Association of EMS Physicians (NAEMSP) Annual Meeting, held this month in San Diego. His first presentation was a collaborative poster titled “From Conference Presentation to Publication: An Analysis of Abstracts Presented at NAEMSP Annual Meetings from 2018 to 2022.” His second presentation was a retrospective cohort study titled “Outcome of Sedative Assisted Intubation for Ketamine vs Etomidate.”


Danielle Priester, the Director of Clinical Education Management, Phase II/III, should be recognized for the outstanding work in her new position,” said a member of CMS administration. “Ms. Priester selflessly invested herself in covering a recent personnel change and successfully recruited a replacement. Ms. Priester manages not only the M4 year, but also the registration of M3 and M4 students.  Her ability to manage off-cycle students, returning students, and the complexity of the M4 year is exemplary.”


Congratulations to Joseph Rumenapp, PhD, CMS ’26, who received a 2024-2025 Aequitas Health Fellow Project Grant! These grants support medical students’ initiatives to advance health equity in communities across the country. Joseph received the grant for his project titled “Mini-Medical School Family Engagement Program,” which will expand the university’s Mini Medical School (MMS) program. The MMS program, which launched during the 2021–22 academic year, provides hands-on medical education to underrepresented elementary school students to encourage and support children’s interest in healthcare careers.


Neelam Sharma-Walia, PhD, associate professor of microbiology and immunology, Center for Cancer Cell Biology, Immunology, and Infection, was awarded a $67,000 grant from the RFU-DePaul Pilot Grant program for her project titled “Identifying G-Quadruplex Binding Proteins with Roles in Gene Regulation Using Al.” Dr. Sharma-Walia will be collaborating with Dr. Alexandru Orhean and Dr. Jacob Furst from DePaul University’s Jarvis College of Computing and Digital Media.