Sairah Ahmed, MB BS                                                                                                   
First Year Fellow
sairah-ahmed@md.northwestern.edu   

Sairah Ahmed received her MD from Khyber Medical College in Pakistan and then spent one year in a rotating medicine/surgery internship in Pakistan. She completed her internship and residency in Internal Medicine at the University of Connecticut in Farmington, Connecticut. She subsequently spent a year as chief resident at the University of Connecticut. During her residency she started her Masters in Public Health and is currently working on her thesis. She is pursuing a fellowship in hematology and oncology.

Dr. Barfi received her BS from the University of Michigan and her MD from Sackler School of Medicine in Tel Aviv, Israel.  She completed her Internal Medicine residency at Oregon Health Sciences University and subsequently spent one year as a teaching hospitalist at that institution.  Dr. Barfi looks forward to a career in hematology/oncology, with current interests in breast cancer and palliative care.

Dr. Carson received his BA in Business Administration from the University of Southern California School of Business.  He stayed at the University of Southern California for his MD, graduating with highest distinction.  Dr. Carson also was inducted into the Alpha Omega Alpha medical honor society as a medical student.  After completing his internship and residency in Internal Medicine at Duke University, Dr. Carson joined the faculty at Duke, where he practiced general internal medicine for one year.  Before starting his clinical fellowship at Northwestern, he was a Health Services Research Fellow at the Institute for Healthcare Studies at Northwestern University, where he worked in the area of adverse drug events.  At that time, he also began studies toward a PhD in health policy at the University of Illinois School of Public Health.  He is currently working on his doctoral dissertation.  His research interests include healthcare economics and pharmaceutical safety.

Mathew Joseph, MD
Third Year Fellow
mathew-joseph@md.northwestern.edu                                                                       

Dr. Joseph received his BA in English Literature from Rice University in 1997, where he graduated Magna Cum Laude and was subsequently inducted into the Phi Beta Kappa Honor Society.  He then worked on topoisomerases in the laboratory of Dr. Lynn Zechiedrich at Baylor College of Medicine.  He went on to the University of Alabama at Birmingham, where he completed medical school in 2002 as well as an internship and residency in Internal Medicine in 2005.  While at UAB, he performed research in the role of orally acting fluoropyrimidines in the treatment of pancreatic cancer.  At Northwestern University, he has been active in the laboratory of Dr. H.G. Munshi, elucidating mechanisms underlying invasion and metastasis in solid tumors.  He also has been actively involved in his clinics, caring for patients with a variety of malignancies and benign hematologic disorders.  He enjoys running and will be competing in the 2007 Chicago Marathon.  He and his wife are the proud parents of a  little girl.

Shuo Ma, MD, PhD
Third Year Fellow
shuo-ma@md.northwestern.edu

Dr. Ma received her medical degree from Beijing Medical University in Beijing, China.  She then studied at Northwestern University, where she received a PhD in Cell and Molecular Biology.  Her doctorate dissertation focused on cytoskeletons and cell migration.  Following her graduation, she spent two years as a Research Fellow in the Vascular Research Division at Brigham and Women's Hospital and Harvard Medical School studying leukocyte and vascular endothelial cell interaction.  She completed her internship and residency in Internal Medicine at St. Joseph Hospital, Chicago, and is currently a enrolled in the hematology/oncology fellowship program at Northwestern University.  Her research interests include hematological malignancies and mechanism of drug resistance. Dr. Ma was recenlty awarded the 2007 ASCO Foundation Young Investigator's Award (YIA).

Wendy S. Oatis, MD  
First Year Fellow

Dr. Oatis received her medical degree from the Medical College of Virginia Commonwealth Univerisity and completed her Internal Medicine residency at the Univeristy of Maryland in Baltimore.

Kavitha Ramchandran, MD
First Year Fellow
k-ramchandran@md.northwestern.edu

Tara Sanft, MD                                                                                                                    
First Year Fellow
t-sanft@northwestern.edu

Tara Sanft completed her BS in Biology Research at Loras College in Dubuque, Iowa on a Regent's Academic Scholarship. She then spent a year working as an Americorps volunteer in the bay area of California where she worked with underserved youth. She graduated medical school at the Medical College of Wisconsin and was elected to membership in the Alpha Omega Alpha Society. She completed her internal medicine residency training at the McGaw Medical Center at Northwestern University in Chicago, Illinois. She was the chair of the Resident's Curriculum Committee and was awarded the Dean Landsberg Award for excellence in leadership and professionalism. Her interests include both hematology/oncology and palliative care medicine.

Veena Shankaran, MD
Second Year Fellow
v-shankaran@northwestern.edu

Dr. Shankaran received her BA in Philosophy from Dartmouth College in Hanover, NH, followed by her MD from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor.  She completed her internship and residency training at the University of Michigan and subsequently worked as a hospitalist at Northwestern Memorial Hospital.  Her research interests include health outcomes, access to care, and health economics.

Lili Wang, MD
Third Year Fellow
liliwang@md.northwestern.edu

Dr. Wang received her MD from Zhejiang University and did a brief residency in renal transplant surgery service in China.  Following this, she enrolled in a PhD program in Microbiology and Immunology at the University of Arizona and conducted research on T cell apoptosis in rheumatoid arthritis.  She also worked as a Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of Illinois at Chicago Medical Center, studying molecular mechanisms of chronic pain.  During her internship and residency in Internal Medicine at Rush University Medical Center, Dr. Wang worked with Dr. Bonomi on EGFR expression in lung cancer and later presented at the ASCO annual meeting.  Dr. Wang plans to pursue an academic career in hematology/oncology.

Dr. Wisinski graduated as a member of Phi Beta Kappa with a BA in Biology and German from Washington University in St. Louis.  She remained at Washington University for medical school and then completed her internship and residency in Internal Medicine at the University of Colorado Health Sciences Center.  Her current research is looking at the role of the TFG-beta 6A allele in colon cancer and in designing clinical trials for patients with gastrointestinal malignancies.