McGovern Medical School honors 2026 teaching excellence awardees
Congratulations to the 2026 winners of the Dean’s Teaching Excellence Awards. May is Teaching Excellence Month at McGovern Medical School at UTHealth Houston.
Since 2025, the awards have shifted focus toward junior faculty. Senior faculty who have been awarded the Dean’s Teaching Excellence Awards five or more times have been designated as Esteemed Educators and are no longer eligible for the Dean’s Teaching Excellence Awards.
2025-26 Dean’s Teaching Excellence Awardees
Anesthesiology, Critical Care and Pain Medicine
Davide Cattano, MD, PhD
Serena Dasani, MD
Sherline David, DO
William Dillon, MD
Janefrances Egbosiuba, MD
Christina Goehl, MD
John Gray, MD
Hayden Jefferies, DO
Yandong Jiang, MBBS, PhD
Paden Karnes, MD
Sean Kelly, MD
Sabina Khan, MD
Daniela Magdaleno Montero, MD
Sanjana Malviya, MD
Osamudiamen Obanor, MD
Onyi Onuoha, MD
Barbara Orlando, MD, PhD
Sally Patel, DO
Christina Rolandelli, MD
Aubrey Samost-Williams, MD
Vishwas Seshachellam, DO
Naveen Vanga, MD
Danielle White, MD
Evan White, MD
Biochemistry and Molecular Biology
Tingting Mills, PhD
Valeria Vasquez, PhD
Cardiovascular and Thoracic Surgery
Juan Abreu, MD
Robert Hetz, MD
Shihuan Wang, MD
Dermatology
Megan Rogge, MD
Diagnostic and Interventional Imaging
Shima Aran, MD
Shahroz Aziz, MD
Ronald Bilow, MD
Bo Chen, MD
Steven Chua, MD, PhD
Ching Mei Feng, PhD
Ernest Fonocho, MD
Jose Gavito-Higuera, MD
Susan Greenfield, MD
Joseph Hasapes, MD
Arash Kamali, MD
Elaine Khalil, MD
Lee Myers, MD
Erika Odisio, MD
Mihir Patel, MD
Sean Rose, PhD
Rohan Samant, MBBS
Mohamed Shahin, MD
Margaret Skaug, MD
Rodrick Zvavanjanja, MB, ChB
Emergency Medicine
Hamzah Abduljabar, MD
Jeffrey Chen, MD
Jessica Dunn, MD
Akshay Elagandhala, MD
Kayleigh Fischer, MD
Jasmine Ginn, MD
Meghana Gore, MD
Christine Ju, MD
Katheryn Larimore, MD
Alexander Lazar, MD
Thomas McCarty, MD
Victoria Morris, MD
Brandon OKeefe Rafaeli, MD
Ezenwa Onyema, MD
Vishal Patel, MD
Eric Power, MD
Karl Upplegger, MD
Michael Vu, MD
Family and Community Medicine
Olasunkanmi Adeyinka, MBBS
Brian Hite, MD
Tariq Mansoor, MBBS
Maxwell McCray, DO
Abayomi Ogunwale, MBBS
Anam Rajput, MD
Tony Roshan, DO
Irvin Sulapas, MD
Rod Turner, MD
Joaquin Villegas Inurrigarro, MD
Institute of Molecular Medicine
Azhdarinia Ali, PhD
Doris Peter, PhD
Justice Nicholas, PhD
Kapoor Ashish, PhD
Mahan Kristin, PhD
Narkar Vihang, PhD
Wang Hsi Ming, PhD
Integrative Biology and Pharmacology
Hyun-Eui Kim, PhD
Dung-Fang Lee, PhD
Yang Liu, PhD
Travis Moore, PhD
Internal Medicine
Nuzha Amjad, MD
Faith Atai, MBBS
Divya Bhamidipati, MD
Faraz Bishehsari, MD, PhD
Elena Cherian, MBBS
Marc Cillo, MD
Christopher Codispoti, MD
Amit Correa, MBBS
Akshar Dash, MD
Paula Debroy Monzon, MD
Puja Gandhi, MD
Syed Ghazi Rizvi, MD
William Harding, MD
Elizabeth Holt, MD
Mairin Joseph-Talreja, MD
Maryam Kaous, MD
Ali Khawaja, MD
Alexandria Koney, MD
Zsuzsanna McMahan, MD
Akshata Moghe, MD
Khalid Mohamed Ahmed, MD
Delma Montoya Monge, MD
Sapna Naik, MD
Emma Napoli, MD
Sarah Nimri, MD
Linda Pang, MD
Gabriel Patarroyo Aponte, MD
Maulin Patel, MD
Anish Patnaik, MD
Devon Paul, MD
Rex Paulino, MD
Ekta Perera, MD
Bharat Puchakayala, MD
Natalie Rafaeli, MD
Gloria Salazar Cintora, MD
Ranya Selim, MD
Gautam Sikka, MD
Wasseem Skef, MD
Jillian Smith, MD
Sruthi Kapliyil Subramanian, MD
Rizwana Syed, MD
Sara Taveras Alam, MD
Victoriano Valdez, MD
Matthew Van Norman, DO
Jeremy Walder, DO
Angelique Wong, MD
Bilal Zafar, MD
Michael Zhu, MD
Ali Ziaolhagh, MD
McGovern Center for Humanities and Ethics
Keisha Ray, PhD
Microbiology and Molecular Genetics
Anne-Marie Miller, PhD
Andrew Pountain, PhD
Neurobiology and Anatomy
Michael Beierlein, PhD
Fabricio do Monte, DVM, PhD
Shin Nagayama, PhD
Andrea Stavoe, PhD
Melvin Waxham, PhD
Neurology
Kendra Anderson, PhD
Aidan Azher, MD
Pedro Balaguera Cuervo, MD
Kristin Brown, MD
Anjali Chauhan, PhD
Alexandra Czap, MD
Kyrillos Eskander, MD
Salman Farooq, MD
Joseph Fries, MD
Rajesh Gupta, MBBS
Jerome Jeevarajan, MD
Joo Eun Jung, PhD
Khalid Khalid, MD
Gab Seok Kim, PhD
Maria Parekh, MD
Natalia Pessoa Rocha, PhD
Swati Pradeep, DO
Sudha Tallavajhula, MBBS
An Kim Tran, DO
Venugopal Venna, PhD
Neurosurgery
Mark Dannenbaum, MD
Yoshua Esquenazi Levy, MD
Walid Ibn Essayed, MD
Ryan Kitagawa, MD
Luis Torres, MD
Obstetrics Gynecology and Reproductive Sciences
Ahmed Abouseif, MD
Georgina Amaral, MD
Farah Amro, MD
Diego Aviles, MD
Ioana Bondre, MD
Katelyn Handley, MD
Aya Mohr Sasson Mohr, MD
Alvaro Montealegre, MD
Catherine Moody, MD
Rachel Newman, MD
Ciera Oshodi, MD
Keith Riggs, MD
Brian Rodriguez Echevarria, MD
Megan Shepherd, MD
Irene Stafford, MD
Ophthalmology
Ying Chen, MD
Ruchi Shah, MD
Patrick Wu, MD
Marybeth Farazdaghi, MD
Layla Ghergherehchi, MD
Orthopedics
Catherine Ambrose, PhD
Richard Beaver, MD
John Conway, MD
Hannah Dineen, MD
Jonathan Eastman, MD
Steven Flores, MD
Robert Frangie, MD
Adam Freedhand, MD
Taggart Gauvain, MD
Michael Greaser, MD
Patrick Kellam, MD
Eric Klineberg, MD
Surya Mundluru, MD
Otorhinolaryngology
Vivian Kaul, MD
Andrew Tritter, MD
Pathology and Laboratory Medicine
Yasir Ali, MD
Hanadi El Achi, MD
Mahmoud Elsayad, MD
Nnaemeka Ibeh, DO
Rongying Li, MD
Antonio Galvao Neto, MD
Hidehiro Takei, MD
Pediatric Surgery
Natalie Drucker, MD
Stephen Fletcher, DO
Danielle Hsu, MD
Pediatrics
Alyssa Adams, MD
Melissa Adeyemo, MD
Ladan Agharokh, MD
Catherine Beaullieu, MD
Bibek Bista, MD
Charles Boren, DO
Monica Bray, MD
Giuseppe Colasurdo, MD
Asha Davidson, MD
Julie Eapen, MD
Ashley Gibson, MD
Hunter Hamilton, MD
Ansam Hasan, MD
Sushma Hebbar, MD
Jennifer Kinney, MD
Tu Mai, MD
Mitchell Moore, MD
Vershanna Morris, MD
Arezo Nasrazadani, MD
Chinyere O’Connor, MD
Dalilah Reyes de Jesus, MD
Monisha Shah, MD
Alice Taylor, MD
Kristina Tebo, MD
Ramia Zakhour, MD
Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation
Jason Chen, MD
Isaac Hernandez Jimenez, MD
Simra Javaid, DO
Kemly Philip, MD
Ryan Stork, MD
Vinay Vanodia, MD
Psychiatry
Taha Ali, MD
Jose Arriola Vigo, MD
Jessica Badawi, PhD
Kawal Bir, MD
Stephanie Ding, MD
Gabriel Fries, PhD
Madeline Gabe, MD
Amy Garcia, PhD
Umair Hemani, DO
Killian Hughes, PhD
Martin Huynh, MD
Jennifer Jernberg, MD
Brandi Karnes, MD
Tyler Kimm, MD
Matthew King, MD
Micah Knobles, MD
Nubia Lluberes Rincon, MD
Mira Milad, MD
Olaniyi Olayinka, MD, MPH
Tessa Orellana, PhD
Ossama Osman, MBBCh
Ayotomide Oyelakin, MBBS
Nicholas Patniyot, MD
Anilkumar Pillai, PhD
Cesar Soutullo, MD,PhD
Andrea Taylor, PhD
Cindy Woolverton, PhD
Marina Zhukova, PhD
Surgery
Mohin Bhadkamkar, MD
Thomas Clements, MD
John Cowling, MD
Casey Duncan, MD
Ekatarina Elliott, DO
Melissa Felinski, DO
Jordan Grubbs, MD
Julie Holihan, MD
Hajar Ibrahim Ayoub, MD
Erik Marques, MD
Krislynn Mueck, MD
Michelle Scerbo, MD
Melissa Stewart, MD
Jonah Stulberg, MD
David Wainwright, MD
Curtis Wray, MD
2025-26 Esteemed Educators
Cardiovascular and Thoracic Surgery
Steven Eisenberg, MD
Philip Rascoe, MD
Naveed Saqib, MBBS
Family and Community Medicine
Nathan Bender, MD
German Martinez-Gamba, MD
Mihir Parikh, MD
Krystina Yu, DO
Elena Zamora, MD, MHA
Integrative Biology and Pharmacology
Yong Zhou, PhD
Internal Medicine
Reem Al-Dallal, MD
Karthik Bhandari, MD
Renee Flores, MD
Carissa Huq, MD
Tanima Jana, MD
Bochra Jandali, MD
Jaya Kala, MBBS
Ariana Klein, MD
Neha Maithel, MD
Courtney McCray, MD
Katherine Terracina, MD
Microbiology and Molecular Genetics
Anna Konovalova, PhD
Neurology
Katherine Harris, MD
Christina Kim, MD
Obstetrics Gynecology and Reproductive Sciences
Michael Adler, MD
Ha Nguyen, MD
Mary Rysavy, MD
Carol Tran Cao, MD
Orthopedic Surgery
James Gregory, MD
David Rodriguez-Quintana, MD
Pediatrics
Roukaya Al Hammoud, MD
Tina Findley, MD
Elizabeth Hillman, MD
Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences
Dean Atkinson, MD
Omar Gonzales, MD
Marsal Sanches, MD, PhD
Surgery
David Kim, MD
Laura Moore, MD