Current Members & Spotlights

Dr. Louis-Jacques also serves as the Co-Chair for the CEE Teaching Committee. 

What attracted you to working in academic medicine? What attracted me to and keeps me in academic medicine is the opportunity and privilege to work with the next generation of physicians. I hope that my work and effort will in some way contribute to improved patient care in the future.

What made you decide to call UVA your home? I was drawn to UVA by its commitment to medical education, particularly the Foundations in Clinical Medicine course.

What do you enjoy most about teaching? I think teaching is so much fun. I love the interaction with students, watching them develop skills and confidence.

How would you summarize your philosophy of teaching? I view myself as a guide who helps students become the best versions of themselves. I think it’s important to work with the student in front of you- helping them to leverage their strengths.

How do you spend your free time outside of work? I enjoy spending time with my dog Neko and traveling (next trip is to Ireland in July). I have also been trying to get back to reading for pleasure.

What advice would you give to a new faculty member getting involved in education in the UVA SOM? Join the AEE! It’s probably one of the easiest ways to get connected to med ed at UVA.

What are the benefits for you being an active member of the Academy? The main benefit to being an active member of the Academy the opportunity it gives to be immersed within the medical education community here at UVA which can lead to being involved in initiatives that help elevate the quality of medical education at the institution.

Dr. Shah also serves as the Chair for the CEE Membership Committee.

What attracted you to working in academic medicine?
During my internal medicine chief resident year, I realized that I absolutely love teaching medical students and residents.  This pushed me to seek out academic medicine jobs after fellowship.  The variety in my work with patient care, clinical research, medical education, and curriculum development has kept every aspect of my job exciting to me for all of my years at UVA.

What made you decide to call UVA your home?
I originally came here to join the exceptional liver transplant group by doing a fellowship in transplant hepatology, when I discovered the opportunities in medical education too.  Through all these channels I found the collegiality of the faculty, the strong trainees, and the academic focus unbeatable from any other place I had trained or worked.  My wife grew up in Charlottesville and her father started the practice she joined (Pediatric Associates), so it became an easy decision to stay.

What do you enjoy most about teaching?
I think one of the most rewarding things for me is to meet the first years before they start the GI system, and realize how little they know about clinical medicine.  By the end of our course, I love having deep conversations about very complicated GI topics that they hardly knew about 4 weeks prior.  Then a year later, I can see those same students on the wards as we work together on a team to take care of these complex cases.  Watching this growth over time is something that is very rewarding to me.

What interests do you have in educational research and scholarship?
I am very interested in the use of technology in the classroom.  This topic area has grown immensely during the pandemic in 2020 as more technology is being used in place of the classroom.  Trying to harness technology and promote engagement of learners has become my new area of focus.

How would you summarize your philosophy of teaching?
Building connections – I think the best learners build connections with their patients, colleagues, and between the diseases and science.  These scientific and humanistic connections are essential to making good physicians.

How do you spend your free time outside of work?
My favorite thing to do outside of work is spending time with my wife and our daughters.  I also love photography and taking photos to capture the moment.  Sometimes, I try to mix the two, but my daughters often get frustrated when I am trying to capture the perfect shot – so I have learned to love candids!

What advice would you give to a new faculty member getting involved in education in the UVA SOM?
UVA is one of the most collegial places I have ever worked.  Everyone I have met has always been so helpful in trying to help me succeed.  It is important to find the right person to mentor you through this process as you start on faculty, and try to look beyond your own division or department.  Set up times to chat with people over the phone, over zoom, or when we are able….meet for coffee.  I have found informal chats to be the basis of some exceptional projects.

What do you look forward to about the new Academy?
I am excited about the possibility of the School of Medicine having a “home” for educators.  Many people across the school are interested in similar topics and I think the synergy that is possible through cross departmental collaborations could be extraordinary.  Having different perspectives on the committees will be helpful to ensure a strong Academy that will serve the entire membership.

What attracted you to working in academic medicine?
What originally attracted me into academic medicine was the opportunity to devote a lot of time to biomedical research, but also providing me the environment in which to teach both medical students and graduate students (and even undergraduates, on occasion).

What made you decide to call UVA your home?
My first faculty position was at a rather isolated medical center (heavily focused on research) in a very big city environment involving significant commuting. UVA provided me with an opportunity to work in an academic medical center that was fully integrated into a complete University that had high quality students while being located in a lovely small town with lots of cultural opportunities and good public school systems.

What do you enjoy most about teaching?
Although I was initially focused on research productivity because of the realities of obtaining tenure, I later came to realize that I received enormous satisfaction from interacting with the highly qualified students that are admitted to UVA.  The medical and PhD students at UVA are passionate about their education and eager to learn and to challenge the faculty intellectually. I enjoy interacting with students at all levels, individually, in small groups and in whole class settings. Being in education is highly energizing. Like the change in seasons, every year brings a new crop of bright, young, idealistic men and women full of energy and ambition.  It keeps one feeling young.

What interests do you have in educational research and scholarship?
Although I conducted done research in cell biology throughout my 40 years at UVA, my educational scholarship has been focused in the following areas: 1. Innovative ways to teach histology in an active learning, small-group setting utilizing new technology, such as Virtual Slides and 2. The impact of a change in grading system on academic performance and psychological well-being of medical students.

How would you summarize your philosophy of teaching?
I think that active learning in small groups utilizing the faculty as coaches or guides to learning can be the optimum situation in the pre-clerkship curriculum. When you are dealing with people of the quality admitted by UVA, I think we need to enable each student to have the maximal control over their own education, while providing them with easy access to all the tools that may be needed, including qualified faculty.

How do you spend your free time outside of work?
I have always been a big reader of fiction (particularly related to spycraft and the WWII and Cold War eras).  I have greatly enjoyed studying the history of medical education, particularly at UVA, where we have a lot of original resource materials available in the Historical Collections in the Health Sciences Library as well as the University’s spectacular Special Collections library.

What advice would you give to a new faculty member getting involved in education in the UVA SOM?
Like all major medical centers today, faculty are under enormous pressure to bring in income to the SOM, either through clinical care or through research grants (indirect costs and salary reimbursement) and the incentive systems reflect those priorities. It takes sacrifice and a special effort to carve out time and energy for medical and graduate education, but doing so is worth the effort and has its own special rewards, albeit of a rather different type.

What do you look forward to about the new Academy?
I think the new Academy for Excellence in Education holds a lot promise, in terms of promoting the careers of those who want to be actively involved in education, helping to educate faculty about how to be the best kind of medical educator they can and helping to provide incentives for making quality educational contributions and educational research an important part of one’s career at the UVA School of Medicine. I hope that the new Academy can successfully involve many more of its members in the various activities of the Academy, than was the case with our previous Academy.

What attracted you to working in academic medicine?
As someone with a doctorate in epidemiology, with professional focus on the integration of research methodology, ethics, and regulations, I was attracted to the potential for interprofessional education and collaboration in academic medicine. Bringing together people from different disciplines and professions is fundamental to conducting responsible and respectful research that promotes research integrity, protects research participants, maintains trust in the research enterprise, and ultimately advances science and improves health.

What made you decide to call UVA your home?
In many ways UVA was really my first home. I was born in C’ville when my parents were in graduate school, and I even lived in graduate student housing as a baby! Even though I grew up for the most part in the DC area and lived on the West Coast and in New England for graduate school, I always felt strong ties to C’ville and UVA and so was thrilled to have the opportunity to move back when my husband matched for ID fellowship here (he is also SOM faculty now). I especially appreciate the collegiality at UVA and the good hiking and tennis in the C’ville area.

What do you enjoy most about teaching?
I love getting to know, and learn from, so many people around the School of Medicine, Cross Grounds, and beyond! My teaching-at the interface of research methodology, ethics, and regulations-spans academic disciplines and professions, and I regularly teach undergraduate and graduate students, clinicians in training, researchers, and study teams. I am also a leader in the Virginia IRB Consortium, which brings together HRPP professionals and researchers from across Virginia for education and collaboration on issues related to human research protections and research integrity.

What interests do you have in educational research and scholarship?
I am interested in how education that integrates research methodology, ethics, and regulations can be used to promote research rigor and integrity and protect research participants.

How would you summarize your philosophy of teaching?
We can all learn from each other and grow together.

How do you spend your free time outside of work?
I love spending time with my family and playing tennis and the piano. Lately I’ve also been trying to learn bridge and resurrect my Spanish. Rereading Agatha Christie mysteries is my guilty pleasure.

What advice would you give to a new faculty member getting involved in education in the UVA SOM?
Be creative and explore the possibility of cross-disciplinary and interprofessional collaboration.

What do you look forward to about the new Academy?
I look forward to being part of a community of educators that explores integrating innovative educational approaches such as those using technology, case studies and role-playing, and applied practice experiences. 

What attracted you to working in academic medicine?
I’ve always loved teaching. But late in residency and during my first year on faculty, I learned there is so much more to medical education, namely the opportunity to be creative in teaching clinical skills, developing curricula, and engaging in scholarship. I enjoy variety and collaboration.

What made you decide to call UVA your home?
I came to UVA for residency in internal medicine and never questioned staying. The people and the collaborative atmosphere, both on the clinical side and in medical education, is unparalleled. Charlottesville–an artsy college town in the mountains–is perfect for our family.

What do you enjoy most about teaching?
The connection with the learner; seeing them develop greater confidence, insight and self-efficacy. It is amazing to meet new medical students during their first week of Foundations of Clinical Medicine (FCM)–they know little clinical medicine but are so enthusiastic and dedicated to learning their craft—and then to see them rapidly grow into knowledgeable, skilled physicians.

What interests do you have in educational research and scholarship?
My focus is teaching and assessment of clinical reasoning (how doctors think), high-value care (providing the best, most appropriate care), and the intersection of these two concepts, management reasoning. I spend much of my time on remediation, creating and implementing individualized coaching plans to address clinical reasoning struggles for students, residents and fellows across a range of specialties.

How would you summarize your philosophy of teaching?
I aim to create a safe learning environment that fosters critical thinking. I frequently ask questions and push learners to think aloud while reflecting on their own thought processes. My goal is to promote autonomy while empowering learners to build confidence and poise.

How do you spend your free time outside of work?
Activities with my 6-year old such as soccer practice and Tae-kwon-do. Then hopefully making it out to a winery or local restaurant (pre-COVID). More recently, I’ve started running on trails around town.

What advice would you give to a new faculty member getting involved in education in the UVA SOM?
Explore outside of your clinical group. When asked, say yes early in your career. UVA is such a collegial place with approachable faculty. Meeting fellow educators and forming relationships will lead to unexpected opportunities.

What do you look forward to about the new Academy?
So many things–the opportunity to formalize collaborative relationships. I also plan to take advantage of newly available faculty development sessions.