Faculty Mentors
Meet Core Faculty Advisor and Vice Chair for Faculty Affairs Taison Bell, MD
I was born in Boston but spent most of my childhood in Lynchburg, VA. After graduating from UVA with a degree in African-American and African Studies, I completed medical school at Columbia University and then internal medicine residency at the Massachusetts General Hospital. I was fortunate to be a chief resident at MGH and then completed an infectious disease fellowship at the combined Mass General and Brigham and Women’s Hospital program. I guess this wasn’t enough, so I completed a critical care fellowship at the National Institutes of Health. I joined the faculty in 2017 and am currently an Assistant Professor of Medicine in the divisions of Infectious Diseases and Pulmonary/Critical Care Medicine, Vice Chair for Faculty Affairs in the Department of Medicine, and director of the Summer Medical Leadership Program through the Diversity Office.
Meet Core Faculty Advisor Zach Boggs
Welcome to UVA! I’ve been at UVA for three years and recently finished my internal medicine residency. I am very fortunate to now begin my career as UVA faculty in general internal medicine. I attend in our resident clinic and also on the general medicine inpatient service. My interests are in medical education and addressing social determinants of health.
I grew up in North Carolina and attended college and medical school at UNC-Chapel Hill. Go Heels! My wife and I had two beautiful children during residency, and we love living in Charlottesville! We love hiking and enjoying the nearby mountains, the quaint downtown area, and a sense of welcoming throughout the community. UVA has been a great home for me and my family, and I can’t imagine a better place to be.
Meet Core Faculty Advisor Alex Kadl
I came to Charlottesville in 2004 to do basic science research. This was a big move after growing up and completing medical school in Vienna, Austria. Missing patient care, I started residency and fellowship training in Pulmonary Critical Care Medicine a few years later, and joined the UVA faculty in 2013. Over the years I have continued in basic, translational and clinical research and earned a Master’s Degree in Clinical Research from UVA in 2018.
I deeply enjoy teaching medical students, residents and staff as I take care of patients at the bedside. I am also engaged in many residents’ and fellows’ research projects. Clinically, I spend most my time in the Medical ICU and Special Pathogens Unit; recently we also launched our Post-ICU Clinic, where we see survivors of critical illnesses including COVID-19. In my free time, I enjoy sports, running, jumping, playing volleyball, but also love cooking and baking, and gardening.
Meet Core Faculty Advisor Ian Crane
Life over the past decade has been filled with constant movement—from California where I grew up and went to college, to Burlington, Vermont, where I studied medicine, to Charlottesville for residency, Little Rock for a year in hospital medicine, and now back to Charlottesville. The community of Internal Medicine at UVA has ended my cycle of wandering. Needless to say, there’s something special about UVA Internal medicine. I am beyond excited to join the rich tradition of resident education as a hospitalist and core advisor. I find it meaningful to aid in the same transformation that I went through—from the at-times overwhelmed intern, to a physician who can wed complex stories with decision making that helps patients. I am also interested in health care for the underserved, and the intersection of medicine and the arts. After work obsessions include road/gravel cycling, seeing live music and playing jazz piano, and I welcome any opportunity to nerd out on any of these topics.
Meet Core Faculty Advisor Kim Dowdell
They say that Charlottesville and UVA have sticky sidewalks – meaning once you walk on them you always feel pulled back here. That was certainly the case for me. I first fell in love with UVA and Charlottesville as an undergrad student and loved it so much I stayed for medical school. I headed north to Boston for residency, chief year and the start of my career, but always felt I wanted to come back and practice at UVA. In 2014, I joined the general medicine faculty at University Physicians Charlottesville and shortly afterwards became part of the CORE faculty.
I enjoy caring for my patients and teaching medical students and residents, while striving to improve the quality of the patient experience. While UVA has always been known for its telemedicine program in the rural parts of Virginia, it’s been exciting to be a part of its integration at the primary care level. It’s been rewarding to work alongside the former residents and attendings that I looked up to as a medical student, and I feel fortunate to now call them my colleagues.
Meet Hematology-Oncology Education Director Rick Hall
I’ve heard it called ‘Rotunda Fever,’ an infectious disease that draws one near to the University. I caught it when interviewing for residency in 2007. Despite travel travails and almost showing up to my interview in freshly bought khakis with tags hanging off, I was struck by the esprit de corps among the residents and faculty. I matched to UVA and arrived in the summer of 2007 to begin my intern year. While residency was at times tiring, it was easy to recharge in Charlottesville. The University brings big city attractions and amenities to the area without the irritations of big city life, and it’s an absolutely beautiful place to live. Enjoying local farms and wineries, Shenandoah National Park, UVA sports, big name concerts, great dining – it’s all here. My wife and I found it easy to build connections in the community for our boys and, simply put, we have thrived here as a family.
Given that “Rotunda Fever” is a hard illness to cure, we were thrilled to return to UVA and Charlottesville in the summer of 2014 after three years in Tampa, Florida, where I completed a fellowship in oncology at the H. Lee Moffitt Cancer Center. I now serve as the fellowship director for Hematology and Oncology and am proud to contribute to the tradition of patient care, teaching, and research excellence that make our programs and department great.
Meet Gastroenterology Education Director Neeral Shah
I came to the University of Virginia to pursue a transplant hepatology fellowship and a career in academic medicine. During my interview, I was impressed with the collegiality at UVA and with its strong clinical research program. The collegial academic environment combined with a teamwork-oriented clinical environment has made UVA a great place to work and train. As I tell my colleagues around the country, this is the first place I’ve found where an “open door policy” means people not only welcome you into their office to discuss cases, but stop you as you walk by to make sure things are going well. It’s that extra touch that makes UVA special.
Over my time at UVA, I have been very involved in the internal medicine residency program as an associate program director and a member of the CORE faculty. Now, I am the GI fellowship program director and have the opportunity to assist in subspecialty career mentorship and advising. In my work as a transplant hepatologist and gastroenterologist, I’m able to expose residents to a thriving transplant program that cares for critically ill patients.
I hope you will come visit us, in a town that truly is one of the best places that I and my wife and our three girls could imagine living.
Meet Vice Chair for Clinical Affairs Paul Helgerson
I am an Associate Professor of Medicine and the Vice Chair of Inpatient Clinical Operations for the Department of Medicine. A Virginian by birth, I did residency training at Stanford and stayed there for Chief Residency and almost a decade on teaching faculty. I returned to my native state with my wife and now-teenage children in 2014. Simply put, I don’t think there is a better academic medical center in a town as inviting as Charlottesville anywhere else in the country. The community here is enormously welcoming. I live 8 miles from a National Park and have never run out of new ways to spend time outdoors.
UVA has been a wonderful place to practice medicine, learn together with students and residents, and develop ways to more safely and effectively care for patients. I practice in a Department in which I feel supported by my peers and our leadership. There is a true enthusiasm for clinical medicine and commitment to education that is uncommon. I look forward to meeting you.
Meet Core Faculty Advisor Glenn Moulder
I first experienced Charlottesville as an undergraduate student when I attended UVA in the early 2000’s. In those years, I gained an appreciation for the University of Virginia that continues today and it was an easy decision for me to return here for my Internal Medicine Residency after attending medical school in New Orleans. What I had not appreciated during my undergraduate time here was how truly special Charlottesville is in its own right. I often tell people that I learned more about Charlottesville in four weeks as an Internal Medicine Resident than I had in four years as an undergraduate. With a vibrant music scene, eclectic local cuisine, and numerous outdoor experiences, Charlottesville provides many outlets for enjoying life outside of work. As my family grows, the joys of the City of Charlottesville endure. That said, the collegiality within the Department of Medicine make this Residency Program special. After residency training here, I enthusiastically joined our UVA hospitalist group in 2013 and continue to foster these ideals while engaging in medical education endeavors.
Meet Core Faculty Advisor Mo Nadkarni
I am a professor of medicine and chief of the Division of General, Geriatric, Palliative and Hospital Medicine. I came from Penn Med to do residency training in the UVA primary care track, and haven’t looked back since. I worked as clinical faculty at a community health center and then joined the full-time faculty to run University Medical Associates (UMA), the resident-faculty clinic. I love taking care of patients who are currently underserved, and especially like teaching residents in clinic and on the wards. I’m also a co-founder of the Charlottesville Free Clinic, where many residents have volunteered, and now am the physician lead for community-based COVID-19 outreach testing. Charlottesville has now been my home for 30 years and I can’t imagine a better place to train and live.
Meet Core Faculty Advisor Amanda Renaghan
Born and raised in Staten Island, NY, I spent my college years in Boston (Go Eagles!) and first experienced UVA as a medical student. Though I returned to New York (New York Presbyterian/Weill Cornell) for residency and Nephrology fellowship, I always felt pulled back to the University and Charlottesville. I returned as faculty in the Department of Medicine in 2017 and became a CORE faculty advisor for IM residents shortly afterward.
I enjoy working with medical students and residents on the General Medicine wards and caring for patients with a wide range of illnesses affecting different organ systems. I have especially enjoyed the opportunity to share my passion for and teach core topics in Nephrology (learning hyponatremia really isn’t so bad!). Watching our residents grow into knowledgeable and compassionate professionals is a true highlight of my job. I look forward to working with you during your training. Welcome to the UVA community!