Leadership Council
Fei Chen, Ph.D., M.Ed.
Assistant Professor, Anesthesiology
Term: 2021 – 2024
Dr. Chen received her doctorate in Educational Psychology and Methodology from State University of New York, Albany. Since beginning her career as an education research specialist in the Department of Anesthesiology at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Dr. Chen has focused her research on curriculum and instructional design for enhanced learning in medical education. Working with faculty and scholars within and outside of UNC, Dr. Chen have designed, implemented, and evaluated multiple research projects for curriculum improvement, simulation-based education, clinical feedback, formative assessment, and resident wellness. Dr. Chen is excited to be a member of the AOE Leadership Council because this role provides her opportunities to serve the UNC medical education community and improve its practices and scholarly activities.
Kenneth Fortier, MD
Clinical Professor, Department of Obstetrics & Gynecology
Term: 2020-2023
Dr. Fortier’s calling to medical education has come full circle. After receiving undergraduate and medical degrees from Dartmouth, he completed residencies and joined the faculty in ob/gyn and pathology at Duke where teaching provided his preeminent focus and dearest rewards. These years were followed by two cherished decades of private practice ob/gyn, rich with the joy and privilege of clinical care, but tinged by the absence of robust teaching.
The circle was completed when he became a clinical professor at UNC, once again among medical students and residents, delighted to find his passion for medical education intact, and the rewards of teaching as fresh and invigorating as ever and embedded in integrated curricula with innovative evidence-based approaches and accountability led by enlightened and dedicated faculty.
Dr. Fortier’s active medical education roles have included ob/gyn clinics, student clerkship rounds, clinicopathology, population health, and the creation of elective courses in the engagement of compassion in medicine for first- and fourth-year medical students. Honored to contribute on the Leadership Council, he is a student advocate with particular interests in teaching humanism and self-compassion in medicine to promote sustainable careers during this most challenging era for providers of medical care.
Koyal Jain, MD, MPH, FASN
Associate Professor of Medicine
Director, Nephrology and Hypertension Training Program
Director of Undergraduate Medical Education, Department of Medicine
Term: 2021-2024
Dr. Jain completed her internal medicine residency from UConn and trained at UNC for her nephrology fellowship. During her time at UNC, she has held many educator roles, including Renal Block Director, Nephrology fellowship Program Director and Director of Undergraduate Medical Education in the Department of Medicine. She loves to teach and foster a great learning environment. One of her passions is the intersection between being a trainee during residency and fellowship and simultaneously an educator for the other team members. She is excited to work with the AOE to provide necessary skills to our fellow workforce in educating students, residents, and other trainees. She hopes to partner with the researchers in education and provide formal training to the fellows on research methodology. Dr. Jain wants to encourage collaborations between different departments and inspire all our trainees to consider education a vital part of their careers.
Winston Li, MD
Assistant Professor, Psychiatry
Associate Residency Training Director
Term: 2020-2023
Susan Martinelli, MD
Professor, Anesthesiology
Residency Program Director
Term: 2021 – 2024
Following medical school at the University of Wisconsin, Dr. Martinelli completed her anesthesia residency at UNC and a cardiothoracic anesthesia fellowship at Duke. Dr. Martinelli earned an Education Research Methodology Certificate through the University of Illinois and a Medical Education Research Certificate from the Association of American Medical Colleges. She also completed the Comprehensive Instructor Workshop at Harvard’s Center for Simulation. Her educational research focuses on the utilization of the flipped classroom in residency education as well as the incorporation of family and friends into the wellbeing of medical learners. Dr. Martinelli is excited to be on the Leadership Council for the opportunity to learn from, share ideas with, and collaborate with the outstanding medical educators here at UNC.
Jennifer McEntee, MD, MPH, MA.Ed
Associate Professor of Medicine and Pediatrics, Division of Hospital Medicine
Term: 2020-2023
An explorer and thrill seeker at her core, Dr. McEntee decided to take a risk and join the University of Notre Dame’s ACE Program prior to entering medical school. Through this program, she loved teaching at a secondary school in Oklahoma City for two years and earned a Master’s in Education through Notre Dame. She developed a passion for education and when she entered a joint MD/MPH program at Tulane – she realized education would be an instrumental part of her medical career. The Dean of Students at Tulane further allowed her to take a year of medical school between her first and second year of medical school to teach pedagogy at St. Joseph’s Teacher’s College in Moshi, Tanzania. She continues to be diligent in regards to including her educational passion in to her day-to-day work as an Internal Medicine Hospitalist and Palliative Care/Hospice provider. Her educational interests continue to include working with the AOE to continue to help grow UNC’s commitment to developing faculty as educators both through formal and informal processes while also developing a more robust evaluation and assessment plan for all learners that focuses on competency-based assessment using Entrustable Professional Activities versus the traditional time constant curricula. In addition, she hopes to continue to foster and build a sense of community at UNC which will further build resilience and life-long learning at all levels of learning. She is proud to be a Tar Heel and is grateful for the opportunity to serve our community in this way.
Luigi Pascarella, MD, FACS
He/His/Him
Professor of Surgery, Vice Chair for Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion
Surgery Clerkship Director
Co-Director HISC, UNC SOM
Division of Vascular Surgery
The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Term: 2020-2023
Dr. Pascarella is a vascular surgeon and Associate Professor of Surgery. He completed medical school at the Second University of Naples (1990 – 1997) and residency at University of Parma (1998 – 2003). At Duke University, he completed a residency and fellowship, before joining us as a Tarheel at UNC. His clinical interests are Thoracic Outlet Syndrome, Upper Extremity Revascularization, Cerebrovascular Disease, Aortic Pathology, and Chronic Venous Insufficiency.
Christina Shenvi, MD, PhD, MBA, FACEP
Associate Professor, Emergency Medicine
Director, UNC Office of Academic Excellence
Term: 2021 – 2024
Dr. Shenvi, MD, PhD, MBA, is fellowship-trained in geriatric emergency medicine (EM). She is the director of the UNC Office of Academic Excellence and current president of the Association for Professional Women in Medical Sciences. She previously also led the EM portion of the medical student clerkship year, has served as a college advisor, and as Associate Program Director for Emergency Medicine for 7 years. She lectures nationally on geriatric EM, educational theory and innovations, professional development, career navigation, and time management. She is passionate about teaching, learning, and shaking up the status quo. Dr. Shenvi is excited to be on the Leadership Council because she believes UNC’s strength is its people, and her hope is that she can “help develop our educators and their individual teaching skills, while also helping build bridges across our specialties to share ideas and improve inter-disciplinary teaching”. Her vision is “for the AOE to be not just a resource but a catalyst to help our educators develop innovative ways to be more effective teachers, exemplary learners, and outstanding scholars.” Dr. Shenvi co-directs the AOE FLAGship program that provides leadership and professional development for faculty across the UNC campuses.
Kelly Lacy Smith, MD
Assistant Professor, Family Medicine
Clinical Academic Resource Director, Office of Academic Excellence
AOE Medical Alumni Distinguished Teaching Professorship,2022 – 2026
Term: 2021 – 2024
Dr. Smith was the first person in her family to go to college; attending the University of Virginia and graduating with a degree in Spanish. She then attended the Medical College of Virginia (Virginia Commonwealth University) in Richmond for medical school. She completed Family Medicine residency at the UNC then stayed on for a fourth-year Chief Residency when she realized her passion for teaching. To continue to develop those skills, she completed a Faculty Development Fellowship focused on teaching, scholarship, and leadership. She is now an Assistant Professor in the Department of Family Medicine. In the SOM, she works as a Clinical Academic Resource Director (CARD). She is excited to be a part of the Leadership Council and to support faculty development around education. She has recently led a group of over 20 faculty from around the state to create AOE Essentials, a faculty onboarding package that reviews the basics of teaching. Her teaching goals center on supporting those underserved groups in medicine including first-generation students or those labeled as struggling learners. During the next few years, she hopes to continue to develop herself as a clinical teacher skilled in curriculum development and support of all learners.