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Asian American Faculty Association

UNC SOM AAFA meeting with the Undergraduate Asian American Center, April 2022

We invite you to join the UNC School of Medicine Asian American Faculty Association (AAFA) with the goal of supporting, empowering, and celebrating our Asian American (AA) faculty and fostering opportunities for networking, communication, and growth.

Our Mission

  1. To Increase education and dialogue on issues affecting Asian Americans
  2. Support leadership, career development, and advancement among AA faculty
  3. Foster the exchange of diverse intellectual, social, cultural, and political perspectives from the AA faculty
  4. Enhance the University’s diversity commitment to teaching, service, and outreach to the Asian American community
  5. Collaborate with other UNC organizations to advance diversity, equity, and social justice

Recent Happenings

  •

    Dr. Joan Taylor, Director of Faculty Advancement, AAFA Promotion Talk

    Dr. Joan Taylor, Director of Faculty Advancement for School of Medicine, was invited to discuss the process for promotion from Assistant to Associate Professor and Associate to Full Professor with AAFA members. This is a recording of a virtual discussion from Wednesday 4/12/23 at 5 pm.

  •

    AAFA celebrates Chinese New Year!

    AAFA celebrated Chinese New Year at Alice Chuang’s house. Alice made and brought food for 100 people! We made dumplings, had Chinese food from Jade Palace (Mapo Tofu, walnut shrimp, chow fun, eggplant/broccoli, sesame chicken, tons of sushi). Alice never wants you to feel hungry so she also ordered eclairs, cookies, fruit, macaroons and endless … Continued

  •

    Dr. Esther Choo Speaks to AAFA

    Dr. Esther Choo, Professor of Emergency Medicine at Oregon Health Sciences and co-founder and board member of Time’s Up spoke for AAFA on Tuesday 12/6/2022.

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    Dr. Van Le Visits Vietnam

    Dr. Linda Van Le recently returned from a trip to Danang Vietnam where, as part of our global oncology fellowship, The UNC Gyn Oncology team spent time operating, seeing patients, teaching.  

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Association Leadership

Alice Chuang, MD, MEd

Alice Chuang, MD, MEd

Associate Dean for Student Affairs, UNC SOM; Professor, Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology
achuang@med.unc.edu

Bio: Alice Chuang was born in Taipei, Taiwan but moved to Memphis, TN at the age of 5 months. She obtained her undergraduate degree in Applied Mathematics at Harvard and then returned to her hometown of Memphis to attend medical school and residency at the University of TN. She accepted a faculty appointment at UNC SOM in the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology in 2003. She has been fortunate to have served as a course director in all phases of the curriculum and to have served as a student advisor before shifting to a formal role in Student Affairs. She currently serves as the Associate Dean for Student Affairs and is a Professor of Obstetrics and Gynecology.

She is grateful for having the opportunity to serve the students at UNC and credits her career achievements to her extraordinary mentors, particularly Dr. Frank Ling who steered her towards a career in medical education as a resident. She credits her career satisfaction to a community, both local and national, of amazing colleagues and friends. She credits her sanity and insanity to her two children, ages 16 and 13, the menagerie of animals in their home: Memphis (Aussiedoodle) Luna (Westiepoo), Yoshi (chiweenie), Cooper (box turtle) and Upendo (artic albino Western hognose snake) and her partner, who is coincidentally also an obstetrician.

Committees

Communications:

Develop and create regular communications (interest stories, opinion pieces), communicate with SOM and healthcare system, managing website (or whichever communication platform is determined to be best), provide updates from other committees.

Members: Drs. Ganesh Kamath, Michael Wang, & Michael Yeung

Networking:

Event planning with an eye towards strengthening specific AAFA networks (e.g., professional role, ethnicity, mothering, sports interests, other), fostering member engagement, opportunities to meet and network.

Members: Drs. Arielle Perez, Muneera Kapadia, Lee-Ching Zhu, & Priyanka Vedak

Advocacy and Community Engagement:

Explore ways to engage with the local and national Asian American community with a focus on service and advocacy.

Members: Drs. Vibhor Kirshna, Vimal Derbail, Vinay Chaudhry, Zahra Girnary, & Mia Kang

Professional development:

Create seminars, workshops, lectures around promotion and leadership building, utilizing UNC resources e.g., SOM Faculty Development, other UNC leadership programs on campus.

Members: Drs. Zev Nakamura (Chair), Michelle Itano, Koyal Jain, Karina Whelan, Chrissy Kistler, Weiming Tang, & Dana Iglesias

Mentoring:

Connecting with undergraduate students, medical students, and residents to advise, mentor, coach and support future AA scientists, physicians, and healthcare providers.

Members: View AAFA Mentoring Committee

Other Asian American Affiliates at UNC

Founded in 2020, the Asian American Center’s mission is to cultivate a critical understanding of Asian American peoples, cultures, and histories. Through education, organizing, and advocacy, the AAC will engage and empower Asian American students, faculty, and staff and the greater Carolina community. The AAC will enhance the University’s commitment to excellence by expanding access to interdisciplinary learning and preparing the next generation of leaders for an increasingly multicultural society.

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