The past six months have been an incredible new beginning for me at UNC. I have had the pleasure of getting to know our faculty and learners better and have enjoyed working together to celebrate our accomplishments and help tackle the challenges that have come our way.
Our Department continues to expand its footprint as we consistently see increasing volumes and demand at the Medical Center. We have expanded our breast imaging and VIR services into Hillsborough hospital and our outpatient imaging centers in Eastowne, Burlington, and the Imaging Center continue to see increasing demand for our services.
With clinical expansion, we are excited to welcome new faculty into our Department. During the summer, Drs. Rachel Hitt and Kassie McCullagh will join the Breast Imaging and Neuroradiology divisions, respectively. In the fall, Dr. Tony Jeanmenne will join the Musculoskeletal Imaging division and Dr. Gloria Salazar will become our new division Chief of VIR. Finally, in the winter, Dr. Mahmud Mossa-Basha will join the Neuroradiology division. I look forward to welcoming our new colleagues to our very first Departmental in-person gathering for our faculty in August.
Thanks to our dedicated faculty, our residency continues to excel. Despite the challenges of virtual recruitment, we successfully matched our top candidates into our Diagnostic Radiology (DR) and Vascular and Interventional Radiology (VIR) residencies. All of our residents passed the ABR core exam and we had a lovely in-person graduation at the Botanical Gardens for our 2021 graduating residents. There is a new buzz in the Department as our new residents have begun their training and are hitting the ground running. Many have already mapped out pursuits in research, global health, leadership development, and other pathways, all too aware of fast-moving training years ahead.
We welcome a new educational leadership with Dr. Cody Schwartz as our DR program director and Drs. Katrina McGinty and Erin Moran as our DR Associate Program Directors. Dr. David Mauro is our new Program Director for the VIR residency with Drs. Peter Bream and Cody Schwartz as Associate Program Directors. Dr. Kristen Olinger is our new Associate Program Director of UME, working alongside Dr. Sheryl Jordan. I am delighted to work with these talented and dedicated educators on our GME and UME programs.
Our Department’s clinical and basic science researchers continue to excel as our portfolio of federally and industry-sponsored research continues to expand. I’m amazed at the volume of research and scholarly activity arising from our Biomedical Research Imaging Center (BRIC) faculty. Our Epidemiology Research Division leverages centralized community health via studies that provide actionable information to prioritize patients in breast and lung cancer screenings. We continue to see an increase in our clinical research through the expansion of multi-disciplinary clinical trials.
Through the Mauricio Castillo Diversity and Inclusion fund, we successfully launched a Summer Scholars program where five UNC minority and women medical students had the opportunity to rotate on four specialties: Radiology, Anesthesia, Urology, Vascular Surgery. This outreach program allowed URM and women medical students to learn more about these specialties that routinely struggle with diversity and inclusion in the hopes of creating a pipeline of more diverse students that can enter the specialty and change its makeup in the future. In addition, our Department intends to launch additional DEI events that can also help with mentorship, research, and outreach.
This year, UNC Global Radiology is fostering partnerships across Latin America scaled to models of success over 10+ years in Kenya (IR fellowship program launch) and Malawi (hospital partnering in hands-on imaging training and education). Our investment in economic, infrastructure, and research capacity-building within Latin America continues to advance UNC Global Radiology’s mission via strategic approaches to global imaging outreach in under-resourced areas worldwide.
Finally, I’m thrilled to have launched the Matthew A. Mauro Alumni Society. This society will allow us to honor our Department’s distinguished history by firming our connection with our alumni and help create research and educational opportunities for our residents. I hope to welcome y’all back at Chapel Hill for alumni events for many years to come. Stay tuned!
Maureen Kohi, MD, FSIR, FCIRSE, FAHA
Ernest H. Wood Distinguished Professor and Chair
Department of Radiology
The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill