Dear Alumni,
Welcome to the Stanford Medicine Alumni Association website. I am honored and humbled to take up the baton as the current President of SMAA, and I look forward to working with you to further SMAA’s mission to reach, inspire, serve, and engage our alumni (RISE). I welcome each one of you to engage and reengage as an integral part of the SMAA family, connecting with classmates, mentoring our current students and trainees, volunteering for our communities, and building friendships through various educational conferences, sporting events and social gatherings.
I encourage you to visit this website to learn of programs and services we provide throughout the year. If you have additional comments or questions, we would love to hear from you. Click here for our contact information and let us know if we can make the SMAA community event more engaging, inclusive, diverse, and fun!
Best regards,
Lila Hope, Ph.D (Cancer Biology) 1999
President
Stanford Medicine Alumni Association
lila.hope.smaa@gmail.com
Board Officers
Lila W. Hope
PHD ’99 (2ND TERM 2013-2016) (1ST TERM 2010 - 2013)
PRESIDENT (2017 - 2019), PRESIDENT-ELECT (2015-2017)
Dr. Hope is a partner practicing law at Cooley LLP. She specializes in life sciences licensing and partnering transactions involving complex legal, business and operational issues. She also assists clients with their day-to-day contract needs for manufacturing, distribution, clinical trials and other operational matters. She works closely with the management teams to structure transactions to meet strategic goals, and to close such deals through drafting and negotiating legal contracts. Her clients are located around the world and are active in all areas of biotechnology, including therapeutics, artificial intelligence, vaccines, diagnostics, e-Health and medical devices. She is a regular speaker on licensing and partnering matters in the legal and biotech communities. She is also actively involved in mentoring students at Stanford Medicine and Duke Law. She received her PhD in Cancer Biology from Stanford Medicine in 1999, and her JD from Duke University School of Law in 2002. Lila lives in Palo Alto and enjoys the beautiful outdoors and the many cultural offerings in the Bay Area.
Arturo Molina
MS ’83, MD ’83, PD ’86, PD ’89 (2ND TERM 2016 - 2019) (1ST TERM 2013 - 2016) PRESIDENT ELECT (2017 - 2019)
Dr. Molina is Chief Medical Officer at Sutro Biopharma. Previously, he was Vice President, Oncology Scientific Innovation at Janssen R & D (Johnson and Johnson, JNJ). While at JNJ he was responsible for the clinical development and New Drug Application for abiraterone (Zytiga®), which is now approved for metastatic prostate cancer in more than 100 countries. He was Chief Medical Officer/EVP at Cougar Biotechnology, which was acquired by JNJ in 2009. Arturo also worked at IDEC, then Biogen-IDEC, ultimately becoming Head, Oncology Clinical Development. In collaboration with Genentech, he led the clinical Supplemental Biologics License Application (sBLA) filing activities resulting in FDA approval of Rituxan® in two first-line indications in 2006: follicular lymphoma and diffuse B-cell lymphoma.
From 1991-2002, Dr. Molina was a faculty physician in Hematology/Bone Marrow Transplantation and Medical Oncology/Therapeutics Research at the City of Hope (COH) Comprehensive Cancer Center, where he became an Adjunct Professor, member of the COH Medical Group Board of Directors and President-Elect of the COH Medical Staff. Arturo received his MD and MS (Physiology) from Stanford University, and completed residency in Internal Medicine and fellowships in Medical Oncology, Biological Science, and Bone Marrow Transplantation, all at Stanford.
Arturo was an undergraduate at the University of Texas at Austin where he received a BS in Zoology (Honors) and BA in Psychology (High Honors).
Dennis (Denny) J. McShane
MD ’72 (2ND TERM 2016 - 2017, 2019 - 2021) (1ST TERM 2013-2016) SECRETARY (2017 - 2019)
Dr. McShane completed his training in Internal Medicine at Michael Reese Medical Center in Chicago and his fellowship in Immunology/Rheumatology at Stanford University where remained on the clinical faculty in the Division of Immunology. His areas of clinical investigation involved measurement of long-term outcomes and health services research in the rheumatic diseases employing a computerized longitudinal databases. In addition to his faculty duties in clinical care, teaching, and research he also maintained a private practice focused on clinical care and therapeutic trials for individuals with HIV/AIDS. In 1997, Dr. McShane developed a series of computerized clinical algorithms for nurse-led telephonic symptom triage employed by the National Health Service in the United Kingdom. He served as a member of the clinical coordinating council of the NHS until 2009. Currently, Dr. McShane has embarked on composition of classical music. His interests include growing orchids, gardening, cooking, attending opera and symphony, and travel. He currently resides in Menlo Park, California, with his husband of 31 years, California Assemblyman Richard S. Gordon.
Theodore Leng
BS ’99, MS ’00, MD ’05, MED FELLOW ’09 (2ND TERM 2013 - 2016) (1ST TERM 2010 - 2013)
PAST PRESIDENT (2017 - 2019), PRESIDENT (2015-2017)
Dr. Leng is a faculty member at the Byers Eye Institute at Stanford and specializes in vitreoretinal diseases and surgery. He serves the Department of Ophthalmology as the Director of Clinical and Translational Research and the Director of Ophthalmic Diagnostics. His research focuses on automated analysis of retinal imaging to improve the outcomes of eye disease. While not at work, Ted is passionately involved in aviation, cooking, and raising his two daughters. His wife, Jody, MS ’02, is an anesthesiologist at the Palo Alto VA. They enjoy cheering for the Cardinal at sporting events, traveling, and family life.
Jennifer Cauble
BA ’76
EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, ALUMNI RELATIONS
Jennifer serves as the Director of Alumni Relations for Stanford’s Medical Center and Executive Director of the Stanford University Medical Center Alumni Association. She has a strong connection to Stanford as an alumna, Stanford parent, long-serving volunteer and staff member. She has worked on projects across campus including planning numerous alumni events, serving as a consultant at the School of Architectural Design and working with the Office of Technology & Licensing.
Trained in classical marketing Jennifer has over 25 years of experience in the private sector building teams and marketing programs for nationally recognized brands and consumer electronics start-ups. In the non-profit sector, Jennifer has worked at a variety of universities creating multidimensional programs that increase awareness, enhance engagement and help organizations deliver exceptional value. She is the past Director of Marketing and Membership for Stanford’s Alumni Association, former consultant to the International Business School at Brandeis University, and also served as Associate Vice President of Marketing and Communications at San Jose State University.
Board Members
Pat (Auveek) Basu
RESIDENT ’10 (2ND TERM 2016-2019) (1ST TERM 2013-2016)
Dr. Basu, M.D., M.B.A., recently served as Chief Medical Officer of Doctor on Demand, a national telemedicine practice that enables patients to consult over video with a licensed physician. In this role, he partners with two national TV programs and some of the world’s best technology companies and health systems.
Dr. Basu took leave from two Stanford Faculty appointments to serve as a White House Fellow. At Stanford, he also served as Course Director of Health Policy, Finance & Economics. He has been invited to speak on policy, politics & healthcare over 60 times in the past 3 years. He has consulted for fortune 500 companies, venture capital firms, start-ups & major health systems. Previously, he served as Chief Operating Officer and Chief Medical Officer of Virtual Radiologic, overseeing hundreds of full time physicians in caring for millions of patients at nearly half the nation’s hospitals. It became the largest provider of radiology and telemedicine in the world. Dr. Basu is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and serves on the State Board of Health. Dr. Basu served as a Chief Resident at Stanford. He graduated with honors from the University of Chicago, where he received both his MD and MBA. He graduated with honors in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Illinois.
Kartik Bhamidipati
PHD ’21, PHD STUDENT REPRESENTATIVE (2017 - 2019)
Kartik Bhamidipati graduated from University of Pennsylvania in 2016 where he received a B.S. in Economics from the Wharton School and a B.A. in Biology from the College of Arts and Sciences. He is currently a first-year student in the Immunology PhD program studying the role of B cells in autoimmune diseases. In addition to research, Kartik is interested in the intersection of life sciences and business. In his free time, Kartik enjoys playing tennis, going on hikes, and cheering for Philadelphia sports teams.
Richard Cano
MD ’05, RESIDENT ’09 (1ST TERM 2016-2019)
Dr. Cano is currently a private practice anesthesiologist with Newport Harbor Anesthesia Consultants (NHAC) of Southern California. This 61-member group primarily serves Hoag Presbyterian Memorial Hospital of Newport Beach and Irvine, California. Dr. Cano graduated from California State University, Stanislaus with a BS in Biology and a minor in Chemistry, after which he received his MD and completed his anesthesia residency at Stanford in 2009. Clinical experience includes an Associate Faculty position with University of Iowa Department of Anesthesia, where he was awarded Teacher of the Year from the Anesthesia Residency, and five years in private practice in Ames, IA. Throughout his career he has served on several hospital and department committees with interests in patient outcomes, performance improvement, protocols and electronic medical record. Dr. Cano enjoys traveling with his family, participating in medical missions, watching Stanford sports, and is an extremely avid golfer.
Bernard Chang
MD ’08 (2ND TERM 2017-2020) (1ST TERM 2014-2017)
Dr. Bernard Chang serves as an Assistant Professor of Medicine at Columbia University Medical Center in the Emergency Department. His clinical and research focus is on behavioral health issues in the Emergency Department, particularly suicide risk assessment and PTSD. He received his Ph.D. from Harvard University in Psychology and his M.D. from Stanford University. He completed his medical residency at the Harvard Affiliated Emergency Medicine Residency (Massachusetts General Hospital and Brigham and Women’s Hospital), where he was awarded resident of the year by the hospital nursing staff and received the Povinelli award for his work related to mental health screening in India. A lifelong sailor and fly-fisherman, in his free time he pursues rainbow trout and the seasonal trade winds both in his hometown of New York and abroad.
Grace Chang
MD '06 (1st TERM 2017-2020)
Dr. Chang is an executive leader in Research and Development at Alcon, a global medical devices company specializing in eye care. She is responsible for strategic guidance and leads clinical teams in the development of surgical systems, devices, and instrumentation for ophthalmology. She is also a practicing vitreoretinal surgeon at the University of Southern California, and was previously a faculty member at the University of Washington. She received a bachelor’s degree in Chemistry from Stanford, followed by a master’s degree in Electrical Engineering, also at Stanford. She then obtained her Ph.D. degree in Computation and Neural Systems at the California Institute of Technology, and subsequently returned to Stanford for her M.D. During that time, she was Chair of the Graduate Student Council, and successfully led the advocacy efforts for the building of the Graduate Community Center, as well as for subsidized health care for the Stanford graduate population. She completed both her ophthalmology residency and vitreoretinal fellowship at Harvard Medical School/Massachusetts Eye and Ear Infirmary. Her other avid interests include cooking, the arts, and travel.
Kuo-Kai Chin
MD ’18, MED STUDENT REPRESENTATIVE (2016-2018)
Kuo-Kai (KK) was born in Taiwan and came to the United States at age 9. He attended Harvard College and graduated in 2015 with an A.B. in Chemical and Physical Biology and a secondary in Mathematical Sciences. During his undergraduate career, he directed the Harvard College Alzheimer’s Buddies and received the Thomas T. Hoopes Prize for his senior thesis on enhancer chromatin. At Stanford, KK has served as the Recruitment Co-Chair and conducts research on post-operative pain as part of the Health Services and Policy Research Scholarly Concentration. Outside of scholarly pursuits, KK enjoys learning acoustic guitar, discovering new books, and playing all kinds of sports.
Clyde Farris
MD ’73 (1ST TERM 2015-2018)
Dr. Clyde Alan Farris was raised in Montana and Wyoming on various Indian reservations where his father worked as an agricultural engineer for the Bureau of Indian Affairs. He obtained a degree in bio-medical engineering from the University of Wyoming before attending Stanford Medical School. He served a surgical internship and an orthopaedic surgery residency at Parkland-UT Southwestern in Dallas, Texas, and a traumatology fellowship at the University of Basel in Switzerland. Dr. Farris then returned to Stanford and joined the faculty on a full time basis before moving to Oregon to enter private practice. Initially, his practice was devoted primarily to orthopaedic trauma but he eventually transitioned primarily to total joint replacement. Dr. Farris retired from private practice in 2012 and then joined Doctors without Borders performing trauma surgery in Africa.
Dr. Farris’ wife, Rebecca is a retired school teacher. Their daughter, Catherine is an illustrator in Portland, Oregon, and their son, Michael, is a marine biologist in Long Beach, California. Dr. Farris and his wife live on seven acres just outside Portland. He has developed an interest in forestry, spending a lot of time planting trees. He also enjoys cycling, hiking, and skiing.
Patti Fry
BS ’72 (NURSING), MBA ’77, SECRETARY (2013-2015) (1ST TERM 2015-2018)
Ms. Fry serves on the Board (past President) of the Stanford Nurse Alumnae. She spent most of her 30-year+ professional career in various information systems consulting, services, and sales management roles, primarily in the health and financial services sectors; strategic planning as a senior management consultant to major healthcare organizations; and as a critical care nurse.
Currently Ms. Fry is an active community volunteer serving on the Boards of several local nonprofits and as a leader of Stanford Graduate School of Business Alumni Consulting Team (ACT) pro-bono projects with nonprofit organizations. She graduated from Stanford University with a BS with Distinction and an MBA from the Stanford Graduate School of Business. With her husband David Hauk (MA '66, MBA '67), she enjoys gourmet cooking, gardening, music, and travel, especially to places where they can hike or snorkel. They are proud parents of an inventive entrepreneurial son who is a graduate of UCSD.
Daniel R. Greenwald
MD ’00 (1ST TERM 2013-2015, 2017 - 2018) SECRETARY (2015-2017)
Dr. Greenwald is a medical oncologist at the Cancer Center of Santa Barbara in Santa Barbara, CA where he has been in practice since 2007. After medical school he completed his internship, residency, chief residency, and fellowship at Stanford. In addition to practicing oncology he currently collaborates with basic science laboratories at UC Santa Barbara and participates in multiple clinical trials with a clinical interest and focus in lymphoma. He is the director of the tumor board at Cottage Hospital and the director of oncology education for the internal medicine residency program at Cottage Hospital. He serves on the board of directors of the Santa Barbara visiting nurses and hospice and the Community Leadership Council for the Santa Barbara Chapter of the American Cancer Society. He and his wife Anita, BA '94, have three children. He is an avid woodworker and gardener.
Deval Laskhari
PHD ’96 (1ST TERM 2016-2019)
Dr. Lashkari has worked in the life sciences area developing and commercializing novel technologies. During his time as a graduate student, Dr. Lashkari worked at the Stanford Genome Technology Center on new technologies used in the human genome project. He was also President of BioMASS and was involved with summer research programs for minority undergraduate students. After completing his PhD in Genetics, he became a founding research director for a genomics tools company. He gained corporate and business development experience through senior management positions in a number of life science businesses. Dr. Lashkari is a co-founder and Senior Partner at Telegraph Hill Partners, a San Francisco based life sciences and healthcare venture capital firm and works closely with innovative healthcare companies.
Linda Liau
MD ’91 (2ND TERM 2017-2020) (1ST TERM 2014-2017)
Dr. Linda M. Liau is now a tenured full Professor of Neurosurgery and Vice Chair of Neurosurgery at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA, and Director of the UCLA Brain Tumor Program. She received her B.S. degree in Biochemistry and B.A. degree in Political Science, both with honors, from Brown University. She then received her M.D. degree from Stanford University in 1991, and a Ph.D. degree in Neuroscience from UCLA. After completing her residency and fellowship training in neurosurgery at UCLA, she joined the faculty at the UCLA School of Medicine as an Assistant Professor. In 1999, she was recognized as one of Stanford University School of Medicine’s 40 distinguished alumni during the medical school’s 40th Anniversary celebration. She is currently a board-certified neurosurgeon with both an active NIH-funded research laboratory and a busy clinical practice in the field of brain tumors and neurosurgical oncology. She is the Editor-in-Chief for the Journal of Neuro-Oncology, and is a Director for the American Board of Neurological Surgeons (ABNS).
Miles Linde
PHD STUDENT REPRESENTATIVE (2016-2018)
Miles Linde graduated from Washington State University in 2015 where he received a B.S. in Biochemistry, as well as a B.A. in Philosophy with an emphasis in Ethics. As a second-year in the Immunology PhD program at Stanford, he studies pre-B cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia, seeking to develop novel immunotherapeutic strategies. Besides research, Miles is interested in teaching and mentorship, as well as communicating science to the general public. Outside of the lab, he enjoys playing French horn, home brewing beer, and playing soccer.
Daniel Mirda
MD ’84 (1ST TERM 2016-2019)
Dr Daniel Mirda is a practicing hematologist and oncologist in Northern California and also president of the state oncology society (ANCO, Association of Northern California Oncologists). After graduating from Cornell, Daniel left New Jersey for Stanford Medical School and later completed his internal medicine training and hematology/oncology fellowship at UCSF. He did basic science research at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute at UCSF, through fellowship till 1993. Returning to clinical medicine, he conducted clinical trials and was a managing partner of Redwood Regional Medical Group, a multi-disciplinary oncology group in northern California. As president of ANCO, Daniel is very active with the national oncology and hematology organizations, ASCO and ASH, with frequent trips to Washington DC, working with Medicare and the upcoming MACRA implementation. In his free time, he enjoys golf, hiking, skiing, and travel. Dr Mirda’s wife is from Chile. Their son is a first lieutenant in Army military intelligence, after graduating from Princeton and their daughter is a senior at Harvard, as premed.
Ethan Nicholls
MD '88, (1ST TERM 201-2020)
Dr. Ethan A. Nicholls received his A.B. from Harvard University, his M.D. from Stanford University and completed his Anesthesia residency and fellowship in Pain Management at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF).
He joined the Palo Alto Foundation Medical Group in March 2015 where he currently serves as Chair of the Department of Anesthesia, Alameda Division. Previously, he was a senior partner and served as President of Northern California Anesthesia Associates (2004-2015). After completing his residency and fellowship training, Dr. Nicholls held the position of Assistant Professor of Anesthesiology and Pain Management at the University of California, San Francisco before leaving for private practice and working at El Camino Hospital, and later Washington Hospital.
In addition to his clinical practice, Dr. Nicholls has served in numerous other roles. Most recently on the Board of Trustees, Castilleja School in Palo Alto (2011-2017). He served as a Delegate, District 4, California Society of Anesthesiology (2001-2007) and previously held multiple staff and committee positions at El Camino Hospital including Chief, Department of Anesthesiology.
Dr. Nicholls has two daughters, is a Stanford Women’s Basketball season ticket holder and enjoys traveling and attending the theatre and SF Opera.
Justin Norden
MD ’19, MBA '19, MEDICAL STUDENT REPRESENTATIVE (2017-2019)
Justin Norden, a Seattle native, is a current Stanford MD/MBA student who works in the Stanford Center for Digital Health and the Wearable Health Lab. He is a summa cum laude computer science graduate of Carleton College, and has an M.Phil. with distinction in computational biology from the University of Cambridge. At Stanford Justin served as president of the Stanford Medical Student Association, and served as a senior partner for the Stanford Healthcare Consulting Group. Justin’s research projects focus on machine learning applications in healthcare with wearable devices, evaluating new digital health technologies, and telemedicine. Outside of academia Justin is a professional ultimate frisbee player for the San Jose Spiders, winners of the 2015 AUDL national championship.
Jeffrey Pollard
RESIDENT ’06 (1ST TERM 2016-2019)
Dr. Jeffrey Pollard is a double board-certified surgeon with a B.S. in Health Psychology from Duke and M.D. from Vanderbilt. He completed his Otolaryngology/Head & Neck Surgery residency at Stanford and a Facial Plastic & Reconstructive Surgery fellowship at Tulane.
Dr. Pollard is Director of Medical Affairs at 23andMe and is primarily responsible for maintaining the clinical integrity of the company's direct-to-consumer genetics products and services. He has over a decade of hands-on clinical experience including founding a multi-center medical practice and serving as a regional educator for the pharmaceutical company Allergan. Prior to joining 23andMe, he was the Medical Director for digital health pioneer HealthTap. He is an active advisor to innovative companies such as ZendyHealth and serves as an advisor and judge for the Duke University Startup Challenge. He also volunteers as a member of the Board of Directors for Weingarten Children's Center, a nationally recognized oral school for deaf children.
Klaus Porzig
BA ’69, MD ’73 (2ND TERM 2016-2019) (1ST TERM 2013-2016)
Dr. Porzig graduated from Stanford with departmental honors in Biology and election to Phi Beta Kappa in 1969. He received his MD from Stanford University School of Medicine in 1973, earning several graduation awards including election to Alpha Omega Alpha. Following an internship at UCSF, he returned to Stanford for his residency in Internal Medicine and a clinical fellowship in Medical Oncology.
From 1976-78, Dr. Porzig served as a Research Fellow at the National Cancer Institute in Bethesda in the laboratory of Dr. Stuart Aaronson. He co-founded South Bay Medical Oncology in 1978 (now aligned with Stanford Hospital & Clinics) and retired from private practice in 2006. On the clinical faculty at Stanford for 30 years, Dr. Porzig served as a faculty attending on the Med X Oncology Service at Stanford Hospital and in the Breast Oncology program at the Stanford Cancer Center. He was awarded the Russell Lee Clinical Teaching Award by the Stanford Department of Medicine four times and the Thomas Davis Award for excellence in clinical teaching by the Division of Oncology for his work mentoring fellows, interns, and residents.
A Clinical Professor of Medicine Emeritus, Dr. Porzig retired from patient care and teaching in 2008. He and his wife Ellen married while Stanford students in 1971 and have three daughters. He enjoys hiking and nature photography, and has traveled widely from Tibet to Antarctica to Namibia.
Ramin Saket
MD ’04 (1ST TERM 2016-2019)
Dr. Saket is a Radiologist at Kaiser Permanente Santa Clara where he serves as both Subchief of Neuroradiology and Subchief of MRI. He is Chair of Neuroradiology for the Kaiser Northern California region where he has helped the organization transition to a subspecialty model of care and has lead efforts to advance and standardize practice. His clinical interests include Pediatric Neuroradiology, epilepsy and autoimmune diseases of the brain, head and neck imaging, endocrine and orbital imaging, and advanced MRI techniques/applications. He is also a Clinical Assistant Professor of Neuroradiology at UCSF where he enjoys teaching fellows, residents, and medical students. Ramin and his wife, Kristy, live in Palo Alto where they have enjoyed raising their two sons. Outside of work, Ramin is passionate about skiing, traveling, and spending time with his family.
Melissa Sims
MD, '07 (1ST TERM 2017 - 2020)
Dr. Melissa Sims is currently a private practice radiologist with California Advanced Imaging Medical Associates (CAIMA) in Northern California. Dr. Sims graduated cum laude from Harvard University with an A.B. degree in Psychology. She received her M.D. from Stanford School of Medicine and M.P.H. from the University of California at Berkeley. She completed Radiology residency at UCLA and Stanford, after which she completed a fellowship in Musculoskeletal Imaging with National Orthopedic Imaging Associates. In addition to her clinical work, Dr. Sims is a contributor to the new editions of Stoller’s Orthopaedics and Sports Medicine textbooks. During her time at Stanford, she was President of the Stanford Medical Student Association and Coordinator for the Stanford University Minority Medical Alliance, a student organization dedicated to increasing diversity in medicine. Dr. Sims lives in San Mateo with her husband, Leroy (BS ’01, MS ’02, MD ’07, Fellow ’10), and their two young daughters. They enjoy international travel, supporting Stanford sports teams, cooking, and learning foreign languages.
Marcia L. Stefanick
PHD ’82, PD ’84 (2ND TERM 2016-2019) (1ST TERM 2013-2016)
Dr. Stefanick is a Professor of Medicine (Stanford Prevention Research Center) and of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Stanford University, Director of the Stanford Women and Sex Differences in Medicine (WSDM) Center, Co-Leader of the Population Sciences Program of the Stanford Cancer Institute and an active member of the Stanford Cardiovascular Institute. Dr. Stefanick has led several major women’s health research studies at Stanford, including the large NIH Women’s Health Initiative (WHI) trials of menopausal hormones for overall health risks and benefits, low-fat diet for cancer prevention, and calcium/vitamin D supplementation for bone health, the National Cancer Institute's Women’s Healthy Eating and Living (WHEL) trial of a plant-based diet for early stage breast cancer survivors, and, currently, the Women’s Health Initiative Strong & Healthy (WHISH) trial of physical activity for heart disease prevention, as well the Osteoporotic Fractures in Men (MrOS) Study. These studies and her past diet, exercise, and weight control trials have influenced national lifestyle guidelines. Dr. Stefanick has a BA in biology (University of Pennsylvania) and PhD in Physiology (Stanford University), focusing on reproductive physiology and neuroendocrinology, and also exercise physiology. She was an Iris Litt Faculty Fellow at the Clayman Institute for Gender Research and is co-director of the Gendered Innovations in Science, Health & Medicine, Engineering and Environment Project.
Erica Riddle Taylor
PHD ’06 (1ST TERM 2016-2019)
Erica Riddle Taylor, PHD ‘06 was born and raised near Detroit, MI and attended the University of Michigan, earning a BS with a concentration in biochemistry, with honors, in 2000. In the fall of 2000, she joined the Stanford University Immunology Program conducting thesis research focused on gene therapy strategies to prevent liver transplant ejection. She earned her PhD in December of 2005 (Class of '06) and worked as the first director of Diversity and Outreach Programs for the Stanford enome Training Program. In 2007, she began working with IMS Consulting Group, a leading pharmaceutical consulting company that specializes in critical business issues in biotechnology industries. She has worked for Genetech since 2010 in various roles where she is currently Senior Product Manager, BioOncology.
Volney (Vol) F. Van Dalsem III
BA ’71, MD ’75 (2ND TERM 2017 - 2020) (1ST TERM 2014-2017)
Dr. Dalsem has had a long engagement with Stanford University, receiving his BA in Biology in 1971 and M.D. in 1975. He completed his internship, residency and fellowship in Diagnostic Radiology at the University of California, San Francisco in 1980, where he continues to hold the position of Assistant Clinical Professor in Diagnostic Radiology and serves on the Margulis Society (Diagnostic Radiology alumni society) Board of Directors. Dr. Van Dalsem practiced Diagnostic Radiology at El Camino Hospital (Mountain View California) from 1980 through 2007, and has served as the Medical Director of the Radiologic Technology and Diagnostic Medical Sonography Training Programs at Foothill College (Los Altos Hills, California) from 1991 through the present. In 2007 he returned to Stanford Medical School as a faculty member (Associate Professor, Clinical Educator line) and Medical Director of Outpatient Imaging for Stanford Hospital and Clinics. Dr. Van Dalsem was appointed Professor (Clinical Educator line) of Abdominal Imaging in the Stanford Department of Diagnostic Radiology in 2012.
David Walter
POSTDOC ’01, (1ST TERM 2017 - 2020)
Dr. Walter is an experienced professional in the biopharmaceutical industry, with a wide variety of experience from early stage research to commercial manufacturing. He is currently working at Amunix Inc., where he is the Associate Director for Technical Operations working in Drug Product Development and Quality Assurance. Prior to Amunix, he held positions at leading biotechnology companies including Genentech/Roche, Bayer, MedImmune and Applied Biosystems. He has worked in research and development in areas such as cancer, immunology, neuroscience, vaccines, hematology and next generation sequencing. Recently he led the downstream Phase III clinical production of Tecentriq (Genentech’s new cancer immunotherapeutic).
Dr. Walter was a postdoctoral fellow at the Stanford University School of Medicine in the Department of Pediatrics from 1998 to 2001 after completing his Ph.D. in Molecular Biology at Princeton University. While at Stanford, he developed and characterized potential novel treatments for asthma in the laboratory of Dr. Dale Umetsu.
Lynn Westphal
MD ’87, RESIDENT ’91, PD ’92 (1ST TERM 2015-2018)
Dr. Westphal, MD, FACOG, graduated summa cum laude from Lawrence University, earned her M.D. degree at Stanford University, and did her residency training in obstetrics and gynecology at UCLA and Stanford University. She did a fellowship in molecular biology at Stanford University, and completed her fellowship in Reproductive Endocrinology and Infertility (REI) at UCSF.
Dr. Westphal joined the full-time faculty at Stanford University in 1998 and is a Professor in the Department of Gynecology and Obstetrics, Director of the Fertility Preservation Program, Director of the Third Party Reproduction Program, Director of the REI Fellowship, and Co-Director of the Women’s Health and Sex Differences Scholarly Application. Her interest in fertility preservation for cancer survivors led her to set up one of the first oocyte cryopreservation programs in the country in 1999. She was the Director of Women’s Health at Stanford from 2005-2012.
She has held numerous national leadership positions and is the past President of the Bay Area Society for Reproductive Endocrinologists. In 2012, she co-founded the Stanford Center for Health Research on Women and Sex Differences in Medicine (WSDM), and served as co-director of the program until 2014.
Lisa Zaba
BS ’00, RESIDENT ’13, PD ’13 (1ST TERM 2015-2018)
Dr. Lisa Zaba has had a variety of experiences in scientific academia, medical academia, biotech and private practice, and is currently serving as the director of the Complex Medical Dermatology department for Kaiser Permanente for northern California. Dr. Zaba received her undergraduate degree from Stanford University (’00) in Biology then completed an MD/PhD and internship at the Cornell/Rockefeller/Memorial Sloan-Kettering Tri-institute (’10), with a focus on immunology. She is best known in the scientific community for elucidating the pathophysiology of psoriasis, a common skin condition, along with her mentor James G. Krueger, which paved the way for specific antibody based therapeutics that now treat this disease. She subsequently returned to Stanford Medical School for a residency in Dermatology (’13) with a focus on complex immunologic diseases that have skin manifestations, and also completed a post-doc in Genetics. After her post-doc and prior to joining Kaiser, Dr. Zaba was a part-time Clinical Instructor at Stanford, and was a founding director for a biotech startup, Alector, which explores how modulating the immune system might lead to effective medications for Alzheimer’s. Dr. Zaba continues to be very active in the Stanford community volunteering time to mentor residents and lecturing in the medical school.