“This year, 55 of you – fifty-five of our amazing faculty – earned promotion to a higher rank,” Amy Goldberg, MD, FACS, Interim Dean, at the July 8 faculty promotion celebration at the Lewis Katz School of Medicine.  

“We’re here to celebrate you today – and I’m so fortunate that I get to be among the first to say congratulations,” she told the group, which included not just the newly promoted faculty themselves but also senior leadership of the school of medicine, administrators, and department chairs who came out to honor their teammates.   

The faculty earning promotion this year represent a spectrum of basic science and clinical disciplines, including the Center for Metabolic Disease Research, and the Departments of Internal Medicine, Surgery, and Pathology, among others. Two of the fifty-five faculty were promoted from Instructor to Assistant Professor, 37 from Assistant Professor to Associate Professor, and 16 from Associate Professor to the full Professor rank. In addition, two faculty earned tenure at Temple University.   

According to Heather Clauss, MD, Senior Associate Dean for Faculty Affairs, to earn promotion to a higher rank, faculty must demonstrate that they have advanced their own performance to the next level through scholarship, teaching, research, service, leadership, and meet other criteria connected to their particular roles.   

“To earn promotion takes serious work. But you make it look easy – because you are so smart, efficient, and accomplished,” Dean Goldberg said. 

“I want to thank Dr. Heather Clauss, Sharon Kass, and everyone who put this event together – a first-of-its-kind for our school – and the kind of celebration we need to do every year to recognize faculty promotion. This is my philosophy: Never forego an opportunity to celebrate,” Dean Goldberg said.

Congratulations to the following faculty members: 

• Hesham Abdelfattah, MD - Associate Professor 

• Jennifer Aldrich, MD - Professor

• Jill Allenbaugh, MD - Associate Professor

• Mohamed S. Alsammak, MD - Associate Professor 

• Amandeep Aneja, MD - Associate Professor

• Karim Bahmed, PhD - Assistant Professor

• Charles T. Bakhos, MD - Professor 

• Aurelia Bizamcer, MD, PhD, MPH - Professor

• Erin R. Camac, DO - Associate Professor

• Zhongjian Cheng, PhD - Assistant Professor

• Konstantin Chernukha, MD - Associate Professor 

• Christopher Chu, MD - Associate Professor 

• Arleen Ayala-Crespo, MD - Associate Professor

• Parag Desai, MD - Professor

• Shaliz Dolan, MD - Associate Professor 

• Joseph D'Orazio, MD - Associate Professor 

• Santosh Dhungana, MD - Associate Professor

• Sean P. Duffy, MD - Associate Professor

• Jocelyn Edathil, MD - Associate Professor 

• Diana Feinstein, DO - Associate Professor 

• Ryan Gibbons, MD - Associate Professor

• Rohit Gupta - Associate Professor 

• James Graham, DO - Associate Professor 

• Brittany Hansen, DO - Associate Professor 

• Gail M. Herrine, MD - Professor 

• Aroonsiri Howell, MD - Associate Professor 

• Jessica James, MD - Associate Professor 

• Beata Kosmider, PhD - Associate Professor*

• Mansoor Khan, MD - Associate Professor

• Kelvin Kwan N. Lau, MD - Associate Professor

• Iris Lee, MD - Professor 

• Stephen Ling, MD - Professor 

• Jon Livelsberger, DO - Associate Professor

• Zoe Maher, MD - Associate Professor

• Pietro Miazzo, MD - Professor

• Daniel Mueller, MD - Associate Professor

• Y. Yuliana Salamanca-Padilla, MD - Associate Professor 

• Lee Peng, MD, PhD - Professor

• Raghava Potula, PhD - Professor

• Theresa Power, DO - Associate Professor 

• Sudarsan Rajan, PhD - Associate Professor 

• Parth Rali, MD - Associate Professor

• Marisa Rose, MD - Professor

• Daniel J. Rubin, MD, MSc - Professor

• Larissa Salas, DO, MPH - Associate Professor 

• Maura Sammon, MD - Associate Professor

• Kraftin Schreyer, MD - Associate Professor

• Ryan Schreiter, DO - Associate Professor

• J. Milo Sewards, MD - Professor 

• Kartik Shenoy, MD - Professor 

• Rohit Soans, MD - Associate Professor 

• Sam Stern, MD - Associate Professor 

• Kaede Ota Sullivan, MD - Professor

• Suad Taraif, MD - Associate Professor

• Gaurav Trehan, MD, MBA - Professor

• Eric J. Velazquez, MD - Associate Professor

• Jun Yu, MD - Associate Professor*

* Faculty who earned tenure

- Giselle Zayo