KL2 Scholar Alumni
Christina Herrera, M.D., is an Assistant Professor of the Department of Obstetrics & Gynecology in the Division of Maternal-Fetal Medicine. She received her medical degree at Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons and completed residency in Obstetrics and Gynecology and fellowship in Maternal-Fetal Medicine at UT Southwestern Medical Center. Her long-term career goal is to be an independent investigator and leading expert on non-invasive assessment of the placenta and placental-mediated disorders.
Dr. Herrera's current research focuses on the longitudinal assessment of the placenta in healthy pregnant women and pregnant women with chronic hypertension using MRI and genomic techniques with collaborators in the Departments of Radiology, Pathology, Pediatrics and the Green Center. She is also working to develop first trimester sonographic assessment of the decidua basalis, the precursor to the placenta, in placenta accreta spectrum disorders. Her KL2 research mentors are Catherine Spong, M.D., and Diane Twickler, M.D.
Sarah Lieber, M.D., MSCR, is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Internal Medicine, Division of Hepatology. She earned her medical degree at the University of Michigan Medical School. She completed a residency in internal medicine at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai and received advanced training in gastroenterology and transplant hepatology through fellowships at the University of North Carolina (UNC) at Chapel Hill. She also holds a master’s degree in clinical research from UNC’s Gillings School of Global Public Health.
Dr. Lieber’s research is focused on liver transplantation outcomes, patient reported outcomes, and health behavior intervention implementation and evaluation. She is the recipient of the 2018 American Association for the Study of Liver Disease (AASLD) Innovation Award and the 2019 AASLD Advanced/Transplant Hepatology Award, which supported her early research in liver transplant survivorship and the development of the LiveRight Transplant App—a patient-centered smartphone application designed to enhance patient engagement and coordination of care through remote health monitoring. Her KL2 research mentors are Drs. Amit Singal, M.D., MSCS, Simon Craddock Lee, Ph.D., MPH, and Jasmin Tiro, Ph.D.
Cherise R. Chin Fatt, Ph.D., is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Psychiatry’s Center for Depression Research and Clinical Care (CDRC). She obtained a Ph.D. in cognition and neuroscience (2017) from the University of Texas at Dallas and did her postdoctoral work with Dr. Madukhar Trivedi, M.D. She is now a functional neuroimaging researcher with substantial expertise in advanced statistics. She has applied computational approaches to generate new insights into precision medicine approaches for currently available antidepressant treatments and to identify new targets for mechanistically-targeted drug discovery for neuropsychiatric disorders.
Dr. Chin Fatt will apply novel computational approaches to existing clinical and neuroimaging data to characterize the immune cell mechanisms underlying suicidal thoughts. Successful completion of her KL2 program will help identify immune factors that may be potential targets for drug discovery (and subsequent R level grants) and enable her transition as a federally funded independent investigator. Drs. Madhukar Trivedi, David Farrar, and Elizabeth Ballard are her KL2 research mentors.
Samuel McDonald, M.D., MS, is an Associate Professor in the Department of Emergency Medicine and an Assistant Chief Medical Information Officer at UT Southwestern. He was previously a research mathematician for the United States Department of Defense until transitioning to a career in medicine, completing his education and training at UT Southwestern. He received a master’s degree at UT Houston's School for Biomedical Informatics with research interests in clinical decision support and machine learning/predictive modeling. His research focuses on the development and utilization of clinical decision support tools to provide real-time, actionable intelligence to patients and clinicians to improve the quality of care delivered. His KL2 research mentors are Drs. Mark Courtney, Christoph Lehmann, and Eric Peterson.
Eric B. Ortigoza, M.D., is an Assistant Professor of Pediatrics in the Division of Neonatal-Perinatal Medicine at UT Southwestern Medical Center. He earned his medical degree and Master of Science in Clinical Research from the Medical University of South Carolina. He completed residency in pediatrics at the Medical College of Georgia, followed by fellowship in neonatal-perinatal medicine at the University of Florida. The goal of his research is to better understand the relationship between the intestinal microbiome and gastrointestinal motility in preterm infants at risk of feeding intolerance. He obtained a K23 award from the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development titled: Integrating Novel Physiologic Biomarkers of Feeding Intolerance in Preterm Infants. His KL2 research mentors are Drs. Lina Chalak, Andrew Y. Koh, and Julie Mirpuri.
Yuanyuan Zhang, M.D., Ph.D., is a Clinical Instructor in the Department of Radiation Oncology. She received her M.D./Ph.D. degree at UT Southwestern, where she worked in the lab of Drs. Brown and Goldstein (Nobel Laureates, 1985). She subsequently pursued an internship and radiation oncology residency program at the Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center and UT Southwestern, respectively. She is currently a clinical instructor in thoracic oncology and a post-doc fellow in Dr. Ralph Deberardinis’ lab. Her current research focuses on metabolic regulation of radiation response in lung cancer with a goal to develop metabolic radiosensitizers to improve the effectiveness of radiotherapy. She received the 2015 Ida M Green Award, Radiation Oncology Early Career Developmental Award in 2020, ASCO Young Investigator Award and Roentgen Resident/Fellow Research Award in 2021. Her KL2 scientific mentors are Drs. Ralph DeBerardinis and Kenneth Westover.