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New Employees - August 2019


New Faculty - August 2019

Emily Beck, MD
Assistant Professor
Pulmonary - Sugar House Health Center, U of U Medical Center, SLC VA

Dr. Beck was born in Boise, Idaho and completed her undergraduate degree at the College of Idaho before attending medical school at the University of Washington. After medical school, she matched into the UC Davis Internal Medicine Program where she also served as chief medical resident. Emily came to University of Utah in 2015 as a fellow in the Pulmonary and Critical Care Fellowship Program and also completed a T32 research year. Dr. Beck is excited to join the faculty at the University of Utah where she will take care of patients in the Medical ICU and pulmonary clinics at the University of Utah and Salt Lake City VA. Her clinical interests include general pulmonary medicine and care of patients with pulmonary vascular disease.

When she is not working, Dr. Beck enjoys spending time with her husband and their German Shorthaired Pointer, Josie, hiking, biking, and skiing in the Wasatch Range.

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Adrienne Carey, MD
Clinical Instructor
Infectious Diseases

Dr. Carey was born and raised in Salt Lake City, Utah and from the time she attended her first Runnin' Utes basketball game at 3 months of age, she has been a Ute through and through. She completed her undergraduate degree at the University of Utah in chemistry, and attended the University of Utah for medical school. Dr. Carey spent four years at the University of Michigan as an internal medicine-pediatrics resident, where she served as chief resident during her last year of residency. Dr. Carey returned home to Utah to complete a 2-year adult infectious diseases fellowship.

She enjoys traveling the world with her husband, Brandon, and they love spending the winters in the mountains on the slopes in the "greatest snow on Earth!"

Jeffrey Ferraro, PhD
Adjunct Assistant Professor
Epidemiology

Vaia Florou, MD
Assistant Professor
Oncology

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Jared Huber, MD
Clinical Instructor/Hospitalist 
General Internal Medicine - Huntsman Cancer Hospital

Dr. Huber was raised in St. Anthony, ID, a small community just a few hours north of SLC. After completing undergraduate here in Utah at BYU, his medical training took him to both coasts, first to Philadelphia for medical school where he attended the University of Pennsylvania and then to Portland, OR for residency in Internal Medicine at OHSU. During his residency he participated in health systems research that highlighted some of the innovations OHSU had implemented to increase hospital access, especially for the sickest patients from rural parts of the state. The opportunity to continue to provide high level, tertiary care at Huntsman for patients from throughout the Intermountain west (along with the allure of the mountains) was an opportunity that was too good to pass up.

Outside of work, Dr. Huber has a wonderful wife, Nancy, and three young boys ages 4, 2, and 2 (twins!). He plays soccer and enjoys the mountains when he can, but mostly just does dishes, settles disputes over who had which toy first and who gets it next, and changes diapers. With the additional discretionary time now available after completing residency, he is looking forward to leisure reading and travel.

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Maia Hightower, MD, MPH, MBA
Chief Medical Information Officer, Assistant Professor
General Internal Medicine - Clinic 2 

Prior to joining the University of Utah Health team, she was the Chief Medical Information Officer and Interim Chief Population Health Officer for The University of Iowa Health Care. She joined the faculty of the University of Iowa’s Carver College of Medicine, Department of Internal Medicine in August of 2015, after serving as Associate Medical Director for Stanford Health Care’s University Healthcare Alliance. Dr. Hightower received her Medical Degree, as well as a Master of Public Health, from the University Of Rochester School Of Medicine, followed by residencies in Internal Medicine and Pediatrics at the University of California, San Diego. She also holds an MBA from the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School.

She enjoys spending time with family in the great outdoors and is an avid skier, tennis player and runner. She loves gadgets of all kinds and can be found wearing more than one fitness tracker at all times.

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Michael Incze, MD, MSEd
Assistant Professor
General Internal Medicine - Sugar House Health Center, University of Utah Medical Center

Dr. Incze is a General Internist providing primary care at the Sugarhouse Clinic in Salt Lake City. He joined the U of U after completing a primary care-focused Internal Medicine Residency at the University of California, San Francisco. His clinical interests include Addiction Medicine, homelessness and medical writing. During residency he published several editorial pieces in JAMA Internal Medicine and remains the inaugural section editor of the journal’s Patient Pages. He has led initiatives to improve access to naloxone at hospital discharge for people at risk for opioid overdose, to build a low-barrier buprenorphine program administered in homeless encampments in San Francisco, to implement primary care-based Hepatitis C treatment at a teaching clinic in the safety net, and more. He has presented the results of these programs at regional and national conferences. Michael hopes to continue to integrate primary care-based addiction medicine into his practice at Sugarhouse.

In his free time, Dr. Incze enjoys cycling, camping, skiing, cooking and composing/recording music. He is thrilled to be joining the community at the University of Utah and is looking forward to serving the people of Salt Lake City.

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John Morris, MD, ScM
Assistant Professor
Gastroenterology - University of Utah Medical Center, Huntsman Cancer Center, Sugar House Health Center 

Dr. Morris moved here from Maryland where he had been living from the past 16 years. He is originally from the West; born and raised in San Jose, California and then moved to Utah (Provo) where he attended high school. Dr. Morris first moved to Maryland to complete a Masters in Science in Epidemiology at Johns Hopkins School of Public Health before attending medical school at the University of Maryland in Baltimore. He then completed Internal Medicine residency at New York-Presbyterian Weill Cornell in Manhattan before returning to the Maryland/DC area to be a hospitalist at Georgetown University Hospital for 2 years. Dr. Morris then completed Gastroenterology fellowship at the University of Maryland where I completed an additional year of training in therapeutic endoscopy including ERCP, EUS, luminal stenting, small bowel enteroscopy, endoscopic mucosal resection, and endoscopic suturing.

He has enjoyed moving to Salt Lake City and the significant improvement in my commuting experience; he enjoys being able to take in the natural beauty of the area as he rides his bike or jogs to work. He is looking forward to exploring the area with his wife and two daughters (6 and 3 years old). He especially enjoys the benefit of living where they can participate in the many activities going on in Salt Lake City, or make a short get away to explore other areas of the Intermountain West.

Leenhapong Navaravong, MD
Assistant Professor
Cardiovascular Medicine

Brandi Wynne, PhD, FAHA
Assistant Professor
Nephrology

New Staff - August 2019

Emily Armstrong
Physician Assistant
Hematology

Alison Astill
Clinical Study Assistant 
Pulmonary

Robyn Barrus
Regulatory Coordinator
Pulmonary 

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Heather Blair 
Nurse Practitioner 
Cardiovascular Medicine

Heather is a new APRN that started August 2019 with the general cardiology team. She has been an RN for over 20 years in various fields including pediatric intensive care, emergency medicine and air medical transport with Flight for Life Colorado. As a nurse practitioner, her focus has been primary care for the past 4 years. Heather is excited for this new opportunity and ready to expand her knowledge of cardiovascular medicine.

Heather's family recently relocated to Salt Lake City from Summit County, Colorado as her husband accepted a new position with Snowbird Resort. They have a 3-year-old daughter and 5-year-old son and enjoy all things outdoors, especially skiing and snowboarding.

Sara Burton
Clinical Nurse
Dialysis - Utah

Erica Courtney
Social Worker
Dialysis - Utah

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Kelly Cronkhite
Research Analyst
Epidemiology 

Kelly is native to Northern Virginia and Northwest Florida. She migrated to the West to attend Brigham Young University, where she received her Undergraduate Degree in Psychology with a Minor in Music. 
After graduating from BYU, Kelly worked in Salt Lake City as a Clinical Research Coordinator; specializing in central nervous system studies. She is currently working on research projects located at the Salt Lake VA. 

She enjoys spending time with her husband and four children. She teaches piano and loves to play tennis, soccer, softball, and swim.

Jennison Cull
Study Coordinator
Pulmonary

Lenee Curtis
Dialysis Technician
Dialysis - Idaho

Eli Salton
U of U Student - Research
Nephrology

Valerie Fernandez
Lab Aide
Infectious Diseases

Kara Fialkowski 
Nurse Practitioner
Hematology

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Gina Gregovich
Clinical Research Manager, Greater Intermountain Node (GIN) Coordinator 
Epidemiology - GIN-PARCKA Office, Colorow Building

Gina has over 20 years’ experience in clinical research and worked at Huntsman Cancer Institute for over 17 years. Gina has been working in quality management in medical device development and production for the past 6 years. She is happy to be returning to the University of Utah, where she received her Bachelor’s Degree, and is excited about working with the PARCKA team on important addiction research.

Gina is the mom of two sons, one who just graduated from the University of Utah. She lives in SLC with her family, dogs and cats. She is a self-proclaimed book nerd and spends her free time reading and book blogging.

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Jace Johnny, DNP, APRN, AGACNP-BC
Nurse Practitioner
Pulmonary

Jace is originally from Elko, Nevada but moved to Salt Lake City five years ago after obtaining a job as a clinical nurse in the Huntsman Intensive Care Unit. He completed a nursing residency through the Huntsman Cancer Hospital and obtained dual certifications in critical care and oncology nursing. Jace received my Doctor of Nursing Practice (DNP) degree from the University of Utah in May of 2019 and board certified in adult-gerontology acute care. His academic interests lie in immunology as it relates to the critically ill patient including sepsis/septic shock, ARDS, immunotherapy-induced toxicity, and interstitial lung disease.

Jace is a classically trained violinist and member of the Wasatch Symphony. He also enjoys reading, singing, running, and hiking.

Elise Litchfield
Clinical Nurse
Dialysis - Utah

Zara Mahamat
Nurse Practitioner
General Internal Medicine

Sabina Miani
U of U Student - Research
Genetic Epidemiology

Lauren Moffitt
Nurse Practitioner
General Internal Medicine

Natalie Pyne
Executive Secretary
Endocrinology

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Isha Soni, PhD
Postdoc Fellow
Epidemiology

Dr. Soni is from India. Dr. Soni received a PhD in biomedical sciences from CSIR-CDRI, Lucknow, India, where she studied the understanding antimicrobial resistance mechanisms and antimicrobial drug discovery particularly against ESKAPE pathogens. She joined U o U in August 2019 under Dr. Catherine Loc-Carrillo, where her research is focused on developing novel therapeutic interventions against osteomyelitis. Her research interests include drug discovery and development against infectious diseases and cancer.

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Chris Wilson, MSIM
Data Scientist
Epidemiology

Originally from California, Chris has lived around Seattle for almost 20 years. During that time, he went from a liberal arts background into more and more math and programming until finally completing a Master’s in Data Science. Chris has been working in healthcare analytics/research for 5 years and is excited to work with the fine people of U of U Health! In particular he's interested in helping to define the value of machine learning in healthcare in a concrete and meaningful way.

Chris enjoy spending time with his family, cooking, rocking climbing and video games.

Serena Yang
Research Analyst
Epidemiology

Jeanette Young
Research Analyst
Epidemiology