College of Medicine – Tucson leadership fellowship graduates include four from DOM

May 8, 2025
David Mogollon, Communications Manager, Department of Medicine

The DOM’s Drs. Danielle Avila, Billie Bixby, Saher Khalid and Amy Klein were among seven honored for completing the Leadership Advancement in Medicine & Science program May 6. Incoming LAMS 2025-26 fellows include Drs. Joy Bulger Beck and Jennifer Plitt.

[From left, Hina Arif, MD (Medical Imaging), College of Medicine – Tucson assistant dean for Leadership Advancement in Medicine and Science, with 2024-25 SSWIMS/LAMS Fellowship graduates: Billie Bixby, MD (DOM – Pulmonary division); Michelle Abbate, MD (OB-GYN); Amy Klein, MD (DOM – GGP division, Palliative Medicine); Saher Khalid, MD (DOM – GGP division, GIM); Danielle Avila, MD (DOM – Infectious Diseases division); and Alexandra Turner, MD (Surgery).]

From left, Hina Arif, MD (Medical Imaging), College of Medicine – Tucson assistant dean for Leadership Advancement in Medicine and Science, with 2024-25 SSWIMS/LAMS Fellowship graduates: Billie Bixby, MD (DOM – Pulmonary division); Michelle Abbate, MD (OB-GYN); Amy Klein, MD (DOM – GGP division, Palliative Medicine); Saher Khalid, MD (DOM – GGP division, GIM); Danielle Avila, MD (DOM – Infectious Diseases division); and Alexandra Turner, MD (Surgery).

Kate Gardiner, UAHS BioCommunications

Four Department of Medicine faculty members were among seven to graduate May 6 from the 2024-25 cohort of the newly rechristened Leadership Advancement in Medicine and Science Fellowship at the University of Arizona College of Medicine – Tucson. See a mini-photo gallery from the event and more below.

The LAMS fellowship, previously known as the SSWIMS fellowship, is a year-long leadership training program that’s designed to support early-mid-career faculty by providing mentorship and workshops to advance their careers in science and medicine.

[DOM 2024-25 LAMS fellows: Danielle Avila, MD, Billie Bixby, MD, Saher Khalid, MD, and Amy Klein, MD]

DOM 2024-25 LAMS fellows: Danielle Avila, MD, Billie Bixby, MD, Saher Khalid, MD, and Amy Klein, MD

This fellowship’s second cohort included, from the DOM, Danielle Avila, MD, MS, associate professor, Division of Infectious Diseases, and principal investigator for HIV Clinical Care, the Petersen HIV Clinics and the Arizona chapter of the Pacific AIDS Education & Training Center; Billie Bixby, MD, assistant clinical professor and medical director, Interventional Pulmonology Program, in the Division of Pulmonary, Allergy, Critical Care & Sleep Medicine, or PACCS; Saher Khalid, MD, assistant professor, Division of General Internal Medicine, Geriatrics & Palliative Medicine, or GGP, division lead for population health and physician champion for e-consults for the Primary Care Physicians Program; and Amy Klein, MD, GGP associate professor, program director, Hospice & Palliative Medicine Fellowship, and palliative medicine director for Banner – University Medicine Tucson.

Other 2024-25 graduating cohort members were: 

[Additional 2024-25 LAMS Fellows: OB-GYN's Michelle Abbate, MD, Pediatrics' Jennifer Andrews, PhD, MBA, and Surgery's Alexandra Turner, MD]

Additional 2024-25 LAMS Fellows: OB-GYN's Michelle Abbate, MD, Pediatrics' Jennifer Andrews, PhD, MBA, and Surgery's Alexandra Turner, MD

Michelle Abbate, MD, assistant professor and associate residency program director, Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology; Jennifer Andrews, PhD, MBA, associate professor, Department of Pediatrics, and director of research for the Division of Genetics and Developmental Pediatrics and the Division of Pediatric Cardiology Congenital Heart Program; and Alexandra Turner, MD, associate professor, Department of Surgery, and a specialist in liver, kidney and pancreas transplantation as well as pancreatic and hepatobiliary surgery.

The LAMS graduation did not have a keynote speaker. Instead, fellows presented their Leadership Experience Projects to a panel that consisted of Alison Flynn-Gaffney, CEO of Banner – University Medical Center Tucson and South; Bruce Coull, MD, professor, Department of Neurology and vice dean of faculty affairs; David Orlandi, MD, MBA, an otolaryngologist and CEO of Banner – University Medical Group; and Gordon E. Carr, MD, a PACCS assistant professor and chief medical officer, Banner – UMC Tucson.

Also present to help cheer on their colleagues from the DOM were GGP division chief Mindy Fain, MD; GGP's Kristopher Abbate, MD; Infectious Diseases’ Talha Riaz, MD; and PACCS’ James Knepler, MD, who was head of Interventional Pulmonology prior to Dr. Bixby taking on the post in 2023.

“It is truly fulfilling to witness how these women are already shaping the future of academic medicine and science. Their success is not just personal — it paves the way for a more inclusive and empowered academic community,” said Hina Arif, MD, assistant dean for leadership advancement in medicine and science, Department of Medical Imaging vice chair for clinical affairs and chief of the department’s Division of Abdominal Radiology. Dr. Arif also has a dual appointment in the DOM’s Division of Gastroenterology & Hepatology.

Among DOM members of the incoming 2025-26 LAMS Fellowship cohort are Joy Bulger Beck, MD, MS, a GGP assistant professor and Societies Mentor and director, Transition to Residency Bootcamp; and Jennifer Plitt, MD, a GGP assistant professor and associate program director, Hospice & Palliative Medicine Fellowship, and a Societies Mentor. The program begins in July.

Others in that third cohort include Parvana Hartenstein, MD, assistant professor, Department of Pediatric – Endocrinology; Courtney Karol, MD, assistant professor, Pediatrics – Hospital Medicine; Karen Lutrick, PhD, associate professor, Department of Family & Community Medicine, or FCM; Mairead McConnell, PhD, assistant professor, Department of Psychiatry; Nicole Person-Rennell, MD, MPH, FCM assistant professor; Allison Rottman, DPM, assistant professor, Surgery; Magnolia Swanson, MD, assistant professor, Psychiatry;  and Eileen Wong, MD, assistant professor, Neurology/Orthopedics.

LAMS/SSWIMS’ first fellows cohort in 2023-24 included two faculty members from the Department of Medicine, the Division of Cardiology’s Olivia Hung, MD, PhD, and PACCS division’s Salma Patel, MD, MPH.

Photos courtesy of Kate Gardiner, photographer, BioCommunications, U of A Health Sciences. For access to more photos from the LAMS graduation, contact coordinator Auralia Walls, MPH, at abw2@arizona.edu.

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MINI-PHOTO GALLERY
Click images to enlarge and for captions:

[Signage outside the University of Arizona College of Medicine – Tucson’s Social Hall, which hosted the 2024-25 graduation event, or Sparking Change Celebration, on May 6 for the newly rechristened Leadership Advancement in Medicine and Science Fellowship program.]
[LAMS Fellow Saher Khalid, MD (center), an internist in the Division of General Internal Medicine, Geriatrics & Palliative Medicine, with her husband, the Division of Infectious Diseases’ Talha Riaz, MD, chatting with fellow fellowship graduate Billie Bixby, MD, from the Division of Pulmonary, Allergy, Critical Care & Sleep Medicine.]
[LAMS Fellowship graduate Saher Khalid, MD, an internist in the Division of General Internal Medicine, Geriatrics & Palliative Medicine, presents on her leadership project at the Sparking Change Celebration on May 6, 2025.]
[With her division chief, Mindy Fain, MD, watching near the far pillar, and her husband Talha Riaz, MD, of the Infectious Diseases division, in the foreground, LAMS Fellowship graduate and GGP division internist Saher Khalid, MD, presents on her leadership project May 6, 2025, at the Sparking Change Celebration.]
[LAMS Fellowship graduate and GGP division internist Saher Khalid, MD, accepts her SSWIMS graduation certificate from COM-T Assistant Dean Hina Arif, MD.]
[Applauding from the audience from the DOM, see (from right in second row) the Pulmonary division’s James Knepler, MD, incoming 2025-26 LAMS Fellow Jennifer Plitt, MD, a palliative medicine specialist in the GGP division, and GGP’s Kris Abbate, MD, whose wife Michelle was a 2024-25 LAMS Fellowship graduate.]
[Amy Klein, MD, listens to a question from Alison Flynn-Gaffney, CEO of Banner – University Medical Center Tucson and South, in the front row with BUMG CEO David Orlandi, MD, MBA, and the PACCS division’s Gordon Carr, MD, CMO at Banner – UMC Tucson, to her right.]
[The GGP division’s Amy Klein, MD, speaks on her LAMS Leadership Experience Project, “Expanding Horizons: Enhancing the Palliative Care Team for Comprehensive Support.”]
[The GGP division’s Amy Klein, MD, accepts her LAMS graduation certificate from COM-T Assistant Dean Hina Arif, MD.]
[The Infectious Diseases division’s Danielle Avila, MD, at the podium at the LAMS Fellowship graduation event, May 6, 2025. She’s the PI for HIV Clinical Care at Banner – University Medicine Tucson as well as the Petersen HIV Clinics and the Arizona chapter of the Pacific AIDS Education and Training Center.]
[The Infectious Diseases division’s Danielle Avila, MD, presents on her LAMS Leadership Experience Project, “Infective Endocarditis at BUMCT: Impact of a Multidisciplinary Team.”]
[The Infectious Diseases division’s Danielle Avila, MD, accepts her LAMS graduation certificate from COM-T Assistant Dean Hina Arif, MD.]
[DOM Interventional Pulmonology director Billie Bixby, MD, presents on her LAMS Leadership Experience Project as a graduating 2024-25 fellow.]
[The audience at the LAMS Fellowship graduation event in the COM-T Social Hall listen raptly to DOM Interventional Pulmonology director Billie Bixby, MD, presenting on her Leadership Experience Project.]
[DOM Interventional Pulmonology director Billie Bixby, MD, accepts her LAMS graduation certificate from COM-T Assistant Dean Hina Arif, MD.]
[DOM Interventional Pulmonology director Billie Bixby, MD (right center), shares a lighter moment with PACCS’ Gordon Carr, MD, CMO for Banner – University Medical Center Tucson, and James Knepler, MD, and Stephanie Worrell, MD, Thoracic Surgery Section chief in the Department of Surgery and colleague on the U of A Cancer Center’s lung cancer clinical research team.]