Faculty Ambassadors - Stritch School of Medicine (SSOM)

 Purpose:

The SSOM Faculty Ambassadors program is an SSOM dean’s office initiative established to enhance bi-directional faculty communication.  The Faculty Ambassadors main responsibility is communicating SSOM updates provided at the meeting to their department. 

Membership:

Each department in the SSOM maintains at least one faculty ambassador representative. Additional representative slots may be allocated given the number of faculty in a department. Roughly this will equate to 1 ambassador per 25 faculty in a department. 

Faculty Ambassadors will be appointed by their department Chair to serve a 2-year term beginning July 1, 2023 – June 30, 2025.  Current Ambassadors are eligible to be re-appointed by their Chair.

Eligibility:

Faculty Ambassadors must be full-time SSOM faculty members who are willing and able to:

  • represent the concerns of their constituent group of faculty members
  • present the Faculty Ambassador report at their Department Meetings   
  • collaborate on ways to improve faculty communication
  • communicate group discussions and SSOM activities, as appropriate
  • attend Faculty Ambassador meetings or arrange for a substitute

Meetings:

Meetings are held bi-monthly on a Monday from 5 - 6 p.m.

Contact:

If you have questions regarding the SSOM Faculty Ambassadors program, please contact Michelle Pencyla at mpencyla@luc.edu

New Faculty Ambassador Members as of July 1, 2023 - June 30, 2025 

DepartmentFaculty AmbassadorE-mail
Anesthesiology and Perioperative Medicine Umar Kamal, MD Umar.Kamal@lumc.edu 
Anesthesiology and Perioperative Medicine  Eric Pedone, MD eric.pedone@lumc.edu 
Cancer Biology                      Maurizio Bocchetta, PhD Mbocche@luc.edu
Cell and Molecular Physiology Grace Muller, PhD gmuller@luc.edu 
Emergency Medicine Nicholas Bertucci, DO  Nicholas.Bertucci@lumc.edu
Emergency Medicine Jeffrey Heiferman, MD  Jeffrey.Heiferman@luhs.org
Family Medicine Dennis Nwachukwu, MD DNWACHU@lumc.edu
Medical Education Eva Murdoch, PhD emurdoc@luc.edu
Medicine Dhruv Kumar, MD Dhruv.Kumar@lumc.edu
Medicine Alexandra Popescu, MD Alexandra.Popescu@lumc.edu
Medicine Krishna Raghavan, MD Krishna.Raghavan@lumc.edu
Microbiology and Immunology Makio Iwashima, PhD MIWASHIMA@luc.edu
Molecular Pharmacology and Neuroscience Karie Scrogin, PhD KSCROGI@luc.edu 
Neurological Surgery Joseph Serrone, MD Joseph.Serrone@lumc.edu
Neurology Michael Schneck, MD MSCHNECK@lumc.edu
Obstetrics and Gynecology Laura Glaser, MD laura.glaser@lumc.edu
Ophthalmology Felipe de Alba, MD fdealba@lumc.edu
Orthopaedic Surgery and Rehabilitation Nate Jones, MD jonen@lumc.edu
Otolaryngology Andrea Ziegler, MD andrea.ziegler@lumc.edu
Pathology Jack Maggiore, PhD Jack.Maggiore@lumc.edu
Pediatrics Almas Syed, MD almas.syed@lumc.edu
Psychiatry and Behavioral Neurosciences Elizabeth Simmons, PsyD Elizabeth.simmons@luhs.org
Psychiatry and Behavioral Neurosciences Mekhala Merchant, PhD MSAMSI@lumc.edu
Radiation Oncology Tamer Abdelrhman, MD, PhD Tamer.Abdelrhman@lumc.edu
Radiology and Medical Imaging Atul Mallik, MD, PhD Atul.Mallik@lumc.edu
Radiology and Medical Imaging Emad Allam, MD emad.allam@lumc.edu
Surgery Gifty Abraham, MD Gifty.Abraham@lumc.edu
Surgery Purvi Patel, MD Purvi.Patel@lumc.edu
Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgery Zaid Abdelsattar, MD Zaid.Abdelsattar@lumc.edu
Urology Ahmer Farooq, DO AFAROOQ@lumc.edu
HSC Library Representative   Elizabeth Huggins, MALIS ehuggins@luc.edu
Vice Dean of Research  Sonny Singh, PhD msingh@luc.edu 
Staff Michelle Pencyla, MEd mpencyla@luc.edu
Chair, Dean, SSOM Sam J. Marzo, MD smarzo@luc.edu