Fiachra Humphries selected to receive the Child Health Award from the Charles H. Hood Foundation

Fiachra Humphries, PhD, Assistant Professor of Medicine in the Division of Innate Immunity in the Department of Medicine has been selected to receive one of the highly competitive Child Health Awards from the Charles H. Hood Foundation.

Dr. Humphries will study “The role of MARCO in pediatric cancer.” MARCO is a scavenger receptor expressed on tumor associated macrophages (TAMs) in the tumor microenvironment. TAMs can promote tumor growth and metastases. The study will focus on understanding how our innate immune system can control expression of MARCO on TAMs and how we can leverage these signaling events to treat child cancers.

“[I’m] very grateful to the Charles H. Hood foundation for funding our study and giving us the opportunity to study an exciting new area of research in my lab”, said Dr. Humphries.

Please join us in congratulating Dr. Humphries on receiving this award.

Graduating Fellow Celebrations

Please join us in congratulating more of our graduating fellows, who recently celebrated their accomplishments with faculty and classmates!

Infectious Diseases and Immunology 

Front row: Alina Adeel, MD, fellow Monica Hinestroza Jordan, MD, fellow Shravya Nagurla, DO, graduating fellow Mohmmad Hajjiri, MD, Anam Hajjiri, fellow Subtain Zia, DO, fellow Mehboob Rehan, MD, graduating fellow Mohamad Al Kateb, MD ;  2^nd row: Jessica Lommano, PharmD, Magdalena Slosar-Cheah, MD, Sandeep Jubbal, MD, Stuart Levitz, MD, Douglas Golenbock, MD, Read Pukkila-Worley, MD, Sami Arnaout, MD ; 3^rd row: Sarah Hobby, Jennifer Daly, MD, Nicole Theodoropoulos, MD, Diana Bernstein, Peter Rice, MD, Thomas Greenough, MD ; Back row: Ann Carroll, Laura Gibson, MD, Mireya Wessolossky, MD, Juan Perez-Velazquez, MD, Sanjay Ram, MD

Endocrinology & Diabetes

Graduating Fellows: Abir Zainal, MD (left) & Jhansi Maradana, MD

Congratulations John Zawacki on Retirement

Congratulations to John Zawacki, MD, on his upcoming retirement. Dr. Zawacki was a member of the Gastroenterology department and professor at UMass Chan. He provided endless care to patients suffering from IBD and served as an excellent role model for all physicians. We thank Dr. Zawacki for his years of service!

Diversity and Inclusion Office events focus on families for Pride Month

UMass Chan Medical School is recognizing Pride Month with events on June 28th and 29th that focus on the experiences of LGBTQ families as they navigate the health care system and work as members of it.



Fighting for our families: A community-placed study of LGBTQ+ childbearing hardships, harms and hope for a brighter future was presented on Tuesday, June 28th.

Centering the Margins: Building and supporting LGBTQ families will be held on Wednesday, June 29th, at noon.

The Diversity and Inclusion Office chose to focus on families for Pride Month to help the UMass Chan community broaden and normalize its understanding of families and to support them in the workplace.

Find a Doctor Tools Allows for LGBTQIA+ Friendly Designation

The redesigned Find a Doctor tool on ummhealth.org now offers new options for physicians to share a bit more about themselves with patients. In addition to allowing doctors to add up to 10 clinical interests to their profiles, the new tool also enables physicians to raise their hand and say they are a welcoming and safe provider for LGBTQIA+  patients. 

Admissions Committee Membership Call

The T.H. Chan School of Medicine is currently seeking 25 faculty members to serve on the Admissions Committee (AC) after approval of a bylaws change to allow for expansion of the committee. The AC members are a diverse group of dynamic individuals who are comfortable working in a collaborative environment with faculty, administrators, and medical students. Members should be able to respectfully voice their opinions, enthusiastic for and adaptive to change, and have a desire to promote an increase diversity on the UMass Chan campus.

Interested candidates should send a letter of intent to the Director of Admissions at T. H. Chan School of Medicine: Esi.Asare@umassmed.edu. Applications will be accepted through July 15, 2022.

Inaugural Donna M. and Robert J. Manning Chairs celebrated at special investiture ceremony

UMass Chan Medical School celebrated in a special investiture ceremony on June 22 the $5 million gift of UMass Lowell alumni Donna and Robert Manning, which established Donna M. and Robert J. Manning Chairs in neurosciences, orthopedics, obstetrics and gynecology, nursing, and biomedical sciences.

Speaking of the accomplished scholars being honored, UMass President Marty Meehan said: “We are so lucky to have them at the Medical School, the accomplishments of innovation leaders who have dedicated themselves to educating others.”