Faculty Awards, Honors and Appointments

Faculty Awards, Honors, Achievements and Appointments

Rais Vohra, MD, and the Fresno Department of Public Health received the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Fresno County Superintendent of Schools and the Fresno County Office of Education for the health department's partnerships with education leaders in keeping schoolchildren safe during COVID. Dr. Vohra also was selected to be on the Board of Governors Pain and Addiction Care in the Emergency Department – PACED, an ACEP-governed national accreditation program which seeks to improve pain management for patients in the emergency department.

Drs. Rais Vohra and Gene Kallsen, MD, were both recognized by the Fresno Madera Medical Society at their annual installation and gala in November 2021.Dr. Kallsen received the FMMS Lifetime Achievement Award. The Medical Society bestowed the award recognizing a physician who has gone beyond the call of duty in providing for the health and welfare of our community's residents during his or her lifetime. Congratulations to Loren I. Alving, MD, on her appointment to the Mr. and Mrs. David George Rowe and Stephen W. Rowe Endowed Chair for Teaching in Neurology. The purpose of the endowed chair is to support teaching in the UCSF Department of Neurology. Dr. Alving is a health sciences clinical professor in Neurology; director of the UCSF Fresno Alzheimer & Memory Center and director of the UCSF SJV PRIME. This is the first endowed education chair appointed at UCSF Fresno.

Danielle Campagne, MD; Patil Armenian, MD; and Saajan Bhakta (R4), were awarded the 2021 Innovations in EMS Award by the California Ambulance Association for their work on the American Ambulance EMS Podcast. The podcast has been chosen as one of the Top 12 can’t-miss EMS podcasts from '21 by EMS1. Guest co-host Dr. Steffani Campbell’s (R3,) episode about tourniquet use and digit amputations was selected as one of the top episodes of the year.

Dr. Vohra was awarded a Special Project Award for work on the COVID pandemic response while serving as Interim Health Officer at the Fresno County Health Department. This award recognizes a physician who has gone beyond the call of duty to devote his or her time to a one-time or on-going special project or service locally, statewide, nationally or internationally, that served(s) to promote the welfare and health care of the community or the medical profession. He was also recognized by the California State Association of Counties with the Special Recognition Award. Congrats to Marina Roytman, MD, on being inducted to the Marquis Who’s Who Biographical Registry

Kudos to Kathryn Bilello, MD, UCSF clinical professor; director of the UCSF Fresno Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine Fellowship and Central California Faculty Medical Group physician on being named to the Pulmonary Disease Board by the American Board of Internal Medicine.

Dr. Jessica Fujimoto won the American Academy of Emergency Medicine Resident and Student Association Western Regional Faculty Mentor Award in March 2022. In addition, Dr. Fujimoto was elected Vice Chair of the American Academy of Emergency Medicine (AAEM) Young Physicians Section. Kudos to Emy Lopez Phillips, EdD, on being appointed the inaugural director of the newly created UCSF Fresno Office of Health Career Pathways within the Department of Undergraduate Medical Education. Renee Kinman, MD, was awarded an Education-Business Partnership Award from the Fresno Compact Awards for her work on pathway programs

Carolyn Chooljian, MD; Anil Ghimire, MD; Andrea “Drea” Long, MD, FACS; Jeffrey Nahn, MD; Christine Nelson, MD; Chokechai Rongkavilit, MD; and Crystal Ives Tallman, MD; won Excellence in Teaching Awards. The Excellence in Teaching Award is a peer-nominated award that highlights outstanding frontline teachers at UCSF.

Each year, the UCSF School of Medicine awards the prestigious Henry J. Kaiser Award for Excellence in Teaching to four members of the clinical faculty. These awards recognize outstanding teaching, motivational skills and communications abilities. One of these prestigious awards is reserved for a faculty member at UCSF Fresno. The winner of the 2022 Kaiser Award for Excellence in Teaching at UCSF Fresno is Brian Chinnock, MD, RDMS. Dr. Chinnock is a health sciences clinical professor and research director in the UCSF Fresno Department of Emergency Medicine.