2024 DOM Star Achievement Awardees

Tim was instrumental in bringing awareness and understanding to workflows and creating and reinforcing teamwork among the finance and administrative teams. He was an important and trusted ally for staff during a time of transition. Tim exhibited exceptional adaptability and navigated the complexities of trainee and academic recruitment, staff onboarding, visa processes, and other critical details by proactively meeting with HR generalists and leveraging available training resources and organizational tools. In addition to being a source of support and guidance to individuals, Tim demonstrated his commitment to nurturing culture and empowering people through his leadership of specific initiatives and groups. This included his enthusiastic efforts as the division’s Gallup Employee Engagement Ambassador, a role he took on for several years in a row, and his spearheading of a new staff committee, the “Joy Squad”, focused on staff wellness and community building.

Amelia was part of the UCSF COVID response and worked with a fast-paced team to design and deliver virtual COVID training for clinicians and other public health staff. Amelia worked with various experts to deliver training where the content was changing rapidly during the pandemic, and Amelia’s strong project management and efficient work contributed to the project’s positive impact. As part of her work on Curry Center trainings, Amelia understood and ensured we met each requirement for continuing education. The nursing CEU and ACCME standards require significant work and change. Amelia ensured that all her work was accurate and timely. Her ability to understand and engage with the training content while also managing the overall logistics and planning process is noteworthy.

Khamal assumed leadership of the UCSF-based National Institutes of Health (NIH) Researching COVID to Enhance Recovery (RECOVER) initiative as soon as we were selected for funding. He oversees the operations of the UCSF Hub site, which includes three sub-sites, and supervises over a dozen research coordinators who have enrolled and followed over 750 unique participants with and without Long COVID. The RECOVER protocol is exceedingly complex, requiring multiple “tiers” of measurements that include questionnaires and biospecimen collection every 3 months for 4 years through a combination of in-person and remote visits, annual non-invasive imaging and functional testing, and periodic invasive testing. Khamal’s leadership of the national RECOVER program has bolstered the reputation of the local UCSF Long-term Impact of Infection with Novel Coronavirus (LIINC) program and led to additional funding opportunities for LIINC investigators. Demonstrating exceptional creativity, organizational skills, and teamwork, Khamal spearheaded the immense undertaking of fully integrating RECOVER and LIINC so that volunteers can participate in both research programs concurrently. This has led to tremendous value-added for LIINC, as it allowed us to rapidly enroll and locally bank biospecimens on hundreds of more individuals than otherwise would have been possible.

Hilary has transformed the productivity of our research group, increased the pace of our publications and grant pipelines, and changed the quality of what we’re able to produce by conducting very sophisticated analyses and write-ups. In the R01-funded Material Needs Insecurity (MNI) Study within the MACS/WIHS Combined Cohort Study, she made tremendous strides in improving the functioning and productivity of the MNI. She also provided outstanding support to a K24 study focused on food insecurity and aging outcomes among PLHIV. She is leading a complex analysis using multi-level modeling to understand the neighborhood level determinants of food insecurity. This project has been extremely difficulty to execute, and a result we spent many years trying to move this work forward due to complexities with the data and the communication with the University of North Carolina site that made it very difficult to complete this project. Hilary came up with some very creative solutions to address both the logistical and analytic bottlenecks and has been able to productively move this work forward.

Within the Division of Prevention Science (DPS), Deepalika has excelled and learned new data management, programming, and analytic techniques each year, with the vast majority being at her own initiative. She became a highly sought-after local resource on the data collection and management program, REDCap, and has learned to conduct dyadic data analysis and advanced multivariate statistical methods such as factor analysis and structural equation models to support her projects and investigators more effectively. Collectively, these activities have resulted in multiple publications that otherwise would not have been realized and contributed valuable new measures to the HIV research literature. Deepalika has been instrumental in the successful implementation of a community-engaged tobacco control research program that focuses on tobacco use and its intersection with mental health and substance use among people experiencing homelessness. She has been the primary database architect for three studies, designing highly creative data collection infrastructures, managing data, and conducting analyses for these studies. Her exceptional data management has contributed to several high-quality publications and presentations attended by over 400 people, including a webinar series by the Smoking Cessation Leadership Center and a National Cancer Institute webinar focused on diversity, equity, and inclusion.

Michael has played a crucial role in the St. Mary's partnership, working tirelessly to improve our current operational state which paved the way for the acquisition. His strategic thinking and leadership have been instrumental in the development of new service lines, such as the dedicated admitter, and the expansion of direct care FTEs to accommodate the influx of new patients. Additionally, Michael has been actively involved in strategizing to improve our financial position at St. Mary's and help our program better deliver care to patients. In SMMC's efforts to revamp multidisciplinary rounds (MDR), Michael spent hours shadowing MDR to collect and analyze data to create a more efficient and collaborative process, with essential stakeholder engagement, including physicians, nursing, interdisciplinary team members, i.e., case management and social work, informatics and senior SMMC leadership. This work set the groundwork to standardize the approach to MDR and remains pivotal to supporting SMMC's key strategic priorities of improving throughput and length of stay.

Sherry has consistently gone above and beyond her job requirements to nurture our culture and empower our people. She volunteers as our division’s well-being champion, ensuring that employee well-being remains a top priority within our organization. Sherry created the UCSF Step It Challenge group, bringing together division members and fostering a sense of camaraderie and healthy competition. By encouraging physical activity and promoting a healthy lifestyle, she has not only contributed to the well-being of our employees but created a work environment where individuals feel valued, supported, and motivated to excel. Her efforts improved our employees' morale and engagement and contributed to our team's overall success.

Under Paul’s leadership, our clinical research program has achieved a major milestone this year – official recognition as a Site Committee within the Cancer Center. This recognition is a testament to the robustness and quality of our research program that Paul leads and is a significant achievement for our entire team. Being designated as a Site Committee allows us to independently assess the scientific merit and feasibility of proposed research protocols conducted at ZSFG. This development highlights the excellence and reputation of our research program, positioning us alongside the other major programs in the Cancer Center, such as Breast, GI, GU, and Immunotherapy. By recruiting and training high-quality clinical research coordinators, Paul established a robust research team dedicated to our patients. Paul fosters a culture of innovation and significantly empowers our people to advance the work of cancer care.

On the BHHI’s California Statewide Study of People Experiencing Homelessness (CASPEH), Cheyenne was integral in our development of the questionnaire. Not only did she manage the process, but she critically reviewed the literature, presenting annotated options for different instrument choices. She developed the questionnaire section of our “universal methods section” in which she memorialized every question in the questionnaire. She has been our primary “paper wrangler” working with research teams to move academic projects along. In the HOPE HOME (Health Outcomes of People Experiencing Homelessness in Older Middle agE) project, Cheyenne plays a key role in our academic processes. Her skills at critically assessing literature, developing project aims, designing analysis plans, and writing up papers is so advanced that when we have post-doctoral scholars who are struggling, Cheyenne provides mentorship. Her insights, understanding of research methods, and ability to critically analyze literature are more advanced than many of the post-doctoral scholars we work with.

Faviola joined senior staff in spearheading the development of new infrastructure to unite a diverse team of 15+ staff and 10+ mentees, fostering teamwork and shared learning. By aligning productivity tools, web and communications, restructuring meetings, and adding redundancies, the team created an environment conducive to innovation and collaboration. Notably, amidst launching multiple clinical trials, Faviola worked to ensure that no team member is burdened by excessive responsibilities, promoting work-life balance. The team’s commitment to nurturing a supportive culture is evident in initiatives such as weekly staff meetings where expertise is shared and staff's work is aligned with goals and interests. This dedication to teamwork and performance optimization underscores the unwavering commitment to advancing equity-oriented research and achieving shared goals.

April’s role as operations coordinator has been pivotal in enhancing the operational efficiency of our division. Her willingness to take on responsibilities outside of her role has ensured uninterrupted service excellence during a period of staffing shortages over the past year. She also worked to innovate and improve these processes. April's innovative approach to streamlining the monthly rotation schedules for our fellows has not only improved their educational experience but also significantly optimized our clinical operations. Her open-door policy and active support for faculty, staff, and trainees alike have strengthened our team's cohesion and morale, becoming a role model for others that ripple out into our larger community. Her contributions to promoting diversity and equity within our division resonate. She contributes to enhancing diversity and equity within our division by ensuring that all faculty, staff, and trainees are supported in their roles and that their concerns are heard.

Nancy significantly contributes to the Chancellor’s priorities of bolstering financial resilience, as well as nurturing UCSF’s culture and empowering its people. Her largest accomplishment has been building and leading a continuously improving financial management team. We have a very large division with over 150 faculty and a budget of over $44 million to manage. When Nancy started her role many years ago, she could handle the financial management for all faculty, but as we have grown and our financial systems and financial agreements have become more complex, this has become more challenging. Nancy has done an exceptional job building a finance team and processes that manage the large volume of payroll tickets that need to be completed. This has been especially important in the last year as the health system has made changes to the funds flow, requiring an unprecedented number of mid-year financial entries and salary cost transfers. In order manage this large volume of work, she has created an organized tracking system to help the finance team keep track of all the UC Path tickets that need to be placed, making sure things don’t get missed. And she has created a workflow so that the three of them can complete our quarterly financial reconciliations together in real-time with support from each other through “Zoom rooms”.

Since Jake came to UCSF in 2022, he has performed at an exceptional level and consistently exceeded expectations. “Moving Health Systems Towards Diagnostic Excellence: Development and Dissemination of a Diagnostic Feedback Toolkit,” also known as GoodDx, was funded by the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation with a goal of developing a publicly available website that hosts a centralized repository of diagnostic performance feedback tools. This website aids health systems and healthcare providers in identifying and implementing tools to promote diagnostic excellence through continuous feedback cycles. This project and Jake’s contributions have profoundly fostered a culture of innovation within our research center. GoodDx is the first repository of its kind in the world, and the project's activities and collaborative partnerships have transcended the boundaries of traditional academic research. Jake’s above-and-beyond marketing efforts on this project resulted in significant traffic to the GoodDx website and has enhanced the reputation of the quality of UCSF research work and reiterated UCSF as a national leader in diagnostic excellence and health care improvement.

Cindy joined senior staff in spearheading the development of new infrastructure to unite a diverse team of 15+ staff and 10+ mentees, fostering teamwork and shared learning. By aligning productivity tools, web and communications, restructuring meetings, and adding redundancies, the team created an environment conducive to innovation and collaboration. Notably, amidst launching multiple clinical trials, Cindy worked to ensure that no team member is burdened by excessive responsibilities, promoting work-life balance. The team’s commitment to nurturing a supportive culture is evident in initiatives such as weekly staff meetings where expertise is shared and staff's work is aligned with goals and interests. This dedication to teamwork and performance optimization underscores the unwavering commitment to advancing equity-oriented research and achieving shared goals.

Gayle serves as program manager for Making Education Relevant and Integrated (MERI) Center in Palliative Care Education at UCSF, Practice-PC: Interprofessional Continuing Education in Palliative Care for Practicing Clinicians, and Palliative Care Leadership Center. She is also the co-lead of the DPM Anti- Racism Taskforce. After years of contributing to the growth of the Symptom Management Service at the Helen Diller Family Comprehensive Cancer Center, Gayle transitioned to managing the MERI Center, elevating it from a local educational resource to an international center. Her role expanded beyond her regular duties, especially as the team adapted to flexible work-from-home schedules, by enhancing staff, fellow, and faculty well-being. Gayle's initiatives include crafting division ornaments and acting as a wellness representative, embodying leadership, and encouraging a culture of open communication and engagement as the staff engagement ambassador.

Christine is the clinical scheduler for the UCSF Health Division of Hospital Medicine, a division with an ever-increasing clinical footprint at UCSF. When she started the job with the division, there were only 3-4 services and fewer than 50 faculty. Today, there are 16 services and over 150 faculty and fellows to schedule. Christine works tirelessly on behalf of the faculty of the Division of Hospital Medicine to make sure all services are covered. In the past few years, the service from the division’s scheduling company deteriorated and required a lot more manual work. Christine’s biggest achievement has been leading our transition to a new scheduling software and building our 2023-2024 clinical schedule. Our overall expenses have gone down using this software, so Christine’s efforts have had a direct impact on our finances. The work Christine has done to optimize the programming of our software will also directly impact our providers and allow us to do things like spread provider schedules out more evenly throughout the year and more evenly distribute weekend and holiday assignments, all of which improves the culture. The Division of Hospital Medicine could not function without Christine. The success of the DHM at UCSF is intimately linked with our ability to adapt to department and health center needs that arise frequently within a dynamic health delivery system.

Jen’s work with the Clinical Informatics Fellowship (CIF) Program has tremendous impact on learners in the field of Information Technology, and thereby on innovation in the entire health system where fellows are active. Jen is responsible for programming support, professional development, and learning opportunities for the fellows. CIF is a two-year program under the Accreditation of Council for Graduate Medical Education for physicians who wish to develop and advance a professional and primary interest in informatics. Jen helped expand and diversify the fellowship, from two fellows to four to five fellows per year. Jen guided us through incredibly tough interview seasons, with an increase in applications and some very difficult scheduling. She spent many months being trained and is now an integral part of the division’s finance team. In this role, Jen partners with another finance assistant to handle the division’s quarterly financial reconciliation process, track all financial tickets and journal entries, and provide the division manager with financial information that is key to making budgetary decisions.

Rado Lee has done an incredible job over the last couple of years improving the CFAR systems for managing and tracking our pilot awards and small grants program ("Boost Awards"). Her efforts have resulted in operational efficiencies and significantly reduced the staff burden, allowing us to continue to expand our programs. Rado created a new system for tracking expiration dates for approvals that allows us to check in with our awardees on their regulatory approvals. She developed a new system for tracking expenditures for our small grants program that saves time and moves us from a cost-reimbursable model to a trackable direct charge model that allows for oversight and accountability using speedtypes. This helps the joint ARI-CFAR program "Nurture UCSF's Culture and Empower its people" while saving time and improving compliance. Rado also developed a compliance matrix for the UCSF AIDS Research Institutes various award and support programs.

Tiffany is deeply committed to the work of Person-Centered Reproductive Health Program and ensures we have the financial support we need. She displays integrity and professionalism in all ways in her management of our research funds – always communicating clearly the parameters of what is possible and proactively managing our funds to ensure that we have the support we need to accomplish the goals of our work. Her respect for others is displayed in her communication with us and our sponsors and collaborators, making sure that everyone is informed and that the work is carried out efficiently. We need more people like her enabling the operations of research programs to accomplish great work.

Ronli is deeply committed to improving evidence-based Food is Medicine interventions through research, policy, and practice. She has invested in building expertise distinct from that of everyone else on the team, partnering with others inside and outside government and academia and disseminating this work broadly. She has thus become a valued go-to expert in our field in her own right and has had exceptional success as a writer, collaborator, and contributor to academic literature. She has spearheaded partnerships with experts in emergency food distribution/charitable food, the USDA’s Director of Nutrition Security, and the USDA Economic Research Service. She has been able to advance our work through multiple first-author publications that help bring our work to new audiences.

Since Connie has joined the division, she has become an invaluable part of the Goldman service and someone that the hospital medicine faculty consistently recognize for her work. In the NPS comments for the Goldman sbluervice, the positive value that Connie has added was noted in the comments about the service with a common theme saying that "Connie is awesome and should be cloned." One thing Connie did early in her role was help develop workflows for how she would support physicians on the service. She standardized connecting Goldman attendings via email on the day of admission with outpatient UCSF PCPs. Connie crafted this workflow and expanded it to additional subspecialists at UCSF including oncology, pulmonary and nephrology. The impact of this has subsequently been felt across the UCSF enterprise with outpatient UCSF providers frequently sharing unsolicited feedback about how helpful this intervention has been to assure they remain involved in the care of their patients during hospitalizations. Connie's role has since expanded and has been involved in the "Chosen One" project to help identify potential early discharge patients for throughput and has been vital in its success.

Ben educates faculty about financial management, grants management, and budgeting. One key to a successful academic career is understanding how funding supports scholarly work and academic pursuits and clinical time. Ben has been a patient and expert partner for faculty in developing intra- and extramural grant proposals and guiding faculty through their finances. Ben’s expertise and dedication have been critical in navigating the changing landscape of health funds flow this year. As the Finance Manager, Ben plays a pivotal role in safeguarding the financial well-being of our divisineeon. He has demonstrated exceptional skill in monitoring and managing our clinical productivity, ensuring that we meet financial targets while upholding the highest standards of patient care.

Rachel helped lead many projects centered on advancing UCSF Health’s True North pillars particularly in Patient Experience and Financial Strength. Her work on improving discharge communication and length of stay highlights commitment to financial resiliency. Her dedication to training the next generation of quality improvement leaders by mentoring post-bac students and medical students supports how she nurtures culture and empowers people. In her patient experience and medicine UBLT work, she regularly builds value-added partnerships and demonstrates an innovative mind and spirit. She goes above and beyond in her improvement specialist role, serving as the backbone of the QI enterprise of one of the largest divisions at UCSF to move work forward, which ultimately drives improved outcome and care delivery for our patients.

Natalya faced the administrative and operational complexities of starting a new division that “didn’t fit the mold.” It is quite rare at UCSF to start an entirely new division, and perhaps unprecedented to start one that fits neither the mold of a clinical division or a basic science division. Indeed, our division includes both MD and PhD faculty with highly heterogenous appointments that are both primary and secondary. Natalya had to improvise and innovate to make sure it got off the ground. She developed all of the division’s processes and procedures, including details such as: ensuring all grant administrative processes remained undisrupted as we switched to the new division; transferring over a diverse set of faculty, staff, and fellows (including an ACGME Fellowship program) and safeguarding against errors in pay plan changes; contacting administrators across campus to ensure the new division was included in over 20 different portals and systems; and reaching out to all our newly-assigned shared services liaisons from areas such as HR and finance. Natalya played an integral role in leading the strategic growth of the division. This multi-disciplinary and cross-health system work indicates the innovation necessary in clinical informatics.

Danielle has skillfully orchestrated seamless collaboration among various stakeholders, ensuring that the diverse components of the institutional initiative align strategically and progress cohesively toward overarching goals. For the space utilization study, she has been instrumental in synthesizing complex information and distilling key insights and data to facilitate informed decision- making within the task force, enabling swift and effective responses to issues. With meticulous attention to detail, Danielle has taken charge of all logistical aspects, from arranging meetings to managing task force materials, ensuring that all members are well- prepared and that resources are optimally utilized. Danielle exhibits exceptional leadership skills, demonstrated by her organization of town hall meetings to disseminate information to affected stakeholders and her meticulous compilation of timelines and milestones to ensure projects remain on schedule.

Eric is our lead coordinator for organizing gatherings to ensure we meet all UCSF compliances, was cautious about budgetary spending, and, most importantly, ensured everyone has a great time. Eric planned our annual holiday party and was a fabulous host! He made sure people were eating, drinking, and he was a great MC. Additionally, he worked closely with the venue coordinator to ensure payments were received and that we had a good food and drinks ratio. Eric fosters an environment of equity and inclusion and several people stayed until after closing time, which demonstrated the success of the party. Eric's dedication to fostering a positive and inclusive atmosphere truly embodies the spirit of the STAR Achievement Award.

The RECOVER study (Researching COVID to Enhance Recovery), a NIH national initiative to better understand, treat, and prevent Long COVID has been an incredibly challenging study to implement at UCSF, with 728 participants with individualized study schedules, over 30 tests and procedures to operationalize, a very tight budget and limited resources/space. Liz was instrumental in advocating for and successfully securing 4 petty cash funds of $6000, which is the largest within DOM, and has allowed us to adequately pay participants. Liz went above and beyond in helping the division move into Pride Hall. She spent countless hours (and manual effort) to facilitate the move and reallocate surplus supplies for teams who may need it. RECOVER has one of the largest research teams with no dedicated space before Pride Hall opened. ZSFG was initially a site that CRC’s did not prefer to work at given the lack of infrastructure and space; however, with the opening of Pride Hall and Liz’s diligence and advocacy, this is now a highly requested site for our team to work from, and many CRC’s have expressed gratitude for Liz and her efforts in making the workplace more hospitable.

Martha independently sought to strengthen her foundational learning by participating in the “Designing Interventions to Change Organizational Behavior” course offered by the UCSF Department of Epidemiology & Biostatistics. In her role, she encouraged continuous learning on behalf of our division members. She co-created a curriculum with an outpatient provider on Behavioral Alerts: A Call for Better Documentation Education addressing bias in the HER. She has co-facilitated this curriculum with three cohorts with plans to bring this to the inpatient setting this spring. She remains integral to our Hospital Medicine Anti-Racism Taskforce (ARTF). After guiding the group to create a common mission, vision, and goals for the ARTF, she helped transition the group to their current role offering consultations to individuals looking for feedback on their health equity projects. We have already had two consultations that have been well received. Martha partnered with GLIDE Healers at the Gate to foster a relationship to start a dialogue with people impacted by racism, homelessness, and substance abuse.

Kristan joined senior staff in spearheading the development of new infrastructure to unite a diverse team of 15+ staff and 10+ mentees, fostering teamwork and shared learning. By aligning productivity tools, web and communications, restructuring meetings, and adding redundancies, the team created an environment conducive to innovation and collaboration. Notably, amidst launching multiple clinical trials, Kristan worked to ensure that no team member is burdened by excessive responsibilities, promoting work-life balance. The team’s commitment to nurturing a supportive culture is evident in initiatives such as weekly staff meetings where expertise is shared and staff's work is aligned with goals and interests. This dedication to teamwork and performance optimization underscores the unwavering commitment to advancing equity-oriented research and achieving shared goals.