Chief Residents Announced for 2022-2023

The class of 2022-23 Chief Residents have been announced: Peter Konyn, MD, Christine Santiago, MD, Elena Vasti, MD, and Sarah Waliany, MD.

After the official announcement during Medicine Grand Rounds, Ron Witteles, MD, professor of cardiovascular medicine, welcomed the new class on Twitter, saying they are “an absolutely spectacular group of superb clinicians, educators and scientists.”  He concluded, “They will be tremendous leaders of our program!”

Meet the Chief Residents:

Peter Konyn, MD

Peter Konyn graduated from UC Davis with a B.S. in Pharmaceutical Chemistry, as part of the University Honors Program. He then enrolled at UCLA for medical school, where he graduated at the top of his class, including earning induction into both the AOA Honors Society and the Gold Humanism Honors Society.  While in medical school, Peter developed an interest in GI/Hepatology, work that he has continued at Stanford with Drs. Aijaz Ahmed and Robert Wong, and he already has 8 peer-reviewed publications in the GI/Hepatology space.  He has been a leader in his class, recognized for his clinical performance as a winner of the peer-nominated Julian Wolfsohn Award for Outstanding Performance in Internal Medicine in 2019, and as a winner of the Arnold P. Gold Humanism and Excellence in Teaching Award in 2020.  After his Chief Resident year, Peter plans to pursue fellowship in GI/Hepatology and ultimately a career in Transplant Hepatology.

Christine Santiago, MD

Christine Santiago graduated from Cornell University with a B.A. in Human Biology, prior to enrolling in medical school at Harvard.  She graduated cum laude from Harvard Medical School in 2019, and earned an M.P.H. form UC Berkeley in 2018.  During this time she developed a particular focus and interest in diversity and underserved communities, serving as Co-Chair of the HMS Women of Color in Medicine and Dentistry organization, being recognized as a Kaiser Permanente Public Health Fellow, and being awarded both the McKinsey APD Diversity Impact Award and the Harvard Presidential Scholars Public Service Initiative Award.  At Stanford she further developed these interests, showing true talent in program development as a founder and leader of a new residency program curriculum called Stanford HEARs (Stanford Health Equity, Advocacy and Research), and as an active member of the Women & Medicine Mentorship Program.  After her Chief Resident year, Christine plans a career in either Cardiology or Hospital Medicine.

Elena Vasti, MD

Elena Vasti graduated from UC Davis with a B.S. in Human Development/Exercise Physiology, followed by earning an MPH from UCLA.  During this time, she also worked as a Public Health/Grant Coordinator for the UCLA Mobile Clinic Project, and she then spent two more years as a researcher/project manager at UCLA studying the integration of the findings of the Diabetes Prevention Programs into primary care practices.  She subsequently enrolled in medical school at UCSF, where she continued her interest in clinical research, implementing a pilot health study assessing self-monitoring behavior and optimization of blood pressure in patients in medically underserved areas. After an outstanding performance in medical school she joined Stanford for residency, where she has been a leader and a star from day one – winning the peer-nominated Julian Wolfsohn award as an intern for Outstanding Performance in Internal Medicine, being an elected Class Representative for each of her years as a resident, and pursuing research with Drs. Paul Wang, Fatima Rodriguez, and Alex Sandhu. Elena is universally recognized for her professionalism, positivity, and teamwork. After her Chief Resident year, Elena plans a career in Cardiology.

Sarah Waliany, MD

Sarah Waliany graduated from USC magna cum laude with a B.S. in Biological Sciences, and was awarded the Presidential Scholarship from USC for all 4 years of her undergraduate education.  She then enrolled at Stanford, where she earned both her M.D. and M.S. in Epidemiology and Clinical Research.  She was a superb medical student, including earning induction into the Gold Humanism Honor Society, and demonstrated superb research productivity while working in the field of CardioOncology with Drs. Joel Neal, Sandy Srinivas, Jason Gotlib, Sid Jaiswal, Han Zhu, and Ron Witteles.  She has been an outstanding clinical resident, while simultaneously continuing extraordinary research productivity during residency.  She is a recipient of the Stanford TRAM Grant, has authored 14 total peer-reviewed publications, and has published two first-author manuscripts in JACC: CardioOncology during her time as an Internal Medicine resident.  After her Chief Resident year, Sarah plans to pursue fellowship in Oncology, and she ultimately plans a career in Thoracic Oncology.