Who We Are

Clinical Focus: Chief, Immunocompromised Host Infectious Diseases 
 
This includes the prevention, diagnosis and treatment of Infections in patients who are immunosuppressed because of:

• Solid Organ Transplantation (Kidney, Pancreas, Liver, Heart, Lung, Small Bowel)
• Hematologic Malignancies
• Chemotherapy for Solid Tumors 
• HIV who receive Chemotherapy
• Solid Organ or Bone Marrow Transplants 
• Immunomodulators for Auto-Immune Diseases

Dr. Srinivasan is a Clinical Professor of Medicine at Stanford University, Associate Director at the Stanford Center for Asian Healthcare Research and Education (Stanford CARE), Fellow at the Stanford Center for Innovation in Global Health (CIGH), board member at the Stanford Clinical Teaching Seminar Series, and member of the Stanford Teaching and research program in amyloidosis, cardiac complications of cancer therapy, and sarcoidosis. Dr. Witteles is the recipient of a host of clinical teaching awards, and housestaff education is his greatest passion.

Mentoring Academy (TMA). She is co-Director of the One Health Teaching Scholars Faculty Development Program, an international program focusing on faculty development for health professions education around the world. She is a contributor to CBS-KPIX “Medical Mondays”. Dr. Srinivasan brings her skills as an educator, physician, health services researcher, and entrepreneur to considering how scalable technologies can improve health care. Her work in Virtual Health/telemedicine and new patient engagement models has been published in the NEJM Catalyst – a leading healthcare innovation journal.

Previously, Dr. Srinivasan was a Master Clinical Educator and Professor of Clinical Medicine at the University of California, Davis School of Medicine. She was the Senior Associate Editor and Editorial Fellowship Director for the Journal of General Internal Medicine, and was the Kimitaka Kaga Visiting Professor at the University of Tokyo at the International Research Center for Medical Education. At UC Davis, Dr. Srinivasan was the Director of Practice Based Learning and Improvement and Medical Director of the Clinical Performance Examination for a decade. She is former President of the California-Hawaii Society of General Internal Medicine, and ex-officio National Council Member for SGIM. She was a RWJ Foundation Generalist Physician Faculty Scholar and US Health and Human Service Public Policy Fellow. Dr. Srinivasan has been awarded the California SGIM Educator of the Year Award, and was recognized by her university with the Dean’s Award for Excellence in Education. Her research has focused on improving physician competency around clinical decision-making, through Virtual Health, technology-aided education and reflective practice.

Dr. Srinivasan's vision for having a thriving, vibrant scientific Stanford community, we need academic excellence and a wide range of personal experiences.  Faculty search and hire are the major modifiable moments that impact faculty recruitment.

Dr. Nguyen is Professor of Medicine (Gastroenterology and Hepatology), a Stanford Cancer Institute member and specializes in the treatment and prevention of primary liver cancer such as hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC).

Dr. Nguyen is also a Professor of Epidemiology and Population Health by courtesy at Stanford. Her clinical and research focus has been liver cancer for the past 20+ years. She is a frequent lecturer for the management and prevention of liver cancer for care providers and researchers at national and international conferences. She has published several key research papers to inform clinicians of the care and treatment of patients with liver cancer.

Dr. Nguyen’s clinical and research focus also include patients with cirrhosis, viral hepatitis, nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD/NASH). Her goal is to promote early detection of liver tumors and to prevent and treat complications from chronic liver diseases and liver cancer. She has extensive experience in performing clinical trials on liver cancer, fatty liver, cirrhosis, and viral hepatitis. She has led several multi-center US and international studies.

Dr. Nguyen is clinically active, seeing patients three full days a week, with a large and comprehensive practice of general liver, liver cancer, and transplant patients at Stanford University Medical Center, as well as weekly outreach clinics in the San Jose area.

Dr. Nguyen has served as Director of the Hepatology Fellowship Program in the Division of Gastroenterology and Hepatology and the Liver Transplant Program . Currently, she is Director of the Hepatology Clerkship, a member of Stanford Bio-X, and Stanford Population Science, a member of the Appointments and Promotions Committee and a Leading Effectively to Navigate Searches (LENS) Advocate for the Department of Medicine, assisting in effectively managing professoriate search processes.

Dr. Khush is Professor of Medicine and Director of Heart Transplant Research in the Division of Cardiovascular Medicine at Stanford University Medical Center and Director of the Advanced Heart Failure Transplant Cardiology Fellowship Program at Stanford University School of Medicine. Dr. Khush is a clinical and translational investigator whose research focuses on donor selection for heart transplantation; risk factors and mechanisms of primary graft dysfunction after heart transplantation; development and clinical utility of non-invasive transplant biomarkers; and prevention of long-term complications after heart transplantation, including cardiac allograft vasculopathy (a form of chronic rejection) and malignancies. She has received funding from the National Institutes of Health and is an elected member of the American Society of Clinical Investigation. Dr. Khush is the Deputy Editor of the Journal of Heart and Lung Transplantation and incoming Program Chair of the International Society for Heart and Lung Transplantation annual scientific sessions (Boston, MA, April 2025). Through her collaborative clinical and research programs, she has experienced the great benefits that come from working with teams that have a variety of life experiences. Dr. Khush hopes to bring this perspective to faculty searches and hires at Stanford Medicine.

Dr. Schapira is Professor of Medicine (Oncology) and the Inaugural Director of the Cancer Survivorship Program at Stanford Medicine. Dr. Schapira completed her residency in internal medicine at the Beth Israel Deaconess Hospital and went on to complete a fellowship in hematology and medical oncology at the Brigham and Women's Hospital and a research fellowship at the Division on Aging at Harvard Medical School. She was on the faculty at Harvard Medical School and a member of the Breast Oncology Program at the Massachusetts General Hospital from 2002-2016 and then joined the faculty at Stanford in 2016, where she directs a multidisciplinary research and clinical team focused on optimizing health outcomes for cancer survivors through research, clinical care, education and advocacy.

Dr. Schapira cares for adults with breast cancer and her research has focused on the unique needs of young patients with breast cancer and the psychosocial dimensions of cancer care. Dr. Schapira has championed training cancer clinicians in communication skills and empowering patients to better manage chronic health conditions such as cancer. For more than 20 years, Dr. Schapira has worked to reduce health disparities for people with cancer, improve access to cancer clinical trials for members of underrepresented groups including immigrants, and has mentored oncologists from low- and middle-income countries. She served on the Board of Directors of the American Psychosocial Oncology Society and as Chair of the Psychosocial Interest Group of the Multinational Society for Supportive Care in Cancer. Dr. Schapira's advocacy for people with cancer led to her appointment as Editor-in-Chief of the American Society of Clinical Oncology's website for the public Cancer.Net, from 2015 until-2021. She has authored over 150 publications and served as Associate Editor for the Journal of Clinical Oncology from 2013 until 2023. 

Latha Palaniappan MD, MS, is an internist, and clinical and population researcher. Her research has focused on the study of various populations, chronic disease and prevention. Dr. Palaniappan specifically seeks to address the gap in knowledge of health in Asian subgroups and other understudied racial/ethnic minorities (PACS 5R01DK081371, CASPER R01HL126172, and CAUSES R01MD007012). Her current work examines the clinical effectiveness of structured physical activity programs for diabetes management (Initiate and Maintain Physical Activity in Clinics - IMPACT, 5R18DK096394), as well as best exercise regimens for normal-weight diabetics (Strength Training Regimen for Normal Weight Diabetics - STRONG-D, 2R01DK081371). She was recently awarded a Midcareer Investigator Award (K24 HL150476) by the National Institutes of Health to provide mentoring to junior clinical investigators in the conduct of patient oriented research. She is currently working on implementation of evidence based genetic and pharmacogenetic testing in clinical settings. She is the Faculty co-Director of the Stanford Biobank (with Drs. Brooke Howitt and Joachim Hallmayer) designed to accelerate translatable scientific discoveries. She co-founded (with Dr. Bryant Lin) the Center for Asian American, Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander Health Research and Education (CARE) at Stanford in 2018. She recently received a Fulbright Future Scholar Award and will work with the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation on implementation of Precision Health in Australia. 

Sean M Wu, MD, PhD is a board certified cardiologist who specializes in treating men and women with cardiac diseases such as coronary artery disease, cardiac valve disorder, rhythm disorders, cardio-oncology/cancer drug toxicity, and cardiac preventive management. 

Dr. Wu also conduct research in cardiac developmental biology/congenital heart disease, stem cell biology and translation of stem cells into new treatments for congenital heart disease, adult heart failure and rhythm disorders.

In addition to completion of residency program and board certification in internal medicine, Dr. Wu has also completed a 3-year ACGME-accredited fellowship in cardiovascular disease with board certification and additional clinical training in echocardiography at Massachusetts General Hospital and cardiac developmental biology research training at Boston Children's Hospital/Harvard Medical School in Boston, MA.

Hannah Valantine received her M.B.B.S. degree from London University, completed her cardiology fellowship at Stanford, and Doctor of Medicine from London University. She was appointed Assistant Professor of Medicine, rising to full Professor of Medicine in 2000, and became the inaugural Senior Associate Dean for Leadership, in 2004. She pursued a data-driven transformative approach to this work, receiving the NIH director’s pathfinder award. Dr. Francis Collins, NIH director, recruited her in 2014 as the inaugural NIH Chief Officer for Scientific Workforce Development, and as a tenured investigator in the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute’s intramural research program where she established the laboratory of transplantation genomics. Dr. Valantine is a nationally recognized pioneer in her field, with over 200 peer-reviewed publications, patents, and sustained NIH funding. She was elected to the National Academy of Medicine in 2020 for both her pioneering research in organ transplantation and workforce development.

Gretchen Picache is the Director of Academic Affairs and the Administrative Director of the Leading to Effectively Navigate Searches (LENS) program in Stanford’s Department of Medicine. Since joining the department in 2007, she has led the transformation of faculty affairs operations, building a centralized, high-performing team that now supports over 1,400 faculty across 15 divisions. With more than 18 years of experience in Academic Affairs, Gretchen oversees the full spectrum of faculty lifecycle processes - including recruitment, appointments, promotions, sabbaticals, leaves, and performance evaluations.

A systems thinker, innovator, and effective change agent, Gretchen has embedded a culture of innovation and continuous improvement into the Department’s Faculty Affairs operations. She led the centralization of Faculty Affairs into the Department’s central office from each division, led the restructuring of Faculty Affairs office into three functional clusters, and spearheaded the development of the Department of Medicine Faculty Affairs Management Enterprise (FAME), a comprehensive platform that automates workflows, improves transparency, and enhances faculty experience. She also was part in developing a faculty evaluation system that significantly improved compliance, equity, and usability.

Her work has received national visibility. Gretchen has delivered presentations on Faculty Affairs innovations and systems development at national conferences, including the Alliance for Academic Internal Medicine (AAIM) Spring Meeting, where she shared Stanford’s faculty evaluation system (2022) and the department’s end-to-end improvements in faculty search and recruitment (2023), and developed the Abstract presenting the impact of the LENS program in changing the culture of the Department’s faculty searches.

Gretchen’s mission is to ensure that faculty lifecycle operations are strategic, seamless, and service-driven, allowing faculty to focus on research, education, and patient care, and enabling Department leadership to concentrate on advancing their academic vision, leading their programs, and supporting their people. She is passionate about building empowered, collaborative teams and fostering a culture grounded in integrity, accountability, stakeholder experience, continuous improvement, learning, and shared purpose.

Cynthia Llanes was born in the Philippines.  She arrived in the United States with her family in 1973.  She received a Bachelor’s Degree in Public Health from UCLA.  She has been at Stanford for over 20 years, with appointments in the Division of Literatures, Cultures and Languages as the Administrative Services Manager and as Associate Director of Faculty Affairs and Clinical Training in the Department of Pathology. After a brief retirement, she was recruited by the Department of Medicine in Oct. 2019 as the Faculty Affairs Manager for Recruitment. Her role includes serving as the administrative lead for the LENS Advocate Program. This role is especially important for Cynthia because of her commitment to an open and respectful academic environment.

Melanie Gutierrez is a Faculty Affairs Specialist with the Department of Medicine (DOM). She earned a Bachelor’s degree in Health Science and a minor in Business Organization and Management from San José State University. She began her career with a billing office for an emergency physicians’ medical group before transitioning to higher education atSJSU’s Student Health Center. She was recruited by Stanford’s Department of Pathology, serving as the Residency and Fellowship Program Coordinator for a few years. She was a Graduate Program Coordinator and then an Administrative Analyst for large academic departments at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo. She returned to Stanford in 2021 to support the DOM Professoriate Recruitment Cluster. As an administrative member of the LENS Advocates program, she seeks to cultivate effective and efficient search processes. Her goal is to integrate best practices for recruiting exceptional faculty dedicated to the continued development of an inclusive culture.

Junie Urbano

Faculty Affairs Specialist

Show Back

Junie is a Faculty Affairs Specialist in the Department of Medicine. He received his Bachelor’s Degree in Business Administration with a focus on Human Resource Management from San José State University (SJSU). He began his career in faculty affairs at SJSU, where he managed the retention, tenure, and promotion processes for all professoriate faculty. Junie joined Stanford in 2023and now focuses on facilitating professoriate searches in the Department. His current goal is to work alongside LENS to develop best practices to ensure comprehensive, efficient, and effective searches.

Alyssa is a Faculty Affairs Administrator in the Department of Medicine. She has a BA in Communication, and graduated from the University of California, Santa Barbara. She started her career in the Life Sciences industry where she had the opportunity to support the recruitment process and hiring efforts for biotech and pharma companies. She thentransitioned to higher education and joined the Faculty Affairs team at Stanford University. In addition to her role as an administrative member for the LENS Committee, she helps with the recruitment and appointment/promotion processes for the Department of Medicine. Her goal is to facilitate and empower the recruitment and retention of talented faculty members who can advance the research, teaching, and clinical missions of the department and the university.