Faculty & Staff Directory

Bio

Dr. Kumar Belani is a professor and the former Division Chief and Medical Director of Pediatric Anesthesiology at the University of Minnesota Department of Anesthesiology. He currently serves as the Associate Director of the Pediatric Anesthesiology Fellowship Program. He also runs his own lab, the Belani Lab, which is currently focused on measuring cyanide toxicity, its treatment, and the role of sulfanegen, a new antidote.

Bio

Administrator Info
Name: Mena Vue
Email: vuexx154@umn.edu
Fax: 612-624-3189
Mail: 420 Delaware Street SE, MMC 741, Minneapolis, MN 55455

Summary
Dr. Bertelsen graduated from medical school at the University of Minnesota in 2007 and completed his residency training in Internal Medicine (primary care track) at Weill Cornell Medical Center / New York Presbyterian Hospital in 2010, where he also served as an Ambulatory Chief Resident. He has a B.A. in government / international relations from Georgetown University, a Postgraduate Certificate in Global Mental Health from Harvard University, and a Masters of Science in Public Health from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine (MScPH). He is currently an Associate Professor in the Department of Medicine, where he works as a hospitalist.

From 2010 to 2019, he served on the faculty in the Department of Medicine and the Department of Population Health at New York University School of Medicine, with a secondary appointment at New York University College of Global Public Health, and he worked as a hospitalist, primary care physician, and clerkship director at Bellevue Hospital. During this time, he served as Director of Primary Care for the Bellevue/NYU Program for Survivors of Torture in New York; founding director of the core communication and clinical skills training program at Koc University School of Medicine in Istanbul, Turkey; Adviser for Research and Training for Doctors Without Borders (MSF), Istanbul mission;. MPH course director in refugee health at the NYU campus in Florence, Italy; migrant health education coordinator at the Institute for Global Health in Barcelona, Spain; and served on the Board of Directors of the Central American Healthcare Initiative (CAHI) at INCAE Business School in Costa Rica and Nicaragua.

He came to the University of Minnesota to join the Global Medicine group in the Department of Medicine. After serving as Director of Education for the International Panel Physicians Association, he now serves as Faculty Collaborator for the National Resource Center for Refugees, Immigrants and Migrants (NRC-RIM) at UMN, and Director of Partnerships for the UMN Clinical Tropical Medicine and Global Health (CTMGH) curriculum.

Research Summary

Medical Education; Resilience in Forced Migration

Teaching Summary

Refugee Health; Cross-Cultural Communication Skills; Public Health Leadership

Clinical Summary

Medical Education; Migrant and Refugee Health; Cross-Cultural Communication Skills; Resilience Factors

Bio

Administrator Info
Name: Colleen Doyle
Email: doyl0050@umn.edu
Mail: 420 Delaware Street SE, MMC 603, Minneapolis, MN 55455

Bio

Administrator Info
Name: IDIM Division Support
Phone: 612-624-9996
Fax: 612-625-4410
Email: IDIMdivision@umn.edu
Mail: Microbiology Research Building, 1st floor mail room, MMC 2821, 689 23rd Ave S.E., Minneapolis, MN 55455

Summary
Dr. Boulware is an infectious disease physician-scientist with formal training in clinical trials, public health, and tropical medicine. Dr. Boulware combines his clinical research with nested basic science investigations into disease pathogenesis to conduct translational research. His primary research interests are in meningitis in resource-limited areas including diagnosis, prevention, treatment, and quality improvement initiatives incorporating cost-effectiveness analyses in order to translate knowledge into improved care. Dr. Boulware's current research is focused on improving the clinical outcomes of HIV-infected persons with cryptococcal meningitis, the second most common AIDS-defining opportunistic infection in Sub-Saharan Africa and the most common cause of adult meningitis. Additionally, Dr. Boulware has been motivated to improve the diagnostics for TB meningitis, and now that TB meningitis can be promptly diagnosed, to also improve the treatment of tuberculous meningitis. Dr. Boulware leads a multidisciplinary, international research team with active research collaborations with partners in Uganda, South Africa, Ethiopia, Brazil, Botswana, the Netherlands, and the United Kingdom.

Research Summary

Reducing HIV-related mortality in people living with AIDS Improving Diagnostics for Meningitis Improving treatments for Cryptococcal meningitis and TB meningitis Preventing avoidable deaths due to subclinical cryptococcosis Clinical Trials for novel meningitis therapeutics and strategies Quality improvement initiatives to improve survival in resource-limited settings Antimicrobial resistance in low and middle income countries Research Projects: Improving Diagnostics and Neurocognitive Outcomes in HIV/AIDS-related Meningitis (R01 NS086312) Phased Implementation of a Public Health Programme: Cryptococcal Screening and Treatment in South Africa. ( R01AI118511) Operational Research for Cryptococcal Antigen Screening (ORCAS) of HIV Patients (U01AI125003) Infectious Disease Training in Clinical Investigation (T32AI055433) Encochleated Oral Amphotericin for Cryptococcal Meningitis Trial TB Meningitis: Evaluating CSF Immunology to Discover Hidden Disease and Potential Immunomodulatory Therapies Redefining Tuberculosis Meningitis with Metagenomics and Host Transcriptomics NIH ACTIV-6 COVID Platform Trial

Clinical Summary

Central nervous system infections; AIDS-related opportunistic infections; Tropical medicine; Travel medicine; Cost Effectiveness

Bio

Administrator Info
Name: IDIM Division Support
Phone: 612-624-9996
Fax: 612-625-4410
Email: IDIMdivision@umn.edu
Mail: Mayo Memorial Building, MMC 250, 420 Delaware Street S.E., Minneapolis, MN 55455

Summary
Dr. Debes graduated from medical school at Universidad Nacional de Cordoba in Argentina. Following his graduation he completed a postdoctoral research fellowship and Masters in Science-Molecular Biology at the Mayo Clinic. He later pursued residency in Internal Medicine and Fellowship in Gastroenterology and Hepatology both at the University of Minnesota. During his fellowship Dr. Debes was awarded an NIH NRSA-F32 grant to study regulation of gene expression by the hepatitis C virus. Dr. Debes leads international research networks in three continents conducting research on viral hepatitis and liver cancer with on-site activities in Tanzania, Ethiopia, Netherlands, Brazil, Ecuador and Argentina. Through these networks he has defined the epidemiology of liver cancer in South America and Africa and has exposed biomarkers for early detection of liver cancer. His research activities expand from public health implementation and education on viral hepatitis to molecular biology aspects to define the mechanisms of viral-related liver cancer. Dr. Debes serves in editorial boards of multiple research journals and has served as reviewer in a variety of NIH study sections.

Research Summary

Mechanisms of viral carcinogenesis in hepatocellular carcinoma; Single cell sequencing and immune-detection for prediction of liver cancer; Viral hepatitis in HIV; Education, prevention and treatment of hepatitis B and liver cancer in resource-limited settings

Research Funding
Grants American College of Gastroenterology AFMDP, Robert Wood Johnson Scholar National Institutes of Health Horizon 2020, EU University of Minnesota

Teaching Summary

Teaching Areas
Hepatology; Global Health; Translational research

Clinical Summary

Hepatology; Viral Hepatitis; HCC; Liver disease and HIV

Bio

Administrator Info
Name: Denise Jackson
Email: jacksond@umn.edu
Fax: 612-624-3189
Mail: 420 Delaware Street SE, MMC 741, Minneapolis, MN 55455

Summary
Dr. Adriana Dhawan is an internal medicine/pediatrics hospitalist, a graduate from the University of Minnesota. Originally from New Mexico, Minnesota's well-developed global health curriculum drew her to the Midwest, where she plans to practice with a focus on hospital-based medicine and international health.

Research Summary

Global Health Education; Clinical Medicine

Teaching Summary

Tanzania International Medicine Site Director; UMMC Inpatient Process of Care Clerkship Director

Clinical Summary

Hospital Medicine; Global Health

Bio

Dr. Brett Hendel-Paterson has been the director of the University of Minnesota Global Medicine Pathway since 2016. He graduated from the University of Minnesota-Duluth for medical school and completed a combined internal medicine/pediatrics residency at the University of Minnesota, later becoming board-certified in hospice and palliative medicine. Since 2010 he has been a co-director for the University of Minnesota Global Health Course, a course approved by the American Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene as a diploma course. He is a clinician educator and practices hospital medicine and palliative care at HealthPartners Regions Hospital, in St. Paul Minnesota. He works at the HealthPartners Tropical Medicine and Travel Clinic. His areas of interest include clinical tropical medicine education, care of immigrants and refugees, medical education in general, teaching approaches to clinical care in low-resource settings, use of clinical simulation for training, medical improv, reducing health disparities, physician wellness and burnout, patient experience and communication, and navigating language or cultural barriers in approaching end-of-life and advance care planning.

Bio

Dr. Kesler's clinical work focuses on Critical Care Medicine. She practices primarily at University of Minnesota Medical Center and Fairview Southdale hospitals. Her academic work focuses on Global Health, simulation-based training for Disaster Response, and the allocation of scarce resources during mass casualty incidents.She directs the Graduate Medical Education and Research Program in the Medical School, which serves to mentor medical students who want to incorporate international experiences into their medical school education. From 2011 to 2019 she directed the University of Minnesota Humanitarian Simulation, a full-scale field exercise of a humanitarian disaster. During the COVID-19 pandemic she created the MHealth Fairview plan for operating under Crisis Standards of Care. She also served as the Chair of the Ethics and Scarce Resources sub-committee of the Minnesota Statewide Healthcare Coalition. She collaborated with the Minnesota Department of Health (MDH) and the Minnesota Covid Ethics Collaborative to create guidance for allocating scarce resources under Crisis and Contingency conditions, and currently sits on the MDH Scientific Advisory Team

Clinical Summary

I am especially interested in ethics and post-discharge quality of life for patients in the Intensive Care Unit.

Bio

Dr. Jonathan Kirsch is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Internal Medicine at the University of Minnesota. He is a graduate of the University of Minnesota Medical School and completed his residency training at Hennepin County Medical Center in Internal Medicine. His clinical interest is the inpatient care of adults, along with a focus on medical education, program development for underserved populations and global health research. He has worked in Hospital Medicine in Ithaca, NY and at the University of North Carolina where he was Associate Director of the Hospital Medicine Program. He has also worked in Farmworker Health in New York and North Carolina. He served as a Fulbright Scholar from 2017-2018 in Cali, Colombia. He is a Core Faculty of the Global Health Pathway here at the University of Minnesota and directs the Inter-professional Migrant Health Rotation.

Clinical Summary

Hospital Medicine; Global Health; Quality Improvement; Rural Health; Ultrasound Research; Mobile Health; Mentoring; Resident Scholarship Education

Bio

Dr. Krohn is an internal medicine and pediatric hospitalist and Associate Professor at the University of Minnesota. She completed medical school and residency here in internal medicine and pediatrics. She completed the Stanford University - NBC News Fellowship in Global Health and Media in 2013 and spent two years working with Health Frontiers in Laos, teaching in the country's internal medicine and pediatric residency programs. Dr. Krohn believes everyone should be equipped with the tools they need to understand their health and to make healthy choices. As the Director of Online Content for our Global Medicine Program, Dr. Krohn works to ensure that providers know how to care for people from diverse backgrounds including underrepresented minorities, immigrants, and refugees right here in Minnesota. As the "thread" lead for medical communications with lay audiences in our Becoming a Doctor course for third and fourth-year medical students, Dr. Krohn teaches students strategies to improve their ability to talk with anyone about their health.

Research Summary

Medical Education How people outside of the field of medicine learn about medicine Medical Journalism

Clinical Summary

Global Health; Hospital Medicine; Internal Medicine; Pediatrics; Refugee/Migration Health