AΩA Officers and Faculty Leadership

Cornelius James, M.D., is a clinical assistant professor in the Departments of Internal Medicine, Pediatrics and Learning Health Sciences at the University of Michigan (U-M). He obtained his medical degree from Wayne State University School of Medicine, and subsequently completed a combined internal medicine and pediatrics residency at Beaumont Health, where he served as a chief resident during his final year of training. He is a primary care physician, practicing as a general internist and a general pediatrician. 

James has served in many educational roles across the continuum of medical education. He has led successful revamps of evidence-based medicine curricula for the U-M medical school, and for the U-M internal medicine residency program. As a Division of General Medicine education liaison, he led efforts to ensure that the teaching and learning experiences of faculty, residents and students in U-M general medicine clinics were effective and efficient. While serving as doctoring faculty, he established longitudinal coaching and mentoring relationships with medical students and taught them foundational clinical skills. James is also the inaugural diversity, equity, inclusion and anti-racism associate program director for the U-M internal medicine residency program. 

James also serves on local and national education committees. As a member of the Society of General Internal Medicine Education Committee, he leads a workgroup assembled to ensure that the committee’s work is viewed through an anti-racism lens. 

In multiple yearsJames has been identified as one of the top 50-60 teachers in the Department of Internal Medicine (determined by medical student and resident evaluations). In addition, in 2022 he received the pre-clinical Kaiser Permanente Excellence in Teaching award, the most prestigious teaching award given by the U-M medical school. 

James has completed several local and national programs to enhance his skills as an educator. For example, he was a 2021 American Medical Association (AMA) Health Systems Science Scholar. He was also one of 10 inaugural 2021 National Academy of Medicine (NAM) Scholars in Diagnostic Excellence. As a NAM scholar, he began working on the Data Augmented, Technology Assisted Medical Decision Making (DATA-MD) curriculum. The DATA-MD curriculum is designed to teach healthcare professionals to use artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) in their diagnostic decision-making. James is also leading the DATA-MD team as they develop a web-based AI/ML curriculum for the AMA.

He has published articles in JAMA, Annals of Internal Medicine, Academic Medicine, the Journal of General Internal Medicine, Cell Reports, and more. 

He is very interested in curriculum development, and teaching learners to provide evidence-based, data-driven, equitable, patient-centered care. His research interests include clinical reasoning, implementation of AI/ML curricula across the continuum of medical education, and implementation of digital tools into clinical practice. 

Richard Gunderman, M.D., Ph.D., is Chancellor's Professor of Radiology, Pediatrics, Medical Education, Philosophy, Liberal Arts, Philanthropy, and Medical Humanities and Health Studies at Indiana University. He received his A.B. summa cum Laude from Wabash College, M.D., and Ph.D. (Committee on Social Thought) with honors from the University of Chicago, and M.P.H. from Indiana University. He was a chancellor scholar of the Federal Republic of Germany and received an honorary Doctorate of Humane Letters from Garrett Theological Seminary at Northwestern University. He is a 10-time recipient of the Indiana University Trustees Teaching Award, and in 2015 received the Indiana University School of Medicine's inaugural Inspirational Educator Award.

He was named the 2008 Outstanding Educator by the Radiological Society of North America, the 2011 American Roentgen Ray Society Berlin Scholar in Professionalism, and the 2012 Distinguished Educator of the American Roentgen Ray Society. In 2012, he received the Alpha Omega Alpha Robert J. Glaser Award for Teaching Excellence, the top teaching award from the Association of American Medical Colleges. In 2013, he was the Spinoza Professor at the University of Amsterdam. He serves on numerous boards, including the Kinsey Institute for the Study of Human Sexuality, Christian Theological Seminary, and Alpha Omega Alpha National Honor Medical Society. He is the author of over 600 articles and has published eight books, including "We Make a Life by What We Give" (Indiana University, 2008), "Leadership in Healthcare" (Springer, 2009), "Achieving Excellence in Medical Education" (2nd edition, Springer, 2011), "X-ray Vision" (Oxford University, 2013), and "Essential Radiology" (3rd edition, Thieme, 2014). His latest books, "We Come to Life with Those We Serve," and "Hoosier Beacons," were published in 2017.

Paul B. Rothman, M.D., is the Frances Watt Baker, M.D., and Lenox D. Baker Jr., M.D., Dean of the Medical Faculty; vice president for medicine of The Johns Hopkins University; and CEO of Johns Hopkins Medicine. As dean/CEO, Rothman oversees both the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine and the Johns Hopkins Health System, which encompasses six hospitals, hundreds of community physicians, and a self-funded health plan. 

Rothman completed his undergraduate studies at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and received his medical degree from Yale University in 1984, earning a place in the prestigious Alpha Omega Alpha Honor Medical Society. He completed medical residency and rheumatology fellowship at Columbia-Presbyterian Medical Center in New York before joining the medical faculty of Columbia University. There, he completed a postdoctoral biochemistry fellowship studying immunoglobulin class-switch recombination and rose to become the Richard J. Stock Professor of Medicine (Immunology) and Microbiology and chief of the pulmonary, allergy and critical care division. Rothman’s research investigated the role cytokines play in the normal development of blood cells and the abnormal blood-cell development that leads to leukemia. He also studied the function of cytokines in immune system responses to asthma and allergies. 

In 2004, Rothman accepted a position as head of internal medicine at the Carver College of Medicine at the University of Iowa. In 2008, he was named dean of the Carver College of Medicine and leader of its clinical practice plan. In July 2012, he became the 14th dean of the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine and just the second CEO of Johns Hopkins Medicine. Rothman has received numerous prestigious awards, which include being elected to the National Academy of Medicine in 2016, one of the highest honors in the fields of health and medicine. He served as president of the Association of American Physicians in 2014–15. In addition to his other roles, Rothman has become a national leader on burnout in the medical community.

Barbara Natterson-Horowitz, M.D., is professor of medicine in the Division of Cardiology at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA. In addition, she is adjunct professor in the UCLA Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology where she teaches undergraduate and graduate courses on evolutionary medicine. Natterson-Horowitz is co-director of the Evolutionary Medicine Program at UCLA and director of the Evolutionary Medicine track of UCLA's Master of Science in Biology program.

She serves as a cardiovascular consultant to the Los Angeles Zoo as a member of its Medical Advisory Board and is chair of the Zoobiquity Conference, a national educational program that facilitates interdisciplinary discussions between physicians, veterinarians and others in the health professions. In 2012, Natterson-Horowitz co-authored the New York Times bestselling book, "Zoobiquity: The Astonishing Connection Between Human and Animal Health." "Zoobiquity" was named Discover Magazine’s Best Book of 2012, The China Times Best Foreign Translation of 2013, and a finalist in the American Association for the Advancement of Science Excellence in Science Books 2012. Her work has been featured in the New York Times, The Guardian, Wall Street Journal, Nature, Scientific American, and New Scientist, among others. 

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View Barbara Natterson-Horowitz's Ted Talk

Richard Gunderman, M.D., Ph.D., is Chancellor's Professor of Radiology, Pediatrics, Medical Education, Philosophy, Liberal Arts, Philanthropy, and Medical Humanities and Health Studies at Indiana University. He received his A.B. summa cum Laude from Wabash College, M.D., and Ph.D. (Committee on Social Thought) with honors from the University of Chicago, and M.P.H. from Indiana University. He was a chancellor scholar of the Federal Republic of Germany and received an honorary Doctorate of Humane Letters from Garrett Theological Seminary at Northwestern University. He is a 10-time recipient of the Indiana University Trustees Teaching Award, and in 2015 received the Indiana University School of Medicine's inaugural Inspirational Educator Award.

He was named the 2008 Outstanding Educator by the Radiological Society of North America, the 2011 American Roentgen Ray Society Berlin Scholar in Professionalism, and the 2012 Distinguished Educator of the American Roentgen Ray Society. In 2012, he received the Alpha Omega Alpha Robert J. Glaser Award for Teaching Excellence, the top teaching award from the Association of American Medical Colleges. In 2013, he was the Spinoza Professor at the University of Amsterdam. He serves on numerous boards, including the Kinsey Institute for the Study of Human Sexuality, Christian Theological Seminary, and Alpha Omega Alpha National Honor Medical Society. He is the author of over 600 articles and has published eight books, including "We Make a Life by What We Give" (Indiana University, 2008), "Leadership in Healthcare" (Springer, 2009), "Achieving Excellence in Medical Education" (2nd edition, Springer, 2011), "X-ray Vision" (Oxford University, 2013), and "Essential Radiology" (3rd edition, Thieme, 2014). His latest books, "We Come to Life with Those We Serve," and "Hoosier Beacons," were published in 2017.

Jo Shapiro, M.D., is chief of the Division of Otolaryngology in the Department of Surgery at Brigham and Women's Hospital. She is an associate professor of otology and laryngology at Harvard Medical School. In October 2008, she became the director of the new Center for Professionalism and Peer Support at BWH. She has had multiple educational leadership roles including: senior associate director of graduate medical education for Partners HealthCare, founding scholar of the Academy at Harvard Medical School, director of the Otolaryngology Clerkship for HMS, and president of the Society of University Otolaryngologists as well as chair of their Committee on Faculty Development. She is on the faculty of the Harvard Leadership Development for Physicians and Scientists.

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Rita Charon, M.D., Ph.D, Columbia University

Rita Charon is professor of medicine and executive director of the Program in Narrative Medicine at the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Columbia University. She completed her M.D. at Harvard Medical School and a Ph.D. in English at Columbia. A general internist, Charon took her Ph.D. when she realized how central telling and listening to stories is to the work of doctors and patients. She directs the Narrative Medicine curriculum for Columbia’s medical school and teaches literary theory, narratology, and creative writing to students and faculty at the medical center and in the graduate program in Narrative Medicine. Her literary scholarship focuses on aspects of narratology and the novels and tales of Henry James. Her research projects center on the outcomes of training health care professionals in narrative capacities. She is currently principal investigator on a National Institutes of Health project to enhance the teaching of social science and behavioral science in medical schools.