Leadership

Sarah Hollingsworth “Holly” Lisanby, MD, DLFAPA

Founding dean

Dr. Lisanby is the founding dean of the ASU John Shufeldt School of Medicine and Medical Engineering. With prior senior leadership roles at Duke University, Columbia University and the National Institutes of Health, Dr. Lisanby brings deep expertise in psychiatry, research strategy and engineering innovation. Her research focuses on the convergence of engineering and medicine. An accomplished clinical translational scientist, Dr. Lisanby is internationally known for her pioneering research leading to the FDA approval of novel devices for the treatment of depression. In her most recent roles at NIH, Dr. Lisanby was responsible for a portfolio of approximately $400 million to support mental health research and she designed and led teams within the NIH BRAIN Initiative on the development of novel devices and AI approaches to transform brain health. Dr. Lisanby founded and directed both the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) Noninvasive Neuromodulation Unit and served as the director of the NIMH Division of Translational. Prior to NIH, Dr. Lisanby was the JP Gibbons Endowed Professor and Chair of the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at Duke, where she is now Professor Emeritus. Dr. Lisanby has received numerous national and international awards, including the Distinguished Investigator Award from the Brain and Behavior Research Foundation, the Max Hamilton Memorial Prize of the Collegium Internationale Neuro-Psychopharmacologicum (CINP), the Gerald R. Klerman Award from the Depression and Bipolar Support Alliance and the Eva King Killam Research Award from the American College of Neuropsychopharmacology (ACNP). Dr. Lisanby is an elected member of the American Association of Physicians, a Fellow of the ACNP and a Distinguished Life Fellow of the American Psychiatric Association (DLFAPA). Dr. Lisanby serves on the FDA Neurological Devices Advisory Panel and has held key senior leadership positions in international professional organizations including serving as President of the International Society for ECT and Neurostimulation.

Sherine Gabriel, MD, MSc

Planning dean

Dr. Gabriel leads the ASU Health team and is the planning dean for the John Shufeldt School of Medicine and Medical Engineering, leveraging her vast experience in health care. Dr. Gabriel is a physician-scientist who was the dean of the Mayo Clinic Alix School of Medicine, the dean of the Rutgers Robert Wood Johnson Medical School in New Jersey, and was president of Rush University in Chicago, a noted academic medical center that includes a medical college, college of nursing, college of health sciences and graduate college. She is a member of the National Academy of Medicine.

Priya Radhakrishnan, MD, FACP

Vice dean, clinical affairs and graduate medical education

Dr. Radhakrishnan serves as vice dean for clinical affairs and graduate medical education at the John Shufeldt School of Medicine and Medical Engineering. She is also chief academic officer and vice president of health equity at HonorHealth. A practicing internal medicine physician, she focuses on the care of patients with complex chronic illnesses and leads the HonorHealth Academic Affairs Global Health program. An accomplished physician leader and educator, Dr. Radhakrishnan’s work emphasizes aligning the needs of learners, patients and communities. Her research centers on health equity, and she serves as the principal investigator for the PCORI Health Systems Implementation Initiative at HonorHealth. She is a current regent and outgoing chair of the Board of Governors for the American College of Physicians.

Elizabeth Baker, MD, MHPE

Senior associate dean, medical education

Dr. Baker is the inaugural Senior Associate Dean for Medical Education at the John Shufeldt School of Medicine and Medical Engineering at Arizona State University. She comes from Rush Medical College in Chicago, where she served as Internal Medicine Clerkship Director, Vice Chair for Education and ultimately Senior Associate Dean for Undergraduate Medical Education. A general internist, Dr. Baker helped lead the development of Rush’s integrated curriculum and has focused her scholarship on clinical skills and diagnostic reasoning, including creation of the IDEA tool for teaching and assessment.

Heather Clark, PhD

Senior associate dean, engineering integration

Dr. Clark is the associate dean, engineering integration for ASU's John Shufeldt School of Medicine and Medical Engineering. In addition, Dr. Clark serves as professor and director of the School for Biological and Health Systems Engineering, where her lab works at the interface of chemistry and biology to develop and apply novel nanoscale probes for biological measurements. Her nanosensor research focuses on the brain and the nervous system and she has multiple ongoing research projects funded by the National Institutes of Health Brain Research Through Advancing Innovative Neurotechnologies, and the National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering, one of the National Institutes of Health. Dr. Clark’s work has earned numerous honors, including a Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency. She is a fellow of the American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering and has numerous U.S. patents for work related to her research.

Marco S

Marco Saraniti, PhD

Senior associate dean, faculty affairs

Dr. Saraniti is the senior associate dean of faculty administration in the John Shufeldt School of Medicine and Medical Engineering at Arizona State University. He has extensive experience in faculty governance, personnel administration, and academic program development. The David and Darleen Ferry Professor of Electrical Engineering, Dr. Saraniti previously served as the founding vice dean of faculty administration for the Ira A. Fulton Schools of Engineering from 2016 to 2022, where he helped formalize faculty processes and oversaw personnel actions during a period of rapid growth and organizational change. He was also the founding director of the web-delivered Electrical Engineering program, positioning ASU as a leader in innovative engineering education. His research focuses on computational electronics and the simulation of semiconductor and biological structures, including modeling heat generation and transport in wide bandgap materials.

Karen Anderson, MD, PhD

Associate dean, research

Dr. Anderson is the associate dean, research for ASU's John Shufeldt School of Medicine and Medical Engineering. Dr. Anderson is a board-certified medical oncologist. In addition, she serves as professor in the School of Life Sciences and the Biodesign Institute, where her lab works in the field of molecular diagnostics and adaptive immune profiling. She has had multiple funded projects from the NSF, NIH, NCI, and DOD on early cancer detection, high throughput functional proteomics and AI-based immune-engineering for cancer immunotherapy. She has served on the NCI Center for Scientific Review Advisory Council and is the co-chair of the National Cancer Institute’s Early Detection Research Network. She has numerous patents for work related to her research.

Anthony M. Avellino, MD, MBA

Associate dean, clinical faculty affairs
Department chair, clinical science

Dr. Avellino is the associate dean, clinical faculty affairs, and department chair, clinical science for ASU's John Shufeldt School of Medicine and Medical Engineering. Dr. Avellino also serves as the chief medical officer for specialty care at HonorHealth Medical Group. He is a seasoned leader with a track record of success as assistant vice president for health sciences and chief clinical and medical officer at Michigan State University, chief executive officer at Illinois Neurological Institute for OSF HealthCare, chief of neurological surgery and director of neurosciences institute at University of Washington,aMedicine, and chief of pediatric neurosurgery at Seattle Children's hospital. He was selected for Becker’s Hospital Review “88 Chief Medical Officers of Hospitals and Health Systems to Know” in 2022, and “100 Hospital and Health System Chief Medical Officers to Know" in 2020.

Cora Fox, PhD

Associate dean, health humanities

Dr. Fox is the Associate Dean, Health Humanities for ASU's John Shufeldt School of Medicine and Medical Engineering. She is also the Director of Humanities Integration for ASU Health. She has been leading an interdisciplinary initiative developing research capacity and curriculum in the health humanities at ASU since 2014, when she was the Associate and then Interim Director of the Institute for Humanities Research (now the Humanities Institute). She has also been a visiting faculty member in the Centre for the Humanities and Health at King’s College in London and was selected as a Resilience Fellow in the Knowledge Exchange for Resilience at ASU. Specializing in early modern literature (including Shakespeare) and vernacular medicine, she works at the intersection of narrative medicine, affect theory, and the history of emotions—particularly positive emotions and wellbeing—and focuses on how healthy and happy communities were imagined in early modern Europe, as well as how those cultural formations shape current health practices and values.

Susan L. Freeman, MD, MS, FACE, FAAPL

Associate dean, strategic affairs

Dr. Freeman is associate dean of strategic affairs in the John Shufeldt School of Medicine and Medical Engineering at Arizona State University. She brings extensive experience in academic medicine, health system leadership and strategic planning. A seasoned physician executive and educator, Dr. Freeman serves as a professor of practice in the Shufeldt School and holds leadership roles in curriculum development and medical education. Nationally, she has held senior leadership positions including provost and senior vice president at Rush University and vice dean of health care systems and chief medical officer at Temple University, where she also founded the Temple Center for Population Health. Dr. Freeman is a trained internist and endocrinologist and continues to work nationally on health system transformation, value-based care and leadership development.

Amalia Pallares, PhD

Associate dean, inclusive excellence (interim)

Dr. Pallares serves as the associate dean, inclusive excellence. In her role, Dr. Pallares provides leadership to ensure individuals from all backgrounds, identities and perspectives can thrive. Prior to ASU she was at the University of Illinois Chicago. Her responsibilities directing UIC included faculty recruitment and development, student belonging and equity, cultural and experiential programming and education, community collaboration and engagement, legislative advocacy, and strategic planning.

Tanisha Price-Johnson, PhD

Associate dean, admissions

Dr. Price Johnson is the associate dean, admissions for ASU’s John Shufeldt School of Medicine and Medical Engineering. She holds the WGSA secretary chair position in the Association of American Medical Colleges Western Group on Student Affairs. She served for 13 years as executive director of admissions and financial aid at The University of Arizona College of Medicine and served as associate dean of student affairs at The University of Arizona College of Veterinary Medicine and Keck School of Medicine of the University of Southern California. She has appeared in Tucson businessedge.com’s Top 40 Under 40, 2008 and Southern Arizona’s 25 Most Influential African Americans, 2010, 2011 as well as being awarded the YWCA Women on the Move Award Recipient, 2007.

Alan Rawls, PhD

Associate dean, foundational education

Dr. Rawls is the associate dean, foundational education for ASU’s John Shufeldt School of Medicine and Medical Engineering. In addition, Dr. Rawls serves as the executive director of clinical partnerships in the Office of the University Provost, which promotes the strategic development of academic collaborations between ASU faculty and students with health care systems and health professional schools at the county, state and national levels. He also is an associate professor of genomics, evolution and bioinformatics in ASU’s School of Life Sciences.

Suzanne "Suzi" Templer, DO, FACP, FIDSA

Associate dean, student affairs

Dr. Templer is the inaugural Associate Dean of Student Affairs at the John Shufeldt School of Medicine and Medical Engineering at Arizona State University. She previously served as Assistant Dean of Student Affairs and Director of Coaching Services at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, where she built and led a comprehensive coaching program. A trained and certified professional development coach, Dr. Templer’s interests include leadership skill development, professional identity formation, and wellbeing in medical education. She also serves as an infectious disease clinician with interests in atypical mycobacterial disease and travel medicine.

Kristen Will, PhD

Associate dean, community relations and interprofessional communication

Dr. Will is the associate dean, community relations and interprofessional communication for ASU’s John Shufeldt School of Medicine and Medical Engineering. Prior to her tenure at ASU, she worked clinically as a senior physician assistant in the Division of Hospital Internal Medicine at Mayo Clinic Hospital. Along with her clinical duties, she was the program director of the Mayo Clinic in Arizona postgraduate PA Fellowship in Hospital Internal Medicine and assistant professor in the Mayo Clinic College of Medicine. She also served on the Mayo Clinic Arizona Education Committee and led the Mayo Clinic Arizona taskforce for interprofessional education and collaborative practice.

Jordan Coulston, MD

Assistant dean, clinical education

Dr. Coulston serves as assistant dean of clinical education at ASU's John Shufeldt School of Medicine and Medical Engineering, leading the development of a transformative clinical curriculum that integrates innovation and promotes humanistic practice. With over 13 years of experience as a clinician-educator, Dr. Coulston has a distinguished career in clinical education and curriculum development. He is dedicated to rethinking clinical curricula to embrace novel interprofessional alignments, deep learning strategies and cutting-edge digital technology. At The University of Arizona College of Medicine-Phoenix, Dr. Coulston directed award-winning clinical skills and simulation curriculum, implemented competency-based assessments across undergraduate medical education, and developed an individualized simulation curriculum for residency readiness. Dr. Coulston served as an academic hospitalist at the Phoenix VA Health Care System for 13 years.

Melanie Dean, EdD

Assistant dean, accreditation and quality improvement

Dr. Dean is the assistant dean of accreditation and quality improvement at ASU’s John Shufeldt School of Medicine and Medical Engineering. She ensures compliance with accreditation standards, oversees self-study processes and site visits, and advises leadership on accreditation matters. Previously, Dr. Dean led accreditation initiatives at The University of Arizona, College of Medicine-Phoenix. She holds an EdD in educational leadership with a focus on gender in academic medicine leadership and is known for her collaborative approach and expertise in educational processes and policies.

Dana Sall, MD, MEd, FACP

Assistant dean, assessment and evaluation

Dr. Sall is the assistant dean, assessment and evaluation for ASU's John Shufeldt School of Medicine and Medical Engineering. She is the program director of the Internal Medicine Residency program at HonorHealth in Scottsdale after being associate program director for the Internal Medicine Residency program at University of Cincinnati, while completing her master's degree in education. She has been published on topics including rater cognition, Clinical Competency Committees, adult learning theory, procedural competence, change management, and assessment with feedback garnering national and international recognition.

Douglas Lake, PhD

Department chair, foundational science

Dr. Lake is a tumor immunologist who has been at ASU since 2006 and teaches immunology and microbiology at the undergraduate level and advanced cell biology at the graduate level. Lake was the first to show that this enzyme is important in tumor cell growth, invasion and metastasis. His laboratory is developing chemical and biological inhibitors of QSOX1 with strong therapeutic potential. To address the needs of the COVID-19 pandemic, Dr. Lake developed a specialized rapid antibody test that measures levels of protective neutralizing antibodies that prevent SARS-CoV-2 from infecting cells.