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TEACH Faculty

Rachel Bonnema, MD
UT Southwestern School of Medicine

Rachel Bonnema, MD, is an Associate Professor in the Department of Internal Medicine at UT Southwestern Medical Center. She is also Associate Chief of the Division of General Internal Medicine. Dr. Bonnema earned her medical degree at the University of South Dakota Sanford School of Medicine. She completed a residency in internal medicine (women’s health track) and also received advanced training through an internal medicine fellowship with a focus in women’s health at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center. Dr. Bonnema has a master’s degree in medical education from the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine. She has delivered scores of presentations, contributed to the book Textbook for Internal Medicine Education Programs, and published several academic articles. Her academic work is focused on women’s health, behavioral health, and communication skills. In 2015, she earned the LeeRoy Meyer Teaching Award from the Nebraska Chapter of the American College of Physicians.


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Dominique Cosco, MD
Washington University in St Louis

Dominique Cosco, MD is an Associate Professor of Medicine at Washington University in St. Louis. Dr. Cosco is the Program Director for the Washington University/Barnes Jewish Hospital Internal Medicine Residency program. In addition, Dr. Cosco is the Director of Teacher Development for the Academy of Educators at Washington University School of Medicine. Dr. Cosco is an active member of both the Society of General Internal Medicine serving on the Education Committee as well as the Association of Program Directors in Internal Medicine where she serves as the Vice Chair for the Program Planning Committee. Dr. Cosco is the current director of the SGIM TEACH faculty development program.

Shwetha Iyer, MD
Montefiore Medical Center

Dr. Shwetha Iyer is Program Director of the Primary Care/Social Internal Medicine Program at Montefiore Medical Center/Albert Einstein College of Medicine. She received her medical degree from Temple University and completed her residency in the Primary Care/Social Internal Medicine Program Track at Montefiore. She developed and completed training as a global health faculty fellow in the Global Health and Clinical Skills Fellowship at Montefiore. Her area of interest includes medical education, specifically in curriculum development and coaching. She has adapted and teaches a weight management curriculum for residents, developed and co-directs the clinical reasoning curriculum, and has refined the advocacy and women’s health curriculum for the residency program. Her current curricular focus is the development of the Master Adaptive Learner model and structural competency in residency education.  Prior to her current position, she served as Associate Program Director for the Primary Care/Social Internal Medicine Program.

Ryan Laponis, MD
University of California San Francisco

Dr. Ryan Laponis is an Associate Professor in the Division of General Internal Medicine (DGIM) at the University of California San Francisco (UCSF) and serves as Program Director the the Primary Care/General Intenral Medicine Residency. He is a graduate of the UCSF Teaching Scholars Program and is a memer of the Academy of Medical Educators. Dr. Laponis has a particular interest and experience in teaching communication skills. He is a core faculty member in UCSF's Center for Faculty Education and is a certified Relationship-Centered Communication facilitator for UCSF's Center for Enhancement of Communication in Healthcare teaching learners across the UCSF Campus. Nationally, he is a Fellow in the Academy of Communication in Healthcare.

Ryan Nall, MD
University of Florida

Ryan Nall, MD is an associate professor of medicine in the division of general internal medicine at the University of Florida. He completed medical school at the University of Florida and his residency and chief residency at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston. At the University of Florida he is the Clerkship Director for the 3rd year internal medicine clerkship and is Associate Director for the H. James Free MD, Center for Primary Care Education and Innovation. Dr. Nall was recognized with the Hippocratic Award by the College of Medicine in 2018 and 2022 and the Leonard Tow Faculty Humanism in Medicine Award by the Gold Humanism Honor Society in 2019.

Tanya Nikiforova, MD, MS
University of Pittsburgh Medical Center

Tanya Nikiforova, MD, MS, is Assistant Professor of Medicine in the Division of General Internal Medicine at the University of Pittsburgh. Dr. Nikiforova completed internal medicine residency training at the University of Pittsburgh in 2015 and subsequently received a Master's Degree in Medical Education through the Academic Clinician Educator Scholars Fellowship at the University of Pittsburgh in 2018. She joined faculty as a clinician educator in the Division of General Internal Medicine in 2018 where she practices inpatient and outpatient general internal medicine, and serves as Associate Program Director for Ambulatory Education in the Internal Medicine Residency Program. 

Eva Rimler, MD
Emory University School of Medicine

Eva Rimler, MD is an assistant professor of medicine in the Division of General Medicine and Geriatrics and clerkship director of the ambulatory care block at the Emory University School of Medicine. Dr. Rimler completed her undergraduate training in kinesiology at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and her medical training at the University of Illinois at Chicago School of Medicine. She completed her internal medicine residency at Emory University School of Medicine and joined Emory’s faculty at Grady Memorial Hospital in 2010. She serves as an inpatient ward attending as well as an outpatient preceptor for the Grady Memorial Hospital Primary Care Center’s resident continuity clinics, musculoskeletal procedure clinic, and heart failure clinic.

Katherine Twist, MD
University of Kentucky 

Katie Twist, MD, is an Associate Professor of Medicine at the University of Kentucky. She is the UK College of Medicine Director for Classroom Teaching Faculty Development, directs two pre-clinical courses, and is the past internal medicine clerkship director. She completed her undergraduate and medical training at the University of Kentucky and now practices outpatient women's health and directs the Internal Medicine Residency Women's Health Track. She has won numerous teaching awards, including the UK Academy of Medical Educators Excellence in Medical Education Award and the Leonard Tow Humanism in Medicine Award.  Her academic interests include curriculum development and faculty development. 



 

 

Athina Vassilakis, MD, MPH

Columbia University Mdical Center

Athina Vassilakis, MD, MPH, is an internist and hospitalist at New York Presbyterian Hospital-Columbia University Medical Center (CUMC). She completed medical school and residency in internal medicine at NYP-Columbia. She is currently a faculty preceptor for the Foundations in Clinical Medicine courses at Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons (VP&S) and serves as the medicine clerkship site director for the NYP-Allen hospital rotation. She has also served as medical director for the step 2 CS examination preparation course as well as the innovative transition to final phase course Ready for Advanced Medical Practice (RAMP). She is the recipient of the Ewig award for teaching from the department of medicine at CUMC. She is interested in clinical skill teaching and assessment as well as faculty development in teaching clinical skills.