FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Jan. 26, 2006
GALVESTON, Texas — Dr. Abbey B. Berenson, director of the Center for Interdisciplinary Research in Women's Health at the University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston, announced National Institutes of Health approval of the first three scholars in the university’s NIH funded research training program, Building Interdisciplinary Research Careers in Women’s Health (BIRCWH). They are Dr. Bui, assistant professor in the Division of Geriatrics, Department of Internal Medicine; Dr. Nguyen-Oghalai, assistant professor in the Division of Rheumatology, Department of Internal Medicine, and Dr. Shokar, clinical assistant professor in the Department of Family Medicine. They will begin the program on February 1, 2006.
Bui received her medical degree in 1988 from the University of Ho Chi Minh City School of Medicine and Pharmacy, where she was valedictorian and took postgraduate training in internal medicine. In 1996 she received a Master of Public Health degree from Tulane University. She completed residency training in internal medicine at the Northeastern Pennsylvania affiliated residency program in 2002. She then completed a fellowship in geriatrics at UTMB. In July of 2004, Dr. Bui was appointed assistant professor in the Division of Geriatrics at UTMB. Bui has commited herself to the complex and rapidly expanding interdisciplinary research area of the metabolic parameters of sarcopenia and osteopenia/osteoporosis.
Nguyen-Oghalai received her medical degree from and completed her residency at the University of Tennessee at Memphis in 1993. Following two years in general practice, she began a fellowship in allergy and immunology and another in rheumatology at Baylor College of Medicine which she completed in 2001, and went on to complete a clinical fellowship in rheumatology at The University of California at San Francisco in 2003. She has board certification in internal medicine, rheumatology and allergy and immunology. Her interest is in health outcomes in rheumatic diseases, with a current focus on the impact of rheumatic diseases on functional recovery after major illnesses.
Shokar received a Master of Arts degree from the University of Cambridge in 1989 and her medical degree from the University of Oxford in 1992. She served a residency in family medicine in England and from 1996-1999 she was a resident in family practice at St. Joseph Hospital in Houston, Texas, to obtain licensure in the United States. She received a Master of Public Health degree from the University of Texas School of Public Health at Houston in 2003. Dr. Shokar is pursuing clinical research in gender differences in the rates of colon cancer screening.
"I am very excited at the commencement of our BIRCWH research-training program and with the quality of these scholars,” said UTMB Dean of Medicine Dr. Valerie M. Parisi. “The interdisciplinary nature of the program will open many opportunities to future young investigators across the UTMB campus who intend to develop independent research careers in women's health."
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