Current Infectious Diseases Fellows

Wassim Abdallah, MD
Medical School: Université Saint-Joseph Faculté de Médecine, Lebanon
Residency: Indiana University SOM, Indianapolis

Born and raised on the Eastern shores of the Mediterranean Sea, I grew up wanting to become a weatherman by collecting years-worth of data from the weather machine my father got me when I turned 8. I spent my summers on Lebanese sandy beaches and my winters complaining I can’t be at the beach. I attended the French Medical School of Beirut, and then moved to the US for my Internal Medicine and Chief Residencies in Indianapolis. While Infectious Diseases (ID) was my passion since Medical School, my residency cemented this view. I got the chance to work with national experts on developing new point-of-care diagnostics for fungal infections. My other interests in ID are vaccinology, as well as the effect of climate change on the epidemiology of infectious diseases. I’m extremely excited and grateful for the opportunity to do my fellowship at Emory with leaders and experts in various fields of ID, in a large, vibrant city like Atlanta, and I look forward to serving its community. When I’m not doing medicine, I usually look up nearby trails, and go on bike rides. I also play pickup basketball and soccer games, and I always enjoy trying a new restaurant. Lastly, I am participating in wine tasting sessions and courses, with a goal to become a sommelier.

Elizabeth Y. Kim, MD, MPH
Medical School: University of California SOM, San Francisco
Residency: California Pacific Medical Center, San Francisco

Born and raised in Maryland, I made my way out to the west coast for undergrad at Stanford. My interest in infectious diseases began when I landed my first job studying the molecular epidemiology of tuberculosis at UC San Francisco. This spurred my interest in public health which led me to pursue a Masters in Public Health at Johns Hopkins and further work at UC San Diego where I helped characterize genotypic mutations in multi- and extensively multi-drug resistant TB. I returned to UCSF for medical school where I discovered a new-found interest in medical education by creating curricula to teach concepts of antimicrobial stewardship to interprofessional learners. I did my residency training at California Pacific Medical Center where I became a chief resident during the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. As a chief and later as a hospitalist I was able to explore the inner-workings of health systems and hospitals and how they inform patient care and the manner in which physicians practice medicine. At Emory, I hope to explore my interests in medical education, diagnostics and hospital epidemiology. In my free time, I enjoy hiking with my husband, cooking/baking, and tinkering with musical instruments.

Samuel Opara, MD, MPH
Medical School: University of Jos, Nigeria
Residency: MedStar Health, Baltimore

I was born and raised in Jos City, Nigeria, where I went to medical school at the University of Jos and spent the first few years of my early medical career. I spent one of those years providing medical care to members of a rural community on Brass Island in Bayelsa State, including to individuals living with HIV/AIDS under FHI 360/the U.S. President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR). My experience working in that community sparked my passion for infectious diseases, public health, and healthcare for vulnerable groups.

In 2015, I moved from Nigeria to the U.S. to pursue an MPH in epidemiology at the UTHealth School of Public Health (Austin, Texas), with a concentration in global health. Following my MPH training, I worked briefly as an epidemiologist in HIV surveillance for the Texas Department of State Health Services (DSHS). I also spent some of my time post-MPH volunteering with AIDS Services of Austin and providing HIV/STI outreach services to at-risk populations in Austin, Texas. I left the Texas DSHS to move to Baltimore, Maryland for my internal medicine residency (global health track) at MedStar Health Baltimore.

My passion for infectious diseases takes me to Atlanta, Georgia for an ID fellowship at Emory. I am particularly interested in HIV from both a clinical and public health perspective, care for at-risk/marginalized populations, medical microbiology, and medical education.

In my free time, I love working out, watching movies, and spending quality time with family and friends.

Sarah E. Scott, MD
Medical School: Vanderbilt University SOM
Residency: Vanderbilt University SOM

I grew up in Bloomington, Indiana, and each winter I'm adamant that this is the basketball season the Hoosiers will make a comeback. I moved to Nashville to attend Vanderbilt for college. After a detour to work for a nonprofit in Quito, Ecuador for a year, I returned to Vanderbilt for medical school and Med-Peds residency. Following residency, I joined the Epidemic Intelligence Service and moved to Phoenix as the field officer for the Arizona Department of Health Services and Maricopa County Department of Public Health. With the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, I was assigned to the Intelligence Section of Maricopa County’s response. As a team, we were responsible for all case investigations, contact tracing, outbreak management, and data collection/analysis. Following EIS, I became a Medical Epidemiologist with Maricopa County and continued to work in the local pandemic response. I circled back to ID fellowship because ultimately, I want to work at the intersection of clinical infectious diseases and public health — most likely in the context of HIV and STIs — where I can care for both individuals and populations. Outside of work, I enjoy hiking, backpacking, (getting back into) running, hunkering down at a locally owned bookstore, and, like any former desert-dweller, debating the merits of 115°F and dry vs. humid summer weather.

Vanessa E. Van Doren, MD
Medical School: Case Western Reserve University SOM
Residency: Emory University School of Medicine

I grew up in Massachusetts and initially thought I was going to be a primate population geneticist. While working with hamadryas baboons in Awash National Park in Ethiopia, I became interested in infectious diseases and access to healthcare and ultimately decided to change careers. I started medical school at Case Western Reserve University in 2014 and began advocating for single payer, universal healthcare and ending racial discrimination in medicine through organizations like Students for a National Health Program and White Coats for Black Lives. I met my husband, Dan, at an awesome Cleveland bar called the Barking Spider. We moved to Atlanta together in 2018 and had our son, Robin, in 2021. I chose Emory for residency and fellowship because of the tradition of advocacy, the opportunity to work with so many brilliant and compassionate physicians, and the desire to help out in one of the places where the HIV epidemic is unfortunately still going strong. I also did a research chief year in between residency and fellowship studying mucosal immunology in the context of HIV transmission risk and plan to continue this work as an ID fellow. In my free time, I enjoy reading, traveling, and checking out local restaurants and breweries.

Amalia Aldredge, MD
Medical School: University of Washington School of Medicine
Residency: Emory University School of Medicine

I grew up in gray, rainy, beautiful Seattle, where I developed a love of coffee, drizzle, fresh seafood, and spicy chicken teriyaki. I moved to Montréal for undergrad at McGill University, where I worked in a fish ecology lab and got used to record snowfalls. I then spent three years teaching middle school science in Colorado Springs through Teach for America before returning to Seattle for medical school. Our sex ed in Seattle Public Schools started in fifth grade and is when I first became fascinated by HIV. This interest drew me to Atlanta for residency, with a raging HIV epidemic and an incredible arsenal of caring practitioners fighting it. Although I always imagined I’d immediately move back West, I fell in love with my patients at Grady and my mentors who were constantly teaching me. During residency, I researched the metabolic effects of integrase inhibitors on women and evaluated the effectiveness of a PrEP program for transgender women in Atlanta. Ultimately, I plan to practice HIV primary care with a special interest in home-based primary care and medical education. I spend my free time hiking with my dog Sigrid, enjoying a beer on a brewery patio, or trying not to kill my plants.

Vivek Beechar, MD
Medical School: Baylor College of Medicine
Residency: University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center

I was born and raised in Johannesburg, South Africa before moving to the United States of America at the age of 13. I completed residency at the University of Texas Southwestern in Dallas, Texas before moving to Atlanta to pursue a fellowship in Infectious Diseases. ID has always fascinated me in the ways that one disease can present in a multitude of manners. My career goals are to pursue training and research in Transplant ID. In my free time, I enjoy watching Arsenal football club, investing, spending time outdoors, and reading philosophy.

Daniel Gromer, MD
Medical School: Perelman School of Medicine at University of Pennsylvania
Residency: Massachusetts General Hospital

I grew up in New York (go Mets) and moved to Philadelphia to attend the University of Pennsylvania (go Quakers), where I completed a bachelor’s degree in Biology and an MD. During that time, I did translational research in cancer immunotherapy, basic and bioinformatics research in T cell immunometabolism at the NIH, and clinical bioinformatics research in psoriatic arthritis and response to DMARD therapy – all disciplines using cool statistical methods to address fascinating immunologic phenomena. I moved to Boston for internal medicine residency at the Massachusetts General Hospital, where I did decision science research in HIV testing and cost-effectiveness, building on a passion at the intersection of infectious diseases and disparities in care. I was blessed to move with my wife Sierra to Emory for Infectious Diseases fellowship. My first year here has been an incredible and immersive experience, opening my eyes to the rich complexities of HIV primary care and hospital consultation, and allowing me to grow as a learner and an educator. I will be pursuing a Master's of Science in Clinical Research, focusing on vaccinology and clinical trial team science. When I’m not at work, I love watching movies, running, and (at the time I'm writing this) attempting my first gardening and composting project (all donations welcome). 

Danielle Steed, MD, PhD
Medical School: University of California San Diego
Residency: Emory University School of Medicine

I was born in Los Angeles, CA but spent a few years of my childhood in the Philippines. I attended California State University – Los Angeles for undergrad and moved a couple hours south to San Diego for my MD/PhD training at the University of California San Diego and The Scripps Research Institute. My PhD research characterized the mechanisms of bacterial resistance against a novel class of antibiotics known as the arylomycins, which inhibit bacterial signal peptidase. The couples match brought my husband and me to Atlanta and Emory University for residency training. My current ID interests lie in clinical microbiology, antimicrobial resistance, and the gut microbiome. Starting in the second year of fellowship, I'm looking forward to characterizing changes in antimicrobial susceptibilities in pathogenic bacteria in response to intestinal microbiota transplant and the metabolic factors that favor strain switching from resistant to susceptible populations in this setting. In my spare time, I enjoy gardening, cooking, and hanging out with my husband and two kids.

Eli Wilber, MD
Medical School: Emory University School of Medicine
Residency: Emory University School of Medicine

I grew up in Charleston, SC and attended Duke University where I earned my undergraduate degree in Biology and Evolutionary Anthropology. There, I worked in a molecular biology lab studying tubulin homologs in Archaea and (more importantly) met my amazing wife Rachel (a Tarheel). We moved to Atlanta for medical school at Emory where I have been ever since. Throughout medical school and residency, my exposure to thought-provoking pathology and inspiring faculty cemented my love for infectious disease and made it a clear career choice. I then completed a chief year at Grady Memorial Hospital (#GradyMade) where I grew my passion for medical education. I am interested in the emerging field of diagnostic stewardship as a way to merge my interests in microbiological diagnostics, clinical reasoning, and medical education. In my free time, I enjoy traveling and exploring different cuisines with my wife, walking with our dog (Lucy), and watching our daughter grow up (too quickly!!).

Gregory L. Damhorst, MD, PhD
Medical School: University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Residency: Emory University School of Medicine

I grew up in Illinois and attended the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign for twelve years completing a Bachelors in Physics, PhD in Bioengineering and the MD before making the move to Atlanta for residency at Emory. During my PhD I worked with microfluidics and nanotechnology methods developing diagnostic devices mostly focused on HIV applications at the point-of-care. In Urbana I also began working on biomarker measurements paired with machine learning with an interest in generating diagnostic and prognostic information relevant to sepsis. As a physician-scientist in training I’m interested in the intersection of infectious diseases, technology and innovation. As a fellow I’ve worked on several SARS-CoV-2 diagnostics projects and am now developing engineering tools to understand bacterial bloodstream infections.

Wendy Fujita, MD
Medical School: Emory University School of Medicine 
Residency: University of Pittsburgh Medical Center

I grew up outside of Atlanta and went to the University of Georgia followed by medical school at Emory. During medical school, I fell in love with caring for underserved patients at Grady and became passionate about health equity. I also spent a year in Uganda as a Doris Duke fellow, doing research in antimicrobial resistance. I was lured out of the South by UPMC in Pittsburgh where I completed my Internal Medicine residency in the Global Health track and stayed for my chief residency. I chose Emory for ID fellowship for its large division of brilliant, passionate, and down-to-earth faculty, Grady Hospital, and the patient population it serves amidst the HIV epidemic in the South. During fellowship, I have been able to explore the intersection of ID and substance use disorders, an interest I had begun to develop in residency. I’m now excited to pursue a career striving to improve the integration of HIV and SUD care through implementation science research. In my free time, I love to run, hike, bike, play with my border collie (Nelson), and travel with my husband.

Christina H. Mallarino-Haeger, MD
Medical School: Pontificia Universidad Javeriana
Residency: University of Pittsburgh Medical Center

I was born and raised in Bogotá, Colombia where I did my medical training. After graduating from medical school, I did a year of social service in Colombia and moved to Boston to do a postdoctoral research fellowship in a pulmonary and critical care laboratory at the Brigham and Women’s hospital where I had great mentors and reinforced my passion for research. I completed my Internal Medicine Residency at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, where I discovered the incredible world of infectious diseases. I became interested in translational research related to HIV immunology and worked on a project looking at the role of adenosine in gut mucosal immunity in people living with HIV. Since starting fellowship at Emory I have been incredibly supported by mentors and program leadership to connect and work with an outstanding group of scientists in HIV immunology/cure research at Yerkes Research Center. I am now privileged to work within the ambitious and exciting ERASE HIV Martin Delaney Collaboratory research project for HIV Cure. My ultimate goal is to create translational research projects that aim to contribute to the field of HIV while actively involving and empowering the community that is directly affected by this epidemic. In my free time I enjoy going to the theater, sharing time with friends and family, and riding my bicycle.

Nirja Mehta, MD
Medical School: University of Texas Southwestern Medical School
Residency: Emory University School of Medicine

I was born in Maryland, but moved to Iowa in my early childhood for a few years. Since about 3rd grade I have called Texas home. I grew up in Dallas, but my family moved to Austin in high school. I attended UT Austin (hook em!) for undergrad where I was a microbiology and public health major. I got to take classes from former EIS agents and interned at the Texas Department of State Health Services which sparked my interest in ID. I loved my time at UT Southwestern for medical school and had some invaluable experiences, including spending 2 months in Cape Town, South Africa doing TB research. When it came time to choose a residency, my interest in ID made Emory an obvious choice. I've gained an interest in the microbiome and epidemiology in my time here and hope to continue to explore these fields, and perhaps how they interface, as a fellow and beyond. In my free time I love hiking, exploring the amazing food scene in Atlanta, dancing and making my own soap.

Carlos S. Saldana, MD
Medical School: Universidad de Cuenca Facultad de Ciencias Médicas Ecuador
Residency: Cleveland Clinic Foundation

I was born and raised in Cuenca – Ecuador. Before starting residency, I was part of a Hospital Epidemiology Research Group based at the Cleveland VA, working on multi-drug resistant organisms, C. difficile and hand hygiene. During residency, I studied the care delivered to people who inject drugs hospitalized for Infective Endocarditis. In fellowship, I developed a strong interest in local Public Health and my mentors have allowed me to work as a Research Fellow based at the Fulton County Board of Health. In this position, I have led the response to four HIV Molecular Clusters centered around Hispanics and Latinos living in Metro Atlanta. I have the privilege of working and learning from leaders of community-based organizations and mentors at the Georgia Department of Public Health. I also work closely with colleagues at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention within the Homelessness Branch, exploring Infectious Diseases Risks in People Experiencing Homelessness. With peers in the HIV Cluster Detection Branch, we have conducted qualitative interviews with healthcare providers and community members and assessed for gaps and barriers to care in the Latinx population to access sexual health services. Outside of medicine, I love to cook, and going to the Fox Theater, the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra, and spending time with my husband and our Jack-Russell Terrier “Dallas”.

Lucy S. Witt, MD, MPH
Medical School: Tulane University School of Medicine
Residency: University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

Born and raised in Washington, DC, I became a diehard Tarheel attending the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (UNC) for my undergraduate degree. After taking time off to work in social work and then HIV clinical trials, I completed my MD/MPH at Tulane University and fell in love with New Orleans. I returned to UNC to complete residency where I was elected Vice President of Quality Improvement for the housestaff and served on multiple hospital committees focused on improving outcomes for sepsis, CAUTIs and CLABSIs and was able witness my second Men’s NCAA Basketball National Championship. Prior to starting fellowship, I worked for almost three years as an Emory hospitalist at the Atlanta Veterans’ Administration Medical Center where I learned from phenomenal colleagues and patients. I was thrilled to join Emory for my infectious disease fellowship, and I’m currently pursuing my Master’s of Science in Clinical Research focusing on Carbapenem-resistant gram Enterobacterales infections in Georgia. I intend to pursue a career in hospital epidemiology and antimicrobial stewardship with a research focus on highly drug resistant gram-negative organisms. Outside of the hospital I enjoy spending time outdoors with my family, watching UNC basketball and cooking.