Allen Kachalia

Kachalia to Leave BWH

Allen Kachalia, MD, vice president of Quality and Safety and chief quality officer, will be leaving the Brigham to serve as senior vice president for Patient Safety and Quality and director of the Armstrong Institute at Johns Hopkins Medicine (JHM) in Baltimore, Maryland. Kachalia will remain at the Brigham through October.

Kachalia has served Brigham Health since 2003. With extensive experience in leading quality and safety programs through his former roles as associate chief quality officer and co-director of the Center for Clinical Excellence, Kachalia worked with Brigham leadership to generate quality and safety objectives and lead the implementation and measurement of them to ensure their success. He was also a key driver of Partners-wide programs and oversaw performance related to state and national measures.

A national search for Kachalia’s successor is underway.

BRI Leadership Updates

Elizabeth Henske

Marc Sabatine

Ursula Kaiser

The Brigham Research Institute has announced that Ursula Kaiser, MD, chief of the Division of Endocrinology, Diabetes and Hypertension, has been confirmed as incoming co-director of the BRI. Kaiser assumed the role on Oct. 1 as Marc Sabatine, MD, of the Division of Cardiovascular Medicine, transitions to director while Elizabeth Henske, MD, of BWH’s Pulmonary Division, will continue to advise and offer leadership in her formal role as past director. Each leader of the BRI makes a six-year commitment to serving on the BRI Executive Committee, first as co-director for two years, then director for two years and finally as past director for two years.

Laura Fredenburgh

Office for Research Careers Welcomes New Faculty Director

Laura Fredenburgh, MD, an associate physician in the Division of Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine at BWH, has been appointed faculty director of the Office for Research Careers, effective Oct. 1. Fredenburgh is passionate about mentoring and is deeply committed to promoting the career and professional development of research fellows and junior faculty.

Fredenburgh completed her Internal Medicine residency training at the Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center and her fellowship in the Harvard Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine Program. She is an attending physician in the BWH Medical Intensive Care Unit and is an NIH and AHA-funded physician-scientist investigating the cellular and molecular mechanisms that drive pulmonary hypertension. Fredenburgh’s laboratory uses molecular approaches and mechanobiological methods to understand how alterations in the mechanical environment regulate vascular cellular behaviors, cell signaling, and transcriptomic changes to promote pulmonary vascular remodeling in pulmonary hypertension. Her work spans basic mechanistic research to translational studies to interventional clinical trials.

Davila Appointed Senior Director of Ambulatory Services

Yara Davila

Yaramalies (Yara) Davila joined the Ambulatory Services team as the Senior Director of Ambulatory Services in September. Davila has over a decade of experience in health care, including at Boston Children’s Hospital, Caritas Christi Healthcare System and most recently at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center. Over the last eight years in her director role at Beth Israel, Davila has led ambulatory efforts across the Department of Surgery. She comes to the Brigham with experience related to creating a patient-centric approach to access that includes training and development of front-line staff, designing schedule optimization, strategies and advancing call center functionality. Davila is finishing up her Master of Business Administration at Suffolk University.

New Faculty Members Join BWH Diabetes Program

The BWH Diabetes Program in the Division of Endocrinology, Diabetes and Hypertension has welcomed four new members:

    • Vanita Aroda

      Vanita Aroda, MD, is the director of Diabetes Clinical Research. Aroda has an interest and extensive research background in diabetes prevention and novel therapeutics in diabetes and weight management. She will see patients in Brigham Medical Specialties at 45 Francis St.

  • Lee-Shing Chang

    Lee-Shing Chang, MD, is a general endocrinologist with a clinical focus in diabetes and cardiometabolic disease as well as immune checkpoint inhibitor-related endocrine disorders. Chang will see patients in the Watkins Cardiovascular Center as well as the new BWH Westwood location.

  • Sylvia Kehlenbrink

    Sylvia Kehlenbrink, MD, will lead a new Global Endocrinology Unit, which will provide expert clinical guidance and education in the management of endocrine disorders, as well as perform high-quality research to improve the care of diabetes in global, low-resource, and humanitarian contexts. Kehlenbrink will see patients with general endocrine disorders in Brigham Medical Specialties at 45 Francis St.

  • Courtney Sandler

    Courtney Sandler, MD, MPH, joins the division as the director of the Endocrine Transition Care Clinic where she is establishing a clinical and research program for young adults with chronic endocrine disorders transitioning from pediatric to adult care. Sandler sees patients at BWH Faulkner Hospital, 45 Francis St, Westwood and Boston Children’s Hospital.

Fabello Named Practice Administrator for Westwood Site

Phyllis Fabello

Phyllis Fabello, MHA, joined the Brigham this spring as practice administrator at Brigham and Women’s Health Care Center, Westwood. She is responsible for the launch and ongoing operations of the Brigham’s newest ambulatory site, which opened Monday, Oct. 1. Since her arrival, Fabello has assembled an experienced team and partnered with Ambulatory leadership to ensure patients have seamless access to Westwood’s array of specialties. In addition, she has played a major role in helping to bring a primary care practice, managed by the Partners Community Physicians Organization, to Westwood.

Fabello has decades of practice operations management experience. She most recently worked at Wellesley Women’s Care in Newton, where she assessed staffing and process improvement and developed policies and procedures. Prior to that, she held similar roles at Community Eye Care in Lowell, Exeter Hospital in New Hampshire, Steward Health Care in Boston and several other health care organizations across Massachusetts.

Kehoe Appointed as Practice Administrator, Fish Center and Osher Center

Katy Kehoe

Katy Kehoe, MS, joined Brigham Health in July as practice administrator of the Fish Center for Women’s Health and the Osher Center for Integrative Medicine at Brigham and Women’s Health Care Center, Chestnut Hill, at 850 Boylston St.

Since starting in her new role, Kehoe has exercised her practice operations and management experience to set priorities for the Fish and Osher centers, connecting with providers and staff to identify challenges and opportunities across both clinics. Kehoe, who has extensive practice operations management experience, previously worked as deputy director at Charles River Community Health in Brighton. Prior to that, she was practice manager of Internal Medicine and Medical Specialties at Harvard University Health Services.