Academy Graduate Scholars

Brandy Brown, DSW, LCSW (she/ her, they/ them) is the Senior Program Manager for The Gender Clinic Program at Maine Medical Partners/ The Barbara Bush Children’s Hospital. She provides assessment, therapy, coordination of medical and mental health services, and program development within a multidisciplinary setting. Brandy is a lifelong advocate for improving LGBTQ+ healthcare with a clinical focus on best practices in transgender health within pediatrics, as well as improving overall systemic competency and functionality within a large healthcare system. Brandy received her BSW and MSW at the University of Southern Maine and her Doctorate in Social Work at Capella University. She has worked within different systems of care, including psychiatric inpatient hospitalization, residential settings with vulnerable populations including homeless youth, severe psychiatric disorders, veterans and neurorehabilitation. Brandy is the first person in Maine to become a Certified Member of the World Professional Association for Transgender Health. In addition, Brandy is a MaineHealth Innovation Clinical Coach and a Clinical Assistant Professor of Psychiatry for Tufts University School of Medicine and a Clinical Instructor of Primary Care for University of New England College of Osteopathic Medicine. She leads Justice, Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion committees at MMC and with the National Association of Social Workers, where she is the immediate past President of the Maine Chapter. Brandy is a Past Academy Scholar of the MMC Institute for Teaching Excellence (MITE) at which time she worked on a project called “Affirming Care Through Education: Transgender and Gender Non-Conforming (TGNC) People”. Brandy’s awards include the Rainbow Award from the Children’s Miracle Network and the MITE Innovation in Teaching Award in 2022.

Brandy lives in Southern Maine where she prefers to stay close to the ocean with her family. She enjoys being outside at the beach or on a trail, hiking, camping, reading and cooking.

Scholarship Areas of Interest: Transgender and Queer/ LGBTQ+ Healthcare; Justice, Diversity, Equity, & Inclusion; Interprofessional Healthcare Education; Social Justice & Advocacy; Clinical Innovation

Project Name: MaineHealth Sexual & Gender Minority Center of Excellence

Carly McAteer, MD completed her undergraduate degree at the College of Idaho and her medical education at the University of Nevada School of Medicine in Reno. She completed her family medicine residency at Maine Medical Center and is currently on the faculty as an Assistant Clinical Professor. She is currently the Associate Program Director of the Family Medicine Residency Program. In the Scholars Program she hopes to gain further enhancement of her teaching skills, both in didactics and clinical teaching, as well as an improved understanding of curriculum development and education systems. She aims to further advance the family medicine didactic and rotation curricula including implementation of an ultrasound curriculum.

Christopher Turner, MD earned a BS in Chemistry at the University of Virginia and an MD at Columbia University.  He completed residency in General Surgery at the State University of New York in Brooklyn. In the middle of residency, he completed a three-year research fellowship in fetal tissue engineering at Boston Children’s Hospital as well as an MPH at the Harvard School of Public Health. He then completed a clinical fellowship in Pediatric Surgery at the Children’s Hospital of Michigan. He joined Maine Medical Center in the fall of 2016. He is currently an Associate Program Director for the General Surgery Residency and the Pediatric Trauma Director.

Scholarship Areas of Interest: Trauma and education

Eliza Bullis first developed an interest in medical education at Tufts University School of Medicine in 2011, where she took a course in Med Ed and took joy in her assignments to teach herself as well as others.  She completed her residency in combined Internal Medicine and Pediatrics at Yale New Haven Hospital, where she continued to engage in regular teaching on the wards and reports, enjoying getting students, co-residents, and faculty excited about a culture of joyous and shared learning. She participated in the newly developed Yale Medical Education Interest Group, presented regularly at morning reports, and larger multidisciplinary noon conferences. She contributed three chapters to the Yale Primary Care Curriculum. With her enthusiasm for learning and trying different teaching styles during her residency, Eliza was thrilled to take the role of Chief Resident in the Pediatrics Residency Program at Yale. There her experience in hands-on teaching and curriculum design grew exponentially with activities such as teaching on the wards, coaching other teachers, and implementing new residency curricula around Evidence Based Medicine, Clinical Reasoning, and Outpatient Pediatrics. Eliza is excited to continue her journey in medical education in her new role as a MITE scholar and hospitalist in the Internal Medicine and Geriatrics departments at MMC.

Dr. Herrle is an Internal Medicine physician practicing with Maine Medical Partners Hospital Medicine. Within the Department of Medicine at Maine Medical Center, she serves as the Associate Director of Medical Student Education, is Core Faculty for the Internal Medicine Residency, leads the residency courses in Evidence Based Medicine and Patient Safety, and is an instructor for High-Fidelity Simulation. She has also participated in a number of Tufts University School of Medicine teaching activities including Evidence Based Medicine, Case Presentation workshops, the Clinical Skills Interclerkship and Art Observation.

She is board certified in Clinical Informatics and participates extensively in systems improvement as a Medical Director for MaineHealth Clinical Informatics and the Physician Co-chair of the MaineHealth Clinical Decision Support.  She possesses a strong interest in the ways in which the rapid progression of technology has changed the practice of medicine and the impact those changes have on the way we educate healthcare professionals.

Eric Brown, MD was born and raised in Brewer, Maine. He earned a BA in history at Harvard College followed by a teaching certificate at the Harvard Graduate School of Education. He spent five years in the mountains of Western Colorado working in outdoor education and wilderness medicine before entering the University of Colorado School of Medicine to complete his MD.  He returned to Maine for his post graduate work and completed an internship in internal medicine and residency in anesthesiology, serving as chief resident during his final year. Dr. Brown is a member of the teaching faculty in the Department of Anesthesiology at Maine Medical Center and also functions as the Neuroanesthesia Division Director. His clinical and research interests include high fidelity simulation, medical education, airway management, neuroanesthesia, and regional anesthesia.

Project Name: A new simulation-based airway curriculum for anesthesia residents

Jason F. Hine, MD was born in Connecticut and moved to Maine for his undergraduate education, receiving a Bachelor of Science degree at Colby College. He completed his medical education as part of the Tufts Maine Track inaugural class. He went on to complete his Emergency Medicine residency at Temple University Hospital in North Philadelphia where he also served as chief resident. He joined Southern Maine Health Care (SMHC) in August 2016 and serves as the Educational Administrator there. Through the Scholars Program he hopes to improve his and his colleagues bedside teaching of residents and students at the SMHC ED.

Jillian Gregory, DO is a Pediatric Intensivist at the Barbara Bush Children’s Hospital at Maine Medical Center and holds an appointment as an Assistant Professor at Tufts University School of Medicine. She received her medical degree from Philadelphia College of Osteopathic Medicine. She completed her residency in Pediatrics at Maine Medical Center, where she was also a Co-Chief resident. She completed a fellowship in Pediatric Critical Care Medicine at Children’s National Medical Center in Washington, D.C.

Dr. Gregory is an Academy Scholar of the Maine Medical Center Institute for Teaching Excellence and was accepted to the Academic Pediatric Association QI Scholars Program for 2020. She enjoys teaching and was proud to receive the “Rookie of the Year” honor from the pediatric residents at Maine Medical Center as a new attending. In her spare time, she enjoys the abundance of Maine outdoor activities and spending time with her husband and 2 dogs.

Scholarship Areas of Interest: delirium, early mobilization, and quality improvement

Project Name: Improving Access and Education of Pediatric Critical Care Evidence-Based Guidelines to Pediatric Residents and Referring Providers

Faculty Resident Scholarship Program: Fall 2021 – Fall 2022 with Internal Medicine Pediatric Resident William (Bill) White

Kathleen McGarr, MD is a family medicine physician. She has had the honor of taking care of families across their lifespan, from the hospital to out into the office, school, community, and even sleep-away summer camps. Her favorite time to take care of a family is when they welcome a new baby. Primary care begins with prenatal care.

Recently, Kathleen has had the opportunity to focus her practice on hospital medicine at Maine Medical Center. Kathleen cares for patients across the age span, welcoming them in the Birth Center as well as guiding families through end-of-life care choices. Through her work with family medicine residents, as well as Tufts Maine Track and UNE medical students, she gets to share her experience as she teaches the caregivers of tomorrow.

Kathryn Brouillette, MD completed her undergraduate and medical education at McGill in Montreal. She completed the combined Medicine-Pediatrics residency at Maine Medical Center and is currently both a pediatrician and hospitalist on the adult inpatient medicine service. She is interested in the transition of care from inpatient to home and how follow-up can improve the educational experience for the residents.

Dr. Diamond-Falk, MD is an Internal Medicine-Pediatrics physician. She enjoys caring for patients at all ages of life, guiding families as they transition from parenting their children to supporting them as young adults, and enjoys problem solving and treating all types of disease. On the pediatric hospitalist service, Kathryn cares for children from birth until 21 years of age at the Barbara Bush Children’s Hospital. When she wears her hat as an adult hospitalist, she is able to care for an even larger age spectrum from young adults to geriatric patients. Kathryn has an interest in working with patients from diverse backgrounds both in the hospital, local community and when she is able to find the time internationally.

When not at the hospital, Kathryn enjoys time with her family which includes three active children and their dog. Her family enjoys time swimming, skiing and anything that gets them outside.

Scholarship Area of Interest: Medical Education

BBCH Scholarship Academy Project Name: X+Y Block Schedule Integration in the Internal Medicine-Pediatrics Residency Program

Mathew Buttarazzi, MD completed his medical education as a Tufts Maine Track student after completing his undergraduate studies at Colgate University. He completed his internal medicine residency at Maine Medical Center and is currently an attending physician at MMC. In the Scholars Program he hopes to improve his day-to-day teaching of residents and students on the inpatient service. His second goal will be to improve the ultrasound elective teaching for the residents.

Rebecca Hutchinson, MD is a Hospice and Palliative Care physician at MMC with a special interest in health services research in palliative care. She received a BA in chemistry from Swarthmore College, MD from University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine, and an MPH from Harvard TH Chan School of Public Health. She completed internal medicine residency at Brigham and Women’s Hospital and her Hospice and Palliative Care fellowship at MMC. She is board certified in internal medicine and hospice and palliative care. She is currently an attending physician at MMC and was selected to be the next Fellowship Program Director for the Hospice and Palliative Medicine Fellowship beginning in July 2018. She hopes to use her new role as program director and the opportunity to be a MITE scholar to develop her skills as an educator and in the area of medical education research. Outside of medical education, Dr. Hutchinson’s primary research focus is on developing novel ways to increase access to palliative care for patients living with advanced heart failure. She is also interested in research on improving communication in the setting of serious illness and specifically around delivering prognostic information to patients.

Project Name: Inter-professional teamwork in palliative medicine

Ruth E. Frydman, MD grew up in Chicago and Evanston, Illinois.  She received her B.A. in anthropology at Wesleyan University, her M.D. at the University of Illinois at Chicago, and completed her residency in psychiatry at the University of Chicago.  She has worked in Maine since 1994 including working at Maine Medical Center, the Portland VA Clinic, Central Maine Healthcare, and Maine Behavioral Healthcare.  She currently works with the MBH ACCESS Assertive Community Treatment team in Portland, a multidisciplinary team that provides community based treatment for people with serious mental illness.  Dr. Frydman is interested in community mental health, medical education, public health and prevention, and physician well-being.

Sanjeev Francis, MD is a native of New York. He earned a Bachelor of Science degree at Union College and his medical degree at Albany Medical College. He completed residency in Internal Medicine at the New York-Presbyterian Hospital of Cornell University Medical Center, where he also served as Assistant Chief Medical Resident. He completed a fellowship in Cardiovascular Medicine and a fellowship in Non-invasive Cardiovascular Imaging at Brigham and Women’s Hospital. After his training Dr. Francis served as the Director of the Cardio-Oncology Program and had an active role in the education of fellows, residents and students at Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School from 2009 until 2015. Dr. Francis joined Maine Medical Center in the fall of 2015 and currently serves as the Director of Education for the Cardiovascular Institute. He is a member of Maine Medical Partners – MaineHealth Cardiology where he practices general cardiology, advanced imaging, and leads the newly formed cardio-oncology program. His clinical and research interests include cardio-oncology, application of advanced imaging techniques, and education.

Shelly Chipman, RN is the Nurse Educator for the Hannaford Center for Safety, Innovation and Simulation. She is a graduate of the University of Southern Maine with a BSN in 1989. Shelly went on to earn a master’s degree in nursing from the University of Phoenix, specializing in Healthcare Education. Shelly has been a staff nurse in the Special Care Unit at MMC since 1989 and continues to serve as a bedside clinician in addition to her Nurse Educator role. Shelly has experience as a research coordinator, focusing on studies in critical care, as well as filling the role of the Unit Based Educator, for the Special Care Unit. Shelly is certified as an ACLS instructor and teaches several courses a year for MMC, including the annual house staff course. Shelly has deep and comprehensive experience teaching in nursing and the pre-healthcare setting. Her passion, however, lies with Interprofessional Education (IPE). As the Nurse Educator for the simulation center, Shelly supports policies, processes, and procedures for the creation of new curriculum, as well as assisting simulation champions within MMC and faculty within Maine Health to develop educational curriculum, focusing on high fidelity manikin and skills-based training.

Project Name: Interprofessional Debriefing: What increases engagement?