Fozia Ali, MD, FAAFP

Interested in Mentoring: I love to mentor learners from any stage of education and career: high school, pre-med, medical student, residents and junior faculty.

Areas of interest and experience for collaboration:
Professional interests: Teaching, Community outreach, Refugees and immigrant health, Obesity medicine
Personal interests: Learning about cultural diversity, learning and sharing knowledge about healthy cooking and how to modify cultural recipes

Current Projects:  I am currently working with Bexar Translational Advisory Board on a QI project titled, “Language Matters” funded by Institute for Integration of Medicine & Science (IIMS). This project is focused to identify gaps in appropriate linguistic materials for COVID-19 related information for the growing South Asian community within San Antonio.

Additional Thoughts on Mentoring:  Mentoring helps in broadening vision and plays a vital role in both personal and professional growth. I have several mentors during my career including short term and long-term mentors. Being a mentee and a mentor at the same time is a blessing. I thank God for providing me an opportunity to be a mentor.

Nehman Andry, MD

Interested in Mentoring: I am happy to mentor anyone seeking support, guidance, or coaching on professional or personal issues they feel I can offer my expertise or experience.

I primarily serve as a mentor for students who are interested in pursing family medicine as a career, family medicine residents who are interested in medical student education, and junior faculty who are starting their academic medicine careers.

Areas of interest and experience for collaboration:  Professionally: providing personalized care to patients; designing, evaluating, and refining medical student family medicine curriculum; promoting family medicine as a specialty.
Personally: my family; my faith; supporting and coaching youth sports; engaging in outdoor projects/activities.

Current Projects:  A few of my current projects include: evaluating, refining, and disseminating innovative social determinants of health family medicine clerkship curriculum; resuming a pre-medical student family medicine shadowing program that was haulted due to the COVID-19 pandemic timeline; expanding family medicine elective opportunities for students at UT Health San Antonio.

Anything else you would like future mentees to consider?   Appreciate and learn from those who came before you.  Appreciate and support those who will come after.

Richel Z. Avery, MD, FAAFP

Interested in Mentoring: I have been a mentor to medical students and faculty at the PCC. I have not worked with residents but I would be interested in mentoring those who would like to pursue further training and certification in Obesity Medicine.

Areas of interest and experience for collaboration: Professionally, my area of interest is in Obesity Medicine and physician wellness.

Current Projects:

• I am currently working on a project involving weigh management. I would like to review data of patients enrolled into the medical weight management program and measure results in terms of weight, BMI and other behavior change.
• I am also doing a Walk with a Doc every 2nd Saturday of the month at OP Schnabel park at 8am. Our inaugural walk was on July 9th, 2022 and the next walk would be on August 13th, 2022.

Additional Thoughts on Mentoring: I have enjoyed my relationship with my own mentor. He has helped me in several ways not just in professional development but in making decisions in my administrative role and in my professional relationships. I would like future mentees to use this opportunity not just to gain knowledge but to forge a relationship that can serve to enhance your professional and personal sense of wellbeing.

Oralia Bazaldua, PharmD, FCCP, BCACP

Interested in Mentoring:  Anyone that can benefit from my mistakes and my successes; from my experience and wisdom. I have taught and mentored a wide variety of learners including family medicine physician residents, medical students, PharmD students, PharmD residents, physician assistant students, nurse practitioner students, and even high school students. As a seasoned clinician and faculty, I am also interested in mentoring junior faculty in both pharmacy and medicine as well as mentoring faculty in their promotion journey.

What are your Areas of Interest?:
Professional Interests: My areas of interest vary. In general, I am interested in optimizing appropriate medication use in ambulatory care settings that includes improving medication adherence and advocating for patients with low health literacy.
Personal interests: I value quality time with my large family, higher education in the underserved and spiritual growth. I live a life of service. At home I help my siblings and extended family as an older sister; at work I serve our vulnerable population, our learners and other faculty; at church I serve the community as a spiritual companion in ACTS retreats. I also serve our fellow Texans as a Captain in the Texas State Guard.

Current Projects You Are Working On: The newest and current project is serving as the departmental chair of the Promotion, Tenure and Appointment Committee (PTAC). My goal is to do my best to advocate for our faculty to get promoted to the next level.

Additional Thoughts On Mentoring: Mentoring is a way to pay it forward. I have had mentors all of my life in different areas of my life. My mentors have included family, friends, bosses, teachers, coaches, spiritual directors, wellness trainers and my senior peers. Through them all, God has been my number one guide and mentor.

Jessica Blower, MD, FAAFP

Interested in Mentoring: I am interested in mentoring students of all levels, residents, and faculty.

Areas of interest and experience for collaboration: My professional interests include contraception and other women’s health topics, preventive medicine, health IT, value-based care, and practice management. My personal interests include exercise, yoga, mindfulness, cooking, work life balance, and travel.

Current Projects: I am currently part of a larger project focusing on lung cancer screening.

Anything else you would like future mentees to consider? “A mentor is someone who sees more talent and ability within you, than you see in yourself, and helps bring it out of you.” — Bob Proctor

David Cadena, MD

Interested in Mentoring:  Students, residents, faculty, and community members.

Areas of interest: I am a huge Dallas Cowboys fan so try not to miss any games. I have 3 little girls and my wife, and I are both from San Antonio so we spend a lot of time with family.

Professionally, I am interested in Culinary Medicine and in-office procedures.

Current Projects:  Currently I’m completing my Culinary Medicine certification which is Physician and Chef leg including a variety of topics such as food allergies/intolerance, diabetes, weight management. Along with our Nurse Practitioner in clinic we are working on improved hypertension control for our adult patients. At our Hill Country Clinic I have started a quarterly Community Seminar called Health Living.

Additional Thoughts on Mentoring: Mentoring is an essential piece of our professional growth. It is great to have different mentors for special situations and I am open to brainstorm anyway in which I could be helpful.

Ramon S. Cancino, MD, MBA, MS, FAAFP

Interested in Mentoring:  Students, residents, faculty, and community members.

Areas of interest:  Dr. Cancino is experienced in and open to collaborations that include Value-based Care, Cancer Screening and Prevention, Quality Improvement and Population Health Management.

Current Projects:  Dr. Cancino is currently working with the American Cancer Society and Mays Cancer Center to improve lung cancer screening for the Bexar County patient population. In partnership with the Department of Population Health Sciences, helping to expand access to an innovative smoking cessation modality, Quitxt. Additionally, Dr. Cancino, in partnership researchers at Cornell, is consultant on a Defense Health Agency grant entitled, The Impact of Military vs. Civilian System Primary Care Providers on Utilization and Care Quality.

Interprofessional collaboration:  Dr. Cancino has worked with a variety of academic institutions and professions including-

• A federally qualified health center using HRSA-funding to collaborate with an academic medical center to develop a successful health center model of integrated behavioral health, opioid abuse treatment, and chronic pain group visits.
  Two academic medical centers to start Centering Pregnancy, an initiative using the group visit model in pre-natal care.
• An academic institution, two local schools, and a community center in order to train social work students in high-need patient populations and deliver behavioral health education and treatment directly to community members through a school-based health center.
• UT Health Primary Care and the Department of Population Health Sciences on an outreach strategy for Medicaid, low-income, and uninsured patients with depression.
• The Defense Health Agency in a grant to estimate the difference in utilization for patients with PCPs in the military vs civilian care system.

The role of feedback in mentoring:  I have mentored learners at all levels. Mentorship is about helping mentees reflect on, choose, and achieve goals. Goals can and do change over time so regular self-reflection is necessary. Open and honest feedback is critical in this process because it is meant to help mentees avoid the mistakes others (such as myself!) have made in the past.

Additional Thoughts on Mentoring:  A good mentor will not only help you think critically about your career and professional development but will also help you see future potentials that you never considered. Consider having more than one mentor and treat that group like your personal board of directors.

 Cristian P. Fernandez Falcon, MD, DABFM, CAQGM, CAQHPM

Interested in Mentoring:  Healthcare team as a whole; not a community / layperson mentor.

Areas of interest and experience for collaboration:
Personally: Painting and music composition.
Professionally: Hospital Medicine, LGBTQIA+, Podcasting for Medical Education.

Current Projects:
Inpatient Pain Management, LGGTQIA+, Pride Community Clinic, Art Rounds, The Mentors Project

Robert Ferrer, MD, MPH, FAAFP

Interested in Mentoring:  Students, residents, faculty, and community members

Areas of interest and experience for collaboration:

• Primary care scholarship; theory and methods
• Addressing social risk factors through health care-based interventions
• Maximizing the public health impact of primary care by improving quality and equity, and developing mechanisms to address social determinants
• Improving community health through intersectoral partnerships to expand practical opportunities for healthy living
• Assembling new funding sources for community health

Carlos Roberto Jaén, MD, PhD

Interested in Mentoring:  In terms of who I mentor, there should not be any limits. Mentoring has multiple aspects, but it is always about the relationship. It is about guidance and maturation, and just helping the mentee continue to achieve.

Additional Thoughts on Mentoring :

• For me, mentoring has been a blessing and I accept mentoring as a gift. I also accept mentoring as a responsibility- being present and available to the people I guide.
• Mentoring should adapt to your stage of life. You may have multiple mentors, or you may have peer mentors who have different types of experience.
• Mentoring does not always have to be about a long-term “forever relationship”. Sometimes the relationship can be about short periods of mentoring that meet a person’s immediate or career needs.
• Do not be shy about asking people to be your mentor. Seek out people who value and appreciate you and stay away from those who do not.

 Maria Del Pilar Montanez VillaCampa, MD

Interested in Mentoring:  Interested in mentoring residents, junior faculty, and community members.

What are Your Areas of Interest:  In the clinical setting, I am interested in educating and empowering patients via clinic encounters that honor their lived experiences and helps them be more involved in their healing journey.
I am interested in everything related to Graduate Medical Education and dedicated to supporting and encouraging the future family medicine physicians in their educational and career journeys.

Current Projects:  Some of my current projects involve working on residency and community educational initiatives, faculty professional development and QI projects that enhance learner’s experiences.

Additional Thoughts on Mentoring:  I am eternally grateful to the mentors I have had along my career. They have guided me, helped me develop my skills and have provided me with opportunities to grow and learn. We all need mentors to succeed and be willing to mentor others along the way in meaningful ways!

 

Mark T. Nadeau, MD, MBA

Interested in Mentoring: Residents, faculty members, and medical students. I love teaching at the residency level, so I enjoy mentoring people who are involved at all levels of graduate medical education.

Areas of interest and experience for collaboration: I have always enjoyed mentoring. I find it gratifying to feel as though I am giving something back to the profession. I especially enjoy working with residents, medical students, and faculty members on medical leadership issues.

Current Projects: I am working with other faculty members in the department to improve the professional development of our faculty. I am working with a group of medical students who are interested in improving their financial literacy. Additionally, there are many opportunities to mentor as a part of my role as program director.

Anything else you would like future mentees to consider? An important part of having a mentor or being a mentor is the relationship. A strong relationship makes the process more effective and more enjoyable. I wish that I had been more consistent about seeking mentors earlier in my career. Most people enjoy mentoring. Most people are willing to help you.

Stacy A. Obgeide, PsyD, ABPP, CSOWM

Interested in Mentoring:  Residents/fellows interested in academic medicine; early career faculty members (completion of post-grad training within the past 10 years).

Areas of interest:  

• Faculty Professional Development (Clinical Teaching Approaches and Educational Research)
• Underrepresented in Medicine (ethno-racial historically excluded groups in medicine)
• Workforce/Curricula Development for Pre-and-Post Doctoral Trainees
• Interprofessional Education in Primary Care
• Primary Care Behavioral Health
• Behavioral Medicine

Current Projects:  Dr. Ogbeide is currently working on modifying the One-Minute Preceptor approach for addressing health disparities during clinical teaching.  She is also working on competency development for behavioral health clinical supervisors within Primary Care  as well as Primary Care Behavioral Health curricula development and Interprofessional Education curricula development through a Health Resources and Services Administration grant with the University of Texas at San Antonio.

Anything else you would like future mentees to consider? Mentorship is an active and bidirectional professional relationship. I look forward to learning from you!

Miguel Palacios, MD

Interested in Mentoring:  Students, residents, faculty and community members.

Areas of interest:  All forms of QI, Systems and operational management, EMR optimization, Value-based care, leadership, and teaching.

Current Projects:  Improving Blood Pressure Control by way of Self-Measured Blood Pressures (in collaboration with the AHA), Improving food insecurity within the FHC (in collaboration with AHA), Optimizing Transitions of Care (TOC) Visits within the FHC, Increasing Advanced Care Planning (ACP) Rates for FHC patients, FHC Panel Management, Improving Health Outcomes for individuals with Hypertension and Type 2 Diabetes living in San Antonio, Texas (in collaboration with the San Antonio Community Engagement Council).

Additional Thoughts on Mentoring:   “If I have seen and traveled far, it’s because I have stood on the shoulders of giants.” We all have the potential to be giants… We just have to be kind and selfless enough to lift others onto our shoulders. That’s what a mentor does.

Jeff Svec, MD

Interested in Mentoring:  Students interested in either primary care or sports medicine & residents interested in sports medicine.

What are your Areas of Interest?:
Professional Interests: Teaching, sports medicine, physical activity promotion, collaboration in medicine
Personal interests: Traveling, exercise, movies, board games

Current Projects You Are Working On: Developing primary care sports medicine within the Primary Care Center at UT Health San Antonio.

Additional Thoughts On Mentoring: I have had multiple mentors throughout the different stages of my career. Everyone of them has been valuable in getting me to where I am today. I would like to pay that forward to my mentees.