Dean's Weekly Message

December 8, 2025

Dear Colleague: 

Happy First Snow 2025!
I hope everyone celebrated our First Snow 2025!

Last Wednesday, CU Anschutz recorded its first measurable snow on campus grounds for the season – a great reason for our community to celebrate. At noon, the campus offered complimentary hot chocolate, cider, and CU Anschutz scarves.

Welcome to winter and the holiday season!

Fortitude Lectureship
Stacey Simon, PhD, Professor of Pediatrics, and Lilia Cervantes, MD, Professor of Medicine, delivered major doses of inspiration at last week’s Clinical Faculty Scholars Fortitude Lectureship.

Dr. Simon outlined the twists and turns on her way to a successful career as a pediatric sleep researcher. Over the last year, Dr. Simon has published several papers analyzing circadian timing, behavioral interventions for sleep disruption, barriers to sleep for adolescents with Type 1 diabetes, and more. This article by Children’s Hospital Colorado covers her growing contributions to the field.

Dr. Cervantes described how she started her career as a full-time clinician, and after six years launched her research to improve access to dialysis for immigrants who had been limited to receiving care only in emergency cases. She recently published articles about an intervention that engages community health workers to help patients undergoing hemodialysis understand and work through challenges that come with treatment. Read more about her work in this article in the School of Medicine newsroom.

Dr. Simon and Dr. Cervantes credited our school’s Clinical Faculty Scholars Program for helping them when they were emerging investigators. They specifically called out mentors, including Anne Libby, PhD, Professor of Emergency Medicine, and Adit Ginde, MD, MPH, Professor of Emergency Medicine and Senior Associate Dean for Clinical Research, for their guidance.

The program, organized by the Colorado Clinical and Translational Sciences Institute, provides weekly mentored works-in-progress sessions, guided project development, educational seminars, and grant writing classes. Each year, the program enrolls 4-6 junior faculty members from clinical departments at the University of Colorado and affiliated institutions.

This program is a major investment in our future and helps our emerging faculty build research careers that matter. Bravo!

School of Medicine's Highly Cited Researchers
Six CU Anschutz School of Medicine faculty members are included on the Highly Cited Researchers 2025 list, published in November by Clarivate, an analytics company that offers business and market intelligence services.

Clarivate uses quantitative metrics and qualitative analysis to identify individuals whose work has had impactful global influence on their fields. Each researcher on the list has authored multiple highly cited papers that rank in the top 1% by citations for their field and publication. This list is then refined using other quantitative metrics, as well as qualitative analysis and expert judgment.

We are very proud of our colleagues featured on the list:

• Charles A. Dinarello, MD, Distinguished Professor of Medicine.
• Stephen Daniels, MD, PhD, Chair of Pediatrics.
• D. Ross Camidge, MD, PhD, Professor of Medicine and Director of the Thoracic Oncology Clinical and Clinical Research Programs.
• Russell E. Glasgow, PhD, Research Professor of Family Medicine and Director of the Dissemination and Implementation Science Program of the Adult & Child Consortium for Health Outcomes Research & Delivery Science.
• Angelo D’Alessandro, PhD, Professor of Biochemistry and Molecular Genetics.
• Tianjing Li, PhD, Professor of Ophthalmology.

Residents Receive Chapman Award
General Surgery Resident Varun Bansal, MD, and Emergency & Trauma Radiology Fellow LinMei Zhao, MD, have received the 2026 Michael Patrick Chapman Award, which was created to honor a former radiology resident who was known for his humor, kindness, and willingness to work hard. Dr. Chapman died in October 2021, two years after a leukemia diagnosis. The award was established by his father, Richard Chapman, to inspire resident physicians to follow the example of Michael’s indefatigable energy as a physician-researcher and to pursue a similar path in their medical careers. Congratulations to Dr. Bansal and Dr. Zhao!

Recent Publications
Bradley P. Dixon, MD, Professor of Pediatrics, is a co-author of an article, “Trial of Pegcetacoplan in C3 Glomerulopathy and Immune-Complex MPGN,” published December 3 by The New England Journal of Medicine.

Susan L. Calcaterra, MD, MPH, MS, Associate Professor of Medicine, is corresponding author of an original investigation, “Leveraging the 72-Hour Rule Change to Support Transition From Hospital to Opioid Treatment Program,” published November 21 by JAMA Network Open. An article in the campus newsroom provides details about the study.

Erin Cobry, MD, Assistant Professor of Pediatrics at the Barbara Davis Center for Diabetes, is co-author of a research article, “The Future of Dual Glucose–Ketone Monitoring in Youth with Diabetes,” published November 21 by Diabetes Technology & Therapeutics.

Elizabeth M. Goldberg, MD, ScM, Associate Professor of Emergency Medicine, is corresponding author of an article, “Adapting an emergency department fall prevention intervention for persons living with dementia through patient, caregiver, and expert interviews,” published November 21 by Scientific Reports. Five co-authors are from our campus.

Joshua F. Yarrow, PhD, Assistant Professor of Medicine, is a co-author of an article, “Development and validation of a kinematic hindlimb cycling model for rats,” published November 27 by Scientific Reports.

Jill Liss, MD, MSCP, Associate Clinical Professor of Obstetrics and Gynecology, is corresponding author of an original study, “Virtual patients, real learning: extended reality simulation for clinical menopause education,” published November 25 by Menopause.

Alice E. Burgess, MD, Instructor/Fellow in Pediatrics, is corresponding author of an article, “Barriers and facilitators to modeling safe sleep practices in the NICU: A qualitative study of nursing & parent perspectives,” published December 1 by the Journal of Perinatology. Four co-authors are from our Department of Pediatrics.

Emma R. Lyons, PhD, Assistant Professor of Psychiatry, and Emily Muther, PhD, Professor of Psychiatry, are corresponding authors of an article, “Body Image Perceptions and Elexacaftor/Tezacaftor/Ivacaftor (ETI) Use in Adolescents and Young Adults Living With Cystic Fibrosis,” published December 1 by Pediatric Pulmonology.

In Memoriam
We are deeply saddened by the passing of Michael Bristow, MD, PhD, a giant in the field of cardiology whose work transformed care for patients with heart failure, on November 24. As head of the CU Anschutz Division of Cardiology from 1991 to 2004, Dr. Bristow pioneered the use of beta blockers as a first-line therapy—a contribution that transformed clinical practice and improved countless lives around the world.

Over his five-decade career, Dr. Bristow authored hundreds of peer-reviewed manuscripts, co-founded biotechnology companies, and helped establish collaborative heart failure and transplant programs across Utah and Colorado. His dedication to patient care, research, and mentorship shaped generations of clinicians and investigators, leaving an enduring impact on medicine.

Larry Allen, MD, Head of the Division of Cardiology, shared, “Dr. Bristow was a true genius who cared about making the world a better place. He was loyal to a fault. Mostly he loved two things: his family and his research. Although the hole he leaves is huge, the legacy he leaves is so much more. I cannot think of anyone who had a more magical and impactful 81 years.”

A memorial service was held December 6 at Olinger Chapel Hill Mortuary and Cemetery. If you wish to make a donation to honor Michael and his lifelong commitment to medical research, his family asks you send your generous contributions to the Bristow Research Fund.

Have a good week,

John H. Sampson, MD, PhD, MBA
Richard D. Krugman Endowed Chair
Vice Chancellor for Health Affairs and
Dean, University of Colorado Anschutz School of Medicine

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