Ben exemplifies the spirit of faculty advocacy through his unwavering dedication to faculty well-being, equity, and professional fulfillment. In his formal role as the Division’s wellness champion—and informally through countless acts of support—he consistently brings a thoughtful, solutions-oriented voice to conversations around faculty workload, burnout, and agency. ​

He listens deeply, responds with humility and insight, and fosters a culture of belonging and respect. His advocacy is not performative; it is grounded in action, collaboration, and a clear commitment to making academic medicine more humane and sustainable. Ben is already shaping the future of our Division, and we are fortunate to have his leadership.

Dr. Czwornog has been a game changer for us. She has taken on the challenging role of Director of Endoscopy, helping to begin re-taking control of a unit that has strong managerial and nursing personalities resistant to change. With her help, our show rate and sessions achieving completed procedure targets has doubled. This has had a dramatic impact on wait times for patients (and also RVU benchmarks being achieved by our endoscopists), leading to improved patient satisfaction.​

Jenny manages the scheduling for all of our endoscopy blocks and clinics, including fellows' clinic, maximizing access for our patients by deftly juggling multiple individual faculty member's requests. On top of this, there have been occasions when fellows' clinic patients have been unhappy with their care and she has stepped in to communicate directly with the patients, including one who was threatening legal action.​

It is hard to imagine any other faculty member has had a greater impact on patient care at their institution than Dr. Czwornog has had at Denver Health. Her rapport with her colleagues and devotion to patient care is exemplary to our trainees.

Alexis Oonk, MSN, FNP-C
Senior Instructor

Scott is a chemical biologist, later trained in mucosal physiology, investigating how microbially-derived metabolites support mucosal healing and energy balance in the inflamed intestine. Harnessing his analytical background as a chemist, he has established himself as an expert in metabolite extraction, metabolomics, and quantification of metabolites. Following his rigorous training in mucosal biology and microbiology, he has developed novel engineered bacterial strains that release metabolites leading to colonic wound healing in a mouse model of colitis (PMID: 40247632). These findings clearly lay the groundwork for the development of engineered live microbial therapeutics and cement its potential for impact. ​

Furthermore, he integrates targeted metabolomics with high resolution metagenomics,metatranscriptomics, and mouse models to uncover metabolite-based strategies to correct dysbiosis and promote mucosal repair. It is important to highlight that he was not trained in these techniques, but he has learned these highly advanced skills on his own initiative and has demonstrated impressive expertise. Apart from his basic science discoveries, he is exploring murine-to-human translational benchmarking by computationally processing publicly available IBD microbiome datasets for referencing. This will allow functional benchmarking of murine model findings against human disease signatures. ​

​During his tenure at CU Anschutz where he began as a postdoctoral fellow, he has published 18 peer-reviewed manuscripts demonstrating not only his impressive productivity, but also his collaborative spirit taking advantage of his metabolomic skillset. Lastly, on a personal note, Scott is one of the smartest and most inquisitive minds I have encountered. His laboratory rigor and his level of commitment to his work are truly inspiring to everyone that works with him. I strongly recommend Scott to receive this award. Scott is currently an Assistant Professor inthe division. He has received substantial funding from the NIH in the form of an F32 and he is currently funded bya K01 award from the NIDDK. He recently submitted an R01 proposal. I believe, his funding track-record reflects the impact and importance of his research at this stage of his career.

Jay has been an outstanding mentor to me personally, as well as to so many of my colleagues in the Hepatology section, past and present. Without any doubt, he exemplifies all the important characteristics of an ideal mentor — he is approachable, experienced, honest, supportive, constructive, among many other qualities.​

I'd like to share my personal experience…characteristic candid manner, using many phrases …famous, or infamous, sayings involving bricks, buckets and more. At the time, I was taken aback, only realizing as the years went by that not everyone is this direct and honest with their patients. The rapport he consequently develops with his patients is often lifelong as a result, and so many of us who trained hereunder Jay mirror this approach with our own patients.​

I have watched him excel as a leader of our group, not just as the medical director of transplant but as a true supportive advocate for our entire group. Through ongoing interactions with Jay, I have learned a lot about leadership at a program level, and I have benefited greatly from his support of our section's outreach efforts. His encouragement has allowed me to have enough autonomy to pursue this as a career niche, and I'm deeply appreciative of that. ​

He has always stepped into that role with generosity—knowing when to listen, when to challenge us, or advocate for us. He’s a master clinician with impeccable attention to detail. His guidance has given me the space to find my footing, to grow, and to lead—yet I’ve never felt alone. That rare balance of trust and support has shaped a culture in hepatology that fosters personal growth, belief in each person, and a supportive environment. I’m deeply appreciative for what he has seen in each of us. ​

It is with great enthusiasm that I nominate Dr. Whitney Jackson for the Rising Leader Award. Dr. Jackson joined our transplant hepatology section in 2016 and, in less than a decade, has emerged as one of the most dynamic and impactful early-career leaders in our Division and across the field of liver transplantation.​

From the outset of her faculty appointment, Dr. Jackson demonstrated initiative and vision. Within her first year, she was named Medical Director of the Living Donor Liver Transplant (LDLT) Program, a role in which she has truly excelled. Under her leadership, our LDLT program has grown into the largest in the nation for non-directed living liver donation—a remarkable achievement that reflects her organizational acumen, clinical expertise, and ability to lead multidisciplinary teams.​

Dr. Jackson is now regarded as a national leader in living donor liver transplantation, with particular contributions in program development, donor advocacy, and outcomes research. She has cultivated impactful collaborations with Children’s Hospital Colorado to expand pediatric LDLT, particularly for altruistic donors—an initiative that is not only clinically meaningful but also deeply mission-driven.​

Her teaching and national engagement have likewise flourished. In recent years, she has been invited to lecture across the country and internationally, including a prestigious invitation to present at the International Liver Transplantation Society meeting. She is an active member of AST, ILTS, and NALDLIG, contributing meaningfully to national conversations on living donation and transplant innovation.​

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Larissa is a natural born leader. Her thoughtfulness and analytic skills, ability to see the big picture, and absolute calm in the face of the adversity makes her a great leader already, but she will undoubtedly be promoted higher.​

Larissa has taken over leadership of the fellowship program and immediately sought to make substantive changes in a challenging landscape. Specifically she has not succumbed to programmatic inertia and instead asked the challenging questions of what changes are needed to improve the fellowship for trainees and faculty. I have no doubt that she will continue to lead the program with wisdom and empathy. She is a clear rising leader in the medical education community and merits our recognition and support to ensure her continued rise in profile.​

Larissa has taken the bull by the horns with the fellowship program. She has tackled very difficult challenges that our program has struggled with for years with creativity and effective solutions. She has made tough decisions, yet has led by consensus. I can only imagine the hours of work and grit that have gone into implementing some of the paradigm changing solutions to very difficult problems. She is a huge asset to our division and our fellowship program will continue to be top notch with her at the helm.​

 Larissa has had an impact in almost every aspect of this division: Service, education, clinical excellence. She is passionate about on going improvement of the division and fellowship and has the trust of the faculty.

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As Director of Outreach, Avash has transformed the reach of our liver transplant program by personally building and growing outreach efforts in Albuquerque, NM; Grand Junction, CO; and Billings, MT. These programs have significantly expanded our referral base and brought high-quality liver care to underserved regions across the Mountain West. The impact of this work has been substantial, both in terms of patient care and transplant volume. His leadership in this area reflects a rare combination of initiative, compassion, and logistical acumen. Dr. Kalra’s efforts have reduced barriers to care, particularly for patients in rural New Mexico, by providing consultation and transplant evaluations close to home—an extraordinary example of addressing healthcare inequity through clinical service.​

Avash has excelled on so many levels on a scope that spans the entire Mountain West region. His ability to lead our outreach combined with his desire and capability to serve as an ambassador of sorts for our transplant program has been invaluable to our sustained growth. The fact that he does so both so skillfully yet so humbly just adds to how impressive his service to our community has been since joining faculty in 2019.​

Complementing this work is his leadership in two CME courses, one annual (Highlights in GI/Hep), the other a quarterly series (Hepatology and Liver Transplant webinar). These efforts to serve our community, primarily through physician engagement. On the whole, I think Avash has more expansive community engagement through his formal division roles than any individual since I’ve been a part of this division. Without his leadership, our liver outreach would simply not exist.​

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Dr. Chacko is a vital pillar of our GI service at the VA and to the fellowship program. Clinically she always goes above and beyond to provide exceptional care for veterans in the inpatient and outpatient setting. You can tell she truly cares about patients. She works tirelessly to ensure the GI clinic runs smoothly and efficiently for the housestaff and attendings (which is no small feat). ​

Dr. Chacko is the driving force behind making the outpatient clinical operation run at the VA, despite being grossly under resourced and met with challenge after challenge. Her behind the scenes dedication is rarely seen by trainees and colleagues, but her hard work makes all of our lives easier. She deserves recognition for her silent, yet powerful, servant leadership.​

Dr. Chacko exemplifies dedication to service, especially through her consistent leadership of the VA GI Clinic. This is a challenging clinic to coordinate. Several fellows and residents are seeing patients of various complexity and urgencywith the added wrinkle of scheduling complexities due to chronic staffing issues. Dr. Chacko has handled the challenges of making sure we are providing the best access and care possible. This includes spending extra hoursmaking sure urgent situations are adequately addressed, even for clinic days where she is away on vacation.​

Dr. Chacko is very deserving of this award. As the director of the VA GI clinic, she is primarily responsible for overseeing the day-to-day operations of this clinic. This involves, among other things: reviewing fellow and resident schedules for the entire academic year to set the clinic schedule, reviewing patients on a weekly (or more) basis to determine the best provider to see, finding spots for urgent add-on patients, and making changes to the schedule to accommodate unexpected absences by providers. This work, which is in addition to actually efficiently managing activity while the clinic is in session, often occurs after hours and on her own time. In addition, she has created a lecture series for the IM residents which she maintains and updates as new evidence and guidelines are release. Dr.Chacko is primarily responsible for running and efficient and educational clinic for our veterans and trainees.​

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