Research Day Schedule of Events

About the Presenters

Stan Lapidus

Stan Lapidus is an inventor and entrepreneur who currently serves on a number of health care and medical technology boards.

He was the founding CEO of three medical diagnostics companies. Two of them have been notably successful:

• Cytyc Corp., which he founded in 1987, revolutionized early detection of cervical cancer through its development of the modern Pap test—the ThinPrep. The two ThinPrep prototypes are at the Smithsonian.
  
• EXACT Sciences, which he founded in 1995, pioneered non-invasive early detection of colorectal cancer through its Cologuard test. Since its introduction, Cologuard has become one of the fastest growing tests in the history of the diagnostics industry.

Stan holds 37 patents in methods for early detection of cancer. He served as an instructor at MIT from 2001 to 2017 focusing on the design, conduct, and analysis of clinical trials.

Stan graduated from Cooper Union in New York City with a BS degree in electrical engineering.

Eddie Stenehjem, MD

Dr. Stenehjem earned his bachelor’s degree from the University of Wisconsin and completed his MD at Saint Louis University School of Medicine where he graduated AOA. He then came to Denver where he completed internship, residency and a chief year in our residency program at CU. Following his chief year, Eddie spent a year working in Ecuador before going to Emory University for his Infectious Diseases fellowship.

Dr. Stenehjem joined the Division of Clinical Epidemiology and Infectious Diseases at Intermountain Medical Center in 2012. During his decade-long tenure at Intermountain, he rose through the ranks and assumed progressive leadership responsibilities at the system level. Dr. Stenehjem founded and operationalized Intermountain’s tele infectious diseases and antibiotic stewardship program, was the first medical director of the system’s antibiotic stewardship platform, co-chaired the lab diagnostic stewardship committee, and was instrumental in leading Intermountain through the COVID-19 pandemic. Dr. Stenehjem has received research funding from the Joint Commission, CDC, and AHRQ to study the implementation of antibiotic stewardship initiatives across the health system. From 2021 – 2023 he served as the Senior Medical Director for medical specialties where he led 11 medical specialties.

Dr. Stenehjem was recruited to the University of Colorado in July 2023 as the Executive Vice Chair of the Department of Medicine. In his role as executive vice chair, he focuses on clinical operations, faculty affairs, and leadership development. In addition, Dr. Stenehjem is currently serving as the interim Infectious Diseases Division Head. 

Kristine Kuhn, MD, PhD

Kristi Kuhn, MD, PhD, is the Scoville Endowed Chair and Head of the Division of Rheumatology and an Associate Professor of Medicine, and of Immunology and Microbiology at the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus.

Her research program focuses upon mechanistically connecting the microbiome, metabolome, and mucosal immune changes during the development of animal models and in human cohorts of rheumatoid arthritis and spondyloarthritis.

Yoni Ashar, PhD

Yoni K. Ashar, PhD, is an assistant professor at the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus. He completed his doctorate in clinical psychology and neuroscience at the University of Colorado Boulder and an NIH-funded postdoctoral fellowship at Weill Cornell Medicine.

Dr. Ashar directs a research laboratory using functional MRI brain imaging, natural language processing, and other clinical and computational tools to understand how mind and brain processes influence health, especially chronic pain. A main research focus is investigating a new class of psychological and neuroscience-based treatments aiming for recovery from chronic pain.

Lisa Creel, PhD, MPH

Liza M. Creel is an Associate Professor in the Division of Health Care Policy and Research at the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus School of Medicine. She is also the Core Director of the Economic Analysis Core in the Adult & Child Center for Outcomes Research & Delivery Science (ACCORDS) and serves as affiliate faculty in the Farley Health Policy Center. Dr. Creel’s research focuses on studying the impact of public policy changes on maternal and child health, health care delivery system change, and access to and cost of needed health care services. Dr. Creel serves as PI and Co-I on multiple studies funded by state agencies, philanthropic organizations, and the National Institutes of Health.

She received her PhD in Health Services Research from the Texas A&M University, School of Public Health; MPH in Health Policy and Management from the University of Michigan, School of Public Health; and BS in Health Services Administration from the University of Texas, Southwestern School of Allied Health Sciences.

Christine Swanson, MD