Endowed Professorships

Anjuli S. Nayak, MD, Res ’81, is an associate professor in the department of pediatrics at the University of Illinois College of Medicine at Chicago. She and her husband, Nicholas A. Nayak, MD, are the founders of Sneeze, Wheeze, and Itch Associates, a private practice and research center in Normal, Illinois.

She received her early schooling and medical degree in India. After her pediatrics residency at the University of Illinois College of Medicine at Peoria and the Jersey City Medical Center in New Jersey, she completed a fellowship in allergy and clinical immunology at the University of Texas Health Science Center in San Antonio.
Dr. Nayak has been a principal investigator of multiple clinical trials in drug development, and her publications and articles have exceeded 500 in peer-reviewed journals. In recognition of her work, she received the Outstanding Clinical, Technological, and Scholarly Achievement Award applied to medical research by the faculty for the University of Illinois in 2000-2001 and in 2007-2008.

Dr. Nayak has served on multiple sub-specialty committees and as a sections chair for the college and the American College of Asthma, Allergy, and Immunology. She was awarded the Women in Allergy award in 2011 by the American College of Asthma, Allergy, and Immunology; and recently was honored with the President’s Humanitarian award by the American Academy of Allergy, Asthma, and Immunology for her work in India, including her care of orphans and establishment of a hospital and the Anjuli S. Nayak Nursing School. She also started the first accredited training program in allergy and immunology at Christina Medical College in Vellore, India. For her community involvement, Dr. Nayak was the nominee for the Young Women’s Christian Association’s Woman of Distinction award on two occasions.

The Nayaks’ support of the College of Medicine includes the establishment of the Nayak Family Foundation Endowed Research Lecture Series in Evidence-Based and Clinical Translational Medicine. The series brings nationally and internationally renowned speakers to campus several times each year to address students regarding current issues and trends in evidence-based and clinical translational medicine and research.
The Nayaks are the parents of three sons: David Nayak, MD, MPH; Zachary Nayak, MD; and Luke Nayak, MD. David and Zachary are alumni of the University of Illinois, College of Medicine at Chicago.

Dr. Nayak is a survivor of acute lymphoblastic leukemia with a stem cell transplant. She now lives a life to glorify the great physician, who gave her a new birth, a new vision, and a renewed purpose for life.

A nationally and internationally renowned neonatologist and clinician/investigator, J. Usha Raj, MD, is a professor and head of the department of pediatrics at the University of Illinois College of Medicine and physician-in-chief at the Children’s Hospital University of Illinois.

Dr. Raj graduated from the Seth G.S. Medical College, University of Bombay, in India. She completed a clinical fellowship in neonatology at Tulane University and a research fellowship at the Cardiovascular Research Institute, University of California San Francisco. She was a faculty member of the UCSF department of pediatrics before becoming a tenured full professor at University of California Los Angeles in 1994.

Dr. Raj has implemented many forms of clinical excellence at CHUI since she was recruited in 2008 from UCLA. General pediatricians and specialists under her leadership provide a variety of resources for community and statewide physicians, schools, and alumni.

Her research program in pulmonary vascular biology has been continuously funded by the National Institutes of Health for almost three decades. Dr. Raj advocates for children through her membership in the Association of Medical School Pediatric Department Chairs, and she has been a member of the American Academy of Pediatrics since 1981. She was elected to the American Society for Clinical Investigation in 1994 and to the American Pediatric Society in 1996. She is an elected member of the Executive Council of the American Physiological Society. She has served twice as a regular member of NIH Study Sections, where she has participated in many review panels and workshops.

Dr. Raj is actively involved with mentoring on many levels, having trained nearly 30 fellows and facilitated numerous internships with high school and college students. A goal throughout her career has been to increase the number of pediatricians who conduct academic research. She is chair of the College of Medicine’s Faculty Academic Advancement Committee (FAAC), which promotes diversity at its four campuses.

Her contributions to the literature of the field include nearly 150 original articles and chapters. Dr. Raj continues to make invited presentations at conferences and scientific meetings worldwide. Her honors include the American Thoracic Society Recognition Award for Scientific Accomplishments and selection for the U.S. News & World Report’s Top Doctors list.

Dr. Dharmapuri Vidyasagar, Professor Emeritus at the University of Illinois at Chicago, is a physician, an educator, and a pioneer in the field of neonatal-perinatal medicine. After training in the United States and Canada, he joined the neonatal unit at Cook County Hospital in Chicago, Illinois. In 1974, he was recruited to develop the Division of Neonatology at the University of Illinois at Chicago. As Director until 2007, he trained scores of neonatologists.

Dr. Vidyasagar has worked closely with the Illinois Department of Public Health (IDPH) and Chicago Board of Health, among numerous other leadership roles. He served on the IDPH Perinatal Advisory Committee, and he was the Chair of the Maternal and Child Health Committee for the Chicago Board of Health. He was a fellow and the Henry P. Russe Awardee at the Institute of Medicine of Chicago. He was also President of the Chicago Pediatric Society, and he was a member of the Scientific Advisory Committee on Prematurity of the March of Dimes. In addition he was elected President of the Society of Critical Care Medicine.

Dr. Vidyasagar continues to develop neonatal intensive care units worldwide. He has introduced new therapies and therapeutic techniques to physicians, nurses, and other health-care personnel in such nations as India, China, Lithuania, Poland, and Uzbekistan. His contributions to the literature of the field include more than 250 articles, chapters, and textbooks. His many honors include the Distinguished Faculty Award from the University of Illinois, the Education Award from the American Academy of Pediatrics, and the Jonas Salk Award from the March of Dimes. In 2016, he was a Legends of Neonatology Hall of Fame Honoree, and he has been mentioned in the US Congressional Record.

De-Ann Pillers, MD, PhD, is a board certified pediatrician and neonatologist who is an active member of the APS. She is an Oregonian who matriculated at Washington University in St. Louis where she graduated with degrees in Chemical Engineering (B.S.Ch.E.) and French (A.B.), and returned to Oregon for her further training. A graduate of Oregon Health and Science University with an M.D. and a Ph.D. in Medical Genetics, she also completed her residency in Pediatrics and fellowship in Neonatal-Perinatal Medicine at OHSU prior to joining the faculty in 1991. By the time she left OHSU in 2007, she had risen through the ranks to Professor and Associate Head for Academic Affairs. During her time at OHSU, Dr. Pillers began a career as an NIH-funded basic and clinical research investigator, as well as serving as a site PI in NIH-funded multi-center clinical research projects related to retinopathy of prematurity. She also created a niche in mentoring at the fellow and junior faculty level by being the inaugural Uber-Director for Pediatric Fellowship Training, as well as the founding Program Director for the NICHD Child Health Research Career Development Award (CHRCDA) of the Oregon Child Health Research Center. Her passion for mentoring has continued unabated. In 2008 Dr. Pillers joined the faculty at the University of Wisconsin-Madison where she was a Professor with Tenure, Division Chief of Neonatology and Newborn Nursery, and Vice Chair for Research. In 2017, Dr. Pillers joined the faculty at the University of Illinois at Chicago where she is the Dharmapuri Vidyasagar Professor and Head of the Section of Neonatology, Associate Head for Perinatology, and Vice Head for Academics. She also serves as the co-Director of the UIC Administrative Perinatal Center for the Illinois Department of Public Health.

Usha Raj, MD, MHA: Dr. Raj is the Anjuli S. Nayak Professor of Pediatrics. She was the Head of Pediatrics at UIC from 2008-2015 and Chief of Neonatology at Harbor-UCLA (1995-2008).

She is nationally and internationally known as a clinician-scientist for her research on the mechanisms involved in the development of a lethal disease, pulmonary hypertension. Her work has been continuously funded by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) for 34 years. She has published over 192 peer-reviewed scientific manuscripts, reviews, and chapters in high-quality journals and text books. She has received numerous awards from international scientific societies, including the Scientific Recognition, Distinguished Achievement and the Elizabeth Rich Mentorship Awards from the American Thoracic Society and the Julius Comroe Jr. Distinguished Lectureship and election as a Fellow by the American Physiological Society. She received an honorary doctorate (honoris causa) from the University of Lausanne in June 2016 in recognition of her many contributions in research and mentorship. She is a member of the World Task Force on Pediatric Pulmonary Hypertension and a Senior Advisor to the Pediatric Pulmonary Hypertension Network in North America. She has been selected for the U.S. News & World Report Top Doctors list. Dr. Raj takes a major interest in education and mentoring, particularly of students and faculty from under-represented minorities. During her tenure as Head of the Department of Pediatrics she helped establish the Children’s Hospital University of Illinois. She was the Associate Project leader of a grant from the Center for Medicare and Medicaid that was designed to improve care for the underserved pediatric population with chronic illnesses in Chicago. And most recently, continuing her commitment to serving the under-served, she was a consultant and advisor to the Obstetric and Pediatric departments at the College of Medicine in Ulaan Baator, Mongolia, where she is establishing a program to reduce the maternal and neonatal morality rates.

Molly Martin, MD, MAPP, is a Professor of Pediatrics and a Fellow in the Institute for Health Research and Policy at the University of Illinois Chicago. Dr. Martin is an established leader in the fields of implementation science and behavioral intervention design and testing, especially as they relate to community health workers. She is also active in local and national policy efforts that target health disparities. Her research focuses on community models to improve health. Dr. Martin is the Director of the UIC Center for Clinical and Translational Science Pilot Grant Program and an Associate Director in the UIC Center for Dissemination and Implementation Science. She is particularly interested in asthma, oral health and COVID-19 in children. Dr. Martin has been the principal investigator on multiple NIH-funded projects that test community-based interventions targeting these conditions. She served on the Board of the Chicago Asthma Consortium and held a position on the Executive Committee for Community Health Worker Section of the American Public Health Association. She currently is a member of the State of Illinois Community Health Worker Advisory Board which is formalizing community health worker workforce credentialling in Illinois. As a complement to her research, Dr. Martin sees patients in the Mile Square Health Center and participates in resident and student education.

A Professorship named for George R. Honig, MD, PhD, will support the Head of the Department of Pediatrics at the University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC). Now serving as Professor Emeritus, Dr. Honig was Head of the Department of Pediatrics from 1984 to 2004 and an internationally recognized investigator in Sickle Cell Disease. Dr. Honig founded and directed the University of Illinois Sickle Cell Center in 1971, encompassing programs in patient care, education, screening and counseling services, and clinical and laboratory-based research. The National Institutes of Health grant award received in support of the Center was, at that time, the largest NIH grant ever received by the University of Illinois (U of I). Dr. Honig’s research characterized the molecular structure of abnormal hemoglobin variants. He remained an active investigator until his retirement. During Dr. Honig’s tenure as Department Head of Pediatrics, the Medicine-Pediatric Residency and many other innovative educational programs were standardized and developed. He also established off-site care locations (Michael Reese Hospital) and stewarded the department through many administrative and financial challenges. Dr. Honig was known for his close interactions with medical students and residents, as well as for recruiting and developing an outstanding group of faculty colleagues and highly committed research associates. His daily participation in morning reports, along with his clinical acumen and insights, are long remembered by a generation of colleagues, students, and trainees. Dr. Honig’s work on behalf of the children of Chicago as Department Head and as a physician-scientist was recognized with the Chicago Pediatric Society Joseph P. Brenneman Award. Dr. Honig authored numerous scholarly articles, book chapters on medicine and biomedical science and scientific reports. He drew upon his experience as a physician, as well as his longstanding interest in history and religion, to write a novel, “The Alexandria Letter,” which was published by Synergy Books in 2010 (Ignite, 2018). Dr. Honig graduated from the Niles Township High School in Skokie, Illinois, and from there, he enrolled in the premed curriculum at the U of I at Urbana-Champaign. While attending the U of I College of Medicine, he worked in the laboratory of Dr. Harris Busch in the Department of Pharmacology in addition to his medical studies. After graduation from medical school, Dr. Honig became a pediatrics intern and subsequently a resident at the venerable Harriet Lane Home for Indigent Children in Baltimore, Maryland. He went on to become a commissioned officer in the U.S. Public Health Service and was assigned to the National Cancer Institute in Bethesda, Maryland, as a Research Associate. While there he also enrolled in a program that had been jointly developed between the NIH and George Washington University, through which he completed the requirements for a PhD degree in biochemistry. He then returned to Chicago to begin a fellowship in pediatric hematology and oncology with Dr. Irving Schulman at UIC. After completing his fellowship training, he was invited to remain at UIC, where he was appointed as an Assistant Professor of Pediatrics; the following year he was promoted to Associate Professor. Dr. Honig also subsequently served as the Head of the Division of Pediatric Hematology and Oncology at the Children’s Memorial Hospital before returning to the University of Illinois in 1984.

Benjamin W. Van Voorhees, MD, MPH, has been appointed as the inaugural recipient of the “George R. Honig, MD, PhD Endowed Professorship in Pediatrics,” in the College of Medicine by Michael Amiridis, Chancellor of the University of Illinois at Chicago. Dr. Van Voorhees was appointed as Head of the Department of Pediatrics in 2017, after serving as interim head from 2015 to 2017. Dr. Van Voorhees is an internationally recognized, innovative physician/scientist focusing on information and communication technology, systems re-design, and clinical epidemiology to prevent the onset of chronic disease in childhood and adolescence. As an educator, clinician, and administrative leader, his vision has transformed the future of healthcare delivery for Chicago’s communities. He has developed multiple patient focused health technology applications, directed five randomized clinical trials, received over $30 million in research funding, and authored more than seventy-five scientific publications and one hundred scientific conference presentations. In his leadership role in the Department of Pediatrics, Dr. Van Voorhees launched and continues to oversee a major strategic planning process to strengthen excellence in education, research, patient care, and commitment to the community. As a key part of this strategic plan, the he has worked to develop and grow affiliations and partnerships with Shriner’s Hospital for Children – Chicago, the Mile Square Federally Qualified Health Center, and other University and community organizations. He has led the UI Children’s Hospital to demonstrate outcomes aligned with the Institute for Healthcare Improvement Triple Aim (cost reductions, population health, and quality improvement including increased patient satisfaction). UI Children’s Hospital was ranked for the first time as among one of Illinois “Best Children’s Hospitals” by the U.S. News & World Report. Departmental research and philanthropic funding and has more than doubled, faculty publications have increased substantially, and the Department’s NIH funding Blue Ridge Rank has improved significantly. Dr. Van Voorhees received his BA in history from Dartmouth College. After serving as an officer in the US Navy onboard the USS Lockwood, he attended the Vanderbilt University School of Medicine, and completed his combined Internal Medicine-Pediatric Residency at Vanderbilt University Hospital. Following residency training, he founded and for six years managed a community primary care practice in Brentwood, Tennessee. Dr. Van Voorhees completed a General Internal Medicine Fellowship and a Master of Public Health at Johns Hopkins University. He was then appointed Assistant Professor of Medicine in Pediatrics and Psychiatry at the University of Chicago Pritzker School of Medicine from 2003 to 2011 where he also served as the Director of the Medicine/Pediatrics Residency before coming to UIC in 2011 to serve as Chief, Section of General Pediatrics.

Announcement of the Asok K. Ray, MD, FRCS (Edin) and Purnima Ray Professor in Pediatrics

The professorship is named for Asok K. Ray, MD, FRCS (Edin). He was born in Calcutta, India, and earned his medical degree from Calcutta University. After surgical training in India, he trained with distinguished orthopedic and general surgeons in the United Kingdom. In addition to earning a diploma in anesthesia from the Royal College of Surgeons in London, post-graduate education included fellowships in Scotland and the United States and a tenure as chief resident of Cook County Hospital. At MacNeal Hospital, Dr. Ray established a private practice and organized the orthopedic department, serving as the department’s first chair for 15 years. Dr. Ray came to the University of Illinois at Chicago to attend orthopedic rounds, and speaks highly of the warm welcome he received by our residents and faculty and the camaraderie that he went on to share as a member of the UIC staff. Dr. Ray has been a Clinical Professor of Orthopedics at the College of Medicine since 1974, and he has also been affiliated with several other medical centers. Scholarly work includes the publication of numerous articles in peer-reviewed journals. Inspired by Mother Teresa, Dr. Ray expanded his service beyond medical care and began giving financial contributions to her causes. This led him to establish the Indima Foundation in memory of his late parents, Indira and Manik Lal Ray. Philanthropic investments made by the Foundation throughout India have included the construction of medical facilities and support for underprivileged students and disadvantaged youth. Following the tragic events of September 11, 2001, the Foundation’s scope was broadened to reach individuals in need across the globe.

Effective August 16, 2022, Philip F. Giampietro, MD, PhD, has been named the inaugural Asok K. Ray, MD, FRCS (Edin) and Purnima Ray Professor in Pediatrics by Dr. Mark I. Rosenblatt, Executive Dean, on behalf of the University of Illinois College of Medicine along with the full support of the Chancellor, Provost, and Vice Chancellors for Academic Affairs, Advancement, and Health Affairs. This appointment has been made possible by a generous gift from Dr. Ray through the Indima Foundation, with Dr. Ray naming the professorship after both himself and his wife to honor her stalwart support of his career and philanthropy over the years. The endowed professorship will focus on genetically determined disease research and care management, with a particular emphasis on programs related to the genetics of congenital bone disease. Preparations for an investiture ceremony are underway for Dr. Giampietro, Professor of Pediatrics, who is Chief of the Section of Pediatric Genetics. Dr. Giampietro graduated from the Biomedical Sciences Doctoral Program of the City University of New York’s Mt. Sinai School of Medicine and then received his medical degree from the State University New York (SUNY) School of Medicine in Stony Brook. He completed an internship at the SUNY Stony Brook University Hospital Department of Pediatrics and a residency at the Long Island Jewish Medical Center Department of Pediatrics in New Hyde Park. He also completed a medical genetics fellowship at the Weill Medical College of Cornell University in New York. He is board certified in General Pediatrics and in Medical Genetics. His clinical interests include dysmorphology, connective tissue disorders, and birth defects. His research interests include the genetics of congenital and idiopathic scoliosis. He has worked closely with orthopedic surgical colleagues, clinical and molecular geneticists, and epidemiologists to better understand genetic and environmental contributions to these conditions. He also has interests in use of social media for children with genetic conditions, personalized medicine, and syndrome delineation.

The professorship is named for Dr. J. Usha Raj, the former head of the Department of Pediatrics of UI-COM and physician-in-chief of Children’s Hospital University of Illinois from 2008-15. She is the Anjuli S. Nayak Professor of Pediatrics at the UI-COM and previously served as chief of neonatology at Harbor-UCLA (1995-2008).

Dr. Raj graduated from the Seth G.S. Medical College and then trained as a pediatrician at the B.J. Wadia Hospital for Children, both at University of Bombay – now the University of Mumbai. She completed a clinical fellowship in neonatology at Tulane University and was awarded a research fellowship in neonatology and developmental vascular biology at the Cardiovascular Research Institute, University of California San Francisco (UCSF). She joined the UCSF faculty in 1982 and became the first woman to serve as an attending physician in the elite UCSF neonatal intensive care unit.

In 1984, Dr. Raj accepted an offer to join the faculty at the UCLA School of Medicine and continue her research on the pulmonary microcirculation at the Los Angeles Biomedical Research Institute – now The Lindquist Institute. Her clinical work as a neonatologist was at the Harbor-UCLA Medical Center, a place where she could care for the poor and underrepresented minority populations. After 24 years, at the invitation of Joseph Flaherty (’68, MD ’71), then Dean of the College of Medicine, Dr. Raj relocated to Chicago in 2008 to head the Department of Pediatrics at the UI-COM.

Over the next seven years, Dr. Raj recruited more than 50 distinguished faculty members from around the country – including current department head Benjamin Van Voorhees, MD, MPH, and many subspecialty division chiefs in pediatrics – and created three pediatric fellowship programs. She also worked with the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services to improve the wellbeing of children with chronic conditions such as diabetes and depression by bringing health and behavioral health services into their homes and communities.

As she worked to advance medical education and improve community health outreach, Dr. Raj spearheaded the establishment and accreditation of the Children’s Hospital University of Illinois, which opened in 2012 with a mission to prioritize the care of underserved children. She stepped down as physician-in-chief of the specialty pediatric hospital in 2015 but continues to raise funds to support its mission and regards the children’s hospital as her most important legacy.

In 2023 Dr. Raj established the J. Usha Raj Endowed Professorship in Pediatrics and Psychiatry to address mental health issues in children. This generous gift acknowledges the growing mental health crisis in our nation’s children and will directly benefit our most vulnerable patients through focused research and dedicated clinical care while elevating the UI-COM and UI Health to the national consciousness in this area.

Effective March 16, 2024, Dr. Niranjan S. Karnik, MD, PhD, DFAPA, DFAACAP, is the J. Usha Raj Professor of Pediatrics and Psychiatry of the University of Illinois College of Medicine (UI-COM). Now serving as professor with tenure in the Department of Psychiatry and clinical professor in the Department of Pediatrics, Dr. Karnik’s other UI-COM appointments include director of the Institute for Juvenile Research, co-director of the Institute for Research on Addictions, interim director of the Center for Health Equity using Machine Learning & Artificial Intelligence and director of digital health in the Department of Psychiatry. He also serves as director of the Great Lakes Node of the National Drug Abuse Treatment Clinical Trials Network, a project that supports clinical trials done in coordination with National Institute on Drug Abuse-supported Clinical Trials Network.

Dr. Karnik’s research focuses on data science, technology and community-based interventions for vulnerable populations with psychiatric and substance use disorders. In the past, he has worked with refugee children on the Pakistan-Afghan border, street children in India, foster youth in Central Illinois and incarcerated youth in California. Dr. Karnik also worked at a youth homeless shelter in San Francisco and is continuing work with youth experiencing homelessness in Chicago. He presently leads or co-leads grants from the National Institute on Drug Abuse and the National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences.

In his projects, Dr. Karnik focuses on mobile technologies to support youth experiencing homelessness. His team is working in collaboration with researchers at the University of California at Irvine to develop smartphone and mobile technology-intervention to support homeless youth as they transition from the street to stable housing. The goal is to deploy pragmatic, mental-health interventions at a time when these populations may not be able to access traditional office-based care. In addition, Dr. Karnik uses data-science to screen for substance use. In these projects, his team is working to develop data science-driven algorithms that can help identify patients who may have substance-use disorders. The goal is to promote early and universal screening to deploy treatment and prevention efforts in a precision-medicine framework.

Dr. Karnik is a Distinguished Fellow of the American Psychiatric Association and Distinguished Fellow of the American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry. He is certified in psychiatry and child and adolescent psychiatry by the American Board of Psychiatry & Neurology.

Dr. Karnik received his medical degree from the University of Illinois College of Medicine in Urbana-Champaign in 2002. The following year, he earned a Ph.D. in sociology, also from the University of Illinois. He completed a residency in general psychiatry from Stanford University in 2005, and a fellowship in child and adolescent psychiatry at Stanford University and the Lucile Salter Packard Children’s Hospital in 2007. And he completed a fellowship in clinical medical ethics at the MacLean Center for Clinical Medical Ethics at the University of Chicago in 2013.

As the recipient of this distinguished professorship, Dr. Karnik represents the tradition of excellence for which the Department of Psychiatry and the College of Medicine are known, noted Mark I. Rosenblatt, MD, PhD, MBA, MHA, the G. Stephen Irwin Executive Dean and Distinguished Professor of Ophthalmology & Visual Sciences for UI-COM as part of the announcement. The J. Usha Raj Professorship carries a five-year, renewable appointment.