Our Residents

(L to R) Stephani Zakutanzky, MD; Govind Warrier, MD, MPH; Victoria Scicluna, MD, MPH; Paul Christine, MD, PhD; Ginny Sheffield, MD; Luke Fraley, MD

Paul Christine, MD, PhD

Paul Christine, MD, PhD

University of Michigan 

Professional Interests: I am planning to pursue fellowship in Addiction Medicine next year and have an interest in the overlap of addiction and infectious disease. I am particularly interested in providing comprehensive care to those patients who are most marginalized in our healthcare system. I have a background in social epidemiology and have done research that broadly seeks to address the effects of social and health policies on inequities in cardiometabolic disease and substance use disorders. I look forward to a career where I can serve my community through clinical work, research and advocacy.

Personal Interests: As a native of Denver, Colorado, I am a fan of being outdoors. To my delight, Michigan has a lot of great outdoor opportunities. During the summer, I enjoy kayaking on the Huron River, swimming at Belle Isle in Detroit, riding my road bike to various ice cream spots, and camping along the Great Lakes. In the winter, you can find me cross country skiing with my dog (Bernie) and wife (Lizz) at various local parks (I keep my skis in my car throughout the winter for easy access!). Aside from outdoor activities, I love to listen to live music at The Ark, catch the farmer's market at Eastern Market in Detroit, and enjoy backyard bonfires with friends. 

What I Enjoy About Practicing at the University of Michigan: I went to medical school at Michigan and have no official ties to the state. What ultimately led me to stay for residency was the friendliness, collegiality, and down-to-earth environment that permeates the hospital. The talents and expertise of the faculty and residents are only matched by their humility, and I have found people at all levels of the training program to be approachable and enthusiastic about mentoring and teaching. Furthermore, as somebody who values interdisciplinary work, the fact that the hospital is co-located with the broader university campus is a great asset to both clinical education and research. It is not uncommon to have professors from various departments (including History and Physics!) give talks at the hospital, and I have found the research community to be highly collaborative (check out the Institute for Healthcare Policy and Innovation for a great example). 

Luke Fraley, MD

Luke Fraley, MD
Veterans Affairs Chief Resident of Quality and Safety
Northeast Ohio Medical University

Professional Interests: I believe that we as physicians are given the incredible opportunity to join our patients’ stories, be a part of them, and advocate for them as human beings.My professional interests include the intersections between patient care, communication, education, and health equity. I have been fortunate to work with Dr. Kristin Collier studying the effects of a narrative medicine and wellness curriculum on resident burnout. I am planning to pursue a fellowship in Hematology/Oncology next year, and work with Dr. Brian Parkin studying the BCL-2 regulated apoptotic pathway in AML with respect to the BH3 mimetic navitoclax. I hope to continue to improve the quality of our care for cancer patients by improving the quality of our communication and understanding of the social determinants of health.

Personal Interests: My wife and I both love reading, writing, and bad movies. We also love to cook and one of our favorite things to do is to stock up on unique ingredients from the local markets and attempt a new recipe together. However, more recently my interests have all become completely wrapped up in our son Lincoln. My wife and I welcomed him into the world during my second year in residency and it has been amazing watching him grow and learn. We’ve loved taking him for walks in the Ann Arbor parks, dips in the Huron river, and day trips to the Detroit and Toledo Zoos.

What I Enjoy About Practicing at the University of Michigan: Don’t tell Marketing, but I knew next to nothing about the University of Michigan or Ann Arbor before residency. What drew me to Michigan was the supportive and collegial vibe that I got on interview day and that atmosphere continues to be what I love most about this institution today. There is an expectation of humanity and empathy at all levels. It doesn’t matter if you are a world-renowned expert or a high-schooler shadowing for the day, we are all here to learn to become better doctors and better people.

Victoria Scicluna, MD, MPH

Victoria Scicluna, MD, MPH
Emory University

Professional Interests: I am planning to pursue a fellowship in pulmonary and critical care medicine. My personal research interests to date have been within the field of bioethics and more specifically, the ethics of research in emergency settings. I have worked on several different projects aimed at elucidating and improving how patients and their loved ones experience the process of enrollment in clinical trials for emergent conditions such as traumatic brain injury, status epilepticus, strokes and acute MI. Working on these projects has given me a deeper appreciation for the challenges of communicating complex medical information and engaging in difficult discussions with patients and their surrogates in the ICU.  I look forward to continuing to develop my research interests further in the field of communication and surrogate decision making this year and beyond. Not to mention, I am also excited to hone my own communication skills as a medical educator this year and put my energy behind our program’s many wellness efforts.

Personal Interests: When I’m not at the hospital, I like to be outside and active; whether that’s trimming the bushes in our yard, camping in the Upper Peninsula, or canoeing down the Huron river with my husband and pup. There’s nothing that compares to a Michigan summer, so I try to soak that up when it’s here. During Michigan winters, I enjoy bowling on a league (I’m not great, but it’s fun), learning to ice skate, painting various parts of our house, reading fiction, and teaching my dog new tricks (he’s up to at least 20!). I also like to dabble in the kitchen and make a pretty good beef with broccoli.

What I Enjoy About Practicing at the University of Michigan: What I love most about Michigan is undoubtedly the people. We have a fantastic collection of residents and faculty within our program. Everyone I have worked with in my time here has been friendly, approachable, brilliant, empathetic, excited about learning, and selfless in their care of patients and interactions with other colleagues. There is truly a “we’re all in this together” mindset that permeates our culture. In addition to the people here, I have also enjoyed the training environment; rotating at both the University Hospital and the Ann Arbor VA allows residents to get a well-rounded education with a diverse patient population. Last but not least, I have really loved living in Ann Arbor. It has the charm of a smaller college town, but is a quick trip to Detroit or an even quicker trip to some great outdoor spaces! Having spent most of my adult life in the South, I was initially nervous to move back up north, but have re-discovered the value of layering and am enjoying working on some new winter hobbies like ice skating.

Ginny Sheffield, MD

Ginny Sheffield, MD
University of Michigan

Professional Interests: My professional passions are fourfold: inpatient hospital medicine, medical education, diagnostic reasoning, and equity in medicine. First and foremost among these is at-the-bedside inpatient care and rounding with a collaborative team. However, this is followed closely by my passion for education. In my life before medical school, I was a Peace Corps high school science teacher. Nowadays, I am particularly interested in resident level education both at the bedside and in lecture or morning report format. I find as I am creating this educational content, I get to focus on my third area passion—diagnostic reasoning. Not only do I enjoy incorporating diagnostic reasoning in my teaching, but I have also done research looking at diagnostic decision making and clinician agreement (or lack thereof) in diagnosis, specifically for pneumonia. Finally, I am actively involved with our residency's Equal Medicine group on several educational initiatives related to gender equity in medicine. I also am researching potential implicit gender bias in resident evaluations of faculty. I hope to devote my career to increasing equity in medicine, both in how we see and treat patients, but also their providers. 

Personal Interests: I grew up in the mountains of northern New Mexico so I have an affinity for hiking, camping, backpacking, swimming—anything outdoors! I particularly enjoy these activities when accompanied by my phenomenal husband, two adorable children (Vaughn is 3 months and Hendrix who is almost 4), and pups Sophie and Bandit. When not trail running or playing sprinkler soccer in my back yard, I can often be found at my favorite local brewery and restaurant HOMES (mostly as take-out this year).

What I Enjoy About Practicing at the University of Michigan: Without question, the thing that drew me to Michigan Medicine in the first place (and the reason I have stayed as long as I have) is the community and the people. The culture here is one of collaboration and humility and this is particularly exemplified within the internal medicine residency where residents helping each other out is the norm. This, in combination with the academic expertise that can be found across the department and subspecialties, makes Michigan Medicine and exceptional place to work. Couple the collaborative and fun work environment with a livable town (no commute, ability to own a home, accessible outdoor space, great schools) and Ann Arbor quickly become a hard place to leave!

Govind Warrier, MD, MPH

Govind Warrier, MD, MPH
University of Louisville

Professional Interests: My professional areas of interest include medical oncology, clinical research, and high-value care. I developed an early interest in oncology and going through residency at Michigan Medicine provided me the opportunity to learn from leaders in the field with the shared goal of providing top-notch care for our amazing patients. The incredibly collaborative culture at Michigan Medicine also helped me find wonderful research mentors. My primary research project, under the guidance of Dr. Leslie Fecher, investigated treatment-related toxicities associated with combination BRAF and MEK inhibitor treatment in resected Stage III melanoma. My second project, with mentorship from Dr. Muneesh Tewari, explores integration of wearable biomedical devices in delivering high-value cancer care with potential applications including earlier identification of toxicities and evaluation for biological features which may be associated with adverse outcomes in cancer patients receiving immunotherapy and CAR-T therapy. With this interest in high-value care, I also currently serve as a JAMA IM Teachable Moment Editorial Fellow. I hope to build on these experiences during a hematology-oncology fellowship toward a career in early phase trials. 

Personal Interests: I love spending time traveling with my wife, Rebecca, and our dog Samson. I also found a wonderful group of friends during residency who share a lot of my other interests – live music, gastronomy, sports, and board games. Ann Arbor, and nearby Detroit, have so much to offer on all of these fronts! Although nothing can ever replace the love I have for my alma mater Kentucky Wildcats, I will concede that Ann Arbor is a great college town with a lot of school spirit. On a more low-key day, you’ll likely find me tinkering with a new gadget while listening to a podcast or painstakingly creating a new Spotify playlist.

What I Enjoy About Practicing at the University of Michigan: What initially drew me to Michigan Medicine was the wonderful sense of community. Every resident and faculty member I met on interview day was very approachable and down to earth. This culture of collegiality, combined with everything that UM has to offer in terms of incredible research and clinical education opportunities, led to three wonderful years of residency. Additionally, Ann Arbor is a great place to live! There are always activities going on in the community, so many parks and nature preserves in and around town, and some really great places to eat as well.