Medical School leadership has announced the appointments of Laurel E. Moore, M.D., as assistant dean for clinical track faculty, and Kanakadurga Singer, M.A., M.D., as assistant dean for tenure track faculty. Both appointments take effect Nov. 1.
A clinical professor in the departments of Anesthesiology and Neurosurgery, Moore (left) serves as associate chair for adult anesthesiology and as MPlan medical director for the University Hospital operating rooms (OR), for which she coordinates operations and patient safety initiatives for all procedural areas at UH. She is closely involved in faculty mentorship and recently completed a three-year term on the Committee on Clinical Track Promotions and Appointments (CLINACAP), serving as chair during the 2020-21 academic year.
A graduate of the University of Michigan Medical School, she completed her anesthesiology residency and a fellowship in neuroanesthesia/neurocritical care at Johns Hopkins University Hospital. She returned to the University of Michigan in 2007 and was promoted to clinical associate professor in 2013 and clinical professor in 2019. Her clinical interests include neuroanesthesia and OR operations, and her research interests are in perioperative stroke.
The Valerie Castle Opipari, M.D., Professor of Pediatrics and an associate professor of pediatric endocrinology and molecular and integrative physiology, Singer (right) also serves as a faculty advisor in the Office of Faculty Development, and associate director and faculty ally of the Graduate Program in Immunology. She is active in the Office of Faculty Development and with diversity, equity and inclusion activities, and she currently serves as vice-chair of the Senate Advisory Committee on University Affairs
After earning a B.A./M.A degree from Johns Hopkins University, she completed her M.D. degree from the University of Michigan Medical School. She also completed her pediatrics residency and her pediatric endocrinology fellowship at C.S. Mott Children’s Hospital. She joined the U-M faculty in 2012 and has been supported by grants from the American Heart Association, the Taubman Emerging Scholars Program, the Janette Ferrantino Junior Investigator Award, and grants from the National Institutes of Health National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases.
Her research focuses on understanding the cellular and endocrine dynamics leading from energy intake to an increase in adipose tissue mass and adipose tissue inflammation. Her lab has been investigating how high fat diet alters hematopoietic stem cells and myeloid precursors contributing to systemic obesity-induced meta-inflammation and metabolic disease, with a focus on understanding sex-differences in metabolic and cardiovascular disease.