Facilitators/Faculty

Charles L. Schepens Professor of Ophthalmology and Professor of Pathology
Harvard Medical School

Dr. Pat D’Amore is the Charles L. Schepens Professor of Ophthalmology and Professor of Pathology at Harvard Medical School and a Senior Scientist at Mass. Eye and Ear. She is the Associate Chief of Basic and Translational Research for Ophthalmology at Mass. Eye and Ear and the Vice Chair of Basic and Translational Research for the Department of Ophthalmology at Harvard Medical School. In ophthalmology at Mass Eye and Ear, she is the Director of the Postdoctoral Training Committee. Chair of the Nominations Committee, Co-Chair of the Mentoring Oversight. Board, Co-Director of the Age-related Macular Degeneration Center of Excellence and the Institutional Signing Official for the Mass Eye and Ear Animal Facility. At Harvard Medical School, Dr. D’Amore the Chair of the Faculty Committee for Scholarship in Medicine and the Chair of Committee on Honors and Awards. Nationally she is the Retinal Cell Biology Trustee and President-elect for the Association for Research in Vision and Ophthalmology (ARVO) and a member of the Executive Committee for the Ryan Initiative for Macular Research. Dr. D’Amore is immediate past President of the ASIP, Chair of the ASIP Nominating Committee, and an Associate Editor for the American Journal of Pathology. She is the recipient of a number of mentoring and service awards including: the A Clifford Barger Excellence in Mentoring Award from Harvard Medical School (2006) the Everett Mendelsohn Excellence in Mentoring Award from Harvard University (2013), the William Silen Lifetime Achievement in Mentoring Award from HMS (2016), and the Barbara J. McNeil Faculty Award for Exceptional Institutional Service from HMS (2018).

Associate Professor, Department of Health Promotion and Development
University of Pittsburgh School of Nursing

Dr. Cecelia Yates is an Associate Professor with Tenure in the Department of Health Promotion & Development in the School of Nursing at the University of Pittsburgh and holds secondary appointments in the Department of Bioengineering, Clinical and Translational Science Institute, and the McGowan Institute of Regenerative Medicine. Dr. Yates attended Tuskegee University (Tuskegee, Alabama), where she earned a BS in Biology/Chemistry in 2001, and a PhD in Integrative Biomedical Science and Pathology in 2010 in conjunction with the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine. Dr. Yates did her advance training in a Postdoctoral Fellowship in Pathology and Regenerative Medicine at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine (2010-2012). She a continuous track record of innovative research and therapeutic development in the field of tissue repair.

Dr. Yates developed the first cellular and molecular pathology and tissue engineering laboratory for basic, clinical, and translational research within the University of Pittsburgh School of Nursing. Her research group investigates molecular pathways that drive tissue fibrosis and correlating them with patient-centric outcome measures of disease severity. Dr. Yates’ research has been supported externally by funding from the National Institute of Nursing Research, National Institute of General Medical Sciences, National Institute of Arthritis and Musculoskeletal and Skin Diseases, pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies, and internally by University of Pittsburgh Genomic Hub and Center for Medical Innovation.

Dr. Yates is currently engaged with various entrepreneurial activities related to her research. In the last 10 years she has submitted 16 invention disclosures to the Innovation Institute that have resulted in 11 issued U.S. patents, several international patents, and four licenses of her work. She is co-founder of three Pittsburgh-based start-up companies; Ocugenix LLC, a therapeutics company targeting macular degeneration, Curostem™ a cellular bio-band aid therapy for treatment of chronic wounds, and FibroKine™ INC which developments targeted chemokine peptide treatment for fibrosing diseases. Dr. Yates has formed purposeful partnerships with biotech companies and academic investigators nationally to target the underlying causes of organ fibrosis. Dr. Yates has been recognized for her emerging discoveries and inventions with several University of Pittsburgh Innovator Awards and as one of three faculty members to receive the Emerging Innovator Award 2021 from the University of Pittsburgh. She is also one of 6 faculty members from the University of Pittsburgh who has been elected as a Senior Member of the National Academy of Inventors.

Dr. Yates has a history of research productivity and excellence in mentoring and leadership. Dr. Yates has published 40 original papers, reviews, and book chapters. She is the co-editor of Fibrosis in Disease: An Organ-based Guide to Disease Pathophysiology and Therapeutic Considerations, (Humana Press – Springer, New York, NY). She is a Member of over 10 Editorial Boards and five Study Sections, and a Member of 12 Advisory Boards. She has served on 17 University Committees including elected chair and co-Chair of the university-wide Bylaws committee. She has mentored over 50 scholars, including junior faculty, PhD and post-doctoral fellows, medical residents, nursing, engineering, and pathology scholars, and graduate and undergraduate research students. She is the Co-Director of the University of Pittsburgh Clinical and Translational Science Fellowship Program (CTSA-TL1). Dr. Yates was awarded the Clinical and Translational Science Institute (CTSI) 2020 Distinguished Alumnus awardee, with recognizes excellence in scholarship, mentorship, and leadership in clinical and translational science. She also recently received the 2022 Chancellor’s Distinguished Research Award, one of the highest honors for a faculty member to receive at University of Pittsburgh.

As a member of the American Society for Investigative Pathology, Dr. Yates is a long-time member of the ASIP Council – she was the elected Chair of the ASIP Committee for Career Development and Diversity (CCDD) for six years and was elected Councilor At-large in 2020. Dr. Yates has served on the ASIP Education Committee, Research and Science Policy, Program, Membership, and Publications Committees. Previously, Dr. Yates served as Co-Chair of the ASIP Cell Injury Scientific Interest Group and contributed to the organization of several ASIP Annual Meetings, and PISA (Pathobiology for Investigators, Students, and Academicians) meetings. Dr. Yates also currently serves as the ASIP representative to the FASEB Excellence in Science Committee and Chair of the Committee for Equal Representation and Opportunity (CERO).

Executive Director, Department of Research Pathology
Genentech, Inc.

Dr. Lorenz received her BS from Stanford University and then attended Washington University in St Louis as a Medical Scientist Training Program fellow, where in 1990 she received her MD and her PhD in immunology. She was a resident in laboratory medicine (clinical pathology) at Barnes-Jewish Hospital, and then transitioned to Assistant Professor in the Departments of Pathology and Medicine at Washington University. In addition to directing the basic science research lab focused on chronic inflammation in the gastrointestinal tract, she was Co-Director of the Joint Clinical Immunology Laboratory of Barnes-Jewish Hospital and St Louis Children’s Hospital and Associate Director of the Laboratory Medicine Residency Training Program.

Dr. Lorenz joined the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB) faculty in 2002 in the Department of Pathology. The National Institutes of Health (NIH), the Juvenile Diabetes Foundation, and the Crohn’s and Colitis Foundation have funded her laboratory research investigating the mucosal immune system. She has served as the chair of MD/PhD Section of the Association of American Medical Colleges Graduate Research, Education, and Training Group, as well as the NIH National Institute of General Medical Sciences Training, Workforce, Development and Diversity Study Section. At UAB, her administrative duties included being program director of the Summer in Biomedical Science Undergraduate Research Program and the Short-Term Medical Student Research Training Program. She was also director of the NIH-funded Preparation for Graduate and Medical Education Program, the UAB Medical Scientist (MD/PhD) Training Program, and the UAB Physician Scientist Development Office.

Dr. Lorenz moved to Genentech in 2018. At Genentech, the department she leads provides high quality pathology support to laboratory and clinical scientists engaged in biomarker strategy/development/deployment across the drug development pipeline. In addition, she is involved in career development for her scientists and physician-scientists and is interested in enhancing training and career opportunities for physician scientists in the biotech industry.

At the ASIP, Dr. Lorenz has been a member of the Council, the Membership Committee, the Meritorious Awards Committee, and the Committee for Equal Representation and Opportunity. She currently serves as President-elect.

Division of Clinical and Translational Sciences
National Institutes of Health

Dr. Sanders received her PhD in Molecular Biology, Cell Biology, and Biochemistry from Brown University. She completed a postdoctoral fellowship in Gastroenterology at Rhode Island Hospital and then joined the Pediatrics faculty at Brown University. Dr. Sanders was promoted to Associate Professor in 2017 with a joint appointment in Pediatrics and Pathology and Laboratory Medicine. During her time at Brown University, she was a trainer in the Pathobiology and Therapeutic Sciences graduate Programs. In 2018, she became the co-Director of the Pathobiology Graduate Program at Brown University which is home to over forty predoctoral trainees and fifty faculty trainers. During her four years as a Director of Graduate Studies, Dr. Sanders implemented mentor and mentee training for students and faculty, resilience education, and led efforts to improve diversity, equity, and inclusion within the program. In addition, Dr. Sanders has been involved in developing grant programs for junior faculty members at Rhode Island Hospital. Dr. Sanders’ R01 funded research program was focused on signaling pathways and gene expression networks that regulate fetal liver development and liver regeneration to provide insight into the liver’s response to injury and dysregulated cell growth that occurs during the development of cancer. Recently, Dr. Jennifer Sanders has transitioned to a position at the National Institutes of Health in the Division of Clinical and Translational Sciences. Dr. Sanders joined ASIP in 2010 as a trainee. She has been engaged in the society serving as an ASIP Ambassador, member of the Program Committee and Membership Committee. In 2021, she joined the leadership of the Women in Pathology group at ASIP and was elected Chair of the Education Committee.

Associate Professor of Pathology
University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine

Dr. Nejak-Bowen has been active in ASIP since 2008, when she became a member of the Education Committee. During her 4-year tenure, she was chosen to co-chair the Scientific Sleuthing of Human Disease for High School Teachers program, an educational outreach workshop that provides high school teachers with concepts of human disease that can be integrated into their curricula. This popular session was held annually at Experimental Biology until 2020. She also served as a co-editor of the ASIP Trainee Newsletter from 2011 to 2014; in this role, she was responsible for disseminating career development resources to fellow trainees in a tri-annual newsletter. In 2017 Dr. Nejak-Bowen served on the PISA Program Committee, which developed sessions for the society’s annual stand-alone meeting. After her term on the Education Committee ended, she was selected to serve on the ASIP Program Committee. As a member of the Program Committee since 2014, she has been instrumental in developing workshops, symposia, and minisymposia with liver-related themes. In 2021 Dr. Nejak-Bowen was elected to the position of Program Committee Chair-elect, and currently serves as Chair of the Program Committee, guiding planning the scientific programs for ASIP Annual Meetings in 2023 and 2024. She is also the co-chair of Club Hepatomania, the Liver Pathobiology Scientific Interest Group at ASIP, where she helps plan the annual group networking session, as well as other outreach activities throughout the year. Dr. Nejak-Bowen is also an active member of AASLD. In 2014, she was elected as a Steering Committee member of the AASLD Liver Cell Biology in Hepatic Diseases SIG, where she helped to organize a SIG program on plasticity of hepatic epithelial cells during liver injury. She is currently a member of the Liver Cell Biology in Hepatic Diseases SIG Mentorship and Membership Subcommittee, and a member of the AASLD Basic Research Committee. She also serves as an Associate Editor for the journal Hepatology, which is published on behalf of AASLD.

At the institutional level, Dr. Nejak-Bowen is Director of the Enrichment Program for the Pittsburgh Liver Research Center, which has recently become an NIDDK-funded center through a P30 mechanism. In this role, she works closely with the Director of the PLRC (Dr. Paul Monga), as well as members of the PLRC Executive Committee, to identify, invite, and host seminar speakers, plan seminars and retreats, and coordinate logistics of roundtable discussions for SIGs. Other Enrichment activities include half-day and mini-retreats for focus groups, and progress report presentations for Pilot and Feasibility winners in PLRC seminars. In 2018, she began serving on the Admissions Committee for the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine Interdisciplinary Biomedical Graduate Program. She has performed other institutional service as well, such as poster judging at the annual Pathology Department retreat.

Lawrence J. Henderson Professor of Pathology
Brigham and Women's Hospital and Harvard Medical School

Dr. Mitchell has been a member of the American Society of Investigative Pathology (ASIP) for over 30 years, and is a past-President of the ASIP (as well as past-President of the Society for Cardiovascular Pathology), and is the current Chair of the newly created ASIP President’s Circle. He has served on the ASIP Education Committee for over 15 years, including serving as Chair for 6 years, with major responsibility for programming four major educational presentations each year for the annual ASIP meeting. In addition, Dr. Mitchell served as the ASIP Program Committee Chair from 2016-2018, coordinating symposia, mini-symposia, and poster sessions for two national (Experimental Biology) meetings. He was also the Program Chair for the Society of Cardiovascular Pathology for three years from 2010-2013, responsible for organizing the national meeting for that group. Dr. Mitchell was the Director of the ASIP Summer Academy in 2008 and 2010, organizing three-day mini-symposiums on the Molecular Mechanisms of Human Disease, including Injury, Inflammation, Stem Cells, and Tissue Repair. Finally, Dr. Mitchell has served as chair, co-chair, and moderator for numerous symposia, workshops, and other sessions at many national and international meetings.

Dr. Mitchell is a Staff Pathologist at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, attending on the cardiovascular surgical pathology and autopsy services, and previously served as Director of the BWH Pathology Department T32 Residency Training Grant for basic and translational research. He is also the Vice Chair for Education at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, with responsibility for all aspects of the graduate education program, and the Associate Director of the combined Harvard-MIT Division of Health Sciences and Technology (HST) with primary responsibility for teaching, advising, and mentoring all HST students (over 700 students to date), as well as the vast majority of MD-PhD matriculants at Harvard Medical School. Dr. Mitchell is the Director of the HST course in Human Pathology, and he teaches in several other HST and HMS pre-clinical courses, all of which are required for both MD and MD-PhD students.

UPMC Endowed Chair for Experimental Pathology, and Professor of Pathology and Medicine
University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine

Dr. Paul Monga is an Academic Physician with an interest in furthering the understanding of many aspects of liver health and disease. After completing his medical training and internship in India, he did his post-doctoral training in Gastroenterology, Hepatology, and Molecular Biology at the Department of Veterans Affairs Medical Center in Washington D.C., learning about liver development and signal transduction. He joined the University of Pittsburgh in the Department of Pathology in 1999 for his second postdoctoral fellowship where he trained in the areas of liver regeneration and liver tumors. He became a faculty member in 2001 and was appointed on the tenure stream in 2003. He was conferred tenured in 2008, when he was promoted to Associate Professor. He became full professor in 2012. He currently is the UPMC Endowed Chair for Experimental Pathology, and Professor of Pathology and Medicine. He serves as the Vice Chair and Chief of the Division of Experimental Pathology (https://path.upmc.edu/Exp-Pathology/dep.htm). He is the founding director of the Pittsburgh Liver Research Center (PLRC), an NIDDK-funded Silvio O Conte Digestive Diseases Research Core Centers. This center of around 100 members is highly accomplished and well-known for their continued fundamental, translational and clinical impact on the liver field. The members of the center study regenerative medicine, chronic liver injury, and tumorigenesis. The center provides 4 research core services – cell and tissue imaging, clinical tissue biobanking, genomics and systems biology, and synthetic biology (https://livercenter.pitt.edu). He is also the program director of a NIH-funded T32 predoctoral training grants on Regenerative Medicine and serves as the Assistant Dean and co-Director for the Medical Scientist Training Program (MSTP) at the University of Pittsburgh. He also serves as the Associate Director of the University of Pittsburgh Drug Discovery Institute helping with the timely initiatives in the field.

For the last 20 years, Dr. Monga’s lab has been focused on elucidation of the cellular and molecular underpinnings of hepatic pathophysiology, especially of liver development, repair, and tumorigenesis. His research has been consistently funded by NIH and industry since 2003 and he is currently PI/MPI on four R01s and four sponsored research agreements with biotech companies like Alnylam, Fog, Aligos, and Vicero. He has over 190 manuscripts and reviews in peer-reviewed journals like Hepatotology, Gastroenterology, Journal of Hepatology, American Journal of Pathology, Cell Metabolism, Cell Reports, Cell Reports Medicine and others. He is also the Editor-in-Chief for the Seminars in Liver Disease and associate, consulting, or advising editor for Science Signaling, Annual Reviews in Pathology, and JCI Insights. Dr. Monga has received numerous awards for both his scientific contributions as well as for his mentoring. He received Outstanding Investigator Award and Robbins Distinguished Educator Award from ASIP. He has received Takeda Distinguished Research Award from the American Physiology Society. He was inducted into American Society for Clinical Investigations. Recently, he received “You Make a Difference Award” from the Community Liver Alliance.

Dr. Monga has served many leadership roles within the ASIP. He was the member of the Program Committee and was elected twice as the Program Committee Chair. He has served on Publications Committee and on Educations Committee for the ASIP. He previously chaired a special task force on Meetings and Courses. Dr. Monga is part of the leadership of the ASIP Scientific Interest Group on Liver Pathobiology and named it Club Hepatomania, which is a popular and successful SIG at the ASIP. He served as an Associate Editor for many years for The American Journal of Pathology, which is ASIP’s flagship journal. He has led many sessions and workshops at the ASIP Annual Meeting and also organized ASIP’s stand-alone meeting (PISA). Dr. Monga has also named annual family awards to promote travel of graduate students, postdocs, and junior faculty working in the area of cancer, liver, and cardiovascular pathology to ASIP annual meetings. Dr. Monga previously served as the Secretary Treasurer for the ASIP and was elected as Vice President of ASIP, a position that transitions to the President of ASIP.