A likeness for Monica Kraft, MD, chair of the University of Arizona Department of Medicine, was added to the UA BIO5 Institute “Wall of Fame” earlier this month.
Look for more updates to the wall, which spotlights researchers and collaborators across the UA Health Sciences campus north of Speedway Boulevard as well as others on main campus, coming this summer.
The wall includes about 36 panels, each of which can hold about 25 researchers’ round likenesses that appear like an old newspaper columnist photo from the Wall Street Journal or New York Times in black-and-white pixels.
Currently, about 14 panels are populated with researcher’s faces. Each includes a few words or phrases encircling them that highlight the person’s area of investigation. Dr. Kraft’s say “Asthma, Health, Medicine, Immunology” and “Pulmonology.”
“We have several (~77 new investigator likenesses) that will be installed by the end of the summer, as well as several that are going to be removed/replaced because they have left the University,” said Amy Randall-Barber, BIO5’s manager of marketing and events.
“To be honest, it’s not an exact science how researchers make it on the wall,” Randall added straightforwardly. “Often, it’s a matter of do we have a good photo of the person.”
Currently, about 17 faculty members from the Department of Medicine are featured on the wall from nine divisions or business units, led by the Pulmonary Division with five. See who the others are below and, in August, look back at the DOM News archive webpage for an update (click image to enlarge):
David Alberts, MD | Division of Hematology & Oncology (former director, UA Cancer Center)
Heddwin L. Brooks, PhD | Division of Nephrology
Elizabeth Connick, MD | Division of Infectious Diseases (chief)
Clara Curiel-Lewandrowksi, MD | Division of Dermatology (co-director, UA Skin Cancer Institute)
Janet Funk, MD | Division of Endocrinology
John Galgiani, MD | Division of Infectious Diseases (director, UA Valley Fever Center for Excellence)
Joe G. N. “Skip” Garcia, MD | Division of Pulmonary, Allergy, 
Critical Care & Sleep Medicine (past senior vice president, UA Health Sciences)
Steven Goldman, MD | Division of Cardiology
Stefano Guerra, MD, MPH, PhD | Division of Pulmonary, Allergy, Critical Care & Sleep Medicine
Louise Hecker, PhD | Division of Pulmonary, Allergy, Critical Care & Sleep Medicine
Julie Ledford, PhD | Division of Pulmonary, Allergy, Critical Care & Sleep Medicine
Yves Lussier, MD | UAHS Center for Biomedical Informatics & Biostatistics (director)
Akinlolu Ojo, MD, MPH, PhD | Division of Nephrology (associate vice president, 
UAHS Clinical Research and Global Health Initiatives, and principal investigator, All of Us Arizona Research Program)
Marvin Slepian, MD | Division of Cardiology (director, Arizona Center for Accelerated Biomedical Innovation)
Esther Sternberg, MD | Division of Integrative Medicine (director, 
UA Institute on Place, Wellbeing & Performance)
Nima Toosizadeh, PhD | Division of Geriatrics, General Internal & Palliative Medicine
Dr. Kraft, who also is a full professor, the Robert and Irene Flynn Endowed Chair in Medicine and deputy director of the UA Health Sciences Asthma and Airway Research Center, joined the faculty at the UA College of Medicine – Tucson in 2014. An internationally renowned physician-scientist, her focus is on translational research to find respiratory biomarkers and develop therapies to relieve the frequency and severity of attacks in adult asthma sufferers. Federally funded for more than 20 years, she has won multiple honors for her work, including serving as president of the American Thoracic Society (2012-13) and receiving the ATS Distinguished Achievement Award (2018) and Elizabeth A. Rich Award (2019). She also was named last summer to the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute Advisory Council, which advises the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, the National Institutes of Health and NHLBI on strategic planning and related research. Before coming to the UA, she was on faculty at Duke University in Durham, N.C., and the University of Colorado/National Jewish Health in Denver.
About the UA Department of Medicine
The University of Arizona Department of Medicine is one of six original departments and the largest at the UA College of Medicine – Tucson, with 14 divisions covering medical subspecialties from cardiology to rheumatology. The faculty includes more than 250 physicians who help train more than 70 fellows in 18 fellowship programs, 130 residents in internal medicine and dermatology, and 450 medical students engaged in clerkships, sub-internships and research opportunities. Affiliated with UA institutes and centers of excellence and collaborative cohorts across the nation and world, the department’s investigators are leading research into development of personalized precision medicine therapies for both simple and complex diseases to improve the lives of people in Arizona and abroad. Learn more: deptmedicine.arizona.edu