Current Fellows

Dr. Fu is a general surgery resident at the University of Michigan. She is interested in pursuing pediatric or cardiothoracic surgery. She grew up in San Diego, CA, then attended Dartmouth College where she studied biology and anthropology and Yale School of Medicine for medical school. She served with AmeriCorps in New York City between college and medical school, and worked in the Community Services Administration of the City of New Haven during medical school. These experiences fueled her interested in public policy, health disparities, and healthcare delivery in resource-limited settings.

Her research interests include disparities in the treatment of surgical disease, their outcomes, and burden of care on caregivers and families. She is also interested in the evaluation of post-operative quality of life and other patient-centered outcomes, and the effects of targeting modifiable risk factors on post-operative complication rates.

Dr. Fu is working towards a Master's in Health and Healthcare Research through Rackham Graduate School and the Institute for Healthcare Policy and Innovation.

Dr. Jensen is a general surgery resident from the University of Wisconsin and a National Clinical Scholar at the Institute for Healthcare Policy and Innovation. She grew up in central Wisconsin and graduated from Marquette University with a B.S. in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology. She attended medical school at the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health. During her time in medical school, she studied surgical overtreatment and barriers to guideline implementation in low-risk thyroid cancers. This experience fostered her interest in improving the experiences, quality of life, and outcomes of patients diagnosed with pre-malignant lesions and cancer.

Her current research focuses on improving cancer care delivery, specifically surgical care, and patient-oriented clinical outcomes, including decision-making and identifying unmet psychosocial needs. Dr. Jensen is currently working toward a Master’s in Health and Healthcare Research through the Rackham Graduate School.

Dr. Luby is a plastic surgery resident at the University of Michigan. Originally from Ohio, she earned a Bachelors in Chemical Engineering from University of Dayton in 2014. She then continued onto graduate school , where she performed translational science research focused on applications of nanomaterials for targeted cell delivery and earned a Masters in Bioengineering from University of Dayton in 2015. With the goal to care for patients as a physician, she continued onto medical school at the University of Toledo. During that time, she continued her pursuits in translational science research, and even spent a dedicated year as a research fellow working on applications of bone tissue engineering in the Craniofacial Research Laboratory at the University of Michigan. Since beginning her surgical training at Michigan, she has had greater exposure to health services research and has seen the immense impact it can have on formulating evidence-based practices to improve patient care and healthcare systems. Her current research interests include improving the cost of surgical care and optimizing healthcare delivery across large hospital systems with the advent of rapidly expanding healthcare systems nationwide.                    

Dr. Luby is also enrolled in the “mini-MBA” Healthcare Administration Fellowship offered through a partnership between the University of Michigan Ross School of Business and the Department of Surgery. She sees immense value in increasing representation of surgeons in hospital leadership and through this unique programming, she aims to learn principles of business to prepare her for healthcare leadership roles in the future. 

Dr. Schaefer is a general surgery resident in the Department of Surgery at the University of Michigan. She grew up in Boise, Idaho, and graduated from Western Washington University with a B.S. in Biochemistry. She attended medical school at the University of Washington. During medical school, she spent six months at a critical access hospital in rural Idaho and became interested in geographic variation in access to surgical subspecialty care, such as complex cancer surgery and transplant surgery. Her research interests focus on utilizing health care networks to optimize the delivery of surgical subspecialty services across a broad geographic region. She hopes to return to Idaho with a leadership role in the health system to continue to expand access to surgical care in the Intermountain West Region.

To facilitate a more in-depth understanding of health care delivery implementation, Dr. Schaefer will be a Department of Surgery Healthcare Administration Fellow, as well as an Education Fellow during her Academic Development Time. 

Dr. Shah is a general surgery resident at the University of Texas Medical Branch, but is currently pursuing academic development time at the University of Michigan. Originally from New Jersey, he obtained a B.A. in biology and sports medicine from the University of Miami in 2011 and attended medical school at St. George’s University in Grenada. He recently completed a Pediatric Surgical Critical Care Fellowship here at the University of Michigan/CS Mott Children’s Hospital and is now a clinical research fellow within the Section of Pediatric Surgery. Dr. Shah’s research interests are in surgical critical care, diversity within academic surgery and surgical leadership, and pediatric health advocacy.

Dominic is a fourth-year medical student at Wayne State University in Detroit, MI and is currently spending a one-year dedicated research period with the section of plastic surgery at the University of Michigan. After completing his pathology training at Wayne State University in 2016, he spent four years in a hospital-based surgical pathology laboratory before enrolling in medical school. Since then, his interests have shifted to a more clinical focus, and he is now particularly invested in surgical outcomes and health systems research. Currently, his research work concentrates on optimizing presurgical testing as well as opioid prescribing patterns and screening tools in acute care. In any situation, Dominic loves exploring the intersection of science, clinical care and health system operations especially as they relate to surgical settings.

Outside of work or school, Dominic enjoys playing cello (including as a member of the Detroit Medical Orchestra for the last six seasons), discovering new cuisine, good beer, and getting outdoors to enjoy nature whenever his schedule allows.

Noelle is a third-year medical student at the University of Toledo College of Medicine in Toledo, Ohio and is currently spending a one-year dedicated research period with the Section of Plastic Surgery at the University of Michigan. Noelle is deeply passionate about global health and health equity. Before medical school, she spent three years working in Washington, DC at the Obama Foundation (non-profit), Families USA (non-profit), and Booz Allen Hamilton (consulting firm). This enabled her to work across the public and private sector and gain exposure of the US health care system from diverse viewpoints to further advance metric development, dashboard development, payment and delivery reform, process improvement, and research quality. In the summer of 2022, Noelle spent 9 weeks working in Geneva, Switzerland as a Duke-Geneva fellow to co-lead a research project with team members in South Africa, Uganda, Geneva, and India that focused on how to increase diagnostic capacity in low- and middle-income countries. Noelle’s current research focus is on how to improve equitable access to hand surgery. Outside of school, she enjoys hikes, pilates, cycling, running, journaling, reading, and event planning! Noelle aspires to be a plastic and reconstructive surgeon who continues to strengthen local and global equity.