2023 Women in Medicine and Science Symposium

Dr. Sheehy is a faculty member in the Division of Hospital Medicine in the Department of Medicine. She served as Hospital Medicine Division Chief from 2010 to 2023. In 2023, she assumed the role of President, UW Health ACO, and Senior Medical Director of Population Health at UW Health. Also in 2023, she was inducted as faculty member into the Alpha Omega Alpha Medical Honor Society and was elected to the Society of Hospital Medicine Board of Directors. Dr. Sheehy also serves as Associate Director for Health Policy Research in UW Center for Health Disparities Research (CHDR). She previously served as President of the UW Hospital and Clinics Medical Board, Chair of the Agrace Hospice Board, and Chair of the Society of Hospital Medicine Public Policy Committee. Dr. Sheehy has received several leadership and service awards, including the American College of Physicians (ACP) National Top 10 Hospitalist Award, the Society of Hospital Medicine Award for Outstanding Service in Hospital Medicine Award, and the UW Health Physician Excellence Leadership Award. She is a recipient of the Department of Medicine Grossman Professionalism Award and is a two-time recipient of the Evans-Glassroth Department of Medicine Inpatient Teacher of the Year Award. In 2021-22, Dr. Sheehy was a Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF) Health Policy Fellow in Washington DC, working in the Office of the Speaker of the House of Representatives, where she helped to frame the health policy aspects of the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022.

Dr. Keles obtained her Ph.D. in Biostatistics from the University of California at Berkeley. After a year-long postdoctoral research at Berkeley, she joined the Department of Biostatistics and Medical Informatics and the Department of Statistics at the University of Wisconsin, Madison. Dr. Keles has more than twenty years of experience in developing statistical and computational methods for genomics, including serving as a principal investigator for the Encyclopedia of DNA Elements (ENCODE), and pioneering foundational statistical models for high dimensional and high throughput sequencing data analysis. Her research interests span developing statistical and computational methods for denoising and signal extraction from sequencing data and modeling of high dimensional data. Dr. Keles is the recipient of the David Byar Young Investigator award of the Biometrics Section of the American Statistical Association. She was awarded H.I. Romnes Faculty Fellowship and Vilas Associates award of the University of Wisconsin, Madison. Dr. Keles served as a member of the Genomics, Computation, and Technology (GCAT) study section of National Institutes of Health (NIH) from 2016 to 2022, on the editorial board of the Journal of the American Statistical Association from 2012 to 2013, and as the International Mathematical Society (IMS) ENAR program chair in 2021 and the Joint Statistical Meetings (JSM) Program Chair of the Section on Statistics in Genomics and Genetics in 2021. Dr. Keles is an elected fellow of the American Statistical Association.

Dr. Johnson is the Director of the UW Population Health Institute (PHI), Principal Investigator of the County Health Rankings and Roadmaps, and Professor (CHS) of Population Health Sciences. Dr. Johnson is a member of the National Academies of Science, Engineering and Medicine’s Roundtable on Population Health Improvement. She has dedicated her career to partnering with children, families, community organizations and systems to advance health and well-being. Awed by the resilience of individuals and communities, she is motivated to remove unfair obstacles and conditions that create and perpetuate health inequities. Dr. Johnson completed undergraduate studies at Brown University; earned an M.A. and Ph.D. in clinical psychology at Boston University and served as a Clinical Fellow in Psychology at Harvard Medical School. She was previously Director of Behavioral Health at Milwaukee Health Services, Inc., a federally qualified health center and served as the Administrator and State Health Officer for the Wisconsin Division of Public Health. Immediately prior to joining the PHI, she was Associate Professor of Pediatrics at the Medical College of Wisconsin Center for Advancement of Underserved Children where she collaborated with diverse stakeholders to address a broad range of real-world problems.

Dr. Spiker is an Assistant Professor of Orthopedic Surgery. She is board certified in Orthopedic Surgery, and subspecialty certified in Orthopedic Sports Medicine. She completed two fellowships at the premier orthopaedic hospital in the country, the Hospital for Special Surgery, the first in Sports Medicine and Shoulder Surgery and the second in Hip Preservation. She is a team physician for UW Badger Athletics and provides head orthopedic coverage for the UW Men’s and Women’s Basketball teams. She is also the Program Director of the UW Orthopedic Surgery Sports Medicine Fellowship Program and Director of the UW Hip Preservation Program. She has authored numerous textbook chapters, review articles, and peer-reviewed original research studies and has given local, regional, national, and international talks and presentations in the areas of sports medicine and hip preservation. She is an active member in the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons (AAOS), American Orthopaedic Society for Sports Medicine (AOSSM), Arthroscopy Association of North America (AANA), International Hip Preservation Society (ISHA), Alpha Omega Alpha (AOA) Honor Medical Society, American Orthopaedic Association (AOA) Emerging Leaders Forum, Ruth Jackson Orthopaedic Society (RJOS) and the Forum. Prior to entering the medical field, Dr. Spiker worked as a speech writer for the National Science Foundation in Washington, D.C. and was a Fulbright Scholar to Berlin, Germany.

Raised in Mexico City, Dr. Téllez-Girón received her medical degree, with honors, at the National University of Mexico (UNAM). She moved to the United States in 1993 to be with her family and to continue her education, and ever since has been working very actively with the Latino/a community of Madison. As with many immigrants, she moved with nothing and supported herself cleaning houses and taking care of senior citizens for nearly four years while she completed the requirements to practice medicine in the US. She completed the University of Wisconsin Family Medicine Residency program and after graduation joined as faculty. Her clinical practice is at the Wingra Clinic where more than 90% of her patients speak only Spanish. She has been the chair of the Latino Health Council in Madison for the past 22 years and under her leadership several annual community initiatives have been started including the Latino Health Fair, Latino Chronic Disease Summit, Latino Mental Health summit and a Latino health teen bash. For the past seventeen years she has been the medical director and main presenter of a monthly health education Spanish radio program in the local Spanish radio station. Dr. Téllez-Girón has received multiple awards including the UW Madison Outstanding Women of Color award, the 2011 City-County Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Humanitarian Award, the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health Faculty and Staff Equity and Diversity Award, the 2016 Arnold P Gold Foundation Humanism in Medicine Award, the 2022 Wisconsin Medical Society Foundation “Superhero of Medicine award” and the 2023 UW Health Leadership Physician Excellence Award.

Dr. Tiwari is an Associate Professor in the Departments of Radiology and Biomedical Engineering. Dr. Tiwari also has an affiliate position in the Department of Medical Physics and serves as the Co-Director of Imaging and Radiation Science at the Carbone Cancer Center. Prior to joining UW-Madison, Dr. Tiwari was at Case Western Reserve University, where she was the Director of the Brain Image Computing Laboratory and an Assistant Professor in the Department of Biomedical Engineering. Dr. Tiwari’s research interests lie in artificial intelligence (AI), pattern recognition, and computational imaging for automated diagnostic, prognostic, and treatment evaluation solutions using radiologic imaging in oncology and neurological disorders. Her research has so far evolved into over 60 peer-reviewed publications, 60 peer-reviewed abstracts, and 13 patents (8 issued, 5 pending). Dr. Tiwari has been the recipient of several scientific awards, most notably being named as one of 100 women achievers by the Government of India for making a positive impact in the field of Science and Innovation. In 2018, she was selected as one of Crain’s Business Cleveland Forty under 40. In 2020, she was awarded the J&J Women in STEM (WiSTEM2D) scholar award in Technology. In 2021, she was awarded the Honorary Early Career Achievement Award through the Society for Imaging informatics in Medicine. Dr. Tiwari has received certification of commendation from the General Assembly of the State of Ohio and from Ohio Secretary of State for her research on brain tumors. Dr. Tiwari’s research is funded through the Veterans Affairs, National Cancer Institute, Department of Defense, and various foundation and state grants.