More achievements

Garen J. Wintemute, M.D., M.P.H., a nationally recognized expert in gun violence prevention and pioneer in the field of injury epidemiology, was inducted into the National Academy of Medicine (NAM) in October. Wintemute is a distinguished professor of emergency medicine and the Susan P. Baker-Stephen P. Teret Chair in Violence Prevention at UC Davis Health. He directs the Centers for Violence Prevention, which includes the California Firearm Violence Research Center and the Violence Prevention Research Program. Election to NAM is considered one of the highest honors in the fields of health and medicine, recognizing individuals who have demonstrated outstanding professional achievement and commitment to service. The academy welcomed Wintemute as a leading researcher in firearm injury prevention, spanning more than four decades.

UC Davis Comprehensive Cancer Center Director Primo “Lucky” Lara, Jr., M.D., received the 2025 Giants of Cancer Care award presented annually by OncLive. A committee of more than 115 prominent cancer doctors selected honorees for pioneering achievements in oncology research and care. Lara, a distinguished professor, was recognized for exceptional contributions to researching and treating people with cancers of the urinary and reproductive tracts. He has led or co-led numerous clinical trials exploring novel targeted inhibition strategies for advanced cancers, and is a strong advocate for increasing access to clinical trials. Lara is an active member of several professional societies, including the American Association for Cancer Research, the American Society of Clinical Oncology, the European Society for Medical Oncology and the International Association for the Study of Lung Cancer.

Diana Farmer, M.D., F.A.C.S., F.R.C.S., was honored at this year’s Cellular Therapies and Transfusion Medicine in Trauma and Critical Care (CTTACC) Lifetime Achievement Awards, in recognition of her contributions to the field of cellular therapies. Farmer is an internationally renowned fetal and neonatal surgeon, the Pearl Stamps Stewart Endowed Chair and the chairperson of the UC Davis Department of Surgery. She is also founder and co-director of the Center for Surgical Bioengineering. She is the principal investigator of the CuRe trial, a first-of-its-kind clinical trial which combines fetal surgery with stem cells to treat spina bifida.

Jennifer Doll, C.P.A., M.P.A., chief financial officer for UC Davis Health, was recognized as one of “78 Academic Medical Center CFOs to Know” in 2025 by Becker’s Healthcare. With more than three decades of experience, Doll oversees the overall financial operation of UC Davis Health, including the school of medicine, nursing, medical center, and the medical group.

Joseph Galante, M.D., M.B.A., F.A.C.S., chief medical officer for Hospital Clinical Care Services at UC Davis Health, has been selected to serve on the Academic Medical Center (AMC) Chief Medical Executives (CME) Steering Committee for the health care performance improvement company Vizient, Inc. The national appointment, which begins January 2026, follows a competitive selection process and recognizes leadership and contributions to academic medicine. Galante will collaborate with other senior leaders from academic medical centers to advance education and strategy within the Vizient network.

Julie Schweitzer, Ph.D., a professor of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences and UC Davis MIND Institute faculty member, was recently elected to a leadership role in the International Society for Research in Child and Adolescent Psychopathology. Schweitzer will serve as president-elect for 2025–2027 and president for 2027–2029. Schweitzer’s research advances how we understand and treat ADHD.

Three UC Davis researchers, Sergey Stavisky, Ph.D., Theanne Griffith, Ph.D., and Elisa Zhang, Ph.D., have been honored with prestigious awards from two major institutions.

In a rare honor, two of 10 McKnight Scholar Awards were given to UC Davis neuroscientists Griffith and Stavisky. The McKnight Scholar Awards are granted to scientists in the early stages of their research careers. Since the award was introduced in 1977, it has funded innovative investigators and spurred hundreds of breakthrough discoveries. Each recipient will receive $75,000 per year for three years. Stavisky is an assistant professor in the Department of Neurological Surgery and co-directs the UC Davis Neuroprosthetics Lab. He studies the neural basis of human cognition and develops neurotechnologies to restore lost abilities. Griffith is an assistant professor in the UC Davis Department of Physiology and Membrane Biology. Her lab studies the physiological functions of a specialized class of sensory neurons in the peripheral nervous system, and how they serve motor network development, maintenance and repair.

Griffith and Zhang, an assistant professor in the UC Davis Department of Physiology and Membrane Biology, are also among the 30 new Freeman Hrabowski Scholars selected from across the U.S. by the Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI). Freeman Hrabowski Scholars are outstanding early-career faculty who have the potential to become leaders in their research fields and to create lab environments in which everyone can thrive. Zhang’s lab studies the uterus’s remarkable capacity for scarless regeneration and dynamic tissue remodeling. The lab aims to reveal new concepts and strategies for improving maternal-fetal outcomes, gynecological health and regenerative medicine.

Respiratory therapist Krystal Craddock, M.Sc., R.R.T., R.R.T.-N.P.S., AE.-C., R.R.T.-A.C.C.S., C.C.M., received a prestigious literary award for her research on a groundbreaking care model that relies on using respiratory therapists in the Comprehensive COPD Clinic at UC Davis Health. Her recognition — the 2025 Mallinckrodt Literary Award — was based on a paper she wrote that evaluated the benefits of embedding respiratory therapists (RTs) into a dedicated COPD clinic.

The study found that having RTs in the outpatient setting led to significant improvements in patient symptoms and flare-ups and a notable reduction in hospitalizations, highlighting the value of RT-led interventions in chronic disease management. The award is presented annually for the best paper by a first-time author published in Respiratory Care, the official scientific journal of the American Association for Respiratory Care (AARC).