Our Team Highlights
Inside Stanford Digestive Health - Autumn 2025
Featured Faculty
Yi Jiang, MD
Clinical Assistant Professor, Medicine
Dr. Yi Jiang was born and raised in China. She received her MD degree from Tsinghua University, Peking Union Medical College. After postdoctoral training at SRI International in the Bay Area, she completed internal medicine residency at Rutgers UMDNJ, followed by gastroenterology and medical pancreatology fellowships at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles. She has now returned to the Bay Area and joined Stanford GI as a Clinical Assistant Professor.
Dr. Jiang’s full bio is available at: https://med.stanford.edu/profiles/368864
Clinical Expertise: Dr. Jiang specializes in the screening, diagnosis, and management of pancreatic disorders, with dedicated fellowship training in medical pancreatology. She also provides comprehensive care for a broad range of general gastroenterology disorders.
Scholarly Expertise: Dr. Jiang’s research focuses on chronic pancreatitis. She has participated in clinical trials exploring innovative strategies, including novel nutritional therapies and digital health interventions, aimed at improving patient outcomes. Dr. Jiang has published more than 20 peer-reviewed articles and presented over 50 posters or oral abstracts at national GI meetings.
Something about me: Outside of work, Dr. Jiang enjoys practicing Tai Chi, meditation, and spending time with her husband and three children.
Sunny Sandhu, MD
Clinical Assistant Professor, Medicine
Dr. Sunny Sandhu is a California native who was born and raised in the Central Valley. After earning his medical degree at St. George’s University, he completed his internal medicine residency and chief residency at UCSF-Fresno. He then completed a combined Gastroenterology and Transplant Hepatology fellowship at the University of Miami, where he also served as chief fellow. Dr. Sandhu is thrilled to return to California and to join the team at Stanford, where he looks forward to caring for patients and contributing to the team’s mission of excellence.
Dr. Sandhu’s full bio is available at: https://med.stanford.edu/profiles/371256
Clinical Expertise: Dr. Sandhu enjoys managing all aspects of general and transplant hepatology, with a particular focus on decompensated liver disease, liver transplantation, and the growth of outreach programs to improve access to care for patients with advanced liver disease.
Scholarly Expertise: Dr. Sandhu has a broad range of scholarly activities. He has published on various topics including the management of end-stage liver disease and its associated complications, liver transplantation, and organ allocation. He has presented his work at national meetings and contributed to peer-reviewed publications in the field.
Something about me: In his free time, Dr. Sandhu loves spending quality time with his wife and their one-year-old son, who keeps them joyfully busy. He enjoys staying active by working out, playing tennis, and snowboarding, and he also enjoys traveling and exploring new places with his family.
Erin Watson, MD
Clinical Associate Professor, Medicine
Dr. Erin Watson was born in San Diego and raised in California, Virginia, and England. She completed her doctorate from the Adler University in Chicago, residency with the Portland VA, and fellowship with San Francisco VA. She joined San Francisco VA and UCSF as faculty and has spent the last decade working across primary care and behavioral medicine clinics. She recently joined Stanford’s GI Behavioral Medicine team.
Dr. Watson's full bio is available at: https://med.stanford.edu/profiles/368809
Clinical Expertise: Dr. Watson is a board-certified clinical health psychologist with broad training across many disease states. She has expertise in motivational enhancement techniques and lifestyle medicine. Dr. Watson is currently narrowing her interests by focusing her expertise in the areas of psychogastroenterology and psycho-hepatology.
Scholarly Expertise: Dr. Watson’s research has focused on optimizing behavioral interventions in the treatment of chronic pain. She is currently a coinvestigator in a National Institutes of Health-funded study examining effective treatment options for veterans with chronic pain and addiction. She is interested in studying and developing evidence-based psychotherapeutic interventions for chronic liver diseases.
Something About Me: Outside of psychology, Dr. Watson enjoys learning through all mediums - reading, watching documentaries, and traveling with her partner. She is a former ballet dancer, passionate about the arts and sciences, and a true Capricorn (whether she likes it or not).
Fellows' Corner
Congratulations to the Gastroenterology & Hepatology Fellowship Class of 2025!
Daud Akhtar, MD
Daud is currently completing his 1-year fellowship in Advanced Endoscopy at Stanford and is looking to possibly return home to Canada following training.
Aileen Bui, MD
Aileen completed her 1-year fellowship in Advanced Endoscopy at Stanford, and will be starting her new job at the City of Hope hospital system in the Los Angeles metro area.
Seren Gedallovich, MD
Seren completed her 3-year GI/Hepatology fellowship including Chief fellow year at Stanford, and has now started her 1-year Transplant Hepatology fellowship as well as second Chief fellow year.
Mohamad Itani, MD
Mo completed one year of Neurogastroenterology fellowship training at Stanford, and has now started GI/Hepatology fellowship training at the University of Minnesota.
Michael Pimienta, MD
Michel completed his 3-year GI/Hepatology fellowship at Stanford, and is currently working as a general Gastroenterologist at the Good Samaritan-Partners in Health Hospital in downtown Los Angeles. Given the unique and medically underserved population that the hospital covers, he is excited and fulfilled to be giving back to his LA community.
Mai Sedki, MD, MPH
Mai completed her 3-year GI/Hepatology fellowship at Stanford, and is currently completing her PhD dissertation in epidemiology and biostatistics at UCSF. She is practicing general gastroenterology at the Sacramento VA.
John Enguang Wang, MD
John completed his 3-year GI/Hepatology fellowship and served as Chief fellow at Stanford. He is now practicing comprehensive gastroenterology and hepatology in San Francisco at 2100 Webster St #115, San Francisco CA 94109 (phone 415-387-8800; fax 415-387-5204). In addition to his private practice, he continues to train fellows, residents, and medical students at California Pacific Medical Center.
Wendy YX Zhou, MD
Wendy completed her 1-year Neurogastroenterology fellowship and 3-year GI/Hepatology fellowship at Stanford. She is currently working as a general Gastroenterologist at Regional Medical Center in San Jose and St. Louise Regional Center in Gilroy within the Santa Clara Valley Healthcare system. She is grateful to be caring for the underserved communities within Santa Clara and South County.
Staff Highlights
Amoolya Chandrabhatta| Research Assistant/Clinical Research Coordinator, Sinha Lab
Amoolya is a clinical research coordinator and research assistant in Dr. Sinha’s lab researching inflammatory bowel disease and primary sclerosing cholangitis. She spends most of her time talking to patients about their research and helping with benchwork.
Fun facts: Outside of work, she enjoys exploring new places with her friends and making clothes with her sewing machine.
Dawiyat Massoudi, PhD | Life Science Research Professional, Dhanasekaran Lab
She is senior scientist, who joined the Dhanasekaran laboratory in the Division of Gastroenterology and Hepatology at the Department of Medicine, in March 2025. One of her research interests focuses on understanding the role of the immune system in the onset of hepatocellular carcinoma developed in the context of metabolic dysfunction-associated steatohepatitis or MASH. Part of her responsibilities also lies on managing the Dhanasekaran laboratory to ensure compliance with laboratory rules, safety and regulatory standards in order to maintain a safe and productive work environment.
Fun facts: She loves chocolate, she loves ice cream but she despises chocolate flavored ice cream!
Maya Ryan | Clinical Research Coordinator Associate, GI Clinical Research Team
As a Clinical Research Coordinator Associate, Maya supports a variety of studies focusing on conditions including inflammatory bowel disease, gastrointestinal cancers, and celiac disease. On the day-to-day, you can find her recruiting patients, collecting samples, sleuthing through charts, designing databases, and completing any other work necessary to ensure studies run smoothly.
Fun facts: Outside of work, Maya loves to dance, and her favorite styles are contemporary, jazz, and hip-hop. She also enjoys hiking, playing board games, and trying local coffee shops.