Current Fellows
Pulmonary & Critical Care Fellows
Class of 2023-2026
Mansour Alkhunaizi, MD
Medical School: Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland
Residency: Baylor
Bio: Mansour was born in Denver, Colorado but grew up primarily in Saudi Arabia. He moved to Dublin, Ireland to attend medical school at the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland (RCSI). He then made his way back to the United States for internal medicine residency at Baylor, where his interest in PCCM grew. He is thrilled to be moving to the west coast to begin his PCCM fellowship at Stanford. His interests are in critical care, point of care ultrasound and medical education. Outside of medicine, Mansour enjoys hiking, spending time in nature, and traveling with family and friends.
Stephanie Chen, MD
Medical School: Univ of Michigan
Residency: UCSF
Bio: Stephanie was born in Lansing, MI and grew up in the Midwest before making the trek to the West Coast for internal medicine residency at UCSF. She is excited to continue staying in the Bay Area as a PCCM fellow at Stanford and to continue exploring her interests include critical care, clinical education/teaching, quality improvement/ICU outcomes. Outside of the hospital, she enjoys baking (joined the trend of sourdough baking during the pandemic), trying out new restaurants, and playing board games with friends.
Alex Heard, MD
Medical School: Univ of South Dakota
Residency: Yale
Bio: Alex was born and raised in Minnesota and attended undergrad and medical school in South Dakota. During residency at Yale, he developed a passion for medical education and created a POCUS and procedural curriculum. Outside of medicine, he enjoys hiking, backpacking, reading, and gardening.
Cyra Kang, MD
Medical School: Catholic University of Korea School of Medicine
Residency: John H. Stroger Hospital of Cook County
Bio: Cyra grew up on Jeju-do, a volcanic island off Korea’s southern coast and first lived in California during high school. She has lived in New Hampshire for undergrad, Korea for medical school, and Chicago for internal medicine residency. She is excited to be living in the Bay Area, which reminds her of the small island where she grew up. Cyra is particularly interested in clinical research on AI-driven prediction models. Outside of medicine, she enjoys playing the violin in chamber music, traveling, hiking, trying out new fitness classes, and going to jazz shows.
Rodrigo Diaz Lankenau, MD
Medical School: Tecnologico de Monterrey
Residency: Univ of Miami
Bio: Rodrigo was born and raised in Monterrey, Mexico where he completed his medical school at Tecnologico de Monterrey. He then chose to continue his training in the US and headed to the University of Miami for residency. During his time there he worked on home oxygen research and completed a medical education pathway. His current academic and research interests include mechanical ventilation, ILD, and interventions to improve medical education. Outside of medicine Rodrigo enjoys hiking, reading, working on his baking skills, and trying new coffee places with his wife.
Tracey Liu, MD
Medical School: Mt Sinai
Residency: UCLA
Bio: Having grown up in Fresno, California and spent her college years in the East Bay, Dr. Liu is thrilled to be returning to the California Bay Area to be training at Stanford. She completed medical school at Mount Sinai and internal medicine residency at UCLA. Having taken care of patients when Covid hit during her intern year, she found a passion in navigating complex goals of care discussions, and honoring patient-centered, goal concordant care. This led her to complete a fellowship in palliative care at NYU. She is excited to integrate her unique training with her passion for critical care medicine, potential interests in ILD and PH. Additional interests include medical education, healthcare disparities, and quality improvement. Outside of medicine she enjoys traveling, trying new foods, learning languages, live music, ice skating, and dancing in her studio.
Ahmed Taha, MD
Medical School: University of Khartoum
Residency: Texas Tech
Bio: Ahmed was born in Sudan. He completed his medical school at the University of Khartoum, Faculty of Medicine, and then moved to the US for his Internal Medicine training. Before embarking at Stanford, Ahmed practiced independently as an Academic Hospitalist in affiliation with Indiana University and also received the honorary FACP designation by the American College of Physicians. Ahmed joined Stanford aspiring to become a leading clinician-educator in the field of pulmonary and critical care medicine with career interests encompassing high-value care in critical care settings and ARDS pharmacotherapy. When not working, Ahmed enjoys spending time with his family, watching/attending stand-up comedy shows, and playing soccer. Ahmed also loves traveling and experiencing new cultures; he has been to 15 countries and counting!
Pulmonary & Critical Care Fellows
Class of 2022-2025
Carrie Cao, MD
Medical School: UCSF
Residency: Stanford
Bio: Carrie was born in Nanjing, China, and moved to the US with her family before elementary school. She grew up in San Diego, attended undergrad at Yale then returned to the west (best) coast for medical school at UCSF and internal medicine residency at Stanford. She is thrilled to be staying on as a PCCM fellow and can’t wait to continue exploring her interests in interventional pulm, procedural education, and research. Outside of the hospital, she loves everything outdoors- running, hiking, skiing, paddleboarding, and going on adventures with her rescue pup Callie.
Kevin Correa, MD
Medical School: UCLA/Charles R. Drew
Residency: UCSF
Bio: Kevin was born in Zapopan, Mexico, and after completing 1st grade, his family and he moved to the United States. After a brief stint in Virginia for two years, they settled permanently in Southern California’s Inland Empire. He attended UC Riverside for undergrad followed by med school at the UCLA - Charles R. Drew Program. Realizing, he never wanted to leave California, he pursued Internal Medicine at UCSF. His interests in critical care, clinical education/teaching, and health disparities led him to choosing Stanford to further his training and continue to serve. When he’s not in the hospital, you can usually find Kevin enjoying hobbies including playing/watching sports (soccer/tennis), going to concerts (pop punk/indie/electronic), and Yelp’ing his next meal.
Kyle Fahey, MD
Medical School: Northwestern
Residency: Stanford
Bio: Kyle was born in Maine and moved all over the country until his family settled in Omaha, Nebraska. He returned to the east coast for college at Syracuse University and went back to the Midwest for medical school at Northwestern University. He moved out to the west coast 3 years ago for residency at Stanford and hasn’t looked back. He is excited to stay at Stanford for his PCCM fellowship and is interested in clinical education and ICU outcomes. He enjoys running year-round in the sunny weather and hiking the many trails nearby.
Krystle Leung, MD
Medical School: Harvard
Residency: MGH
Bio: Krystle grew up outside Chicago and has been in Boston for the past decade. She is excited to move to and explore the Bay Area. She is interested in advanced lung disease and patient/family engagement in the ICU. She enjoys spending her free time cooking/baking, experimenting with her espresso machines, making art, and exploring art museums.
Achyut Patil, MD
Medical School: Harvard
Residency: Stanford
Bio: Achyut grew up in Chandler, Arizona before 8 years on the East Coast at Yale for college and Harvard for medical school, then came back out west for residency and chief resident year at Stanford. In PCCM fellowship he hopes to do a lot of learning and teaching - and eventually work as a MICU/pulmonary clinician-educator. His free time is primarily taken up by watching his many sports teams lose in excruciating fashion (he may never get over the Phoenix Suns' loss in the 2021 NBA Finals), but also by exploring the many hikes, breweries, and sports games in the Bay Area.
Joseph Rathkey, MD PhD
Medical School: Case Western Reserve University
Residency: Stanford
Bio: Joseph enjoys research (innate immunology and molecular biology), running (generally slowly), reading (articles and books), riding (bikes), and relaxing (with family and friends).
Pulmonary & Critical Care Fellows
Class of 2021-2024
Solmaz Ehteshami Afshar, MD
Medical School: Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences
Residency: Yale New Haven Hospital
Bio: Dr. Ehteshami Afshar was born and raised in Iran. After finishing medical school in Tehran, she moved to Vancouver, Canada, where she earned her MSc in experimental medicine. She then moved to the US for her residency at Yale New Haven Hospital before moving back to the West Coast to start her fellowship at Stanford. Her main research interests are health services and health economics in COPD. Outside of the hospital, Dr. Ehteshami Afshar enjoys traveling, hiking and reading fiction.
Landy Luna Diaz, MD
Medical School: Universidad de Cartagena
Residency: University of Miami/Jackson Memorial Hospital
Bio: Dr. Luna was born and raised in Colombia, her passion for research started there working in an immunology lab in asthma and parasitic infections. She moved to the US in 2014 and started her career in the US working with A1ATD and COPD and UM/JMH. She is passionate about research, equality and teaching. Outside of medicine she loves moving, this includes dancing, running, hiking, skating and CrossFit!
Manoj Maddali, MD
Medical School: Johns Hopkins
Residency: UCSF
Bio: Dr. Maddali moved to California in 2017 after spending the majority of his life in the southeastern United States. Within PCCM, he is interested in pulmonary vascular disease and ARDS. He is interested in using machine learning techniques to augment clinical decision support in the EHR. Outside of the hospital, he enjoys backcountry backpacking, reading historical fiction, cooking, and meditation.
Andrew Moore, MD
Medical School: University of Virginia
Residency: Stanford
Bio: Dr. Moore was born and raised in Virginia and went to medical school at the University of Virginia before making the long trip out to Stanford for his residency and chief year. His primary research interest is in diagnostic and prognostic phenotyping in the ICU. Outside of the hospital you can usually find Dr. Moore out mountain biking or hiking in the nearby mountains or enjoying one of the many breweries in the area.
Shaun Pienkos, MD
Medical School: Temple University
Residency: Stanford
Bio: Dr. Pienkos was born in Saratoga, CA, and lived there for most of his life. He went to medical school at Temple University in Philadelphia, and then returned home for Internal Medicine training at Stanford. During residency, he worked with Drs. Vinicio de Jesus Perez and Angela Rogers, who helped cement his decision to pursue fellowship in PACCM. His current interests within the field include ARDS, pulmonary vascular disease, and ILD. Outside of the hospital, he enjoys hockey, golf, hiking and cooking.
Maya Viavant, MD
Medical School: UC Davis School of Medicine
Residency: Weill Cornell
Bio: Dr. Viavant grew up in the Bay Area but bounced back and forth across the US a few times before returning home to attend Stanford. She studied biology at Dartmouth College, got her MD at UC Davis and then headed to NYC for residency at New York Presbyterian- Weill Cornell and a chief year at Memorial Sloan Kettering. Outside of the hospital she likes to garden, bike, and explore local restaurants.
Pulmonary & Critical Care Fellows
T32 Research Fellow
Ana Pacheco-Navarro, MD
Medical School: Weill Cornell Medical College
Residency: Massachusetts General Hospital
Bio: Dr. Pacheco-Navarro originally hails from Santa Cruz, California, but spent the majority of her life moving progressively further East: first to the border town of El Paso, Texas, where she spent most of her childhood, then to Massachusetts, where she studied biology and English at Williams College. Following graduation, she spent three years teaching high school biology and physics as a Teach for America Corps member in New York City, and carried her love of education with her to medical school at Weill Cornell Medical College, where she served as her class’s education representative and was involved in designing the medical school’s new curriculum. She attended residency at MGH, where she continued to be involved in medical education, and where she first fell in love with pulmonary and critical care medicine. She is delighted to return home to the Bay Area for fellowship at Stanford, where her interests include translational research in acute lung injury and increasing diversity and inclusivity in medicine. When not in the hospital, she can be found outside on the trail, enjoying a hike or a run with her dog, Summer, and her partner, Pet.
Why Stanford? "Stanford is the ultimate choose-your-own adventure fellowship: if you have an interest (either clinical or research-based), the PCCM leadership will work with you to design the second and third year to meet your needs. Faculty are clinically excellent, incredibly friendly, and very available to meet with fellows to discuss research and career planning, and most importantly, the Stanford fellows are a wonderful group of people to both work and hang out with, in or out of the hospital."
Layla Barkal, MD PhD
Medical School: University of Wisconsin
Residency: Stanford
Bio: Dr. Barkal was born and raised in Iowa before heading east to study biological engineering at MIT. After graduation, she moved back to the Midwest and earned her MD and PhD in biomedical engineering at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. She completed residency at Stanford as part of the Translational Investigator Program. Her academic and research interests center around host-pathogen interactions in the lungs. Outside the hospital, she enjoys hiking and exploring local farms and farmers markets.
Specialty/Subspecialty Fellows
Class of 2022-2023
Narula Naureen (Tx), MD
Medical School: Gian Sagar Medical College and Hospital
Residency: Staten Island University Hospital
PCCM Fellowship: Northwell Health – Staten Island University Hospital
Pranjal Patel (IP), MD
Medical School: Saint George’s University
Residency: Kaiser Permanente Santa Clara Hospital
PCCM Fellowship: Loma Lina University Med Center, Loma Linda
Jorge Villalpando Salazar (Tx), MD
Medical School: Escuela de Medicina Universidade de Monterrey
Residency: Methodist Hospital San Antonio
PCCM Fellowship: University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio
Martin Rofael (PH), MD
Medical School: University of Washington School of Medicine
Residency: Highland Hospital
PCCM Fellowship: UCSF