DOM adds 18 more faculty from early fall through New Year

Kind of how the U.S. Labor Department’s follow-up job reports correct employment statistics, we’ve got a few updates from last summer and fall’s new gainfully employed physicians via the University of Arizona Department of Medicine.

There were a couple more on payroll June through August — two in all — as well as one whose actual start date was earlier and another whose start date a bit later. Also among the 18 hired since Sept. 1 are two new division chiefs as well. Read more about them and their new colleagues below.

Summer staffing additions    

New folks included in an Aug. 6 report, which noted 20 new faculty hired through August, are: Asma Mohammadi, MD, a hospitalist in the Division of Inpatient Medicine who actually started June 19, instead of Aug. 1 as reported earlier; and Mohammad Bakeer, MD, another hospitalist reported to have started Aug. 1, but who really started Sept. 1. This update is due to visa and titling issues at the time that made it unclear who was starting when, according to staff.

Earlier unreported summer new hires include, in the Division of Inpatient Medicine, Garima Gandotra, MBBS, who started Aug. 20 at the U of A, and Sai Gundepalli, DO, who started Aug. 28. Both are assistant clinical professors.

Dr. Gandotra earned her medical degree from Lady Hardinge Medical College in New Delhi, India, was a junior physician there and at Acharya Shree Bhikshu Hospital, and did observerships in Brooklyn and Miami before her IM residency training (2022-25) at Henry Ford Jackson Hospital, an affiliate of Michigan State University in Jackson.

Dr. Gundepalli earned his medical degree (2014) from Osmania Medical College in Hyderabad, India. Afterward, he was an intern there and 10 affiliated hospitals (2014-16), then a junior physician at Sridhar Multispecialty Hospital (2016-18) in Hyderabad. His IM residency training (2018-21) was at Creighton University Medical Center in Omaha, Nebraska, after which he completed a Stem Cell Transplant and Cell Therapy Fellowship (2021-22) at the Ohio State University James Cancer Treatment & Research Center in Columbus. He had been a hospitalist at the Cheyenne Regional Medical Center in Wyoming since 2022.

Their arrivals make it 21 faculty hired in the summer months of 2025.

Autumn in the Old Pueblo

Our fall lineup of new physicians includes (in order of start date):

Shivanand Bomman, MD, Clinical Assistant Professor, Division of Gastroenterology & Hepatology | Starting Sept. 1 at the U of A, Dr. Bomman earned his medical degree (2007) from Bangalore Medical College & Research Institute in India. He also did a compulsory rotating internship (2008-09) as a junior physician at BMS Hospital in Kollegal, India, and Holy Cross Hospital in Kamagere, India. His IM residency training (2009-12) was at the University of Nevada School of Medicine in Las Vegas, where he served also as a hospitalist (2012-20). He was a GI endoscopy research fellow (2020-22) at University of Washington-affiliated Virginia Mason Franciscan Health in Seattle. His GI fellowship (2022-25) was at the U of A College of Medicine – Tucson, where he also was chief fellow. Publications.

Diane Rodden, MD, MS, Clinical Assistant Professor, GI division | Starting Sept. 1 at the U of A, Dr. Rodden earned her medical degree (2019) from New Orleans’ Tulane University School of Medicine. She also holds a master’s degree (2015) in applied science from the Keck Graduate Institute of Applied Life Sciences in Claremont, California. Her IM residency training (2019-22) was at the University of California, San Diego. And her GI fellowship (2022-25) was at the U of A College of Medicine – Tucson. Publications.

Samantha Russell, MD, Clinical Assistant Professor, Division of General Internal Medicine, Geriatrics & Palliative Medicine | Starting Sept. 1 at the U of A, Dr. Russell holds bachelor’s and master’s degrees (2012 & 2014) from the University of Guelph in Guelph, Ontario, Canada, in biomedical sciences. She earned her medical degree (2019) from the U of A College of Medicine – Tucson, where she also completed her IM residency training (2019-22) and was chief resident (2022-23). She also completed her Geriatric Medicine Fellowship (2024) and Hospice & Palliative Medicine Fellowship (2025) at the U of A. Among her honors, she was the 2021 winner of the college’s Charles W. Hall, Jr. and Virginia C. Hall Award for Outstanding House Officer. Publications here and here.

Christiana Mo, MD, Clinical Assistant Professor, Division of Hematology & Oncology |  Starting Sept. 1 at the U of A, Dr. Mo earned a bachelor’s degree in biology (2012) from the University of California, Los Angeles, and a master’s  degree in biomedical sciences (2014) as well as her medical degree (2019) from Eastern Virginia Medical School in Norfolk. Her IM residency training (2019-22) was at the University of California, Irvine. And her fellowship training (2022-25) was at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine and Montefiore Health System in the Bronx, New York. Publications.

Cesar Arturo Mungia Galaz, MD, Clinical Assistant Professor, Inpatient Medicine division |  Starting Sept. 1 at the U of A, Dr. Mungia earned his medical degree (2016) at the Universidad del Valle de México. He was an intern (2016-17) in Hermosillo, Sonora, Mexico, and then a primary care physician (2017-18) in Nogales, Sonora, Mexico, for the Instituto Mexicano del Seguro Social. His IM residency training (2021-24) was at New York Medical College in Manhattan, where he also was chief resident (2024-25).

Farva R. Gondal, MBBS, Clinical Assistant Professor, Division of Rheumatology | Starting Sept. 4 at the U of A, Dr. Gondal earned her medical degree (2015) from the Nishtar Medical University in Multan, Pakistan. She worked briefly as an intern (2015) at the Nishtar Medical Hospital and, later, did observerships at the University of Miami and U of A. Her IM residency training (2020-23) was at the U of A, where she also completed her rheumatology fellowship (2023-25). In 2022, she received the Outstanding Resident in Rheumatology Award from the U of A Department of Medicine and was named an Ajo Resident of the Month by Banner – University Medicine Tucson. She provides care for adults with autoimmune and inflammatory conditions. Publications.

Amer M.H. Hammad, MD, Clinical Assistant Professor, Inpatient Medicine division | Starting Sept. 8 at the U of A, Dr. Hammad earned his medical degree (2020) from the Marmara University Faculty of Medicine, completing a pre-graduate internship (2019-20) there as well. His post-graduate medical internship (2020-22) was at the Royal Medical Services in Amman, Jordan. His IM residency training (2022-25) was at Englewood Health Medical Center in Englewood, New Jersey. Publications.

Carlos A. Rivera, MD, Clinical Assistant Professor, Division of Endocrinology, Diabetes & Metabolism | Starting Sept. 15 at the U of A, Dr. Rivera holds a bachelor’s degree (2011) from the University of Arizona and attended Pima Community College and the Universidad Autónoma de Guadalajara, Mexico, before earning his medical degree (2018) from Ross University School of Medicine in Bridgewater, Barbados. In 2018-19, he was a medical assistant at Elite Cosmetic Surgery in Mission, Texas, dermatology residency research coordinator for HCA Healthcare’s Corpus Christi Medical Center in McAllen, Texas, and a medical scribe in Jersey City, New Jersey. He completed his IM residency training (2020-23) at Care Point Health Bayonne Medical Center in Bayonne, New Jersey, where he also was a chief resident. His fellowship training (2023-25) was at Rutgers University’s Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital in Brunswick, New Jersey.

Anna Roshal, MD, Associate Professor, Medicine - (Clinical Scholar Track), Hematology & Oncology division | Starting Sept. 15 at the U of A, Dr. Roshal earned her bachelor’s degree (1993) from the University of Rochester School of Medicine & Dentistry in New York, where she earned her medical degree (1997) and completed her IM residency training (1997-2000) and fellowship training (2000-03) at Strong Memorial Hospital. She’s board certified in internal medicine, medical oncology, and hospice and palliative care. She was a staff oncologist at Indiana University Health’s Arnet Clinic (2003-05) in Lafayette, Indiana, and Missouri Cancer Care’s Boone Hospital Center (2005-07) in Columbia. And she was an assistant professor at Washington University’s Barnes-Jewish Hospital (2007-20) in St. Louis, and an assistant and associate professor at Indiana University Health (2020-25), before joining the U of A faculty. Publications.

Gebran Abboud, MD, Clinical Assistant Professor, GI division | Starting Sept. 28 at the U of A, Dr. Abboud worked with the division as a per diem physician since 2022. Prior to that, he was gastroenterology director (2016-21) at Conemaugh Health System, Johnstown, Pennsylvania, where he established an interventional gastroenterology program and was an attending physician (2013-16 & 2011-12). His medical degree (2004) is from the University of Southern California, where he also did his IM residency training (2004-07) and was chief resident (2007-08), and completed his GI fellowship (2008-11). He also completed an Interventional Gastroenterology & Endoscopic Ultrasonography Fellowship (2012-13) at Los Angeles’ Cedars-Sinai Medical Center and holds a bachelor’s degree (1999) in molecular, cellular and developmental biology from UCLA. Publications.

Osama Alkhlaifat, MD, Clinical Assistant Professor, Inpatient Medicine division | Starting Sept. 29 at the U of A, Dr. Alkhlaifat earned his medical degree (2018) from the University of Jordan Faculty of Medicine in Amman, Jordan. In the ensuing years, he was a general practitioner (2018-19) at Al Hussain Salt Hospital in Al Salt, Jordan, a cardiovascular health research assistant (2019-21) for the Eastern Mediterranean Public Health Network, in Amman, and a COVID-19 response physician (2020-22) for the Ministry of Health in Amman. He completed his IM residency training (2022-25) at St. Michael’s Medical Center in Newark, New Jersey. Publications.

Kalkidan Abebe, MD, Clinical Assistant Professor, GGP division | Starting Oct. 5 at the U of A, Dr. Abebe earned a bachelor’s degree (2015) from the University of Toronto and her medical degree (2020) from the Ross University School of Medicine in Portsmouth, Dominica. She did her IM residency training (2021-24) at the U of A College of Medicine – Tucson, after which she was a primary care physician (2024-25) at Lakeside Heart & Vascular PLLC in Lake Havasu, Arizona. In 2023, she won honors for U of A Resident Innovation Turned into Action and 2nd place for Quality Improvement Project at the American College of Physicians – Arizona Chapter Scientific Meeting. Publications.

Carl W. Tong, MD, PhD, Clinical Professor, Division of Cardiology | Starting Oct. 14 at the U of A, Dr. Tong holds a bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering (1985) from the Texas A&M University in Bryan, Texas, and a master’s degree in same (1986) from the Air Force Institute of Technology in Dayton, Ohio. He then served in the first Iraq War in 1991, after which he decided to pursue a career in medicine, earning a combined doctorate in physiology and medicine (2002) from Texas A&M. His IM residency training (2002-05) was at Duke University Medical Center in Durham, North Carolina. His cardiovascular disease fellowship training (2005-10) was at the University of Wisconsin Hospital & Clinics in Madison. He served as an advanced heart transplant cardiologist (2010-19), including a stint (2013-15) as medical director of the Heart Transplant and Mechanical Circulatory Support Program, at Baylor Scott & White in Temple, Texas. Then, he was heart failure clinic director (2019-21) at CHI St. Joseph’s Medical Center in Bryan, Texas. While serving on faculty at Texas A&M since 2010, he rejoined the institution, working directly as a heart transplant cardiologist in 2021. Publications.

Mason Arbabi, DO, Clinical Assistant Professor, Inpatient Medicine division | Starting Oct. 20 at the U of A, Dr. Arbabi earned his medical degree (2012) from Tehran University of Medical Sciences in Iran. Afterward, he served as a family physician (2012-13) in Dezful, Iran. He was a clinical research fellow briefly (2015) at the University of California, Irvine, and did a couple of observerships in Southern California. Then, he was a gene therapy research fellow (2016-18) at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles, and a clinical research fellow (2020-21) at Philadelphia’s Thomas Jefferson University. Afterward, he did his intern year (2021-22) of IM residency training at St. Clare’s Denville Hospital and St. Mary’s General Hospital, in Denville and Passaic, New Jersey, completing his residency (2022-24) at Centinela Hospital Medical Center in Los Angeles. He then served on an assistant professor (2024-25) at the University of Kentucky in Lexington. Publications.

Willis H. Navarro, MD, Clinical Assistant Professor, Hematology & Oncology division | Starting Nov. 23 at the U of A, Dr. Navarro holds a bachelor’s degree in chemistry (1986) from Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island, and his medical degree (1990) from the University of California, San Francisco. He did his IM residency training (1990-93) at Yale-New Haven Hospital in New Haven, Connecticut. He then did a hematology and oncology fellowship (1995-98) and Adult Leukemia and Bone Marrow Transplantation Program fellowship (1998-99) at UCSF. His academic appointments include (1993-95) as an assistant attending physician at Long Island Jewish Medical Center in New Hyde Park, New York, and medical instructor at Albert Einstein College of Medicine in the Bronx, New York; an associate professor (1999-2019) in the Adult Leukemia and Bone Marrow Transplant Program at UCSF; and adjunct professor (2020-25), Division of Hematology & Oncology, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis. Other positions he has held include: vice president, clinical development, Aadi Bioscience, Inc., Pacific Palisades, California (2021-25); vice president, clinical science global research and development, Atara Biotherapeutics, Thousand Oaks, California (2014-21); vice president and medical director, transplant medical services, National Marrow Donor Program, Minneapolis (2008-14); scientific director, resource for clinical investigations in blood and marrow transplantation, Center for International Blood and Marrow Transplant Research, Minneapolis and Milwaukee (2008-14); and assistant medical director, biooncology development, Genentech Inc., San Francisco (2005-08). Publications.

Clinical appointments may be made by calling 520-694-8888. Bear in mind that inpatient medicine physicians — or hospitalists — are on call only and do not take appointments.

Winter wonderland in the desert

So far in 2026, the DOM has had two additional faculty members start, Ronadip R. Banerjee, MD, PhD, an associate professor and chief of the Division of Endocrinology, who started Jan. 5; and Rajat Madan, MD, PhD, a professor and chief of the Division of Infectious Diseases, who started Jan. 12.

Dr. Banerjee, a Tucson native who grew up in Michigan, comes to us from Johns Hopkins University. To learn more about his research and his goals for the division, click here. Publications.

Dr. Madan, a native of Ambala, India, whose father was an Indian Army surgeon, comes to us from the University of Cincinnati. To read more about his research and his goals for his division, click here. Publications.

A few more faculty are expected to join the department in February and March. Look for details soon on them and their particulars.

ALSO SEE:
“From ‘army brat’ to ID chief, Rajat Madan, MD, PhD, takes on superbugs at U of A” | Posted Dec. 19, 2025
“Ronadip Banerjee, MD, PhD, named Endocrinology chief” | Posted Dec. 15, 2025
“Twenty new faculty start at DOM in summer months of 2025” | Posted Aug. 6, 2025