Clinical and Research Faculty Members
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Priya Bui, DO |
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Leslie Allsopp, MPH, MSN, PhD Dr. Allsopp’s current research interests are focused on community-engaged, dissemination and implementation of evidence-based initiatives to address health disparities. For the past seven years, her work has centered on Asthma 411, a comprehensive, evidence-based, school health model to improve health and academic outcomes for children with asthma. Asthma 411 was first developed, implemented, and evaluated in St. Louis between 2002-2008, as part of the CDCs Controlling Asthma in American Cities Program. Asthma 411’s dissemination to North Texas began with a two-school pilot in 2013; eleven school districts have currently adopted the initiative. Related areas of interest include cross-sector collaborations, organizational health literacy, and neighborhood-level and environmental contributors to health disparities. |
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Pamela Barrera, MD Dr. Barrera joined the UNT Health Department of Pediatrics and Women’s Health as a General Pediatrician and Assistant Professor on May 1, 2024. Dr. Barrera received her B.A. from Rice University in Houston in 1993 and her MD degree from Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis in 1997. In 2000, she completed her pediatric residency training from the University of Rochester, Children’s Hospital at Strong Memorial in Rochester, NY. Her most recent position before joining our department was with The Morris Foundation Center for Innovation in Children’s Health, a Cook Children’s Neighborhood Health Center in Fort Worth.
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Riyaz Basha, PhD, FAACC Dr. Basha’s research expertise is in the field of experimental therapeutics and cancer. His research focuses on examining aberrant expression of molecular markers associated with aggressive disease and poor prognosis for a variety of human malignancies. Ongoing research focuses on testing the combination of novel investigational agents with other standard therapeutic options (chemotherapy and/or radiation), and understanding the potential molecular pathways associated with proposed combinations. Novel therapeutic strategies involving small molecules, herbal products, and their analogs are under testing through rigorous pre-clinical screening using models for leukemia, pancreatic, ovarian, prostate, and central nervous system cancers. |
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Lauren Dobbs, MMS, PA-C PA Dobbs’ clinical and academic interests include pediatric preventative care, vaccines, pediatric developmental and learning issues with a focus on literacy, adolescent medicine, and the growth, education, and development of the PA profession. She is NCCPA certified. She has been the recipient of 6 precepting awards and was awarded the Texas Academy of Physician Assistant Legislative Advocacy Award in 2014. She currently serves as a Director At Large for the American Academy of Physician Assistants. |
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Martha Felini, PhD Dr. Felini is an epidemiologist whose research broadly focuses on gene and environment influences on cancer risk and disparities. Her strong methods background is evident through her development of robust statistical modelling systems using data from high-risk populations such as meat-factory workers and victims of trafficking and the sex trade. She has nearly a decade of experience working with interdisciplinary teams in the community to analyze outreach programs. Her work in this area resulted in the passing of Texas Senate Bill 484 and major funding from Cancer Prevention Research Institute of Texas to integrate preventive cancer screening for vulnerable, underserved women in substance abuse centers. |
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Shane Fernando, PhD, MS, CPPS, FRSPH Dr. Shane Fernando joined UNT Health in 2014 as an Assistant Professor in Pediatrics and has worked extensively with investigators within UNT Health Fort Worth, as well as initiating collaborations between external organizations and the department of Pediatrics. Dr. Fernando also served as the research director for the Pediatric Mobile Program, a “clinic-on-wheels” that serves the low-income and uninsured pediatric population of Tarrant County, Texas. In addition to his epidemiologic training, Dr. Fernando has developed extensive expertise in survey design and validation methods, epidemiologic study designs, and mixed-model analysis. He currently teaches medical students (DO) on the Fundamentals of Behavioral Science courses on research and biostatistics, as well as instructing 3rd year DO students on their Family Medicine rotation. As one of the primary clinical scientists in the Department of Pediatrics, Dr. Fernando has managed numerous studies, and has served as a dedicated mentor for all his students. Dr. Fernando is a strong advocate of inter-professional collaboration. He strives for excellence in research standards and pushes his graduate students to accomplish their dreams with a focus on improving the lives of patients. Dr. Fernando consistently seeks to improve his knowledge base and skillset. Dr. Fernando has extensive experience working with diverse populations having lived across 3 continents in his lifetime, and with his work with vulnerable populations in research, in which he received a fellowship from the Texas Center for Health Disparities. |
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Toyya Goodrich, DO Dr. Goodrich is a Texas native from the small town of Nederland. As Faculty in Pediatrics’ Dept for 19 years, she also served on the admissions committee for the TCOM, and was named a “Top Doc” and “Super Doc” for several years in a row. Dr. Goodrich mentors 3rd and 4th year medical students on their pediatric core and elective rotations and has a special interest in attention deficit disorder. Prior to joining UNT Health, Dr. Goodrich served as a pediatric resident at the University of Arkansas for the Medical Sciences/Arkansas Children´s Hospital in Little Rock. While there, she supervised the care of infants, children, and teenagers in every medical specialty, worked on-call in the neonatal and pediatric ICUs, provided instruction for interns and medical students, participated in her own continuity care clinic and the Angel Flight Transport for the pediatric ICU, transporting and managing critically ill children. |
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Nusrath Habiba, MD Dr. Habiba graduated from medical school in India. After completing her compulsory rotatory internship, she started her own family practice in Chennai, India in 1982, concentrating mainly on women and children. She remained in practice until 1999 when she immigrated to the USA. After moving, she worked in the nephrology division of the University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio. Her research focus centered on skin micro dialysis, tissue renin angiotensin system in normal and diabetics, and kidney involvement in diabetes. Dr. Habiba did her residency in pediatrics at Texas Tech University Health Science Center at Amarillo from 2005 until 2008. She was the chief resident for one year during her third-year residency. She joined as full-time faculty in the Department of Pediatrics at UNT Health in 2008. She is board certified in Pediatrics. |
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Raheela Hafeez, MD Dr. Hafeez is a board-certified pediatrician. She graduated from DUHS (Dow University of Health Sciences) in Karachi, Pakistan. She was trained in Pediatrics, Internal Medicine and Obstetrics & Gynecology. She was in private practice working as a pediatrician and practicing women’s health before she moved to the USA in 1992. Dr. Hafeez completed her pediatric residency training at Cook County Hospital in Chicago. She moved with her family to Texas in 1998, first to El Paso and then to Fort Worth in 2001, which she claims as her hometown. Dr. Hafeez was in private practice and worked part-time at Arlington, Weatherford, and Garland prior to joining the University of North Texas at Fort Worth in 2008. She chose to practice part-time to balance her professional and family life. Her husband is a nephrologist in private practice in Fort Worth. She has two beautiful daughters, one of them is training to become a psychiatrist. Dr. Hafeez loves teaching medical students and residents. She speaks Urdu, Hindi, and English fluently. Dr. Hafeez is a recipient of the “Top Doc” award for the past several years and received an award for top performance for institutional compliance and coding. She loves to cook, read, and paint. Her wish is to travel all around the world and explore different cultures and people. |
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Sarah Matches, DO Dr. Matches was born and raised in Columbia, Missouri. She attended TCOM for medical school, here in Ft. Worth, and went to Case Western Reserve in Ohio for her residency. She is an Associate Professor of pediatrics in the Department of Pediatrics at UNT Health. Dr. Matches has been a member of the faculty at UNT Health since completing her training in 1994. She enjoys getting to know her patients and their families and providing them with the best medical care, and spending time teaching medical students. Her husband, Alvin Mathe, is also a physician, and they have two grown sons. Away from work, she enjoys reading, hiking, and when time permits, traveling. |
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Shadia Osakwe, MPAS, PA-C |
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Huong Pham, PA-C PA Pham is from Arlington, Texas. She obtained her Master’s Degree in Physician Assistant Studies from UNT Health Fort Worth in 2014. She has worked as a Physician Assistant in urgent care, wellness, and sleep medicine. She joined the Department of Pediatrics at UNT Health in 2016. In her free time, she enjoys doing jigsaw puzzles and gardening. |
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Amy Raines-Milenkov, DrPH Dr. Raines-Milenkov’s expertise is in maternal and child health. Her academic background is in the area of social work and public health. Her community-based research and interventions focus on pregnancy, birth and maternal health outcomes and women’s preventive health among vulnerable populations including refugee women, prostituting women, and women with previous adverse birth outcomes. She is an appointed member of the Texas Department of State Health Services Maternal Mortality and Morbidity Task Force and holds the contract from the state to provide maternal death redaction and abstraction case preparation for review by Task Force Members. She is the current Chair of the Early Childhood Wellness Council of Tarrant County MHMR, and immediate Past Chair of the Infant Health Network. Her current work builds upon years of front-line public health practice, strong professional and community partnerships and a great passion to identify and address gaps in knowledge and implement interventions for vulnerable populations of women, children and their families. Dr. Raines-Milenkov previously led UNT Health’s Healthy Start program, a federally funded intervention to reduce perinatal health disparities and the Building Bridges Initiative, a community-based project funded by the Cancer Prevention and Research Institute of Texas that provides culturally and linguistically appropriate lay health educator outreach, education and woman-centered cancer screening services to refugee communities. |
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Christina Robinson, MD Dr. Robinson is a Fort Worth native, growing up in the Stop Six Community. She is an alumnus of P. L. Dunbar High School. She went on to receive her Bachelor of Arts in Sociology at Austin College in Sherman, TX where her awareness of racial disparities in healthcare was heightened. She completed her medical education at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, TX and Pediatric Residency at Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond, Virginia. She returned home to Fort Worth to fulfill her passions for medicine and community service. She is founding physician and current medical director for the UNT Health Pediatric Mobile Clinic which provides free medical services to children in under-served communities of Fort Worth. She is the mother to one son and one daughter and wife of a loving husband who is a marriage and family therapist and serves as clergy in their church. She is passionate about learning and sharing with others how lifestyle behaviors can impact our health. In her spare time, she is enjoys baking and cooking while listening to music. |
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Umesh Sankpal, PhD Research in my laboratory is primarily focused on identifying and developing innovative approaches for cancer diagnostics and treatment. The strategy involves identifying novel compounds that have anti-cancer activity, target differentially expressed cancer specific genes, and work synergistically with standard therapeutic treatments. The current focus is on targeting proteins such as the transcription factors (Specificity protein family) and inhibitor of apoptosis proteins (IAP family). Another area of research being pursued is the health disparity in breast cancer. Mortality rates among black women with breast cancer is significantly higher compared to white women. Besides factors like socio-economic status, education level, or access to healthcare that play an important role, there is strong evidence for inherent differences in biology of the tumors between different racial groups. We are currently investigating markers that are differentially expressed among various racial background for use as potential diagnostic and therapeutic targets. |
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Sam Selby, DO Dr. Sam Selby is a 2012 TCOM graduate. He completed both his pediatric residency and pediatric emergency medicine fellowship at Arkansas Children’s hospital (UAMS, ACH). He currently practices full-time as a pediatric emergency medicine physician. His interests include ultrasound and quality improvement. Fun Fact he enjoys fly-fishing and all outdoors activities (hiking, biking, etc.) and as a youth he was an avid windsurfer in the land-locked city of Abilene, TX. |
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Lawrence “Larry” Swanson, MD Dr. Lawrence Swanson is a Pediatric Endocrinologist who splits his clinical time between UNT Health and Cook Children’s Hospital. He holds a Doctor of Medicine degree from University of Rochester School of Medicine and Dentistry. He completed his residency in Pediatrics at Duke University Medical Center. He then completed his fellowship in Pediatric Endocrinology at The University of Pittsburgh Medical Center. Dr. Swanson also holds a Master of Public Health degree from The University of Pittsburgh Graduate School of Public Health. In addition to practicing Pediatric Endocrinology, he is a board member for FitWorth, a city-wide public health initiative focusing on childhood obesity. Dr. Swanson is originally from Pittsburgh, PA, which is where he met his wife, a native Texan, before moving to the area. |