Office for Academic Careers (OAC) Faculty

Dr. Freedman is the Director of the Pancreas Center and Director of The Franklin Epstein Society.

The overarching theme of the Franklin Epstein Society is to provide a longitudinal support program and pipeline that integrates across the continuum from our Internal Medicine Physician Scientist Track Residency Program, to Fellowship, to the Junior Faculty level within the Department of Medicine. The goal is to bring together individuals interested in a career in research through a supportive and interactive environment that cultivates the needed supports to maximize success as a researcher.

This effort will be enhanced through the Grant Review and Support Program (GRASP for the K to R transition) that he created at Harvard Catalyst.

As the Faculty Career Development Director, Dr. Hackney will be responsible for internal and external facing constituencies, including but not limited to, facilitating the work of the other directors in the Office for Academic Careers; improving communications and contacts with HMS, and other HMS-affiliated academic medical centers; and, serving as the primary liaison to the Consortium of Harvard Affiliated Offices for Faculty Development and Diversity (CHADD), and Harvard Catalyst. This role will be focused on improving interactions and communications across BIDMC, including integrating efforts for improved funding/support and career advancement, and working synergistically with department chairs, HMFP, and the Shapiro Institute, among others, to allow integration and avoid duplication.

Dr. Hackney is a Professor of Radiology and an Assistant Dean for Faculty Development at Harvard Medical School. David has been at BIDMC since July 2003, starting as the Chief of Neuroradiology and now as Radiology Vice Chair for Faculty Development and for Diversity, Equity and Inclusion, as well as the Chief of Neuroradiology. He founded a Radiology Department Faculty Development Committee and has led efforts to make the HMS process more transparent while helping BIDMC faculty progress in their careers. Prior to joining BIDMC, David was a professor at UPenn where he founded and led the Radiology Department Faculty Development Committee, and served as the Chair of the Faculty Senate, representing the faculty throughout the University, not just those in the medical school. David earned his undergraduate degree at Harvard College and his medical degree from Cornell University Medical College. He completed his diagnostic radiology residency at the University of California San Diego-affiliated hospitals and his fellowship in neuroradiology at Massachusetts General Hospital.

Dr. Karnoub is Principal Investigator in the Department of Pathology at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Affiliate Member of the Harvard Stem Cell Institute, Associate Member of the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, and Assistant Professor of Pathology at Harvard Medical School. Dr. Karnoub received a Bachelor’s degree in Biology/Chemistry from the Lebanese American University and a Master’s degree in Biochemistry/Molecular Immunology from the American University of Beirut School of Medicine. He then attended the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill where he trained in Protein Biochemistry, Cell Biology, and Signal Transduction in the laboratories of Drs. Sharon Campbell and Channing Der, culminating in a PhD in Biochemistry and Biophysics in 2001.

Dr. Karnoub began his postdoctoral training investigating the biology of Ras GTPases at the Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center before he transitioned to the Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research at Massachusetts Institute of Technology to study Tumor Biology in the laboratory of Dr. Robert Weinberg.

Dr. Karnoub’s research led to the discovery of critical participatory roles for stromal progenitor cells called mesenchymal stem/stromal cells (MSCs) in multiple aspects of breast cancer pathogenesis — such as tumor initiation, growth, dissemination, and metastatic colonization — emphasizing intimate contributions of the tumor microenvironment to carcinoma development and progression. Having delineated key molecular signaling pathways that mediate the heterotypic interactions between tumor-associated MSCs and cancer cells in the context of tumor malignancy, his group’s most recent investigations have described essential roles for non-coding RNAs as determining conduits of tumor-stroma crosstalk.

Their current research is focused on characterizing such networks in more detail with the overall translational objective of identifying novel RNA-based cancer biomarkers and therapeutic targets of utility in the oncology clinic.

Dr. Karnoub has been recipient of several awards in support of his work, which include, among others, the Genzyme-Whitehead Institute Award, the Sidney Kimmel Cancer Research Foundation Scholar Award, the Susan G. Komen Catalyst Award, and Breakthrough Awards from the US Department of Defense.

Dr. Lembo, in his role as the Clinical Research and Education Career Director, will work one-on-one with our physician colleagues and in larger settings geared toward advancing clinical careers for academic clinicians and clinical educators. This internal (BIDMC) facing role is focused on our colleagues interested in clinical research with industry trials, smaller projects and with only limited grant funding/expectations, or those on the educational pathways. The Clinical Research and Education Director will work synergistically with the department chairs, HMFP, and the Shapiro Institute, among others, to integrate resources in support of our colleagues in their progression along the HMS Clinical Expertise and Innovation promotions track.

Dr. Lembo is a Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School and has been a member of the BIDMC Division of Gastroenterology since 1997. As the Director of the GI Motility and Functional Bowel Disorder Center, he has reviewed legions of medical school, residency, and fellowship applications; revised myriad grant requests; and worked to ensure that numerous junior faculty members have the requisite publications and speaking engagements for promotion. Dr. Lembo has mentored and celebrated numerous Research Assistants' acceptances to medical schools, Residents' publications in reputed journals, Fellows' successful applications for NIH K Awards, and Clinical Instructors' promotions to Assistant Professors. Through hundreds of multicenter clinical trials and other collaborative research projects along with numerous speaking engagements and professional organization committee posts, he has built relationships with faculty at most of the major academic medical centers nationwide. His research has focused on the development of novel treatments for functional bowel disorders including chronic idiopathic constipation, and has also explored the role of placebo and methods of enhancing the placebo response. Dr. Lembo earned his undergraduate degree in mathematics at Amherst College, and his medical degree from Tufts Medical School. He subsequently completed his internal medicine internship/residency as well as gastroenterology fellowship at UCLA Medical Center in Los Angeles.

Dr. Ölveczky is a native of Trinidad and Tobago. She attended Dillard University and Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine where she obtained an MD and a Master’s degree in Neuroscience. She completed her residency at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center followed by a geriatrics fellowship at BIDMC and BWH.

She is a hospitalist at BIDMC where she works primarily as a nocturnist. She is also a local lead principal investigator for the NIH sponsored trial of Bias Reduction in Medicine (BRIM) for the Department of Medicine at BIDMC. BRIM will implement interventions which have been shown to be successful in changing faculty behavior, improving department climate, and increasing the hiring of women faculty.

She is the supervising director of the Geriatrics Inpatient Fracture Trauma Service and the Physician Director for the Center for Diversity, Equity and Inclusion at BIDMC and is in the process of implementing and studying upstander/micro-aggression response education for all faculty and trainees, institution wide.

As the Translational/Basic Research Career Director, Dr. Otterbein will work one-on-one with our colleagues and in larger settings geared toward advancing translational/basic research careers. This internal facing (BIDMC) role is focused on our colleagues whose efforts require federal grant funding to complete their work with an emphasis on translational and basic science research. The Translational/Basic Research Career Director will work synergistically with the department chairs, HMFP, and others, to integrate resources in support of our faculty in their career progression, including the HMS Investigations promotions track.

Dr. Otterbein is Professor of Surgery at Harvard Medical School and joined BIDMC in 2004. He earned his PhD in Physiology at Johns Hopkins University with graduate and postdoctoral training at Yale University and the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center. His research program investigates gastrotransmitters and danger signaling and their role in health and disease. Dr. Otterbein brings over twenty years of experience as a successful academic researcher and mentor with continued funding, service to the NIH and Department of Defense, as well as the medical school and affiliated institutions. He brings decades of experience in working with technology venture, drug development, and promoting relationships with the pharmaceutical and biotech sectors. Collectively, Dr. Otterbein brings unique expertise in guiding career development and is dedicated to teaching and mentoring the next generation of translational researchers.