Leadership

Naudia L. Jonassaint, MD, MHS, MBA

Vice-Chair, Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion
Department of Medicine
University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine

Dr. Naudia Jonassaint, MD, MHS, MBA, serves as the Department of Medicine’s inaugural Vice Chair for Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion.  She works closely with Dr. Chris O’Donnell (Executive Vice Chair for Academic Affairs) and Dr. Ora Weisz (Vice Chair for Faculty Development) to develop new initiatives and programs to enhance diversity and inclusion across the department.

Naudia came to the University of Pittsburgh in 2014 to join the division of Gastroenterology, Hepatology and Nutrition as an Assistant Professor of Medicine and Surgery working as a transplant hepatologist. She completed a BA in Biology and Hispanic and Italian studies with Honors from Johns Hopkins University in 1999. She went on to attend Yale for medical school and completed a thesis focused on the Black-White achievement gap. Naudia spent the remainder of her training at Johns Hopkins where she completed internal medicine training, chief residency, GI, and Transplant Hepatology fellowships. During her time at Johns Hopkins she served on the Diversity Council, the Residency Selection Committee, and the Council for Women in Medicine.  Naudia completed a MHS at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and was a T32 fellow studying disparities in liver transplant outcomes.   Her subsequent research continued a focus on transplant outcomes and post-transplant Hepatitis C treatment.

More recently, Naudia has taken on a several leadership positions in the institution, including appointment as Medical Director of the Section of Hepatology in 2017, playing a critical role in the opening of the new Hepatology service (5E/W), and leading initiatives to meet value metrics and quality outcomes in the hepatology and transplant space.

In addition to being the Medical Director of Hepatology, Naudia has served on the hospital clinical executive committee, functioned as the clinical lead on quality and safety initiatives in Hepatology, and serves on the residency and fellowship selection committees.

Throughout her career, Naudia has been committed to clinical and research excellence and has a passion for teaching and mentoring. She was awarded the GI fellowship teaching award in 2017 and previously served on the American Association of Liver Disease Diversity committee.

In the Vice Chair role, Naudia works with Drs. Alda Gonzaga and Eloho Ufomata to enhance residency and fellowship recruitment, retention and advancement, and also focuses on efforts to promote the recruitment and retention of diverse faculty into the Department of Medicine. Additionally, she works with leaders across the wider institution on community building and engagement initiatives to create an environment of excellence that is both diverse and inclusive.