12/19/2025
Inaugural Class Members Excel Beyond Residency in Fellowships and Practice
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Inaugural Class Members Excel Beyond Residency in Fellowships and Practice
Members of Carle Illinois College of Medicine’s inaugural class are expanding their impact on medicine with advanced specialty training and new roles serving at hospitals and clinics across the country. After achieving success in residency, several members of CI MED’s class of 2022 have been chosen for sought-after fellowships, while others have taken on new roles caring for a wide range of patient populations.
CI MED’s first class of physician-innovators achieved an exceptional 100% match rate in 2022, launching into medical residencies that range in length from three to six years. Alumni who specialized in internal medicine, pediatrics, and emergency medicine completed residency in mid-2025 and have now progressed to the next stage of development as physicians.
Where are they now? Impact Beyond Residency
Here is a summary of CI MED alumni who have been selected to pursue advanced training in fellowships or have accepted positions beyond medical residency.
- Dr. Kitan Akinosho (Completed residency in Emergency Medicine at Harvard Medical School/Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston)
Current positions: Sports medicine Fellow (Pediatric), Emergency Medicine Attending Physician, and Instructor in Clinical Emergency Medicine at Vanderbilt University Medical Center - Dr. Shahnoor Amin (Completed residency in internal medicine with research honors at Henry Ford Hospital in Detroit, Michigan)
Current position: Internal medicine physician at Packard Health in Ann Arbor, Michigan - Dr. Lidija Barbaric (Final year of residency in anesthesiology at Case Western Reserve)
New position starting in 2026: Pediatric anesthesiology fellow at the University of Pennsylvania Medical Center, Children's Hospital of Pittsburgh - Dr. Aaron Brown (Now completing residency as a chief resident in anesthesiology at Stanford Medicine)
New position starting in 2026: Associate Medical Director for Community Health, attending physician in anesthesiology, Carle Health; Clinical faculty member, Department of Surgery, CI MED - Dr. Andrew Chang (Completed residency in internal medicine at Carle Foundation Hospital, Urbana, Illinois)
Current position: Hospitalist, Adult Hospital Medicine, Carle Foundation Hospital - Dr. Yusi Gong (Completed residency at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston)
Current Position: Cardiology fellow, University of California, San Diego - Dr. Kenny Leung (Completed residency in internal medicine at the University of California, Irvine)
Current position: Medical informatics fellow, internal medicine physician, UCLA Health - Dr. Alex Lucas (Completed residency in emergency medicine at Advocate Christ Hospital near Chicago); Selected as 2023 Emergency Medicine Residents’ Association Resident of the Year
Current Position: Critical care fellow at Washington University, St. Louis. - Dr. Asad Rauf (Completed internal medicine residency at Cleveland Clinic)
Current Position: Hematology/oncology fellow at the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine - Dr. Elizabeth Woodburn (Completed pediatrics residency at Duke University, North Carolina)
Current position: Pediatric pulmonology fellow, University of Colorado - Dr. Jian Zhuang (Completed internal medical residency at Donald and Barbara Zucker School of Medicine at Hofstra/Northwell)
Current Position: Internal medicine physician at Brigham and Women's Hospital/Harvard in Boston
Dr. Elizabeth Woodburn
Two-degree University of Illinois graduate Dr. Elizabeth Woodburn served as a resident physician in pediatrics at Duke University in North Carolina for three years. She is now pursuing advanced training with a three-year fellowship in pediatric pulmonology at the University of Colorado. A month-long elective in this sub-specialty at CI MED sparked Woodburn’s interest in caring for children and adolescents with lung and respiratory problems.
“As a pulmonology fellow, I look forward to strengthening my understanding of how to engage in pediatric research in a way that applies my problem-solving and engineering mindset to the challenges that kids and teens face while learning to manage their health,” Woodburn said. She was selected to receive a clinical fellowship award from the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation, supporting Woodburn’s work at the University of Colorado.
Dr. Kenny Leung
Dr. Kenny Leung specialized in internal medicine during his three-year residency at the University of California-Irvine. Now, he’s an internist and a clinical informatics fellow at the University of California, Los Angeles. This role taps into Leung’s background in software engineering to improve patient care efficiency and medical workflows.
“My hope is to make both a personal impact on individual patient lives through compassionate patient care, as well as a positive system-wide impact through improving the health care system via technology,” Leung said.
Dr. Shahnoor Amin
Classmate Dr. Shahnoor Amin honed his skills in complex disease management in both inpatient/ICU and outpatient settings while serving as an internal medicine resident at Henry Ford Hospital in Detroit, Michigan. He’s now applying this experience to care for his patients at Packard Health in Ann Arbor, Michigan.
“I am fortunate to be able to treat patients from a wide variety of socioeconomic and ethnic backgrounds with complex diseases,” said Amin, who also holds a doctorate in systems engineering from George Washington University. Amin continues his research that draws on his engineering background to solve medical problems.
“During both residency at Henry Ford Hospital and medical school at Carle Illinois, I was engaged in research related to wearable devices for health monitoring, contactless vital sign monitoring, and presenting various unique case reports. I aspire to continue my interest in combining medicine and engineering through ongoing interdisciplinary research and collaboration.
The CI MED Difference
Woodburn, Leung, and Amin all credit CI MED’s unique approach to medicine with helping them make a difference in residency and beyond.
“The education and training at CI MED helped me to graduate with research honors from residency, along with [being selected as] senior resident of the month,” Amin said.
Woodburn said CI MED’s emphasis on problem-solving skills prepared her to contribute to patient safety and quality improvement efforts at Duke.
Other members of the Class of 2022 will complete their residencies over the next few years and embark on the next phase of their careers.
This article was written by Beth Hart.