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Graduate Medical Education

Graduate Medical Education

GMEC Resident Advisory Committee 

The Resident Advisory Committee (RAC) meets monthly to represent the interests of all residents and fellows to the Graduate Medical Education Committee (GMEC) and other associated committees. Committee members are USF PGY-2 or higher residents or fellows from various specialties. Each RAC member has a set of assigned tasks according to their position. RAC members are provided a stipend for participation.

Contact the Graduate Medical Education office or any of our representatives for additional details.


collage of 14 headshots of members who make up the AY24-25 RAC committee: Jenna Bergman Otolaryngology Edmond Box Surgery Sonya Bhaskar Gastroenterology Kristina Buller Plastic Surgery Levon Ohanisian Orthopaedic Surgery Kati Rasanen Diagnostic Radiology William Steele Fisher Interventional Radiology - Integrated Akriti Jalla Internal Medicine/Pediatrics Mason Pearce Surgery Ashton Sequeira Cardiology Co-Chair Christian Schmidt Orthopaedic Surgery Maria Kocab Internal Medicine Kimberly Menezes Ophthalmology Co-Chair Francisco Pascual Internal Medicine

Academic Year 2024-2025 Members

Co-Chairs

Ashton Sequeira, MD, Cardiology

Kimberly Menezes, MD, Ophthalmology

The co-chairs will divide the responsibility of club leadership among fellow chairs and members and maintain committee structure. They will lead the committee in setting annual goals and keep those goals in mind as the committee progresses throughout the year.

Objectives of the Co-Chair/President

  1. Lead the committee to achieve its goals for the year.
  2. Preside effectively at meetings.
  3. Organize and direct the work for the committees.
  4. Prepare for the future success of RAC by setting and completing goals.

Communications Chairs

Levonti Ohanisian, MD, Orthopaedic Surgery

Akriti Jalla, MD, Internal Medicine/Pediatrics

Jenna Bergman, MD, Otolaryngology

The Communications Chair will devote sufficient time to the various details of the committee and be responsible for communications made on behalf of the committee, meeting minutes, and dissemination of information from the committee to the house staff.

Objectives of the Communications Chair

  1. Maintain all RAC social media accounts.
  2. Record and keep minutes of all meetings.
  3. Maintain all club correspondence including creation of monthly newsletter (to be distributed to all house staff no later than 1 week after each monthly meeting).
  4. Create and manage central storage location (Google Drive, Drop box, etc.) for committee documents.

Administrative Chair

Sonya Bhaskar, MD, Gastroenterology

The administrative chair will be responsible for maintaining RAC presence at GMEC meetings in conjunction with the President/Vice President, ensuring CLER issues are addressed, and facilitate reporting of medical errors by house staff.

Objectives of the Admin Chair

  1. Summarize findings from CLER visit and ensuring CLER issues are addressed.
  2. Attend GMEC meeting or delegate this responsibility to a counterpart if unavailable.
  3. Provide a brief written summary of issues or items discussed at GMEC that are of pertinence to RAC.
  4. Facilitate/encourage reporting of medical errors by house staff in conjunction with the Safety Chair and summarize findings quarterly with brief written summary presented to RAC.
  5. Organize training track member roles and assignments.

Research Chair

Edmond Box, MD, Surgery

The research chair will be responsible for maintaining awareness research efforts and opportunities at the various hospitals and maintaining the database of available projects and faculty member contact information.

Objectives of the Research Chair

  1. Continue to investigate possibility of building a research hot spot/website to include available faculty and projects at the various hospitals.
  2. Work in conjunction with QI Chair to foster QI projects (Value Equation/Value based practice project).
  3. Disperse information to incoming residents on how to become involved in research.
  4. Assist in research grant selection process.
  5. Serve as a mentor to a training track member.

Quality Improvement Chair

Francisco Pascual, MD, Internal Medicine

The QI chair will be responsible for quality improvement that spans the faculty and house staff.

Objectives of the QI Chair

  1. Work in conjunction with Research Chair to foster QI projects.
  2. Work along with USF/TGH QI initiative.
  3. Attend QI meetings and serve as an alternate for Safety meetings at TGH or delegate this responsibility to a counterpart if unavailable.
  4. Provide a brief written summary of information learned from these meetings to RAC.
  5. Serve as a mentor to a training track member.

Social Chairs

Maria Kocab, MD, Internal Medicine

William Steele Fisher, MD, Interventional Radiology-Integrated

The social chairs will plan events that foster unity in the program and in the community. This will also align with some of the goals of resident wellness. They will set dates for and select events. They will be liaisons between USF GME and the community. They will be responsible for fundraising for and hosting the events.

Objectives of the Social Chair

  1. Organize social events throughout the academic year for residents
  2. One larger party/event in fall for adults (historically Halloween party)
  3. One larger event in spring for families (historically zoo, Bush Gardens, MOSI, or aquarium)
  4. Work in conjunction with the President/Vice President to improve the TGH GME space

Chief Resident Liaison

Kristina Buller, DO, Plastic Surgery

The chief resident liaison will be responsible for attending and overseeing chief resident meetings and relaying the information to RAC. Will also be a point of contact for various departmental chiefs throughout the year for program specific issues that arise.

Objectives of the Chief Resident Liaison

  1. Organized and attend quarterly chief resident meetings and relay information gained from these meeting to the RAC.
  2. Contact person for resident issues/complaints throughout the year.
  3. Create and oversee the Peer Review Committee.

Technology Chair

The technology chair will be responsible for website issues and maintenance. Will help format monthly newsletter. Will be a point of contact for EMR issues. Assist with any website, e-mail, data management, desktop publishing, or other issues that may arise.

Objectives of the Technology Chair

  1. Create, update, and maintain RAC website.
  2. Evaluate resident technology efforts and needs.
  3. Work to create standard handoff protocol at TGH (IPASS, Epic, etc).
  4. Evaluate different program websites and provide assistance with updating and improving them.

Culture, Enrichment and Engagement Chair

Kati Rasanen, MD, MPH, Diagnostic Radiology

The Culture, Enrichment and Engagement Chair will be responsible for attending subcommittee meetings and communicate ongoing projects with the resident community. The overarching goals for the Culture, Enrichment and Engagement Chair are to improve resident well-being as well as patient care by maintaining a dedication to resident representation of all backgrounds and creating a medical workforce that better reflects the population we serve.

Objectives of the Culture, Enrichment and Engagement Chair

  1. Aid with developing resources for the Culture, Enrichment and Engagement web page.
  2. Support projects related to health disparities.
  3. Participate and encourage participation in cultural events.
  4. Partner on joint events during Multicultural week and beyond.

Wellness Chairs

Mason Pearce, MD, Surgery

Christian Schmidt, MD, Orthopaedic Surgery

 The wellness chairs will be responsible for working alongside the wellness subcommittee to improve overall resident wellness. They will assist in planning wellness events and help make wellness resources readily available for all residents.

Objectives of the Wellness Chair

  1. Attend Wellness subcommittee meetings and provide a brief written summary of information learned from these meetings to RAC.
  2. Work to create a database of wellness resources in USF and in the community for residents.
  3. Assist in planning the annual “Wellness Week.”

Engagement Track

2-6 positions available

The engagement track will include 2-6 trainees who will serve to help the various committee members (assigned mentor) accomplish goals and complete projects. On occasion they will be given the opportunity to attend RAC meetings and observe how the RAC runs. They may act as substitutes for any RAC or subcommittee meetings their mentor cannot attend. Participation in this program does not guarantee election to RAC in future years.