2026 Annual Business Meeting
UVA Medical Alumni Association
NOTICE OF ANNUAL BUSINESS MEETING
The Annual Business Meeting of the UVA Medical Alumni Association will be held on Saturday, April 25, 2026, beginning at 8:30 a.m. at the Boar’s Head Resort, Pavilion Ballroom, Charlottesville, Virginia.
It is very important you attend. However, if you are unable to attend in person, you may vote by proxy online.
In accordance with article II, section #3 of the by-laws, notice is hereby given that the term of the following board officers expires at the annual meeting:
Officers:
J. Cameron Muir ’93 – Past-President
Roberta DeBiasi, MD ’92 – President
Keith A. Warren, MD ’88 – President-Elect
The nominating committee has made the following recommendations for election:
For election as officers for a one-year term expiring in 2027:
Keith A. Warren, MD ’88 – President
Susan C. Modesitt, MD ’95 – President-Elect
Roberta L. DeBiasi, MD ’92 – Past-President
For election as member for a three-year term expiring in 2029:
Sam Zhao, MD ’12
Michael R. Nelson, MD ’93, PhD ’93
The nominating committee has reported that the following officers and members are eligible for re-election. Accordingly, its recommendations are as follows:
For re-election as officers for a one-year term expiring in 2027:
Nicole F. Parkerson, MD ’97 – Treasurer
Danielle J. Carroll, MD ’16 – Secretary
For re-election as member for a three-year term expiring in 2029:
Amy Parker Ruhl, MD ’06
ChrisAnna M. Mink, MD ’83
Colston F. McEvoy, MD ’87
LaTonya D. Russell, MD ’06
J. Cameron Muir, MD
Chair of the Nominating Committee
Officers
President: Keith W. Warren, MD ’88
With a wife (they met at UVA!) and new baby in tow, Dr. Warren entered the University of Virginia School of Medicine in 1984. At the SOM, he served as president of the Student National Medical Association (SNMA), student representative to the American Medical Association (AMA), and a student member of the Admissions Committee.
Upon graduation in 1988, Dr. Warren completed a residency in ophthalmology at the Medical College of Virginia where he was selected to serve as chief resident. He completed fellowship training in diseases and surgery of the retina and vitreous at the University of Illinois Eye and Ear Infirmary. Dr. Warren began his career at the University of Kansas as full-time faculty and residency program director. He was promoted to professor and chairman of the Department of Ophthalmology in 2000 and served KU in that capacity until 2005.
In 2005, Dr. Warren left full-time academics and founded Warren Retina Associates in Overland Park, Kansas. He remains clinical professor and chair emeritus at the University of Kansas. He is an active member of the American Academy of Ophthalmology, National Medical Association, The Retina Society, The American Society of Retinal Specialists (ASRS), and the Sports Ophthalmology Society of the Americas. Dr. Warren serves as vice chair of the Board of Directors for the American Board of Ophthalmology and as treasurer of The University of Virginia Medical Alumni Association. He also founded and served as the inaugural chair of the Empowerment and Opportunity Committee of the ASRS.
Dr. Warren’s most rewarding accomplishment has been watching his family grow and blossom. He and his wife have three children and four grandchildren. His youngest child is a Virginia grad (Wahoowa!) who is in academic practice at the University of Chicago as a… retina specialist!! His passions remain family first, then continued learning, travel, ophthalmology, and KU basketball in no particular order.
President-Elect: Susan C. Modesitt, MD, ’95, FACOG, FACS
Dr. Susan C. Modesitt is the chair of the Gynecology and Obstetrics Department at the Emory University School of Medicine and also holds the John D. Thompson endowed chair in Gynecologic Oncology. She completed her undergraduate degree at Emory University, her medical degree at the University of Virginia (1995), her OB/GYN residency at the University of North Carolina, and her Gynecologic Oncology fellowship at the M.D. Anderson Cancer Center. She was on faculty at the University of Kentucky prior to joining the faculty at the University of Virginia where she was the division director from 2007-2022. Dr. Modesitt returned to Emory University in 2022 to become the division director and head of the Gynecologic Cancer Team in the Winship Cancer Institute and took on the department chair role in 2025.
Dr. Modesitt is a fellow and governor of the American College of Surgeons (ACS), a fellow of the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG), and has served in multiple national leadership roles and committees for the Society of Gynecologic Oncology, ACS, ACOG, the American Board of Obstetrics and Gynecology, the Foundation for Women’s Cancer, and the NRG Oncology Group. Dr. Modesitt currently is the editor-in-chief of Gynecologic Oncology Reports and a deputy editor for Gynecologic Oncology. She has published over 120 articles, 20 book chapters/invited articles, and has been recognized annually as a Top Doctor for Cancer since 2012 and an Exceptional Woman in Medicine since 2017.
Her research focuses on hereditary cancers, obesity related cancers, and clinical trials. Outside of work, Dr. Modesitt loves cycling trips, swimming, hiking, golf and, barring injury, does the occasional race.
Members of the Board
Sam Zhao, MD ’12
Sam Zhao, MD, MEd, is honored to be nominated as a member of the UVA Medical Alumni Association Board of Directors. Dr. Zhao is currently an associate professor of pediatrics and of emergency medicine at the George Washington University (GWU) School of Medicine and Health Sciences (2023) and associate program director for intern selection and transition to residency of the Pediatric Residency Program (2021) at Children’s National Hospital.
Dr. Zhao received his undergraduate (2008) and medical (2012) degrees from the University of Virginia. He trained in general pediatrics residency at the New York-Presbyterian Morgan Stanley Children’s Hospital (2015), followed by pediatric emergency medicine fellowship at Children’s National Hospital (2018). During his final year of fellowship, he completed the GWU Master Teacher Leadership Development Program (2018) and went on to obtain a master’s degree at the GWU Graduate School of Education and Human Development (2020).
Highlights of Dr. Zhao’s career as an educator include his role as co-director of the pediatric emergency medicine resident rotation (2018-Present), director of the pediatric emergency medicine clerkship (2018-Present), curriculum lead for faculty development in the Division of Emergency Medicine (2019-Present), chair of the Intern Selection Committee (2021-Present), and instructor in the Academic Pediatric Association Advancing Pediatric Education eXcellence (APEX) Teaching Program (2021-Present).
Dr. Zhao has received several recognitions for the development and evaluation of educational innovations, including the 2021 American College of Emergency Physicians (ACEP) Innovation of the Year Award for his contributions to the Virtual Resus Room as the most cutting-edge innovation in emergency medicine of the year based on its novelty, exportability, effectiveness, clarity, and ability to be used by a multi-disciplinary health care team.
Outside of work, Dr. Zhao enjoys running, hiking, scuba diving, snowboarding, and generally being in the great outdoors with his dog, Atlas. He also sings with The Washington Chorus and serves as vice chair of the TWC Board of Trustees.
Michael R. Nelson, MD ’93, PhD ’93, SOM & GSAS ’93, FAAAAI, FACAAI
Colonel, United States Army (Retired)
Dr. Michael Nelson is the chief of the Division of Asthma, Allergy and Immunology at the University of Virginia, current president of the American Board of Allergy and Immunology, and a member of the American Board of Medical Specialties (ABMS) Board of Directors. He serves as a member of the ABMS Board of Directors, Executive Committee, and chair of the Audit Committee.
Dr. Nelson earned his undergraduate degree in chemistry at Princeton University and his MD and PhD degrees at the University of Virginia where he also completed his transitional year internship. Although he earned his MD/PhD in 1993, Dr. Nelson likes to identify with the Class of 1989 with whom he started his journey as a medical student. He completed his residency in internal medicine at Eisenhower Army Medical Center in Augusta, Ga., followed by fellowships in allergy-immunology and clinical laboratory immunology at Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington, DC.
He went on to lead the Allergy-Immunology Department and allergy immunology fellowship at Walter Reed. He then took on the role of director of education, training and research for Walter Reed National Military Medical Center. Dr. Nelson then transitioned to the U.S. Army Office of the Surgeon General where he served as director of the medical education directorate overseeing all of graduate medical education, chief of the Clinical Policy and Services Division within the Healthcare Delivery Directorate, and chief clinical consultant to the U.S. Army Surgeon General. Dr. Nelson also served as vice chair of the ACGME Allergy and Immunology Review Committee. He has consistently advocated for the specialty of allergy and immunology and medicine at large on a national scale through advisory committees and task force service at the FDA and AMA.
After 25 years of distinguished service, Dr. Nelson retired from the U.S. Army in 2019 and returned to UVA in 2020 as chief of the Division of Asthma, Allergy, and Immunology –“the only place that would pry me away from my family and the D.C. area.” Returning to UVA was both a professional and personal homecoming, offering the opportunity to give back to the institution where he met his late wife of 34 years, Karen (Education ’98), and where their two children, Victoria (Batten ’22) and Max (Col ’22), completed their degrees making the Nelsons a proud quadruple-Hoo family.