Division of Biology and Medicine
Office of Belonging, Equity, Diversity & Inclusion

Faculty Programs

Faculty members provide mentorship, modeling, and advocacy in every setting to provide for the success of all members of the community.

Faculty Association

The Faculty Association is comprised of faculty from every specialty at the Medical School.  A diverse faculty is essential to the health and success of Brown's academic mission. As faculty members, we embrace the imperative to provide mentorship, modeling, advocacy in every setting to provide for the success of our trainees and ourselves. The FA supports the mission of the Office of Belonging, Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion to create and foster a diverse, inclusive, and culturally-competent learning environment for students, faculty, and trainees.

For more information, please send us an email.

Dean's Diversity Award for Junior Faculty

The Dean’s Diversity Award for Junior Faculty is offered by the Office of Belonging, Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion to promote academic excellence in diversity, inclusion, and health equity.  As part of its Diversity and Inclusion Action Plan, The Warren Alpert Medical School of Brown University wishes to support research and programming that will contribute to academic excellence and scholarly activities that promote diversity and inclusion in our community and health equity among the communities we care for throughout Providence and Rhode Island.  The Dean’s Diversity Award for Junior Faculty supports Warren Alpert Medical School affiliated faculty (at the Instructor and Assistant Professor level) who seek to conduct individual or collaborative research and programming that promotes academic excellence in diversity and inclusion via scholarly activity focused on issues of diversity and inclusion and as they relate to health disparities and health equity.

Who is eligible?

Any current junior faculty member (Instructor or Assistant Professor level) whose primary appointment is in a clinical department. Faculty seeking funds must demonstrate that the scholarly activity aligns with one (or more) of the six priority areas described in the medical schools Diversity and Inclusion Action Plan and outlined as follows: 

  1. People
  2. Academic Excellence
  3. Curriculum
  4. Community
  5. Knowledge
  6. Accountability

Previous Recipients for the Dean's Diversity Award

  1. Marshala Lee, MD, MPH
  2. Galen Henderson, MD

Mentorship Award in Diversity and Equity in Medicine (MADE)

The Mentorship Award in Diversity and Equity in Medicine (MADE) is awarded through nominations by OBEDI. It recognizes an Alpert Medical School faculty member for their extraordinary dedication to mentoring medical students and residents in the promotion of diversity, inclusion, and health equity.

MADE Awardees

Bethany Gentilesco, MD
Associate Professor of Medical Science, Clinician Educator
Associate Professor of Medicine, Clinician Educator

Dr. Bethany J. Gentilesco is an Associate Professor of Medical Science and an Associate Professor of Medicine at The Warren Alpert Medical School as well as an internist affiliated with Miriam Hospital. She received her medical degree from Weill Cornell Medicine and completed her residency in internal medicine at Stanford Health Care-Sponsored Stanford University. She has been in practice for more than 20 years.

Sabina Holland, MD
Assistant Professor of Pediatrics, Clinician Educator

Sabina Holland, MD, is an Assistant Professor of Pediatrics at The Warren Alpert Medical School of Brown University in Rhode Island. A graduate of Xavier University of Louisiana, Dr. Holland received her medical degree Louisiana State University Health Science Center at Shreveport School of Medicine. She completed her residency in pediatrics at Orlando Health Arnold Palmer Hospital. After residency, she moved her family to Rhode Island where she completed a fellowship in Pediatric Infectious Diseases at Brown University/Hasbro Children’s Hospital. Dr. Holland currently serves as the Associate Chair for Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion for the Department of Pediatrics as well as the Medical Director of the Rhode Island Pediatric HIV program. In 2021, she was selected to be the inaugural Assistant Dean of Medicine for the Program in Liberal Medical Education’s First Generation and Underrepresented in Medicine students. She also serves as the Associate Program Director of the Pediatric ID Fellowship program.

Gowri Anandarajah, MD
Professor of Medical Science, Clinician Educator
Professor of Family Medicine, Clinician Educator

Dr. Anandarajah, FAAFP, Professor of Family Medicine and Medical Science, is a medical educator who has been on the faculty at the Warren Alpert Medical School of Brown University since 1992. She graduated from Dartmouth College and the University of North Carolina School of Medicine, completed family medicine residency at Duke University Medical Center, where she served as chief resident, and completed a Faculty Leadership Fellowship at Brown. She is currently an Associate Dean of Medicine, Gateways, and the Inaugural Program Director for the Brown Gateways to Medicine, Healthcare & Research Program. She is also Course Director of the Health Systems Science Course for Year 1 medical students and is an Associate Medical Director at Hope Hospice and Palliative Care Rhode Island.

Carla Martín, MD
Clinical Assistant Professor of Medical Science

Dr. Martín is a Clinical Assistant Professor of Medical Science. She is a first generation Honduran-American and is originally from Brooklyn, NY, and Union City, NJ. Dr. Martín majored in Latin American Studies at Brown University and completed residency training at Brown in Internal Medicine and Pediatrics and is board certified in both specialties. She is also board certified in obesity medicine. 

Dr. Martín has always worked in socioecomically underserved communities, including the Providence Community Health Centers (where she works currently) in Providence, Notre Dame Ambulatory Center in Central Falls, Women’s Care in Pawtucket, and Blackstone Valley Community Healthcare in Pawtucket, RI.

She continues to mentor BIPOC medical students at Alpert Medical School and undergraduates at Brown University and serves as an advisor to the LatinX Medical Student Association. She is a Clinical Assistant Professor at the Alpert Medical School, teaches first year students in their Doctoring course, and is on faculty at the Gateways to Medicine Masters program.

Dioscaris R. Garcia, PhD
Assistant Professor of Orthopaedics
Co-Director, The Diane N. Weiss Center for Orthopaedic Trauma Research

Dr. Garcia is an Assistant Professor of Orthopaedics (Research), and former Dual-Assistant Professor of Molecular Pharmacology, Physiology and Biotechnology at Brown University. Dr. Garcia moved to New York City from the Dominican Republic at age 11 and has been a resident of Rhode Island for over 25 years. He attended the University of Rhode Island, where he obtained a BS in Microbiology, and made significant contributions to the discovery of novel antibiotics. Dr. Garcia obtained his PhD in Molecular Pharmacology and Physiology from Brown University in 2012, and has served as faculty since 2013 in both the Department of Orthopaedics, and the former Department of Molecular Pharmacology, Physiology, and Biotechnology. Dr. Garcia has mentored over 300 undergraduate, graduate, and medical students during his tenure at Brown University, and specializes in the development of diagnostic and treatment technologies in the field of infections. Dr. Garcia has also been recognized as one of the architects of the Rhode Island COVID-19 response, and a leader in the advocacy for equity of urban communities. 

Taneisha Wilson, MD
Assistant Professor of Emergency Medicine

Dr. Wilson is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Emergency Medicine, where she completed residency and fellowship training.  She has since maintained a strong interest in improving emergency department (ED) patients' lives by identifying best practices for acute care delivery. Her overall research interest encompasses the equitable delivery of acute care and ED resource use, especially pertaining to patients presenting with acute exacerbations of a chronic illness. These patients often receive stigmatized or biased care in the ED. While stigmatized care is not unique to the ED, the ED environment provides a unique opportunity to identify solutions and methodologies to providing unbiased and destigmatized treatment.

Jael Rodriguez, MD
Associate Professor of Medicine

Dr. Rodriguez is an associate professor of medicine (clinical) in the Division of General Internal Medicine at Brown, functioning as both an inpatient attending physician on the teaching general medicine wards at Rhode Island Hospital, as well as supervising residents at the Chapman Street resident continuity clinic, RIH Center for Primary Care. He grew up between Moca, Dominican Republic, and the Bronx, New York, and attended medical school at the University of South Florida College of Medicine in Tampa, Florida.

He completed his residency in General Internal Medicine (primary care track) at Brown, at Rhode Island Hospital and The Miriam Hospital. His main areas of interest include primary care, end-of-life care and advanced planning, and sociocultural aspects of healthcare for minority populations.

Roxanne Vrees, MD
Assistant Professor of Obstetrics and Gynecology

Dr. Vrees is an alum of the Program in Liberal Medical Education at Brown. After receiving her medical degree at Brown Medical School, Dr. Vrees completed the residency program in obstetrics and gynecology at Brown/Women & Infants Hospital.

She is an assistant professor of obstetrics and gynecology and director of the obstetrics and gynecology core clerkship at the Warren Alpert Medical School. In addition, she is the medical director of the Division of Emergency Obstetrics and Gynecology at Women & Infants and has been appointed Associate Dean for Student Affairs at the Alpert Medical School. 

Martha Sanchez
Assistant Professor of Medicine 

Dr. Martha Sanchez joined the Division of Infectious Diseases in the Department of Medicine in October 2016. She is an Adult Infectious Diseases Physician at The Miriam Hospital, Rhode Island Hospital and Newport Hospital. She is the Director of the Immunology Center Adherence and Retention Program (ICARE) at The Miriam Hospital and the Director of the Brown University-Santiago, Dominican Republic Exchange Program.

Dr Sanchez is an Assistant Professor of Medicine at The Warren Alpert Medical School of Brown University and a Mary B. Arnold Longitudinal Mentor. On 2018, she received the Mentorship Award in Diversity and Equity (MADE) by the Office of Diversity and Multicultural Affairs (ODMA).  She earned her Medical School Degree at the Instituto Tecnológico de Santo Domingo (INTEC), in the Dominican Republic. She completed her Internal Medicine Residency in the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai at Englewood Hospital and Medical Center, Englewood, New Jersey. She subsequently completed her Infectious Disease Fellowship at Rutgers New Jersey Medical School Program, Newark, New Jersey. After her fellowship she worked providing HIV, Hepatitis, STI and Tuberculosis care to the underserved community in New Bedford, MA. Dr. Sanchez's Clinical and Research interest include the HIV Care Continuum in the US and Dominican Republic, Hepatitis C, Tropical Medicine. 

Fadya El Rayess, MD, MPH
Associate Professor of Family Medicine

Fadya El Rayess, MD, MPH is program director of Brown Family Medicine Residency and co-director of Brown FM Global Health Fellowship. A graduate of Cornell University, she earned an MD/MPH from George Washington University. She completed an FM residency at the University of New Mexico and a Faculty Leadership Development Fellowship at Brown. A National Health Service Corps Scholar, she worked in RI community health centers for twelve years prior to joining the Brown FM residency.  She co-directs Brown Med’s Caring for Underserved Communities Concentration and volunteers at the student clinic. She serves on the Brown Council for Diversity in Medicine and Brown’s Global Health Initiative Executive Committee. She has won a number of community service and teaching awards including the 2017 Mentorship Award in Diversity and Equity Award in Medicine. 

In 2009, Dr. El Rayess and her family spent a year in Lesotho, Africa, where –as assistant residency director – she supported the development of a FM residency. Her clinical interests include health equity, advocacy, immigrant, refugee, reproductive, LGBT and global health. An avid kayaker, she enjoys running, yoga, women’s literature in translation and spending time with her family.

Sybil Cineas, MD
Associate Professor of Medicine and of Pediatrics

Sybil Cineas, MD is the Associate Residency Director for Med/Peds and oversees the Med/Peds ambulatory curriculum as well as the longitudinal Med/Peds rotation for Brown medical students. Dr. Cineas serves as a Career in Medicine faculty advisor at the Alpert Medical School of Brown University and is an assistant director for the Longitudinal Integrated Clerkship (LIC).

Travel Awards to the AAMC Minority Faculty Leadership Development Seminar

The OBEDI offers travel awards for two minority junior faculty members to attend the AAMC Minority Faculty Leadership Development Seminar. The Warren Alpert Medical School Clinical Department Chairs nominate one junior faculty member from their department to be considered for the OBEDI Travel Award.

AAMC Minority Faculty Leadership Development Seminar

Previous Travel Award Recipients 

  1. Dr. Monica Serrano Gonzalez
  2. Dr. Carla Moreira
  3. Dr. Taneisha Wilson
  4. Dr. Saurabh Agarwal
  5. Dr. Libertad Flores