Skip to main content

Meet the Faculty

Chairs

Lawrence A. Lavery
Lawrence Lavery
DPM, MPH

Lawrence A. Lavery, DPM, MPH
Professor
University of Texas Southwestern
UT Southwestern Medical Center

Lawrence A. Lavery, DPM, MPH, is a Professor in the Department of Plastic Surgery at UT Southwestern Medical Center. He is also the Medical Director of the Diabetic Limb Salvage (DLS) program at Parkland Memorial Hospital and works as part of the DLS team at William P. Clements Jr. University Hospital. Dr. Lavery’s clinic and research interests involve diabetic foot complications, infections, and wound healing.

Dr. Lavery completed his undergraduate studies at Indiana University and then earned his medical degree at the Rosalind Franklin University of Medicine and Science, Dr. William Scholl College of Podiatric Medicine in Chicago. He completed a residency in podiatric medicine and surgery at the University of Texas Health Science Center in San Antonio, where he also earned a Master in Public Health. 

He is board certified by the American Board of Podiatric Surgery and a Fellow of the American College of Foot and Ankle Surgeons and the Royal College of Surgeons (Glasgow).

Prior to joining UT Southwestern in 2010, Dr. Lavery was a Professor in the Department of Surgery at the Texas A&M Health Science Center College of Medicine, Scott and White Medical Center in Temple, Texas; the University of Texas Health Science Center in San Antonio; and Loyola University Medical Center in Maywood, Illinois. He has also served as a staff podiatrist at VA hospitals in San Antonio and Maywood, Illinois.

Dr. Lavery’s research group has published more than 320 peer reviewed scientific paper and textbook chapters. His H-index is 91. They have received research funding from the National Institutes of Health, Agency for Health Care Policy and Research, American Diabetes Association, Veterans Administration, Qatar National Research Foundation, American College of Foot and Ankle Surgeons, American Podiatric Medical Association, and private industry.

Lee Rogers
Lee C. Rogers
DPM, FFPM, RCPS

Lee C. Rogers, DPM, FFPM, RCPS
Chief of Podiatry
Associate Professor/Clinical;
Louis T. Bogy, DPM Professor of Podiatric Medicine and Surgery
Department of Orthopedics, University of Texas Health San Antonio;
President, American Board of Podiatric Medicine;
Associate Editor, Journal of the American Podiatric Medical Association;
Fellow Faculty of Podiatric Medicine, Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Glasgow

Dr. Lee Rogers is a fellowship-trained podiatric surgeon who specializes in diabetic foot ulcers and lower extremity complications of diabetes. He has authored more than 150 peer-reviewed manuscripts and book chapters and delivered more than 500 lectures in all 50 states and 30 countries. Dr. Rogers is the President of the American Board of Podiatric Medicine. He is a Fellow Faculty of Podiatric Medicine of the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Glasgow. He was named as one of America's Most Influential Podiatrists by Podiatry Management Magazine.

Faculty

Alexandra Armstrong
Alexandria Armstrong
DPM

Coming Soon!

David Armstrong
David Armstrong
DPM, MD, PhD

Dr. Armstrong is Professor of Surgery with Tenure at the University of Southern California. Dr. Armstrong holds a Master of Science in Tissue Repair and Wound Healing from the University of Wales College of Medicine and a PhD from the University of Manchester College of Medicine, where he was appointed Visiting Professor of Medicine. He is founder and co-Director of the Southwestern Academic Limb Salvage Alliance (SALSA). 

Dr. Armstrong has produced more than 640 peer-reviewed research papers in dozens of scholarly medical journals as well as over 100 books or book chapters. He is founding co- Editor of the American Diabetes Association’s (ADA) Clinical Care of the Diabetic Foot, now entering its fourth edition.

Dr. Armstrong was selected as one of the first six International Wound Care Ambassadors and is the recipient of numerous awards and degrees by universities and international medical organizations including the inaugural Georgetown Distinguished Award for Diabetic Limb Salvage. In 2008, he was the 25th and youngest-ever member elected into the Podiatric Medicine Hall of Fame. He was the first surgeon to be appointed University Distinguished Outreach Professor at the University of Arizona. He was the first podiatric surgeon to become a member of the Society of Vascular Surgery and the first US podiatric surgeon named fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons, Glasgow. He is the 2010 and youngest ever recipient of the ADA’s Roger Pecoraro Award, the highest award given in the field. 

Kavitha Bhavan
Kavitha Bhavan
MD, MPH

Kavita Bhavan, M.D., M.H.S., is an Associate Professor in the Department of Internal Medicine and the Associate Vice Chair of Clinical Innovation and High Value Care at UT Southwestern Medical Center.

Dr. Bhavan earned her medical degree at the Pennsylvania State University College of Medicine. She completed a residency in internal medicine at the Ochsner Clinic Foundation and received advanced training in infectious diseases through a fellowship at Washington University/Barnes-Jewish Hospital. She also holds a Master of Health Science degree in maternal and child health from the Johns Hopkins School of Public Health.

She joined the UT Southwestern faculty in 2009.

Dr. Bhavan’s research interests include reducing health disparities with a low-tech and low-cost patient-centered approach to innovation in care delivery, patient engagement, and self-care models. She developed a self-care program for uninsured patients discharged from Parkland Memorial Hospital’s safety net setting to self-administer outpatient parenteral antimicrobial therapy (S-OPAT) for the treatment of a variety of infections. In this model, patients from a low-literacy or low-socioeconomic status population are taught to self-administer their intravenous (IV) antibiotics by gravity or IV push at home. Published data demonstrate efficacy with 47% lower 30-day readmission rates among patients in the self-care model compared to patients discharged with standard forms of OPAT. To date, more than 5,000 patients have been discharged to this program with significant improvement in resource utilization and patient satisfaction.

Her current research efforts include exploring other clinical settings for self-care models to improve health equity.

She is also focused on community-engaged initiatives to improve influenza vaccine uptake in vulnerable populations, and she is currently the principal investigator for the Dallas study site on a multicenter National Institutes of Health RAD- X UP study with the University of Chicago to improve COVID-19 testing among vulnerable populations.

Dr. Bhavan is the Chief Innovation Officer and Medical Director of the Outpatient Parenteral Antimicrobial Therapy Clinic and Infectious Diseases Ambulatory Clinics at Parkland Health & Hospital System. Since 2014, she has been an expert panel member on the IDSA Clinical Practice Guidelines for Outpatient Parenteral Antimicrobial Therapy for the Infectious Diseases Society of America.

She is a Fellow of the Infectious Diseases Society of America and a member of the Institute for Healthcare Improvement and the Alliance for Academic Internal Medicine.

She has delivered countless invited lectures, published numerous academic articles, and contributed to the book Critical Care Infectious Diseases.

In 2019, she earned the UT Southwestern Program Development Award for Leadership in Clinical Excellence.

Peter Crisologo
Peter Crisologo
DPM, FFPM RCPS (Glasg)

Ammar Hashmi, MD is a trained vascular surgeon. He has expertise in both open and endovascular surgery. His areas of expertise include limb salvage, aortic surgery, carotid intervention and venous disease.

Cyaandi Dove
Cyaandi Dove
DPM

Coming Soon!

Alicia Gilmore
MS, RD, CSO, LD

Coming Soon!

Ammar Hashmi
Ammar Hashmi
MD

Ammar Hashmi, MD is a trained vascular surgeon. He has expertise in both open and endovascular surgery. His areas of expertise include limb salvage, aortic surgery, carotid intervention and venous disease.

Melissa L. Kirkwood
MD

Coming Soon!

Bijan Najafi
Bijan Najafi
PhD, MS

Dr. Bijan Najafi is a professor with tenure at Baylor College of Medicine within the Michael E. DeBakey Department of Surgery; Director of Clinical research at the Division of Vascular Surgery and Endovascular Therapy; Co-Director of NSF Center to Stream HealthCare in Place (C2SHIP), and Director of the Interdisciplinary Consortium for Advanced Motion Performance (iCAMP). 
He received Ph.D. in biomedical engineering from the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (EPFL), followed by a postdoctoral fellowship in applied biomechanics at the EPFL, and in neuroscience at Harvard University. He has a broad background in bioengineering with specific expertise in digital-health. His lab at Baylor College of Medicine focuses on developing wearable and smart technologies to better understand how people move through and interact with their environment. His team has also developed and validated several novel metrics to define disease state, assess cognitive-frailty, and track wound healing with a long-term goal of improving stability, healing, and mobility in the United States and worldwide.
He has published over 250 scientific publications in peer-reviewed journals, most of them included new medical device design and advanced modeling and data mining for analysis wearables and digital health data. He is been listed amongst the top 1% of scholars worldwide in 2021 by the Expertscape in the area of leg ulcers and neuropathy and World’s top 2% of Scientists in 2022, edition by Stanford University. He received numerous awards including the most Influential Health and Medical Leaders by Tucson Local Media in 2014. He also led as Principal Investigator, several Phase I and Phase II clinical trials, registered in clinicaltrials.gov.
He has mentored over 400 postdoctoral, research fellows/interns, graduate, undergraduate, premed, and medical students - several of them received prestigious awards from their achievements while working in his team. He also serves as editor, associate editor, and guest editor for several scientific journals including as a section editor for Gerontology, ‘Regenerative and Technological Section’ and Journal of Diabetes Science and Technology. 

Brian Schmidt
Brian Schmidt
DPM

Brian M. Schmidt, DPM is an Associate Professor of Internal Medicine in the Division of Metabolism, Endocrinology, and Diabetes at the University of Michigan Medical School. He completed his undergraduate studies at the University of Michigan- Ann Arbor. After finishing his undergraduate degree program at the University of Michigan, Dr. Schmidt proceeded to Rosalind Franklin University of Medicine and Science to study Podiatry  Dr. Schmidt then completed his Podiatric Medicine and Surgery residency with added Rearfoot and Reconstructive Ankle credential at Yale University/Yale New Haven Hospital. Dr. Schmidt is board certified by the American Board of Podiatric Medicine (ABPM). 

He has published numerous peer-reviewed manuscripts, review articles, and book chapters and is an expert in diabetic foot complications and diabetic limb salvage. Dr. Schmidt has focused his clinical interest into translational research to better understand and promote diabetic foot ulcer healing and limb salvage. He is actively supported in his research by the National Institute of Health (NIH), the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases, and industry. He is actively enrolling participants in ongoing clinical trials evaluating biomakers in diabetic foot ulcer healing and recurrence and serves the NIH Diabetic Foot Consortium as the Study Chair of its Biorepository Program. 

In addition, he currently serves as the Research Director for the University of Michigan's Podiatry Research Fellowship and is the inaugural Elizabeth Weiser Caswell Diabetes Institute Clinical Research Scholar at the University of Michigan.  Dr. Schmidt is an active member in multiple medical societies.

Michael Siah
MD

Coming Soon!

Matthew Sideman
Matthew Sideman
MD

Coming Soon!

Joseph Warren
Joseph Warren
DPM

Coming Soon!