Shaffer-Wilk-Miller Fellowship

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Program Overview

The Shaffer-Wilk-Miller Fellowship Program at Columbia University Medical Center was created to attract, train, and mentor high-quality individuals interested in pursuing careers in academic clinical pathology. Since the inception, this fellowship has significantly enhanced the overall quality of the clinical, scholarly, and educational efforts of the Division of Laboratory Medicine in the Department of Pathology and Cell Biology. The funds from this program have advanced the careers of these fellows in multiple ways, including supporting advanced clinical and/or research training in clinical pathology, attendance at national meetings, and tuition support for educational pursuits in the Mailman School of Public Health. To date, there have been 12 fellows who have participated in in this program, with alumni who are now successfully functioning as faculty members at various academic health centers, including Columbia University, the University of Utah, the Medical College of Wisconsin, and the University of Alabama-Birmingham.

Several Shaffer-Wilk-Miller fellows have been successful in garnering extramural grant support from various organizations, including the NIH. Dr. Eldad Hod, Associate Professor in the tenure-track at Columbia University, has received grants from the National Institutes of Health (a K08 Award and two R01 grants) and the National Blood Foundation, among others. Furthermore, all of the fellows who have completed their training have published multiple peer-reviewed papers resulting from their work as Shaffer-Wilk-Miller fellows. This experience not only enhanced their careers, but also the careers of their faculty mentors.

The Department of Pathology and Cell Biology at Columbia University has recruited several Shaffer-Wilk-Miller trainees to become faculty members in the Division of Laboratory Medicine. In 2015, Elsevier published Clinical Pathology Board Review (Spitalnik SL, Arinsburg SA, Jhang JS); a 650-page book, where all 23 chapters were written by current and former faculty members of the Division of Laboratory Medicine. The book-writing effort included contributions from many former Shaffer-Wilk-Miller fellows. This book, among other accomplishments, has allowed the Division of Laboratory Medicine to develop the “Columbia Way” of clinical practice and training in this field, while contributing to the long-standing reputation of Columbia University as a center of excellence in Clinical Pathology.

Current Fellows

Elizabeth Godbey, MD - Dr. Godbey received her medical training at Columbia University and just completed her residency training with us at Columbia University, having just passed her Board exams in both Anatomic Pathology and Clinical Pathology. She recently began fellowship training in our joint Transfusion Medicine Fellowship program with the New York Blood Center. During this 1 year fellowship she will become expert in the most modern techniques in transfusion medicine and will pursue translational research in blood transfusion. At the completion of her training, Dr. Godbey will obtain a faculty position in academic pathology combining clinical research with the clinical practice of transfusion medicine and cell therapy. She is an outstanding, young physician who has a bright future in our field.

Monika Paroder, MD, PhD - Dr. Paroder received her medical training and a PhD in Molecular Pharmacology at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine. Her graduate career was outstanding and she made multiple significant discoveries related to the mechanisms by which thyroid cells take up and incorporate iodine, the latter of which are critical to the function of this endocrine organ. Her work on this topic alone led to 6 important publications. She just completed her residency training with us at Columbia  University, having just passed her Board exams in both Anatomic Pathology and Clinical Pathology. She recently began fellowship training in our joint Transfusion Medicine Fellowship program with the New York Blood Center. During this 1 year fellowship she will become expert in the most modern techniques in transfusion medicine and will pursue translational research in blood transfusion. Following training, Dr. Paroder will obtain a faculty position in academic pathology combining a translational research program in immune monitoring with the clinical practice of transfusion medicine and cell therapy.

Fellowship Alumni