Rachel Forbes, MD, MBA, associate professor of Surgery, has been appointed chief of the Division of Kidney and Pancreas Transplantation in the Department of Surgery at Vanderbilt University Medical Center, effective June 1.

Erik Hess, MD, MSc, professor and interim chair of the Department of Emergency Medicine at the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB) School of Medicine, has been named the new chair of the Department of Emergency Medicine for Vanderbilt University Medical Center. He will join the faculty on July 1.

Each year, the Vanderbilt University School of Medicine graduating fourth-year class honors one faculty member with the Shovel Award in recognition of the exceptionally meaningful impact he or she has had on their medical education.

April Kapu, DNP, APRN, associate nursing officer for VUMC Advanced Practice has been named president-elect of the American Association of Nurse Practitioners (AANP).

Vanderbilt University School of Medicine has announced the 2020 faculty awards for Excellence in Teaching, Outstanding Contributions to Research and Extraordinary Performance of Clinical Service.

Sophie Katz, MD, MPH, is one of four early career infectious diseases physicians in the United States to receive the award, which provides $100,000 of funding support from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

After serving as the department’s interim leader, Eric Shinohara, MD, MSCI, vice chair of the Department of Radiation Oncology at Vanderbilt University Medical Center, has been named as the department’s chair.