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WMED SPOTLIGHT

FACULTY SPOTLIGHT
For Sravani Alluri, MD, her work – and passion for – leading Street Medicine Kalamazoo (SMKzoo) at Western Michigan University Homer Stryker M.D. School of Medicine (WMed) is rooted in a deep desire to break down systemic barriers and bring medical care directly to those in need in the unhoused community in Kalamazoo. Sravani Alluri, MD The initiative, launched in 2021, aims to address what is an overwhelming need in the city by providing care for all with respect and dignity – and justice. The work for the interdisciplinary team can be taxing at times due to limited resources and funding. But it’s also important and rewarding – and impactful. For all of those reasons, Dr. Alluri, who serves as an assistant professor in medical school’s Department of Family and Community Medicine, was named by YWCA Kalamazoo as this year’s recipient of the Dorothy I. Height Social Justice Award. Dr. Alluri and other award recipients were recognized on Thursday, May 22, 2025, at the YWCA Kalamazoo Women of Achievement Legacy Celebration. “It’s an honor to be recognized in this way,” Dr. Alluri said. “It speaks to the work that our entire team has done and that WMed has been supportive of. We connect with our patients where they are and we build a support system around them where none exists.” Dr. Alluri said she is honored to be recognized by the YWCA Kalamazoo and humbled that the award bears Height’s name. Height was a prominent civil rights and women’s rights activist who served as president of the National Council of Negro Women for 40 years. She was also a leader within the YWCA and was considered a member of the Big Six, a group of civil rights pioneers that included Martin Luther King Jr., James Farmer, John Lewis, A. Philip Randolph, Roy Wilkins, and Whitney Young. When she died in 2010, President Barack Obama delivered the eulogy at Height’s funeral service at the Washington National Cathedral. Dr. Alluri said she feels that the needs Street Medicine Kalamazoo is able to address in the community falls directly in line with Height’s work to support others, to raise them up, and to change the system. “That’s really what we do for our patient population,” Dr. Alluri said. “We raise them up through advocacy, we increase health system awareness, and we increase accountability for the health system to those patients, as well.” Dr. Alluri’s push to start SMKzoo began during the COVID-19 pandemic when she was a Family Medicine resident at WMed. That work continued after she joined the medical school faculty in 2021. Since then, the program has grown year over year. Dr. Alluri, along with Nic Helmstetter, MD, associate program director for SMKzoo and assistant professor in the departments of Medicine and Pediatric and Adolescent Medicine, and Sarah Darweesh, MD, assistant professor in the Department of Family and Community Medicine, and a host of resident physicians and medical students during their rotations and clerkships, now perform more than 1,500 clinical visits a year. In 2023, the team was featured in The New York Times and purchased a 2018 Ford Transit van that serves as a mobile clinic and has allowed the team to greatly expand its services to the community. “We really provide care to patients who aren’t getting care anywhere else and we provide comprehensive services so they can overcome the barrier of not being able to get into a clinic for an appointment,” Dr. Alluri said. “Those relationships we’ve developed are so valuable and very personal as well.” When she received her award at the Women of Achievement Legacy Celebration on May 22, Dr. Alluri got the opportunity to speak to those in attendance about Street Medicine Kalamazoo’s accomplishments, as well as the ongoing health needs of the unhoused in Kalamazoo and how SMKzoo is helping address those needs. Dr. Alluri said the important work done by the team would not be possible without Drs. Helmstetter and Darweesh, student leaders within SMKzoo, as well as Teri Ault, RN, who serves as volunteer nurse manager; Terry Doxey, PharmD, who serves as volunteer pharmacist; EricaNoelle Destin, MSW, who serves as the team’s health navigator, and Pamela Wadsworth, PhD, WHNP-BC,RN, who serves as a part-time nurse practitioner and provides reproductive health services. Since 1985, the Women of Achievement Awards have honored women who boldly advance social justice, racial equity, and systems change. This year’s ceremony was a legacy celebration honoring 140 years of YWCA Kalamazoo and the countless women who have made history along the way. Dr. Alluri was one of three honorees at the event who were celebrated for embodying YWCA Kalamazoo’s mission of eliminating racism and empowering women in their everyday lives. “We are fighting every day for our patients and the care we provide,” Dr. Alluri said. “To be recognized for those efforts is really nice and I see this as a recognition not just for me but for the work of our entire team.” If you are interested in supporting Street Medicine Kalamazoo, please visit give.wmed.edu or email the team at SMKzoo@wmed.edu.
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RESIDENT SPOTLIGHT
The medical school will welcome its newest group of resident physicians to Kalamazoo and Battle Creek this summer following a successful Match that saw the medical school’s 10 residency programs fill every available training slot. The Main Residency Match process begins in the fall for applicants usually in the final year of medical school, when they apply to residency programs at which they would like to train. The results, announced on Friday, March 21, were part of the 2025 Main Residency Match, which was the largest on record, according to the National Residency Matching Program (NRMP). This year's Match was made up of 52,498 registered applicants – 2,085 more than in 2024 - and 43,237 positions. Additionally, the number of available first-year (PGY-1) positions rose to 40,041, an increase of 1,547 from last year. Match 2025 Results “Congratulations to our new residents on a successful Match and achieving this incredible milestone in medical training,” said Kelly Brown, MD, associate dean for Graduate Medical Education. “We are excited to welcome our new WMed residents to the Kalamazoo and Battle Creek communities and look forward to helping them succeed in their education.” The new cohort of 77 resident physicians and four fellows includes nine residents who are participating in MIDOCs, a program from the state of Michigan which expands residency training positions in select specialties. MIDOCs residents go on to practice in underserved areas of Michigan in exchange for loan repayment. The newest group of MIDOCs residents coming to WMed will join our Family Medicine-Kalamazoo, General Surgery, Internal Medicine, Pediatrics, and Psychiatry residency programs. In addition to Family Medicine, General Surgery, Internal Medicine, Pediatrics, and Psychiatry, the medical school has residency training programs in Emergency Medicine, Medicine-Pediatrics, Obstetrics and Gynecology, and Orthopaedic Surgery, as well as fellowships in Emergency Medical Services, Forensic Pathology, Hospice and Palliative Medicine, Medical Simulation, and Sports Medicine. The new residents will begin their training in July. The medical school will also welcome new fellows to its EMS, Forensic Pathology, Hospice and Palliative Medicine, and Sports Medicine fellowship programs. The group of new resident physicians includes six students from the medical school’s MD Class of 2025. The students were part of a class that saw 98 percent of its students enter a residency program in specialties ranging from Emergency Medicine and Internal Medicine to Obstetrics and Gynecology and Orthopaedic Surgery. Match Day is a time-honored tradition held at medical schools across the country. It represents a pinnacle moment for graduating medical students as the course of their medical careers is determined and they learn where they will spend the next three or more years for residency training. Residents practice medicine in a clinical setting under the supervision of fully licensed physicians. The Main Residency Match process begins in the fall for applicants usually in the final year of medical school, when they apply to residency programs at which they would like to train. Program directors review applications and conduct candidate interviews in the fall and early winter. From mid-January to late February, applicants submit to NRMP their rank order lists of preferred programs, and program directors rank applicants in order of preference for training. The NRMP uses a computerized mathematical algorithm to match applicants with programs using the preferences expressed on their rank lists. About the NRMP: The National Resident Matching Program® (NRMP®) is a private, non-profit organization established in 1952 to oversee The Match®. The Match was established at the request of medical students to provide an orderly and fair mechanism for matching the preferences of applicants for U.S. residency positions with the preferences of residency program directors. In addition to the annual Main Residency Match® for more than 48,000 registrants, the NRMP also conducts Fellowship Matches for more than 70 subspecialties through its Specialties Matching Service® (SMS®).
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SIMULATION CENTER SPOTLIGHT
The WMed Simulation Center has been granted full reaccreditation by the Society for Simulation in Healthcare (SSH) for the next five years. News of the important milestone came in August following a site visit in May from a two-person team that participated in a tour of the Simulation Center, conducted interviews with leadership, staff and users of the Simulation Center, reviewed handbooks, procedures, case and training materials, and program evaluations and processes. John Hoyle, MD “It’s important and it shows that we meet a really high standard that’s been verified by SSH, an organization with the sole purpose of assuring that simulation-based education is done well,” said John Hoyle, MD, assistant dean for Simulation. “It’s exciting and it’s a reflection of all of our hard work.” The Simulation Center first received full core accreditation and full accreditation in teaching and education from SSH in 2018. SSH is the largest healthcare simulation accrediting body in the world. Dr. Hoyle said the reaccreditation process was a collaborative effort that involved every team member in the Simulation Center, including Connie Worline, director of Clinical Simulation; Neil Hughes, MD, assistant professor in the Department of Medicine who is a WMed alumnus and former simulation fellow; Ryan Richards, manager of Simulation Operations; Standardized Patient Coordinator Havilah MacInnes; Administrative Assistant Linda Bunting, and simulation center specialists. At WMed, simulation is a key component of medical education and serves as a bridge for students between the classroom and clinical area. In addition to its integration into the undergraduate curriculum at WMed, the Simulation Center also supports simulation-based exercises for graduate medical education and regularly hosts training events for Kalamazoo’s two hospitals, Ascension Borgess Hospital and Bronson Methodist Hospital. Currently, first-year students at WMed complete more than 90 hours of simulation-based training as part of their Medical First Responder course, Dr. Hoyle said. In 2022 and 2023 combined, the Simulation Center hosted more than 14,000 learners who logged more than 67,000 hours of training. “We see and interact with every student and every resident in the institution,” Dr. Hoyle said. The Simulation Center is made up of more than 25,000 square feet of space between two locations – the W.E. Upjohn M.D. Campus and Ascension Borgess Hospital – with a staff of 20, including two directors, two coordinators, simulation specialists and technicians, and more than 70 standardized patients. At the W.E. Upjohn M.D. Campus, the Simulation Center boasts more than 24,000 square feet and includes a 13-bed virtual hospital with a large operating room and three debriefing rooms, a 12-room ambulatory clinic, two large control rooms, two procedure labs, two classrooms, an ultrasonography suite, and a virtual endoscopic surgery room. Additionally, the center is an American Heart Association authorized training center for Basic and Advanced Life Support an and an authorized training site for Pediatric Advanced Life Support. The Simulation Center is also authorized to provide remote testing for the Fundamentals of Laparoscopic Surgery. The Simulation Center at Ascension Borgess Hospital opened in 2016 and includes 4,100 square feet with a two-bed clinical room with advanced equipment and high-fidelity manikins, a procedure room, an FLS Surgery training room and classrooms. Dr. Hoyle said that as simulation-based learning at the medical school continues to expand, he and his team in the Simulation Center are working to provide the best learning experience possible. Over the last year, he said a number of adult and pediatric human patient simulators have been replaced and later this year, the audiovisual system in the facility at W.E. Upjohn M.D. Campus will be overhauled and upgraded. “The more training we can do and the more high-risk cases we can simulate for our learners, the more we can help provide safer patient care,” he said.
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STUDENT SPOTLIGHT
As she chases her dream of becoming a caring and compassionate physician, Kayla Grooters’ Christian faith is pivotal in that pursuit and, she says, the foundation of her life. Her faith has carried her to where she is now – entering her final year of studies at Western Michigan University Homer Stryker M.D. School of Medicine (WMed) and on the cusp of becoming an Internal Medicine and Pediatrics physician. That faith has also fueled Grooters as she has played a central role in reviving WMed’s chapter of the Christian Medical and Dental Association (CMDA) and established herself as a student leader for CMDA at the state and national levels. Kayla Grooters “I really wanted to create something that was going to provide some permanent fellowship and permanent community at WMed,” said Grooters, a native of Findlay, Ohio, who came to Kalamazoo in 2022 as a member of the MD Class of 2026 after earning a bachelor’s degree in biomedical science with an emphasis in microbiology at Grand Valley State University. “What ended up happening exceeded my wildest expectations,” she said. The story of Grooters’ involvement with – and investment in – the CMDA chapter at WMed really began during her time as an undergraduate at GVSU. It was then, she said, that she truly rediscovered her relationship with Jesus after years of minimal involvement in the church. She joined Cru Ministries at GVSU, became a part of an honors college bible study, and spent 10 weeks in Spain with Greater Europe Mission (GEM) where she worked in a food truck and coffee shop along El Camino de Santiago. She also prayed with people from more than 150 countries, listened to their stories, and washed their feet. “My time in Spain really taught me how to meet people in difficult moments and support them where they’re at,” Grooters said. Grooters said she valued the sense of community and fellowship she experienced during her time at GVSU and overseas. When she arrived at WMed in the summer of 2022 though, she found an academic landscape heavily impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic that allowed for little face-to-face time with her classmates. “I went through that first year without any real sense of community or connection outside of our classes,” she said. “That was really hard on me and I got to the end of that first year feeling very lonely.” A kickoff event last summer for the CMDA chapter at WMed attracted more than 50 students, faculty, staff, and their family members. For Grooters, though, that sense of loneliness began to fade when – at the start of her second year at the medical school – she received an email message seeking students who might be interested in restarting the CMDA student interest group at WMed. She jumped at the opportunity and joined four other students in hosting meals twice a month at the W.E. Upjohn M.D. Campus along with a video bible study course. They also did the work to change CMDA at WMed from a student interest group into a student organization and registered the chapter with the CMDA’s office for the Midwest region. By the fall of 2023, she learned that the CMDA Midwest Fall Conference was held annually in Muskegon and that WMed students had never attended. That prompted her to begin working with the Midwest region director for CMDA to promote the event to medical students. “I made it my mission to encourage more student participation in the organization,” Grooters said. It’s an organization that I love because it provides lifelong fellowship and connections for students.” Grooters’ hard work paid off and with the help of her classmates, as well as Abigail Solitro, PhD, and Michael Trexler, MD, who serve as faculty advisers for the CMDA chapter at WMed, interest among students grew exponentially. In the summer of 2024, the group hosted a summer kickoff that attracted more than 50 students, faculty, staff, and their family members. In the fall of 2024, more than 10 WMed students attended the regional conference in Muskegon and overall participation in the conference doubled from the previous year. Even more, just over two years after she began her work with CMDA, WMed now boasts the most active chapter in the state of Michigan and is among the top five most active chapters in the entire Midwest. “I would just like to emphasize that all of this was an answer to prayer,” Grooters said. “While we did many things, none of them would have worked had it not been for God's grace and patience with us. He put it on our hearts to do it, and so we did it … We exist to represent Christ and His mission of healing, grace, and peace on our campus, in our clinics, and in our community, and to make Him known to all who seek him.” The CMDA chapter at WMed holds a bible study on Friday afternoons that typically draws at least 20 people. The success at WMed hasn’t gone unnoticed. Last year, Grooters was named the Michigan State Student Representative for CMDA, a role in which she helped coordinate student chapters at health professional schools throughout the state, including the launch of two new chapters in Michigan. She was also recently featured on the CMDA Pulse Podcast where she talked about the growth of the CMDA chapter at WMed. More notably, in November, Grooters was invited to apply for a national trustee position with CMDA and was selected for the role this year. She will hold the position for one year. “It has all been a huge blessing,” Grooters said. As she steps into a role that makes her the student voice for CMDA at the national level, Grooters said she hopes her work will represent Christ and her fellow student members well. She also wants to help increase student engagement with CMDA and encourage and connect students with career paths that honor their faith and mentors that will help them in their pursuit of their chosen specialties. She said interest in the CMDA at WMed continues to grow and she serves as a mentor for preclinical students who are now leading the chapter she helped restart in 2023. The group holds a Friday afternoon bible study at the W.E. Upjohn M.D. Campus that typically draws at least 20 people. They also host numerous events throughout the year, including a summer barbecue, fall bonfire, Christmas party, and worship nights. In addition to her work at the medical school with CMDA, Grooters is also passionate about some national advocacy issues. She said she is outspokenly passionate in speaking against the legalization of physician-assisted suicide and euthanasia, and she helped start a pro-life group at WMed called White Coats for Life which seeks to advocate for the protection of all people from conception to natural death. As she looks ahead to her final year of medical school, Grooters plans to pursue residency training in Medicine-Pediatrics after graduation and then hopes to complete a fellowship in infectious diseases. “My journey to becoming a doctor is long and messy but it involves wanting to love people well and wanting to see every human being through the lens that Christ sees them,” she said. “Christ is the great physician, the one who was willing to touch the untouchable, comfort the mourning, and go into places and be with the people no one else wanted to be with. “That resonates deeply with me.”
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