Title: Assistant Professor of Clinical Pediatrics, and Neonatologist
Employer: UIC College of Medicine Department of Pediatrics
Rena got her undergraduate degree in Integrative Biology in the Honors Program here at Illinois in 2005. IBH helped her on her path to becoming an Assistant Program Director for the Neonatal-Perinatal Medicine Fellowship at UIC, and to become a neonatologist at the UI Health in Chicago. She is also pursuing a master’s in Health Professions Education.
She was in the honors IB program under Dr. Cheeseman and worked in Dr. Caceres’s lab for both work study and for a student research project. The Honors program allowed for her to take upper level MCB classes as well, which she said set her up for success in medical school.
“I am still friends with some of my honors IB cohort and think fondly of those days!”
Rena would love to talk to anyone interested in a career in the healthcare field, and would love the opportunity to do career class engagement, informational interviews, and workshops with IB students. Contact Christina Swanson at alumnimentor@sib.illinois.edu if you would like to connect with Rena.