Meet our Program Leadership

Mitchell Goldman, MD

Assistant Dean for Graduate Medical Education

Welcome to our Internal Medicine Residency Program Website. I have been lucky to have the position of Program Director for the past 10 years and would like to first and foremost communicate that I am so proud of and impressed by all of our resident trainees. While it is certainly our goal to train people to be well-rounded internists capable of providing care to those with both common and unusual conditions, I believe what sets our program apart from others is our focus to provide a learning environment meant to foster career growth for each individual to meet their unique career goals. The healthcare institutions that make up our learning environment provide our trainees with a variety of care models, patient populations, and experiences that are second to none. We truly welcome and value continuous feedback from our trainees and take pride in our ability to adjust and improve our residents’ experiences.

I am sometimes asked… what kind of person are we looking for in our residency? We are interested in having residents from diverse backgrounds that reflect our patient population. We enjoy training those with diverse careers interests as well, including primary care, hospitalist medicine, subspecialty practice, and have had success in training physician scientists as well as those who pursue public and or global health careers. We value trainees who communicate well who enjoy working with others and who are excited about learning and the field of medicine.

I am an Infectious Diseases physician who previously directed the Infectious Diseases Fellowship here at IU and have had experience in house staff education at three separate universities. I am an Assistant Dean at Indiana University and have a role in fostering the clinical learning environment for the entire body of residents and fellows on campus. I feel lucky to be able to spend my professional time trying to make the learning environment as good as it can be, In my spare time, I enjoy writing and recording music and doing art projects. I enjoy getting to know our residents and last year even had the honor of officiating the wedding of one of our trainees and his partner. I most enjoy being part of a supportive educational team and watching our trainees grow as individuals and as physicians during their residency years and beyond!

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Curtis Wright, MD

Assistant Professor of Clinical Medicine

In addition to being an Associate Program Director for close to a decade, Dr. Curtis Wright is currently President and CEO of Eskenazi Medical Group, the provider group aligned with Eskenazi Health. He is a graduate of the Mayo Clinic School of Medicine and also went through its internal medicine residency program. Within Eskenazi Health, he also has served as assistant chief of medicine and medical director for hospital medicine. Dr. Wright’s key role within Eskenazi helps elevate the IM residency program’s standing and allows for continuous programmatic improvement at this site.

Dr. Wright enjoys being a mentor to residents and relishes discussing career paths, opportunities for development, and how to be successful as a learner, educator, and clinician. His primary goals for the program include: 1) create a culture that allows for, supports, and responds to ongoing feedback from residents, 2) provide a range of experiences and curriculum that fosters the development of the “consummate internist,” 3) ensure that learners have graduated autonomy and appropriate supervision in clinical venues, and 4) insist that all individuals are treated with respect and dignity. Further, he desires for each resident to reach his/her fullest potential with the individual resident’s hopes and dreams held as the guiding principle(s) for mentorship, experiences, additional training, and other development opportunities.

Dr. Wright has a wife, who is a radiologist, a preteen daughter, and an elementary school age son. He is an avid DIY’er who has a mix of success and horror stories. He is a fan of Star Wars, audiobooks, and martial art films.

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Noelle C. Sinex, MD

Assistant Professor of Clinical Medicine

Dr. Noelle Sinex has been an Associate Program Director since 2005. She grew up in Indiana, and has been in Indianapolis since moving to start her third year of medical school at IU. She is a graduate of IU School of Medicine and IU internal medicine residency program where she also served as a Chief Resident. She works as a general internist in both ambulatory and hospital settings at the Indianapolis VAMC. Dr. Sinex served as Women’s Health Medical Director for several years before taking on the role of Firm Chief for the “Green Team” resident and student teaching clinic. Her role in the program has been as a champion for resident continuity clinics and education at the VAMC.

Dr. Sinex enjoys the balance of working with residents and students in clinics and on the wards. As an advisor, she appreciates the opportunity to mentor residents as they navigate career selection, interpret feedback and grow as physicians and leaders in the residency program and in life. As a resident, she experienced a paucity of women attendings as role models, and hopes that by choosing a career teaching residents and students she provides this for others. She is proud to continue to encourage a balance of educational excellence and personal resilience for everyone in medicine. She is particularly proud that the IU residency program strives for continuous and ongoing improvement and adaptation of new ideas driven primarily by input from residents and chief residents.

Dr. Sinex is married to her college sweetheart and has three daughters, two of whom are teenagers. She is an avid reader and sports fan, and, most recently, a fan of youth soccer and basketball.

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Julie A. Vannerson, MD

Associate Professor of Clinical Medicine

Dr. Julie Vannerson is an Associate Program Director and practicing Primary Care Internist at Eskenazi Health. She is a graduate of the University of Tennessee Health Science Center at Memphis and also went through its internal medicine residency program. Outside of her clinical role, she also has worked with the Geriatrics Division, the School of Nursing, and the School of Social Work in federally-funded research involving the care of older adults, substance use disorders and quality improvement. She has also pursued additional training in clinical teaching and patient-physician communication. Dr. Vannerson’s roles within the program include oversight of the IMPACT curriculum, liaison for Eskenazi continuity clinic experiences and co-leading the wellness curriculum with fellow Associate Program Director, Dr. Allyson Thomas, and Key Clinical Educator for Outpatient IM, Dr. Jimmy Hotz.

Dr. Vannerson values her role as educator and mentor focusing on the personal and professional development of each resident through individualized coaching. She focuses on developing strategies to maintain personal wellness, eliciting & receiving feedback on performance and career planning to help each resident achieve their goal of becoming a well-rounded internist and human being.

Dr. Vannerson's support system includes her husband and two teenagers. She is an enthusiastic knitter, baker and traveler, preferring to combine all 3 hobbies whenever possible.

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Allyson L. Thomas, MD

Assistant Professor of Clinical Medicine

Dr. Allyson Thomas is an Associate Program Director and Hospitalist at Indiana University Health Methodist Hospital. She is a graduate of the Indiana University School of Medicine and is a product of our own internal medicine residency program. She started her career in hospital medicine at the VA medical center here in Indianapolis before transitioning to her current role as a hospitalist at IU Health Methodist Hospital. This clinical role has afforded her the opportunity to partner with the administration at IU Health Methodist Hospital to continue to improve the quality of resident education at that site. Within the program, Dr. Thomas uses her clinical role as a hospitalist in the pre-operative medicine clinic as a means of providing this unique educational experience to our residents. In addition, she co-leads the wellness curriculum with fellow Associate Program Director, Dr. Julie Vannerson, and Key Clinical Educator for Outpatient IM, Dr. Jimmy Hotz.

Dr. Thomas enjoys the relationships that she is able to develop with resident advisees. She is dedicated to cultivating personal connections with each resident in an effort to focus on personal wellness, counsel and guide them through residency processes, and assist them with creation and attainment of goals and objectives.

Dr. Thomas is married and has two children. Because of this, she has become a wine connoisseur. She also enjoys traveling, gardening, and binge-watching historical dramas.

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Meet our chief residents

Hi! The IU School of Medicine Internal Medicine Chiefs would like to welcome you to our program. We want to start off by thanking you for taking the time to get to know us. We know this year’s application process is quite different from previous years, but we hope you are able to discover all the unique aspects of our program. Our goal is for you to grow not only as a physician, but as a person through both mentorship and clinical duties. By viewing our website, resident testimonial videos and segments, Twitter and Instagram, we hope you are able to have an inside view of what it would be like to be a resident here at IU School of Medicine. Changes we are most proud of and want to highlight are implementing a pregnancy policy protecting third trimester residents, reducing the amount of 28 hour call for our residents, investing time into an anti-racism curriculum, and much more. Thank you again for taking the time to get to know our program. We hope to meet you this application cycle!

Matt Glick Testimonial: “When I was looking for a residency program, I wanted a place that would provide me with amazing clinical training and research support sure, but more importantly an enjoyable and welcoming environment to work in. Having done medical school at IU, I was given a front row seat to how much fun it is to work with the residents, and that continued through my residency training. We work hard at IU, no doubt about it you will leave here with great clinical skills and be successful in your research projects. But we also have a lot of fun, and the ability to enjoy your time with co-residents both at work and outside make the rigor of residency bearable. Indianapolis is a fantastic city to train in, providing almost everything you could hope to do on your days off at a low cost of living. I jumped at the opportunity to stay on for a chief resident year because I want to help continue the legacy of excellent clinical training in a supportive and fun work culture.”

Sarah Seyffert Testimonial: "Choosing to train in Internal Medicine at Indiana University was the best decision I have made in my career. Being both an international medical graduate and a woman in a male predominant specialty initially posed challenges for me while interviewing for a residency position. However during my IU interview, the program leadership was really able to see past my application and get to know me as a person. They made me feel special and like my career was worth investing their time in. Which is exactly what the program did! Here at IU, I have received excellent clinical training, mentorship, and opportunities to expand my skills as both a leader and educator."