Ruth Fox Endowment

It is with great excitement that the Illinois Society of Addiction Medicine highlights addiction medicine physicians-in-training from Illinois, for whom the American Society of Addiction Medicine has awarded the Ruth Fox Scholarship. Please click the links for information on the Ruth Fox Scholarships, the legacy of Dr. Ruth Fox, and also a letter from ISAM Board Member Dr. Andrea Barthwell thanking the donors who support this important endowment for addiction medicine education.

Ruth Fox 2025 Endowment Recipients

Zain Nayani, DO, MPH

Zain Nayani, DO, MPH, is from the Chicago suburbs and completed his Bachelor of Science in Community Health and his Masters of Public Health degrees at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. He attended medical school at Midwestern University Chicago College of Osteopathic Medicine and completed his residency in Internal Medicine at the combined Cook County Health and RUSH internal medicine program, part of the primary care track. During his residency, Nayani developed a keen interest in addiction medicine, inspired by his work with diverse patient populations and seeing the barriers that exist to care that exist for these patients. He hopes to use the skills he obtains during fellowship to improve quality of stigma-free care, increase access to addiction medicine resources, and help educate his colleagues on how to best care for this population, particularly in the inpatient setting. Outside of medicine, he enjoys being outdoors, trying new restaurants, taking long walks in the city, and photography.

Tyler Reese, MD, AAHIVS

Tyler Reese MD, AAHIVS, grew up in Cleveland, Ohio, and pursued his Bachelor of Science in Environmental Public Health at The Ohio State University, where he developed his interest in addiction medicine and public health as an HIV/STI test counselor. Reese received his medical degree from Loyola University Chicago Stritch School of Medicine. He completed his residency in Internal Medicine at the University of Colorado and was a member of its renowned Primary Care Track at Denver Health Medical Center. Reese was the recipient of an NIH National Heart Lung and Blood Institute T35 Research Grant for his published work in obesity and global public health. He has also been awarded the 2024 American Society of Addiction Medicine’s AMAC Scholarship in recognition of his advocacy and policy work. As a RUSH Addiction Medicine Fellow, Reese is passionate about working with patients with substance use, particularly patients living with HIV or Hepatitis C, as well as those who identify as members of the LGBTQIA community. He strives to collaborate with and empower his patients to achieve their health goals and offers both harm reduction and medical management approaches to care. Outside of work, Reese enjoys traveling, tennis, yoga, visual and performing arts, and exploring new restaurants throughout Chicago.

Ruth Fox 2024 Endowment Recipients

Bryce DeVenecia, MD

Bryce de Venecia is originally from Denver, Colorado. He left the mountains for the Midwest starting in undergrad at the University of Notre Dame to study Biology and Spanish. He then attended medical school at the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health. He completed his residency in Emergency Medicine at Indiana University in Indianapolis, Indiana. Currently, he is practicing emergency medicine and starting an addiction medicine consulting service at Rush Oak Park Hospital in Oak Park, IL. This next year, he hopes to run another marathon, travel to a new country, and return to the Rockies for hiking.

Tiffany Tahata, DO

Tiffany Tahata was born and raised in Honolulu, Hawai’i, and completed her undergraduate degrees in Biology and Psychology at the University of Hawai’i at Manoa. She left the islands to attend medical school in Colorado and completed her Internal Medicine residency at CMHS in Ventura, California. She is a graduate of the Addiction Medicine fellowship at Rush University Medical Center. She currently practices Addiction Medicine at the chemical dependency clinic at PCC in the West Side of Chicago. Outside of work, she loves spending time with friends and family, traveling, all things art and music, and being active

Ruth Fox 2023 Endowment Recipient

Amanda Donald, MD

Amanda Donald is a board member of ISAM. She is an internal medicine physician and an addiction medicine physician. Dr. Donald is an attending at Northwestern Palos Heights Community Hospital and also works with the intensive outpatient program stationed in Orland Park, Illinois. A Chicago native, she completed her medical school at the University of Illinois at Chicago College of Medicine. She then ventured west and completed an internal medicine residency in 2022 at Kaiser Permanente Medical Center in San Francisco. There Dr. Donald helped develop a curriculum to support diversity outreach and improvement within residency recruitment processes. She joined Rush University Medical Center for added training in addiction medicine and completed her fellowship in June of 2023. She is now working with Northwestern Palos Hospital providing both inpatient and outpatient addiction services. Dr. Donald has collaborated to start an intranasal naloxone kit program and is currently developing protocols for ordering and administration of long-acting injectable buprenorphine. Her goal is to strive to enrich and improve community access both to harm reduction measures as well as treatment options. Dr. Donald thrives off of continued learning and expansion of the field and aims to be an advocate for her patients and her community.

Ruth Fox 2022 Endowment Recipient

Francesco Tani, DO, FASAM, AAHIVS

Francesco Tani works at PCC Community Wellness, an FQHC in Chicago, where he is the Assistant Service Chief of Inpatient Addiction Medicine at West Suburban Medical Center. Dr. Tani also works at Howard Brown Health as a family physician and HIV specialist. Dr. Tani serves as core faculty for the Rush Addiction Medicine Fellowship program.

Ruth Fox 2021 Endowment Recipients

Nicholas Chien, MD

Dr. Nicholas Chien is an emergency medicine physician and addiction medicine fellow at Rush University Medical Center. He was born in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia but grew up in Vancouver, British Columbia where he completed elementary and high school. He obtained undergraduate degrees from the University of California, Berkeley in nutritional sciences and integrative biology. He worked in the biotech industry and as a medical biller prior to completing medical school at the University of Kentucky College of Medicine. Dr. Chien graduated from emergency medicine residency at Rush University Medical Center in 2020 and transitioned directly to his role as a fellow at the same institution. Dr. Chien’s passion for addiction medicine has been influenced by the death of a close friend from unintentional opioid overdose and his mother who works as a street minister on Vancouver downtown’s east side. Dr. Chien has clinical interest in addiction medicine include opioid use disorder, alcohol use disorder, co-occurring mental illness, and medical education. Dr. Chien is a clinical instructor at Rush Medical College where he teaches medical students and residents on a variety of addiction medicine related topics. Dr. Chien is a ASAM Ruth Fox Scholarship recipient and is dedicated to empower medical professionals to better care for patients with substance use disorders. He plans to practice both of his specialties in an academic setting once he completes fellowship.

Joseph Ikekwere, MD

Dr. Joseph Ikekwere received his medical degree at the University of Ibadan, Nigeria. He worked in the area of general practice in northern Nigeria before relocating to the United States where he subsequently obtained a Master of Public Health degree (MPH) at the East Tennessee State University (ETSU). His interest in Psychiatry arose after he lost his childhood friend to suicide following a struggle with infectious disease and mental illness. His active participation in medical research/projects particularly in the area of HIV/AIDS Psychiatry kept him at the ETSU Quillen College of Medicine in Tri-cities, Tennessee where he pursued his general psychiatry residency. His interest in neurodevelopment during childhood and involvement with the HIV issues committee of the American Psychiatric Association as well as the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry (CAP) brought him closer towards fulfilling his dream of serving the children, adolescents and the transitional youth population that struggle with mental health at the University of Michigan CAP fellowship program. Currently, as an addiction fellow at the University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC), he seeks to develop a reasonable background and knowledge base in substance use disorders among adolescents and transitional age to further his career as an early academic psychiatrist in addiction. His clinical research goal is to find answers to the patterns and predictors of substance use disorders particularly opioid in youths affected by HIV. “I feel privileged to be part of the 2021 Ruth Fox Scholarship recipient. I am excited to be a part of this great experience and feel supported by mentors from UIC and ASAM.

Daniel Ignell, MD

Daniel Ignell works at Kaiser Permanente in California. He has always wanted to be a physician and was lucky enough to realize that dream. He received his bachelor’s degree from St. Louis University and attained his medical degree from the American University of the Caribbean. He completed a family medicine residency at Rush-Copley Medical Center and an Addiction Medicine Fellowship at Rush University Medical Center. Outside of work, he enjoys rock climbing, snowboarding, and biking with his wife and dog. He also loves to travel internationally and is constantly planning his next trip.

Ruth Fox 2020 Endowment Recipient

Ruchi Fitzgerald, MD

Ruchi M. Fitzgerald, MD, FAAFP is a family physician and an addiction medicine physician. She is the Service Chief of Inpatient Addiction Medicine at PCC Community Wellness, a federally qualified health center system that serves the West Side of Chicago. Dr. Fitzgerald is an Assistant Professor in the Departments of Family Medicine and Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at Rush University, as well as the Associate Program Director of the Rush Addiction Medicine Fellowship. She completed the addiction medicine fellowship at Rush University in 2020. She is a graduate of the University of Michigan Medical School and completed her family medicine residency in 2012 with the Montana Family Medicine Residency. Dr. Fitzgerald developed an interest in provision of care for underserved populations and those affected by substance use disorders during her residency. Her love for teaching medical students and family practice residents developed in Montana while she was a community faculty physician with the Montana Family Medicine Residency Program. Dr. Fitzgerald also has extensive experience in telemedicine. During her fellowship, Dr. Fitzgerald worked with the addiction medicine faculty to create RISE-MD (Rush Integrative Substance Use Disorder Education for Medical Doctors), an educational initiative in Rush Medical College that focuses on eliminating stigma while promoting evidence-based treatment of substance use disorders in the next generation of physicians. She has worked with the American Society of Addiction Medicine and the Illinois Society of Addiction Medicine on key advocacy and policy initiatives related to substance use disorders. Dr. Fitzgerald is also an active member of the Federation of State Physician Health Programs and is an advocate for physician health and wellness.