Faculty Support

Sarah Combs, MD 

Dr. Combs received her medical degree from the University of Washington, where she also completed residency training. Dr. Combs moved to New Mexico in 2019 after completing her training and being on faculty at the University of Colorado for 4 years, where she served as director of the VA Rocky Mountain Regional Hemodialysis Unit, Nephrology, and Palliative Medicine clinics, and director of ambulatory based education for Palliative Medicine at the VA. She is Associate Professor of Internal Medicine in the Divisions of Palliative Medicine and Nephrology. Her scholarly and clinical pursuits have focused on decreasing symptom burden and improving quality of life in patients with progressive kidney disease. She joined the Internal Medicine residency leadership team in 2020 and became the Program Director in 2021. She will take on the role of Vice-Chair of Education in September 2023. Her priority as program director and now as vice chair of education is rooted in the mission of training exceptional physicians to serve the needs of New Mexico.

Lana Melendres-Groves MD

Our vision as an HSC is to make more progress in New Mexico's health and health equity than any other state, in collaboration with community partners.

All New Mexicans should have access to preventive and advanced health care-and the opportunity for an excellent education in the health sciences. This dual belief is ingrained in our values and mission. It drives us every day to provide exceptional services. Learn More

Executive Vice Chair - Abinash Achrekar, MD 

Dr. Achrekar is Executive Vice Chair of Medicine at University of New Mexico.  He is a former Deputy Cabinet Secretary of Health. In this role he served as the State Health official. He was instrumental in setting up asylum healthcare clinics in southern New Mexico, developed the first in country Border Health elective with partnership with UNM and NMSU, and a key architect to the recently passed comprehensive tobacco reform bills.  

He is currently Professor of Medicine and Cardiology at the University of New Mexico.  His administrative work focuses on faculty development and outpatient clinical affairs. His practice focuses primarily on prevention and outpatient services.  He also sits on advisory boards for telehealth, novel therapeutics, and medical technology companies.  Dr. Achrekar received his BA from UC Berkeley, an MPH from Yale University, and MD from Michigan State University.

Senior Vice Chair for Faculty Development - Elizabeth Lawrence 

Dr. Lawrence is a graduate of Yale College and Stanford University School of Medicine. She has lived and worked in NM since 1995 when she moved here to begin her 3-year Internal Medicine Residency. She currently practices general internal medicine at UNMH’s Northeast Heights Clinic. Dr. Lawrence became a general internist because she cherishes the long-term relationships with patients she can have as a primary care doctor.  She has enjoyed practicing primary care in the past at the Albuquerque VA, in private practice, and at a Federally Qualified Health Center. 

Dr. Lawrence's area of academic interest has been clinician well-being since 2013. At that time, while in private practice caring for many physician-patients, she became disheartened to see the toll clinical work took on doctors. She joins our department after completing 4 years as the first Chief Wellness Officer at the UNM School of Medicine.  The work of her team in the Office of Professional Well-being has received national recognition from the American College of Physicians, the Association of American Medical Colleges, and the AMA.  

Dr. Lawrence believes that we need to change the culture of medicine to an inclusive culture in which all clinicians can thrive and experience joy in their practice. She is excited to be the incoming Senior Vice Chair for Faculty Development. She looks forward to meeting those of you she does not know and working with all of you to improve efficiencies of practice and enhance a culture of wellbeing.  

Dr. Lawrence likes to share that she is in New Mexico because of a blind date in New York City in 1995.  Her older brother set her up with a young man who grew up in Santa Fe, and the rest is history.  Dr. Lawrence and her husband Andy have been married 35 years and are the proud parents of two fifth-generation New Mexicans.  She loves to read, hike, and spend time with friends and family.  

Senior Vice Chair for Clinical Initiatives-Kendall Rogers 

Dr. Kendall M. Rogers, MD CPE FACP SFHM currently serves as Professor and Chief of the Division of Hospital Medicine. Dr. Rogers is an alumnus of UNM, where after completing both his medical schooling and residency, he joined as faculty in 2005. He founded the Section (now Division) of Hospital Medicine in 2006, growing it into a thriving division with over 70 professionals across three sites. Dr. Rogers is steadfastly committed to quality improvement, the integration of effective health IT, and the innovative leadership development of clinicians. He has pioneered strategic initiatives that have significantly improved patient care and streamlined provider workflows across various clinical areas. Locally, he has served as PAG Chair where he created the ‘PAG White Papers,’ and was a founding member of MISSION: Excellence. In addition to years of teaching residents and students at UNM, he created the IDEAL (Informatics, meDical Economics And Leadership) resident elective, contributed to the formation of the UNM APP Hospital Medicine Fellowship, and currently leads as the Program Director for the UNM Clinical Informatics Fellowship. On a national level, Dr. Rogers is actively involved in public policy work with the Society of Hospital Medicine, helped lead SHM's award-winning Glycemic Control Mentored Implementation Program, and earned the 2019 Outstanding Service to Hospital Medicine Award. He is excited to leverage his broad range of experiences and successes to benefit all inpatient services within the Department of Internal Medicine.

Larissa Myaskovsky, PhD
Vice Chair of Research

The  Office of Research functions under the core value that the people of New Mexico deserve world-class healthcare informed by cutting-edge research, and is led by Dr. Larissa Myaskovsky, a tenured Professor in the Department of Internal Medicine. Dr. Myaskovsky is the founding Director of the Center for Healthcare Equity in Kidney Disease (CHEK-D) at UNM, and is the inaugural Director of Faculty Research Development for all of UNM Health Sciences. She also leads the Workforce Development Module for the Southwest Center for Advancing Clinical and Translational Innovations (SW CACTI).

Dr. Myaskovsky has more than 28 years of experience as a researcher, educator, and mentor. With multidisciplinary training in social psychology, organizational behavior, and clinical epidemiology, her research focuses on incorporating social and behavioral science with health services research, and translational and implementation science. Her federal-, state-, and foundationally-funded research focuses on the social determinants of health and using a multi-method and multi-disciplinary approach to identify and understand disparities in healthcare processes and outcomes. She develops and tests interventions to improve healthcare for people with kidney disease and other chronic conditions. In addition, she is passionate about teaching, mentoring, and developing the next generation of researchers in clinical, translational, and implementation science.

Henry Lin, MD 

The Office of Veterans Affairs (VA) is the link between the Department of Internal Medicine and its teaching and clinical activities at the Raymond G. Murphy VA Medical Center in Albuquerque and elsewhere.