I grew up just a little north of Houston, Texas. Prior to moving to Indiana I had lived in Texas nearly my whole life. I attend undergraduate school at Texas A&M where I studied biochemistry and art history. Before starting medical school I spent about 6 months in Rome studying Italian religious art. I graduated medical school from The University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston. Although I consider myself a Texas girl, I was so impressed with the quality of the IU residency program and the breadth of patient exposure that I decided to stay. I have really enjoyed my time in Indianapolis and if I had to do internal medicine residency over I would choose IU again. Currently, I am the Ambulatory Chief Resident. Some of my duties include staffing clinics at the Indianapolis VA, teaching within and helping to coordinate the outpatient rotation, and helping to manage resident clinics. I live downtown where I can walk to my favorite restaurants, parks, farmer's market and shops. In my free time I like to cook, travel and read.

I was born in Syria, grown up in Bahrain which is 32 islands in the sea of the Arabian Gulf. I graduated from University of Damascus School of Medicine in 2008. My residency at IU was a transformative experience, as I entered with my mind full of chaotic facts memorized in medical school, and left with an organic, comprehensive training in the art and science of medicine. Now I work as Medicine Chief Resident at Methodist Hospital. My professional interests are medical education- specifically evidence based physical diagnosis and pathophysiology. After my chief resident year, I am interested in pursuing Hematology/Oncology fellowship and in particular Malignant Hematology and Bone Marrow Transplant.

I am thankful for the opportunity to have trained at Indiana University for my internal medicine residency; to be surrounded daily by hard working, intelligent, enthusiastic, and compassionate colleagues. Furthermore, it has been a continued privilege to be part of the ongoing educational mission of this training program while serving as chief resident at IU Health University Hospital. It is a pleasure to learn from and care for Hoosiers from around the state of Indiana and beyond, in the home state where I was born and raised. Growing up on a livestock and grain farm nestled in rural Northeast Indiana, I have benefited from my roots in the friendly region of the Midwest. I attended Valparaiso University, where I was able to foster my love of science and the humanities, majoring in Biology, Chemistry, and English literature. Continuing a westward journey, I cultivated my fascination of cell biology and molecular signaling while engaged in bench work research at the University of Chicago. I continued my medical training, alongside my wife, at the Loyola University Stritch School of Medicine, before making the decision to return to Indiana for residency training. I am grateful for my training at Indiana University. I am consistently impressed with the clinical diversity offered here; having grown from experiences in the bustling academic, community, county, and veteran's hospital settings where our residents train. I am also thankful for the conscious balance between autonomy and supervision, as this program produces physicians that are capable, independent, and innovative in their approach to patient care. Finally, this program provides residents a diverse academic network committed to patient-centered care, clinical and translational research, and medical education. As I prepare for subspecialty training in pulmonary/critical care, I am fortunate for ongoing mentorship, whether through research advice during my investigations of lipid signaling in pulmonary arterial hypertension, or through personalized clinical teaching on the wards or in the ICU. I would sincerely invite you to take a closer look at our program, to see if this is a place where you too can grow, be challenged, and supported in your professional pursuits.

I'm a Midwestern boy at heart as I was born and raised in the farming "metropolis" of Elwood, IN. I grew up on Rudy and Hoosiers, and after high school, I gave up my dream of playing college basketball and was lucky enough to be accepted at the University of Notre Dame. After four years at the most amazing university in all the world (a scientific fact-look it up), I graduated with a degree in Biology and was off to Ann Arbor, MI where I attended the University of Michigan Medical School. During that time, I finally got married to my very beautiful (and obviously very patient) girlfriend of 8 years, Kim. After graduation, I fell in love with the IU residency, and my wife and I decided it was time to come home. We currently live in Brownsburg with our 2 year-old son Ben and our cuddly 6 yr-old Golden Retriever Isabelle. As if that wasn't enough work, we are happily expecting another baby sometime in November! This year, I'll be hearing some of the most amazing stories while helping to take care of some of our nation's bravest men and women as the chief resident at the VA Hospital. For the future, I've been saving my college football eligibility for when Notre Dame calls, but if that doesn't work out, I'm hoping to get a fellowship in Hematology/Oncology. By the way, I'm also a die-hard Indiana Hoosiers fan and a loyal Colts fan. I enjoy virtually any sport, reading, and checking out local microbreweries, and I'm patiently awaiting Notre Dame's next National Championship in football (2030 perhaps?).

Currently, I am probably most known as being the "techy chief," as my career interest is combining medical oncology and informatics. Somehow I started on this path while growing up in rural Northeastern Indiana surrounded by corn and strawberry fields. Typically I tell people that I'm "from the middle of nowhere," and as an example I recall during high school, the headline in our local paper reading "50% of roads in county now paved." We had (and still have) no stoplights within Monroe itself. I first came to Indianapolis to attend the University of Indianapolis where I earned degrees in biology and computer science. It was then time for a change and my new home became Fort Lauderdale, Florida where I attended medical school at Nova Southeastern University. Come match time, Indiana drew me back with how incredibly nice everyone was and on the strengths of the oncology and informatics departments. This was an excellent choice as I have received excellent training and am prepared for the next phase of my career. My wife Laura and I enjoy cooking, training our weimaraner with the local K9 Search and Recovery group, and will have a new member of the family in August. We enjoy the open air of being twenty-five miles from downtown but being close enough to the major highways to have a thirty minute door-to-door commute. I loved being a resident here and am honored to serve as chief resident at Wishard Memorial Hospital.

Since I was born prior to Josh Smith (University Hospital Chief) and his wife is actively petitioning for him to change his name to her maiden name, Keenan, those that speak to me should address me as Joe The Other White Smith and refer to Josh Smith as Dr. Keenan. After all, his wife is a surgeon, and he is a mere internist. Further, all pages for Dr. Smith should first go to Dr. Keenan as he has both medical and surgical support for any questions.

I grew up in a little city called Elberfeld just outside of Evansville, Indiana. I spent my youth enjoying sports, small town life and corn (lots of corn). I decided to stay close to home for college and went to the University of Evansville and majored in mathematics. It was only in my senior year of college that I decided to pursue a career in medicine, so I moved to Baltimore for a year to collect my pre-medical requisite courses. While I loved living in Baltimore, I decided to move back home to go to Indiana University for medical school and I've been here ever since. The best part about doing my residency at IU has been the amazing breadth of clinical experiences as well as the diversity of patients here in Indianapolis. Outside of work, I enjoy biking, dining out around Indianapolis (we have great local restaurants and breweries), and watching movies. Welcome to IU!