Inova Fairfax Hospital Department of Medicine - Leadership

Zobair M. Younossi, MD, MPH, FACP, FACG, AGAF, is the Chairman of the Department of Medicine at Inova Fairfax Medical Campus and Vice President for Research of Inova Health System. He is also Professor of Medicine, Virginia Commonwealth University, Inova Campus and Affiliate Professor of Biomedical Sciences at George Mason University.

Dr. Younossi earned his medical degree from the University of Rochester School of Medicine and Dentistry in Rochester, New York (Alpha Omega Alpha, 1989), and completed his residency in internal medicine as well as a fellowship in gastroenterology and hepatology at Scripps Clinic and Research Foundation in La Jolla, California. During his residency and fellowship, he earned his master of public health degree from San Diego State University (SDSU) School of Public Health in San Diego, California, being awarded both the Hanlon Award and Outstanding Student Award for SDSU.  He then served as the Staff Hepatologist and Senior Researcher at the Cleveland Clinic Foundation, Cleveland, Ohio (1995– 2000).

In 2000, Dr. Younossi was recruited to establish Inova’s Center for Liver Diseases. The center is currently well known for its excellence in clinical hepatology, teaching, and research. Inova’s Center for Liver Diseases is not only involved in “cutting-edge” clinical trial protocols and outcomes research projects, but also has pioneered research in genomics and proteomics of obesity and its related liver diseases. The center has participated in over 90 research projects in translational research, outcomes research, and “cutting edge” clinical trials.

In 2006, Dr. Younossi was appointed Executive Director of Research for Inova Health System. In this capacity, he has developed new research infrastructure to support clinical, translational, and outcomes research carried out by Inova investigators. These efforts resulted in establishing the Center for Integrated Research in Fall of 2008. In 2008, he was then promoted to Vice President for Research of Inova Health System. In 2010, He was selected to become Chairman for the Department of Medicine, Inova Fairfax Medical Campus. He also serves as Vice Chairman as well as Senior Executive for the Inova Foundation Board. In 2013, he was appointed to the Board of Directors of the American Heart Association for the Mid-Atlantic region and was recently appointed to the Board of the American College of Gastroenterology Institute.

Academically, Dr. Younossi has authored over 360 articles and 20 book chapters. He has authored three textbooks and has served as guest editor of 5 journal supplements. He has also presented more than 270 abstracts at national and international meetings. He has given faculty presentations to over 270 local, national, or international meetings. He sits on multiple local and national committees and has served on the editorial board of Hepatology, World Journal of Gastroenterology and served as the associate editor of Liver International and Evidence-Based Gastroenterology. He has also been honored by being listed in the “Best Doctors” (2002), “Top Doctors” (2012-2017), Who’s Who in Health Care (2002), Cambridge Who’s Who in Medicine (2007), and the Alumni of the Year, George Mason University (2008). In 2008, Dr. Younossi was appointed by the governor of Virginia to the board of directors for the Virginia Biotechnology Research Partnership Authority and Research Park Corporation Boards. Over the past decade, Dr. Younossi has been actively involved with the American Liver Foundation as the Chair of the Medical Advisory Committee of the National Capital Chapter as well as multiple committees of the American Association for the Study of Liver Disease and American College of Gastroenterology. He has also served as a reviewer for National Institute of Health Grant Review Committees. Dr. Younossi is a sought after speaker who is frequently speaking as faculty in major national and international scientific meetings. Additionally, he has been a guest to a number of local or national media programs.

Dr. Younossi has also been involved in teaching students, residents, and fellows. He has had multiple advanced hepatology fellows trained under his mentorship. He has served in the Doctoral Thesis Committee of several PhD candidates. Dr. Younossi is currently mentoring a number of students, residents, and junior staff at Inova Fairfax Medical Campus.

Madeline Erario, MD, FACP is vice-chair of the Department of Medicine at Inova Fairfax Medical Campus and Director/DIO for Graduate Medical Education for Inova Health System. Dr. Erario is a graduate of Georgetown University School of Medicine and completed her residency training in Internal Medicine at Georgetown University where she also served as a medicine chief resident. She is board certified in Internal Medicine and is a Fellow of the American College of Physicians. Since joining Inova in 1998, Dr. Erario's role on the medical staff has allowed her to pursue her interest in Graduate Medical Education and develop as a leader in the Department of Medicine.

Dr. Erario has served as the Vice Chair of Medicine since 2005. Her current role is Vice Chair of Academics and subspecialties to include: Critical Care, Pulmonary and Cardiology. Dr. Erario has completed professional development work through the Stanford Faculty Development Program for Clinical Teaching and the Yale Primary Care Program for Medical Education and Research. She has also completed a two-year fellowship program at the Advisory Board Fellowship for Healthcare Leaders in Washington, DC. Most recently, she completed the Inova and Sg2 Physician Leadership training at Inova. In 2002, Dr. Erario received the United Nations Association of the National Capital Area Human Rights Award for her work with political refugees. As part of her commitment to addressing healthcare disparities, she was appointed as a founding Board member to the Northern Virginia Area Health Education Center at George Mason University in 2017.

As Director of Graduate Medical Education and the DIO for GME, Dr. Erario led the ACGME accreditation for our Institution and has overseen the ongoing accreditation for general surgery, podiatry, pediatrics residencies and various fellowships. In addition, under her leadership, Inova Fairfax Medical Campus has developed new residencies in Internal Medicine, Ob/Gyn and Neurosurgery and most recently a fellowship in Cardiology. Because of Dr. Erario’s ongoing work in developing GME at Inova, she was awarded the Parker J. Palmer, Courage to Lead Award from the ACGME in 2017. This is a prestigious award given to high performing DIO’s across the country.

Contact Office of Graduate Medical Education

Chalapathy Venkatesan, MD, MS, FACP is Vice-Chair for Quality and General Medicine of the Department of Medicine at Inova Fairfax Medical Campus. Dr. Venkatesan has been a member of the Department of Medicine since 2004 when he joined as a hospitalist and site director for medicine residents. Dr. Venkatesan completed his medical education at Eastern Virginia Medical School (Alpha Omega Alpha, 1999), residency and chief residency at Georgetown University Hospital (2004), and a Master of Science in Healthcare Quality and Safety from Northwestern University in 2016.

Over the past several years, Dr. Venkatesan has led and co-led a number of quality initiatives for the department (just culture, standard operating procedures for quality, hospitalist standards development), hospital (algorithm for central line blood draws, patient flow, root cause analyses) and the system (central line associated bloodstream infection reduction). He also serves as member-at-large for the hospital Medical Executive Committee.

Dr. Venkatesan has numerous peer-reviewed publications in the area of health services research and also serves as a Section Editor for the Society of Hospital Medicine online maintenance of certification module.

Gregory Trimble, MD is Vice-Chair of the Department of Medicine at Inova Fairfax Medical Campus and the Assistant Dean for Faculty for the VCU School of Medicine, Inova Campus. As a Vice Chair, he works primarily with the subspecialty divisions of Endocrinology, Geriatrics, Gastroenterology, Palliative Care and Rheumatology. Dr. Trimble received his medical degree from Virginia Commonwealth University Medical School in 2003. He trained in both Internal Medicine and Pediatrics at the University of Utah, where he served as an Internal Medicine chief resident from 2007-2008.

Dr. Trimble joined Inova as an Internal Medicine Hospitalist in 2008. He served as the Internal Medicine clerkship director from 2011-2015. He completed the Stanford Faculty Development Center facilitator training program in clinical teaching in 2012. He is the Chair of the Inova Internal Medicine Residency Program Clinical Competency Committee.