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Meet The Faculty

Faculty members in the program pose for a large group shot.

Mayo Clinic's faculty is committed to teaching and facilitating the growth of medical knowledge. Many of our faculty members have published and lectured extensively and are highly regarded in their fields. The entire DLMP faculty takes an active role in your training. You have direct access to these individuals throughout the Anatomic and Clinical Pathology Residency.

From the program director

Aziza Nassar, M.D., M.P.H.Welcome! Thank you for your interest in the Anatomic and Clinical Pathology Residency program at Mayo Clinic in Florida. We are proud of our diverse, team-based culture and our ability to provide individualized mentorship, education, and career planning. The three shields in Mayo’s logo represent the different areas we focus on as part of our practice - patient care, education, and research. You will be actively involved in all three shields, gaining diverse knowledge that applies to your future practice.

The Department of Laboratory Medicine and Pathology at Mayo Clinic in Florida serves as a regional referral center for both anatomic and clinical pathology. This allows the department to provide a rich learning environment with an impressive variety of educational opportunities for pathologists-in-training. You will participate in extensive didactic and hands-on, experiential learning with graduated responsibility. Mayo Clinic in Florida leads the field in digital/computational pathology and AI development; you are well-trained in this exciting technology.

Jacksonville, Florida, is an excellent place to live and work. You will enjoy this coastal area with easy beach access, beautiful nature and wildlife, and all the conveniences that come with living in the largest city in the southeast. The majority of your training time is spent in Jacksonville. Mayo Clinic in Florida is part of the Mayo Clinic enterprise and Florida residents therefore have the benefit of networking and learning throughout the enterprise. You also participate in external rotations in Orlando, Florida, (pediatric pathology) and are encouraged to select external rotations that best prepare you for your unique future practices.

Our primary goal is to fully prepare you for independent pathology practice, fellowship training, and successful American Board of Pathology certification. Please contact us with any questions you may have.

Aziza Nassar, M.D., M.P.H., M.B.A.
Anatomic and Clinical Pathology Residency Program Director

Aziza Nassar, M.D., M.P.H., Program Director

Aziza Nassar, M.D., M.P.H.Dr. Nassar is a professor of laboratory medicine and pathology and the program director for the Anatomic and Clinical Pathology Residency program at Mayo Clinic in Florida.

She is a board-certified surgical pathologist and cytopathologist with a specialized focus on breast and gynecologic pathology. Her research interests center on breast cancer, tumor immune response, molecular techniques, and cervical cancer. Dr. Nassar is currently working with a multidisciplinary team that is trying to define tissue-based features of breast cancer risk with the goal of developing a more refined risk prediction model than currently available clinical models. She has collaborated on several projects with the benign breast disease team at Mayo Clinic to identify prognostic/predictive biomarkers and histologic features to determine patient risk of developing breast cancer. Most notably, she has worked on the utility of vaccine-induced therapy in in-situ breast cancer and early HER-2 positive and triple-negative breast cancer.

Dr. Nassar has been instrumental in moving our digital pathology program forward, serving as the Chair of the Department of Laboratory Medicine and Pathology (DLMP) at Mayo Clinic in Florida, executive sponsor for the Digital Pathology Program and AI for DLMP, and serves as the chair of the enterprise-wide Digital Pathology Executive Committee.

Dr. Nassar has a passion for pathology and is actively engaged in this work both within and outside of Mayo Clinic. She is the president-elect of the Papanicolaou Society of Cytopathology for 2024 and takes an active role in the societies the impact and influence pathology as a profession, including the U.S. Dr. Nassar's engagement at all levels of our practice is demonstrated by her commitment to providing excellent patient care and serving as a voice for DLMP as a member of the Florida Executive Operations Team, the Institutional Clinical Practice Committee, and the Cancer Center Steering Committee at Mayo Clinic in Florida. She is also the current chair of the Enterprise Specialty Council for the Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, collaborating with colleagues from across the enterprise to consistently improve our practice.

Elizabeth Godbey, M.D., Associate Program Director

Elizabeth Godbey, M.D.

Dr. Godbey, M.D., FCAP, is the Director of Transfusion Medicine and Director of Apheresis. She earned her medical degree from the Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons in New York City. Dr. Godbey completed her Anatomic and Clinical Pathology residency at New York Presbyterian Hospital-Columbia University Medical Center, where she also served as Chief Resident.

Following residency, she completed a Transfusion Medicine fellowship at the New York Blood Center and Columbia University Medical Center. Dr. Godbey is board-certified by The American Board of Pathology in Anatomic Pathology, Clinical Pathology, and Blood Banking/Transfusion Medicine. She is active in the Association for the Advancement of Blood & Biotherapies (AABB), the American Society for Apheresis (ASFA), and the College of American Pathologists (CAP).

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Faculty

Meet a few of our faculty members.

Headshot of Shweta_Agarwal, M.D.

Shweta Agarwal, M.D.

Senior Associate Consultant, Pathology

Interests: Head and Neck, Cytopathology, and Surgical Pathology

Jane Hata, Ph.D.

Jane Hata, Ph.D.

Associate Professor of Laboratory Medicine and Pathology

Interest: Clinical Microbiology

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Jennifer Jiang, M.D.

Jennifer Jiang, M.D.

Associate Professor of Laboratory Medicine and Pathology

Interest: Hematopathology

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David Li, M.D.

David Li, M.D.

Assistant Professor of Laboratory Medicine and Pathology

Interests: Hematology and Flow Cytometry, Patient Pathology Clinic

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Headshot of Mira Lotfalla, M.D.

Mira Lotfalla, M.B., B.Ch.

Senior Associate Consultant, Pathology

Interests: Breast and Surgical Pathology 

Christopher Marquez, M.D.

Christopher Marquez, M.D.

Assistant Professor of Laboratory Medicine and Pathology

Interests: Clinical Chemistry, Molecular Genetic Pathology

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Jordan Reynolds, M.D.

Jordan Reynolds, M.D.

Professor of Laboratory Medicine and Pathology

Interests: Cytology, Urologic Pathology

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Zach Thompson, M.D.

Zach Thompson, M.D.

Assistant Professor of Laboratory Medicine and Pathology

Interests: Transfusion Medicine, Cell Therapy

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