Leadership

Program Director

Ratnesh Chopra, MD, has been the rheumatology fellowship director since 2018. Dr. Chopra is an assistant professor of medicine at UMass Chan Medical School and practices at UMass Memorial Medical Center and the outpatient clinic of Central Western VA, located on the UMass Chan campus. After earning his medical degree from University College Medical Sciences in New Delhi in 2000, he completed his internal medicine residency followed by his chief resident year at St. Barnabas Hospital. He then completed a Rheumatology fellowship at UMass Chan Medical School in 2014. He is also an active member of the working group of Program Directors for Fellows in Training through the American College of Rheumatology. Through this group, he works with fellowship leaders from around the country to optimize the educational needs of rheumatology fellows. He is also an active member of our institutional graduate medical education committee and serves as the director for the New England OSCE course for rheumatology second-year fellows, held annually at UMass Chan.

Associate Program Director

Peggy Wu, MD, became the associate program director of the Rheumatology Fellowship Program in 2022. Dr. Wu has been involved with the fellowship program for many years through precepting clinic as well as the clinical competency and program evaluation committees. Prior to joining UMass Chan, she completed medical school and residency at Rush University Medical Center, followed by a three-year Rheumatology fellowship at Northwestern University. At Northwestern, she focused her research on systemic lupus erythematosus. She then worked in private practice for three years in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, after fellowship followed by a move to Massachusetts in 2012 where she currently is an associate professor of medicine at UMass Chan Medical School. She has also been very involved in undergraduate medical education, serving as a prior course director for the longitudinal preceptor program and the Medical School’s physical diagnosis course for four years. She currently serves as a learning community mentor, where she supports a cohort of students as an advisor and teacher. In addition to her clinical work, she enjoys spending time with her husband and daughter, hiking, knitting, reading, and cooking.